Winchester Pistol Brass

G

Grey_Lion

New member
Been away for a bit, but back to reading the posts and keep tripping across so many threads where people don't seem to like Winchester, albeit they're mostly speaking about Rifle brass, not specifically pistol brass.

Starline pistol brass is in a class by itself and I've not had a problem with it, but then I do not come across enough of it to make a definitive judgement from experience in quantity.

In my experience, which is 100% pistol, and mostly 9mm and .40 S&W, Winchester pistol brass, when discussing range pickup brass, has been the best for me in quantity. Of the thousands of pieces in my "inventory" I ever recall having 2 come up cracked. Only consistent problem I ever see on WIN headstamps is the occasional flying bur off the flash hole that needs to be taken down with a primer hand tool on the inside of the case. European GECO headstamp is great stuff but rare, and the flash hole is slightly undersized which annoys many. (metric)

At the other end of the spectrum, I refuse to even trade away Perfecta, Blazer (cci), or aguila brass all of which has been dangerously soft with the most once fired cracked brass in my bad brass example collection. I've posted numerous pictures of Blazer case failures, Perfecta seriously off center flash holes, and a WIDE range of variation in aguila...

Federal, Remington, and most other things fall inbetween somewhere. They aren't the first brass I reach for, but I have no problem using them.

But getting back to WIN pistol brass, without doubt, I've had some .40 WIN go through my dies 6 or more times without issue and have no problem putting them through my routine 6 more times.

For those taking issue with WIN pistol brass - can you back it up with images of the failures as I have on my 3 worst? Nothing quite like a picture to see what it is you're taking issue with imho...
 
Have used WW, Rem, & Fed brass, rifle & pistol, for decades. When Starline became available, it became my choice.
 
My preferred range pick-up brass is also Winchester. I typically sort pistol brass by caliber and then by "Winchester" and "Other." I used the 'Other" to reload for competition, where I couldn't expect to be able to pick up my own brass. I use the Winchester brass for when I'm shooting at the indoor range, where I can sweep up my brass and take it home with me.
 
I only sort for junk like Perfecta, A-MERC and that stepped case garbage. Never had any issues with Winchester, and newer Winchester nickel brass is my go to when loading XTPs.
 
Winchester brass is all I’ll use in my EDC loads, for general plinking/range use I’ll keep other brass that I don’t care if I lose. The only brass I cull outright is the junk that has the shelf inside limiting seating depth and creating a reduced volume for powder possibly creating a pressure issue with previously worked up loads using normal brass. This in my 9mm’s.
 
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I use whatever once fired brass I can get ... when it's free or dirt cheap .

If I want to buy Brand New Brass ... Starline gets the nod .

After years of reloading ( 50 years ) ... my old , tired , mixed headstamp , range pick-up brass , I started rep[lacing some of my worn & weary 45 acp , 38 special , 357 magnum , 41 Special , 41 magnum , 303 British and 30-30 with new Starline ...
for the price ... you can't buy any better ... Great Stuff !

Starline - I LIKE IT !!!
Gary
 
Winchester has always been my preferred. I buy/have a lot of Starline too. But I consider Winchester to be top-notch. That's been my experience in my 40 years of handgun loading.

Because of my experience with Winchester, when I buy factory ammo (rare), it's Winchester.
 
I will bend over and pick up any and all Winchester brass that I can get my hands on .
I have never had any problems with it in semi-auto or revolver .
Alot better than some of the foreign made brands I've run into .
In 38 Special and 45 acp I usually get 10-12 reloadings before a tiny mouth crack appears ... if I annealed them I could maybe get a few more loadings .
Gary
 
I've had up to 50 reloads out of Winchester brass in 45 Auto, but these were light target loads. At the end of the 50 reloads, I had about a third left, the rest having split. The remaining cases had all shrunk by about 0.025" below standard, so I was loading the bullets out pretty far and headspacing using the soft lead bullet's contact with the throat. Shrinking rather than growing is a characteristic of loads in tapered chambers that are fired at pressures too low to stick the brass to the chamber walls.
 
I've never had an issue with Winchester pistol or rifle brass. I like both a lot.

It's their primers that I don't like. Ever since I got a bad batch of LR primers from them that kept leaking and etching bolts, I quit using their primers.
 
Was this about 20 or 25 years ago? Winchester had a period where they took the nickel plating off their primers to respond to complaints they were too insensitive and hard to fire. That move engendered a lot of piercing complaints, so they made another adjustment that seemed to clear that up. Of course, I don't know how long the funky ones were on the shelves after that, but I haven't heard any complaints about current production.
 
I'm not a fan of Winchester primers either. Stopped using them after I tried CCI primers. Winchester primers seemed to leave behind a worse residue in the primer pockets. Early on, I was on a mission to have VERY clean primer pockets and got better results towards that end having gone to CCI plated primers. Might be my memory as that was a long time ago now, but that's what I recall.
 
I load it all except AMERC. That will get you killed in the streets! ….or is just crap. You name it, I have seen AMERC fail that way in the loading process.
 
Thread deviation :-)

I'm not a fan of Winchester primers either.
Click to expand...

In 2014, I bought a Smith M67 (38 Special) and had some work done on it. After that, about 1/200 CCI 500 primers wouldn't ignite without a second stab. I switched to Winchester primers (WSP) and it solved the problem. At which point, I started loading all my 38 Special ammo with WSP's - whether the ammo was intended for the M67 or not.

The problem I ran into, because the primers weren't nickel plated, they didn't feed well in my Lee Auto Prime. It was a constant fight (this is also why I wish Lee made a small primer specific priming tool - but that's another story) and I got tired of it. So I switched to Federal primers (F100). They're more expensive (all primers are expensive now, so that's a moot point), but it solved that problem.
 
cases

I have many years of mixed brass in a variety of calibers, but consider Winchester, including some very old Super-X, outstanding stuff, both in rifle and pistol cartridges.

"Imperfecta" cost me a decapping pin with an off center flash hole, but RCBS sent me two, free of charge, so except for my time, I came out ahead on the deal!

Aside from the off brands, Remington pistol brass seems soft, and I have had trouble with it not sizing back tight enough to hold a jacketed bullet satisfactorily.
 
That's a funny Remington issue. I first noticed it in the early 1980s with 45 Auto brass. I finally stopped bothering to pick up 45 Auto with Rem headstamp at the range just to avoid inadvertently putting work into cleaning and resizing it only to have to decharge, deprime, and toss it later. The necks are a bit thinner than most and work harden to springiness quickly. The fact they are thin means the inner diameter is sized down a bit less than thicker-necked brass, which is one element of the problem. The other is that where Winchester and, I think, Starline and S&B are 70:30 brass (aka C76000 or 760 or Cartridge Brass), Remington is 80:20 brass, and that may be part of the issue, but I don't know. It may also just be where, in the forming process, the last full annealing occurred.

That said, I've never had an issue with Remington rifle brass. It seems to be a handgun brass thing.
 
Unclenick said:
Was this about 20 or 25 years ago? Winchester had a period where they took the nickel plating off their primers to respond to complaints they were too insensitive and hard to fire. That move engendered a lot of piercing complaints, so they made another adjustment that seemed to clear that up. Of course, I don't know how long the funky ones were on the shelves after that, but I haven't heard any complaints about current production.
Click to expand...
It wouldn't have been that long ago as I haven't been reloading that long, but I'm not 100% how long ago I bought the bad batch. I'd guess 10 +/- years ago. I'll have to pull out the rest of the box and see if I have any notes about when I bought it. Shortly after I started having problems, the internet became full of complaints about people having similar problems.
 
Am a brass scrounger, and end up separating the brass by manufacturer. Have a strong preference for Win pistol brass for it's longevity and ability to maintain it's grip on bullets.
 
Perfecta couldn't center a primer hole to save their lives...

"Imperfecta" cost me a decapping pin with an off center flash hole,
Click to expand...

Perfecta couldn't center a primer hole to save their lives...
 

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