Cheap vs. Brand Name ammo
Throughout my entire life shooting firearms, I have stuck to these guidelines and have been just fine so far-
When selecting ammunition, I do not purchase steel cased ammo for anything that isn't an ex Com Bloc weapon. It is dirty and usually loaded on the weak side.
I NEVER purchase reloaded or re-manufactured ammunition!!! There is one exception, and that is Black Hills ammunition blue box. Black Hills is a top notch company though, and the rest are not.
For fmj range ammo, I stick to brass cased ammunition produced by well known, reputable companies. This includes- Federal, Winchester, Remington, PPU, Herter's Select (made by S&B, which is a great company as well), Fiocchi, and MagTech. These are the only brands that I shoot at the range. I can always find one of them available.
My least favorite of those brands would be Winchester and Remington. Remington ammo in handguns has been very dirty compared to others, both before firing and afterwards. Load some mags with Remington UMC and look at your hands afterwards.
I used to shoot a ton of Winchester in the 90's and 00's. Winchester's QC has definitely declined in the last 5-6 years. I have had more issues with Winchester ammo than all others combined. I've seen several defects in their ammo in the last year-
A round of 357 Sig white box that was crushed in the neck area due to the case mouth not being flared enough(my best guess)
A round of 9mm white box fmj that had the jacket peeled upwards on one side where it caught the case mouth.
Rounds of .380 white box had various defects. Deformed primer(like it was installed a few degrees off, and the edge was smashed?), a case that had a small split at the case mouth(1/16th" in size)
A 20 round box of .45 Ranger that looked like the rounds inside were run over by a lawn mover(contacted Winchester, they overnighted the box back to themselves for inspection, apologized profusely, and cut me a check for twice the amount that I paid for the Ranger ammunition. They do have excellent CS)
I no longer purchase any Winchester pistol ammo, unless as a last resort, other than 124gr Nato 9mm. I have not seen any issues with this ammo in the 1500 or so rounds I've fired so far.