FAIL - Bizarre Winchester factory loaded ammo

Lee_Enfield_Lover

Lee_Enfield_Lover

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Uh... I don't know who was asleep at the switch making this batch of 3006 165 Winchester XP Power Point, but it was pretty wild finding a box of it.

After an hour on the range trying to figure out why my groups were so awful, I the ammunition to be the problem. It wasn't bad ammunition. It was the worst box of ammunition of any type I have seen and I bought it on the recommendation of a die hard Winchester user whose jaw dropped at this. I've been pleased with other Winchester ammo like the 180gr in Silvertip for my 3006 Tika T3 and heard that the 165s would also group well at a lower price point for everyday type shooting.

Anyone seen anything like this from them? Was someone asleep on the assembly line? I have other photos but this one explains a lot of it The lead on multiple bullets was either cut in sharp edges, blobbed on the top like you'd think toothpaste would settle, crimped very unevenly or all 3. Anyone suggest other factory ammo that has good brass to reload with when I'm done?

- T
5
 
I got two boxes of Winchester 300wm that looked like that and accuracy out of my Tikka was awful, and a couple weeks ago I bought a box of Winchester .40S&W and had about 40 failures to feed out of 50. Thinking my pistol was messed, I got a box of UMC to test a couple days later and had no failures.
 
The bullet tips have nothing to do with how it shoots. Once you pull the trigger the points distort worse then that. I never could get 165 grain bullets to shoot in my rifle either. 150s or 180s did better.
 
Quality control going downhill at Winchester

Had a batch of 348Win brass, 4 cases totally unusable , many of the rest case mouths looked like some one had taken a hammer to the bag. Sending back a box of 30-30 where almost all the cases split half way down the case. Nothing wrong with the rifle, checked by a smith. Shot another lot number same ammo no problem, Remington and Federal ammo no problem with the rifle either. Another reason to handload more of my ammo.
 
My only 2 factory misfires have been in the last 3 months with winchester ammo.. Think qc hit an all time low in the days of the 70 dollar pmag
 
looks to be different seating length by comparing the cannelure vs case mouth. Heavier crimp on one as well.

Explains why i buy nothing winchester anymore if i can avoid it!
 
Damaged softpoints like that will not really affect accuracy to any great extent; it's more likely that your gun just doesn't like that bullet weight. When you say your groups were awful how awful are we talking here?
 
before I started loaded that Winchester silver box was the cheapest pre-rolled for me to buy for my '94 in 30-30 - the ends often looked like that. I just figured 'you get what you pay for' (about $13/box) and shot it. They all went bang, and while I don't print paper, I was fine with the accuracy. My handloads are now much more predictable, but that super x stuff was never so far off target I felt that something was decidedly wrong.
 
Two things come to mind:

Part of the manufacturing process is inspectors watching the ammo proceed along a conveyor belt. They pick out the odd malformed round. These rounds are supposed to go to destruction. Every once in awhile the skid of duds gets taken to the loading station and they get packed and sold.

During the ammo crisis companies run 3 shifts a day and under the pressure to produce the QC gets stressed.

If it is a general QC problem then there will be a lot of poor Winchester ammo out there and their reputation will take a beating.
 
I have had great success with Winchester Power Points. They aren't fancy but they work. Looks like they may have had a run with QC issues on those ones though, but I think that happens to just about all companies at some point in time.
 
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