I've been using Winchester brass for many years with many different calibers I load and sell. Recently, I've received a bunch of 270 Win, 308 Win, 300 Win Mag, and 25-06 brass to load. The brass has been in such bad shape you have to fully prep the brass like it was once fired. The necks are chewed up and severely out of round. The necks have varying neck tensions when seating the bullets. The shoulder often has dings and dents in them causing the brass to chamber tight. About 3-5 per 100 pieces have a defect in the case mouth or on the neck to render it unusable. The cost in labor to fix the brass is almost twice that of other brands. Yes, new Win brass has always needed a little more TLC than other brass to get them ready to load. But with their price increasing to almost the price of other premium brands that are much better brass right out of the box, it's a no brainer. I'm highly disappointed in there current lack of quality products.

Chad's gonna start using Serbian steel cases for now on!

LOL!! Is it good [censored]?

You'll have to worry about rust before split necks or loose primer pockets lol

I got to the same point 2 years ago, now I use lapua or norma for all the rifles I load for except the 300 RUM which I use remington if I can find it but will be going to norma with it as well on my next rebarrel.

I could deal with having to put in a little more work, not being in the business of loading ammo like you. But if if it still needs work AND the price is higher, I can't blame you for quitting them.

Have you sent them an informative e-mail?

We had a little discussion about this over in the ammo forum.

http://texashuntingforum.com/forum/ubbth...ol?#Post6370492

I am very familiar with the parent company, Olin, and how they do business. Not good.

"i'm done. . ."

thank you for the heads up.
i had some white box .44 mag
purchased new that had numerous
case head splits. they refunded
me on what i'd used and the rest
of what i had. if i hadn't been
using a rifle i'd say i would have
had a worse situation than what
i did. i've used quite a few of
my own remington and starline
cased loads with no problems.

The blue boxes is all I buy now. Went so far as necking down 308 Palma for the 7mm-08 AI recently.

I can't remember the last time I bought brass. I mostly pick up range brass or once fired anyway. I won't buy Winchester now!

Win primers stink too.

Black Hills now is using Ruag (Swiss) brass for 308 and 300 Win Mag match ammo.

Might be a lesson in that somewhere.

I now pick chamberings based on what Lapua brass is available.

Do any of you reload with PPU brass?

I have. Its usually really stiff and can be hard on decapping pins.

I've used some of my own once fired 6.5x55 and it seemed pretty good. Since I have around 200 pieces I figured I'd keep using it unless there is a compelling reason not to.

I wouldn't worry about it unless you're getting bad numbers then I might question it. I annealed mine after initially sizing then sized again and ran it.

I like Winchester brass,but just like Remington brass,their packaging SUCKS! As long as they ship their brass in plastic bags,it will always need to be reworked before you load it. There's no telling how much punishment their brass receives during the shipping process. There will always be dented cases,and out of round necks with their brass.
Hornady brass will be the same way since they stopped putting their brass in boxes.

I've had the winchester brass blues. I was sizing some newly purchased brass because of the already mentioned flaws. I was rockin and rollin until my decapping pin snapped into. Inspected the case, and it didn't even have a flash hole. I contacted Winchester and they sent me a free bag of brass which was about the value of new dies.

Decapping pins are easily replaced in many dies - Forster, Redding, and Redding for sure. A pack is only a few dollars.

Check Midway for your brand.

Here is an example: http://www.midwayusa.com/product/1458193150/rcbs-headed-decapping-pins

I still have some Win and Rem brass, but don't plan to buy more. I never found the brass to be in bad shape, but I did prep the brass, and I finally got tired of doing it. So now I buy brass that normally needs no prep work. Nosler is really good stuff, though it seems a bit soft, so mostly nowadays I buy Lapua and Norma.

Started out with Remington and Winchester brass for about everything. As I learned more about reloading and gained experience, I slowly weeded those out. Other than some PPU for my 7mm-08, just about everything I load is Lapua, Nosler, Hornady or Norma. Though the Hornady is fine, it doesn't seem to last as long as the others in my guns.

It's due to various issues with Winchester ammo that my department switched to Hornady.

Chad I just saw Midway has a lot of Winchester brass and bullets on clearance, up to 92% off

^^^^ How about posting a link???

I got it in an email

I've had good luck with Federal brass.