Very dissapointed - Bad Brass????

[cambeil]

winchester brass

It appears from your photos that the factory did not temper the brass properly and instead of tempering they have left the brass had and brittle. When you fire the primers is was enough to crack the necks. It is the same if you drop a very hard file, they will shatter like glass. I would contact winchster about your brass, If you know any machinists you could take a few of the casing and check on rockwell hardness tester.

 

[Nosler06]

I have sent 8 e-mails to anyone that I could find an address for at Winchester and Olin. We will see if they write me something back. I am now nervous about the 4 boxes of brand new Winchester .308 that was given to me to shoot off for the brass. If nothing else I will get to shoot some targets. I hope that I do not waste time processing the brass, sizing and cleaning it to find a whole bunch of more garbage brass. I have talked to some hunting buddies at work and they have said they had problems with Winchester brass before and will never use the stuff again. I was told to use Remington brass. I may have to go on the hunt for some Norma brass as I have 40 cases left that is close to 40 yrs old and has been reloaded 12+ times.

 

[coyote]

The brass was work hardened that is why it split if you anneal the rest you will be fine.
It could have hardened from the residue left by the primers {maybe} or was a bad batch
I always anneal my brass after the initial fireform {unless it is new lapua it is done properly}.
Properly annealed brass gives better results it holds the bullet the same on each round which gives better accuracy IMO.