Your experiences with winchester brass please?

I use winchester brass for my reloading needs. Works fine for me heck some of my 223 brass is on the 8th time loading now and still fine. I dont sort it or anything just fl size every time, trim, prime, load, shoot.
 
I quit using Federal brass, as I found it to be very soft. I was shooting it in my .223 bolt gun, and primer pockets were getting loose after 3 firings. I have 200 new Winchester brass prepped (neck sized, trimmed, chamfered, deburred, flash hole deburred) and ready to load, so I guess I will soon find out if it is better. Several guys on CGN with good reps use it, the first coming to mind is Jerry at Mystic Precision. I think most of us would agree that Jerry is a guru from which much good advice comes.
 
c-fbmi said:
Thanks Eagleye, what I was saying was as you said, but also Win brass weighs 10 grs less than Lapua in the 308, hence it has greater powder capacity, hence better velocities. Never meant to say Win brass was better made than Lapua. But if you bought 500 win brass and 250 lapua brass and weighed and prepped the win brass including flash hole sizing etc. you would end up with 250 Win brass that would be every bit as good as the Lapua and have greater internal capacity, for about the same price give or take.
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Again, I agree with the capacity statement. I had an interesting "happening" once when loading for my 7x57 Ruger #1.
I had developed a maximum working load for this rifle, using Norma MRP/Winchester cases/WLR primers and the 160 Partition.
The Chronograph was giving between 2690 and 2720 fps, accuracy was great. No case issues at all.

By some inadvertent miscue, one R-P case got mixed into my Winchester, and it got charged with that same load.
When I fired it across the Chrony, it registered almost 2900, and smoke was curling up from that #1's breechblock.
Underlever opened with a bit of resistance, and the primer promptly fell out of a now oversize primer pocket.

In checking the weight of the two brands, I found the R-P cases were close to 30 grains heavier than the Winchester.
Obviously the lower internal capacity resulted in higher pressures.

You can guess that I quit using the R-P brass in my 7x57 rifles. Nowadays, it's Winchester or PPU, both of which have the same capacity.

Eagleye.
 
I've bought, I think, some 400 rounds of Winchester factory 223 ammo which uses Winchester brass, obviously.

The tend to have split necks on the FIRST shot from factory loaded ammo.

Total garbage.
 
ALBERTA BOY said:
I've bought, I think, some 400 rounds of Winchester factory 223 ammo which uses Winchester brass, obviously.

The tend to have split necks on the FIRST shot from factory loaded ammo.

Total garbage.
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If that is happening consistently, I would be more inclined to check your rifle for an issue. I would be willing to bet not too many people have the problem you describe.
 
Andy said:
In a recent batch of Winchester 7X57 brass I bought, almost half had oversized primer pockets. Too little perhaps on which to pass judgement, but I have stopped buying new Winchester brass as a result. With so many other consistently good brands, I see no reason to risk another poor batch.
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Andy;

Bearkilr mentioned the same problem with 270 WSM IIRC. I haven't had this problem yet, what primers do you use?
 
c-fbmi said:
Andy;

Bearkilr mentioned the same problem with 270 WSM IIRC. I haven't had this problem yet, what primers do you use?
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CCI 200

I liked the large capacity of the Winchester 7X57 brass, but moved to Prvi Partizan (PPU - actually 8X57 necked down), and have had excellent results. Tight primer pockets and even more capacity than Winchester.
 
Cleftwynd said:
If that is happening consistently, I would be more inclined to check your rifle for an issue. I would be willing to bet not too many people have the problem you describe.
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Actually, a quick google search reveals it's not uncommon.

The rifle eats up Remington, Hornady, and Federal brass with no problem so it's not the rifle.
 
Interesting, I ran into something similar with 300 WSM, though not as extreme. I can't say if it was a bad batch of brass, a design flaw, or what as I never determined the cause and have not used enough brass in it to make any sort of informed hypothesis.

I use Nosler these days anyway, I know it is made by WW, R-P, Fed, Norma or whoever, but they do great at sorting and sizing and making sure you get 100% good useable brass.
 
I load for 10 different calibers and use Winchester brass all the time. New, once fired, multiple fired, never any issues that are any different than other makes of brass. I would not hesitate, go get a good price and buy with confidence.
 
nomad 68 said:
How about the hornady brass?Good or bad?
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There was a thread in the ammo section not too long ago about people having issues with Hornady brass sticking in the chamber. Most concluded it was overly soft. I know when I fired Hornady .338 Lapua in a Savage rifle the bolt had to be tapped back with the handle of a screwdriver.

I've had no such issues with Hornady Superformance in my Rem 700 300WM. All the Hornady range collected brass I have also seems to work fine.
 
LUTNIT said:
There was a thread in the ammo section not too long ago about people having issues with Hornady brass sticking in the chamber. Most concluded it was overly soft. I know when I fired Hornady .338 Lapua in a Savage rifle the bolt had to be tapped back with the handle of a screwdriver.

I've had no such issues with Hornady Superformance in my Rem 700 300WM. All the Hornady range collected brass I have also seems to work fine.
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There was an article that I had read that honrady 338 lm ammo would stick in a savage chamber no matter what.
 
Andy said:
CCI 200

I liked the large capacity of the Winchester 7X57 brass, but moved to Prvi Partizan (PPU - actually 8X57 necked down), and have had excellent results. Tight primer pockets and even more capacity than Winchester.
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Andy, odd, that's pretty much all I use is CCI, and some Fed 215 and have never experienced loose pockets, at least not till after I fire 'em ;):redface:
 
canucklehead said:
I prefer WIN brass... the only stuff I chuck is Federal... it's much too soft and the primers almost fall out after the first reload.
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Any time the primer pockets greeatly loosen with one shot, in any of the well known US cases, there is one thing you can be sure of.
Your reloaded cartridge was severely overloaded.
 
canucklehead said:
the only stuff I chuck is Federal... it's much too soft and the primers almost fall out after the first reload.
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I've had maybe a half dozen Federal cases have loose primer pockets but I have somewhere around 500 Federal cases in .308 Win. Some of them are on their 4th or 5th reload and still hold primers firmly. Are you reloading right at max?
 
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