Winchester hand gun ammunition?

Caveman Jim · Jan 12, 2015

I was showing a friend my piles of 40 S&W cases & told them they are once fired. He lamented that they are factory re-loaded brass. Said that ALL Winchester "white box" ammunition are once fired from the factory....
Any thoughts on this as I was stumped.

Nwcid · Jan 12, 2015

With a quick google search it appears that WWB is new ammo. It is usually compared as being "as cheep as re-man ammo".........

Plus I was not aware that Winchester even made re-man ammo.

Caveman Jim · Jan 12, 2015

Nwcid said:
With a quick google search it appears that WWB is new ammo. It is usually compared as being "as cheep as re-man ammo".........

Plus I was not aware that Winchester even made re-man ammo.

Neither was I, I always used Federal, Remington or Winchester for hunting and S D since I don't reload.
I feel that if I would have started reloading when I was a bit younger, I would feel confident enough now. But alas, I seem to have too many brain farts nowadays so will continue to buy factory ammo. I don't want to end up like that guy who blew up his rifle and severely injured his hand..... due to a brain fart.....

Steve M · Jan 12, 2015

Did you ask him where all of the new Winchester brass was coming that gets fired and loaded up as WWB?

Do they pay someone to look at every headstamp and cull out WCC and other brands or do they have a bunch of machines optically read the headstamp and reject the non-WIN stuff?

If we pull a bullet and find a shiny case inside is it more plausible that the brass is new or that they are meticulous about cleaning up the used brass?

Why does my fired brass have ejector marks but WWB does not?

If Winchester is buying up their own brass to reuse why don't they have an address we can ship our brass to for a refund? Why is it instead being sold by ranges for a pittance of the cost of new brass (eg. $20/1000 S&W and $14/1000 for 9mm)?

Hogwash.

Steve M · Jan 12, 2015

Caveman Jim said:
I don't want to end up like that guy who blew up his rifle and severely injured his hand..... due to a brain fart.....

That wasn't a brain fart, it was complacency and laziness, which we can all fall into after 30 years of doing something without incident.

Caveman Jim · Jan 12, 2015

Steve M said:
That wasn't a brain fart, it was complacency and laziness, which we can all fall into after 30 years of doing something without incident.

Well sir, that is what I consider "a brain fart".
Our definitions may vary, like opinions but to each his own.
Respectful, Caveman Jim

Steve M · Jan 12, 2015

Yah, I guess so. To me an example of a brain fart is a single isolated event where you fail to recall the correct answer to a simple question such as your anniversary date. In this case an experienced reloader missed at least four indicators that he was using the wrong powder (failing to use at least two known good reloading practices in the process) and had in place an unorganized system of powder storage. That's a lot of brain flatulence IMHO.

Whatever the terminology, I just wanted to make sure people realized it wasn't a single point of failure but several violations of good reloading practices.

teflon6string · Jan 17, 2015

I like Winchester 12ga bird/target loads - cheap and reliable in my experience.

Winchester .45acp in the white box? Not so much.

I ran 5-6 brands of .45acp through a full-auto bullet-hose to see what brands it likes and doesn't. No jams, they all fed and ejected perfectly - brass and steel.

What I didn't like was the misfires I got with Winchester only. Nice deep, well centered primer strikes, but no bang. (BTW, I store all my ammo in a dry, properly heated room, so it wasn't abused - at least once I had it.)

Contacted Winchester Customer Service. They sent me a paid shipping label to UPS it all back to them (several boxes), and refunded my money. No receipt required. Methinks they don't want publicized incidents based on faulty Winchester ammo, white box or otherwise.

They did the same thing for me 6-7 years ago with several bricks of .22. While that's great customer service, I have to say I've got mixed emotions at best regarding Winchester ammo in general.