People have made numerous posts in this forum, commenting on the quality of Winchester brass. Some have praised it and others have damned it. In the past few days I've been doing a lot of .223 loading. My first several loadings were with military brass, with mixed headstamps. It had been deprimed, primer ring deburred, and cleaned. I full length resized it, cleaned the primer pockets, deburred the primer holes, and trimmed it to length. It worked well enough that I got a 200 yard 0.48 inch 3-shot group. (This was with 53 gr. Sierra Matchkings, CCI 400 primers, and 25.5 gr. of Hodgdon Benchmark. OAL 2.26 inches. Remington 700 rifle.)



But tonight I loaded some .223 Winchester brass that I had scrounged from the range where I shoot -- someone had left 21 pieces of it on one of the shooting benches.



This Winchester brass was definitely better than any of the military brass. It was much more consistent in manufacture. I can't say that Winchester brass is always top quality, but this batch was.

LE270,
I've been using Winchester Brass in my .223 AI since I first started with it in 1995. All of the Win. brass that I have bought has been great. I now have over 2000 cases fireformed (3 different rifles)and use it mostly for P.dog hunting. I use H-335 for P.dog loads...its meters well and is a good hot weather powder. For special loads, like Coyote hunting, I use IMI brass and Benchmark.....a wonderful combination. I don't see a problem with Winchester brass, I think IMI might be a little better....
George

My son shoots High Power competition and holds a Master Classification in that sport. He uses nothing but Winchester brass in 223.
Take care,
Don

I'm not too keen on picking up brass from the range. You don't know why it was left there. Maybe its once fired stuff and thats ok, but what if its left because it has been reloaded quite a few times? I use a collet die so i would rather buy new brass in lots of 100 so my reloads are only for my rifle.Anyway, make sure you check the brass thoroughly, i would!! Happy Hunting...
Mick

Lloyd, I'm happy you liked your Win brass for the .223. I use it a lot myself - when I can get hold of it. But in all honesty, you are not setting very high standards if you are comparing your Win brass to military brass of varying headstamps. I would almost assume that you would get better results (dimensionally as well as accuracy wise) from any old commercial brand where you compare 21 commercial cases from a single batch (assuming the previous owner of the brass fired all of these rounds out of one box of ammo) to military brass of varying headstamps. Perhaps what this taught you was: it is a bunch easier to get good accuracy if you start with good and uniform components. Mil surplus brass is great, but don't expect miracles.

When that is said, Win brass is mostly considered near the top of the line in commercial brass (apart from some of the more expensive European brands like Lapua). A lot of reloaders prefer Win to Rem brass, although it seems to be a bit of a "Ford vs. Chevy" argument.

Get out there and buy some bulk Win brass in 1000-5000 quantities. That should ensure you a great supply of brass for a long time at a very reasonable price.
- mike

Win brass has always worked well for me - 223 and 270 - never a problem.

I load alot of 30-06 and buy the 50 count bags for it. I've had probably 3 bags in the last 2-3 yrs that did not have the primer pockets deep enough. A real pain to go in and ream them on the new brass. If I didn't I could squeaze like heck on the seater and the loded round would bobble on the reloading bench like a punching bag. Other than that I'll still take win brass over remington. My latest bulk rem brass has the most beat up case mouths I've ever seen!!