Winchester brass

[762Scot]

I have some once fired 308 Winchester cases that are the remnants of some factory rounds I had used recently. Do any of you have experience reloading this brass? Wondered if I can get some decent reloads from them and use them a few times. Normally I reload Lapua but am considering using the Winchester brass.
Am curious to see what people think.

 

[Barkingsnake]

Since you've got it, use it. However, I'll not buy any more as the 200 30-06 caases I bought we, hmmm, cr4p at best. The case is ok but the pockets _all_ needed reaming to get the primers in (and before some smart arse states it, I tried Winchester, CCI, Federal and Remington).
Bought brass wise I go for PPU these days.

 

[MARCBO]

I once bought 300 new 45-70 cases. Among those I had 9 that could not be used. Some had no rim while others had no flash holes. I will never buy winchester again.

BTW: individual casing weights varied significantly so they were never used in BPCR competition.

SS

 

[762Scot]

Thanks to all.
Might just clean them, weigh and measure them up. Sounds like I could save some time and throw them away.

 

[8x57]

Thanks to all.
Might just clean them, weigh and measure them up. Sounds like I could save some time and throw them away.

Don't do that until you have tried them. While Winchester like Remington are not known as being the best, they normally produce down to a price rather than for quality, they still produce quite useable brass.
I had some .222 cases made by Winchester which while not the most consistant actually lasted much longer than a batch of Lapua cases that I bought from new for quite a bit more. The Winchester cases did however benefit greatly from having the insides of the primer holes cleaned up. At the ranges that I shoot at (up to 300 yards) the Winchester cases work just fine in a variety of calibres.

 

[Yorric]

IMHO & experience --- Properly prepared, weight selected & annealed after 3 loading cycles they work just fine - Not talking precision long range or bench rest here - just normal stalking/club competition grade applications.

Most people who decry Winchester, PPU etc & insist on Lapua uber quality don't make better ammo than someone who just does it right -- There's a lot of snobbery about & a lot of misguided souls who believe the hype.

Ian

 

[MARCBO]

IMHO & experience --- Properly prepared, weight selected & annealed after 3 loading cycles they work just fine - Not talking precision long range or bench rest here - just normal stalking/club competition grade applications.

Most people who decry Winchester, PPU etc & insist on Lapua uber quality don't make better ammo than someone who just does it right -- There's a lot of snobbery about & a lot of misguided souls who believe the hype.

Ian

For most of my CF shooting I use Star Line brass but it is hard an requires annealinig before the first use. For common calibers like 308 I use whatever comes to hand and since I spent a good deal of time in Europe it includes RWS, S&B, PPU, Norma, Remington, and US military. Annealing has frequently improves the performance of much of this regardless of manufacture. I don't have a favorite, I just try to use all the same for a particular batch of ammo.

SS

 

[bewsher500]

given what you can get once fired in other brands that do not have the QC issues why start with them?

whack em in the classifieds, someone more enamoured with Win brass or looking to make up a batch will pay you and it will go towards some better stuff

personally I only use norma
but I am a snob and stuck in my ways
Federal and Remington, lapua and Norma are all available

in fact a 100 once fired Lapua in 308 is less than £30 IIRC

 

[762Scot]

Thanks to all for the input. Gives pause for thought. I have plenty of new Lapua cases but... I may just experiment with 20 to see what they do am curious to see how much each case varies... now all I need is a bit of time at the loading bench. Thanks again.

 

[MARCBO]

Thanks to all for the input. Gives pause for thought. I have plenty of new Lapua cases but... I may just experiment with 20 to see what they do am curious to see how much each case varies... now all I need is a bit of time at the loading bench. Thanks again.

You will learn a lot about the quality by putting each on a scale and weighing them.

SS

 

[Outback]

I recently bought 50 new Winchester cases and to say there QC is rubbish is being polite , but after prepping the cases they looked not to bad and working up a new load a happy man again .
Brass is a consumable and if you have once fired through your rifle it would be wrong not to take advantage of them . I have always used lapau but if they don't make it anymore and Winchester has a similar case capacity I for one will give it a go .

 

[762Scot]

Well after tumbling the brass I looked them over and felt the cases were not worth reloading. Looks like they had a 6 point factory crimp which indented the case...ended up practicing some annealing before annealing my Lapua cases.
Thanks for the input from all.

 

[Sinistral]

Well after tumbling the brass I looked them over and felt the cases were not worth reloading. Looks like they had a 6 point factory crimp which indented the case...ended up practicing some annealing before annealing my Lapua cases.
Thanks for the input from all.

Well, you could have done this first without posting for views.

I sympathise with much of what Yorric had to say about 'brass snobbery'.

If someone has paid the price of commercial ammunition for convenience, then part of that outlay is recovered by reloading the cases.

After all, it's unlikely that the factory stuff will have shot POI or group-wise to satisfy the user, but at least the empties are then fire-formed - so will only need neck-sizing. That's reloading .... rather than handloading which using bought-in Lapua cases is.

It's your choice, but why incur a total loss?

Nearly all ex-factory ammunition will have indented case necks anyway as a neck-crimp is applied to the cannellure. AFAIK this doesn't affect neck tension on subsequent reloads. Incidentally this is part of the production process on 'quality' Lapua ammunition too, so nothing is sacred.

 

[762Scot]

Sinistral,
I thought it was an interesting question to ask on this forum. I read all the responses that people posted and made a decision based on those responses and my inspection. I never inspect cases fully until they have been tumbled.
The cases are not a total loss in my opinion you must have misread my post... I used some of them to practice annealing with before annealing my Lapua cases. I still have the cases.
The Lapua cases I am currently using were from fired Lapua factory Match 167 Grain Scenar rounds they do not have crimp marks on them.
Finally I reflected on the input on this site before deciding on my course of action. I have the right to ask questions on this site when considering a course of action...as do you.

 

[Muir]

Sinistral,
I thought it was an interesting question to ask on this forum. I read all the responses that people posted and made a decision based on those responses and my inspection. I never inspect cases fully until they have been tumbled.
The cases are not a total loss in my opinion you must have misread my post... I used some of them to practice annealing with before annealing my Lapua cases. I still have the cases.
The Lapua cases I am currently using were from fired Lapua factory Match 167 Grain Scenar rounds they do not have crimp marks on them.
Finally I reflected on the input on this site before deciding on my course of action. I have the right to ask questions on this site when considering a course of action...as do you.

I have loaded Winchester brass all of my life. You tossed them because of a crimp? Wow. I think you had made up your mind to toss them long before you did, and were just looking for others to balm your conscience.~Muir

 

[762Scot]

Muir,
Read my post

 

[Muir]

Muir,
Read my post

Sorry Amigo, I missed the 'not' in "not a total loss". My apologies. I'm not used to having to wear glasses and resist their use at the wrong times.... ~Muir

 

[Yorric]

Scot - If you've annealed the Winnie cases properly they will still be good to use - Crimped case mouths won't give problems if reloaded - UNLESS you've over cooked them -- in which case it would be wise to bin them as over annealed brass can be dangerous if re-used. You need to take care to not loose track of them & mix them up in future.

So that I don't screw up in that way, I always crush any over annealed cases or use fired berdan primed cases to test the annealing process, so I know I'll never mix them up.

Ian

 

[762Scot]

Yorric,
Thanks for the input. Yes I did manage to overcook a couple of the cases as the flame was set a bit high. I practice annealed about 12 all up so have binned the bad ones. Good advice. The crimp seems to vary case to case on the ones I have fired, its as if it was being adjusted during manufacture of the rounds. I have another batch of 20 unfired rounds so will compare them to the ones I already have but that will be some time before I use them.
Meanwhile I am working up a load for 165 Gamekings and N140 using Lapua cases. I am curious to see how they work out in testing.
Thanks again for your constructive comments.