I just purchased 100, 25-35 Winchester cases manufactured by Winchester and I'm a little disappointed with the quality.

I inspected the cases and discovered that four cases had dents in the neck, two cases with a dent in the shoulder. One case with a dent in the body and one damaged case mouth. Four cases would not fit in the shell holder because the rims were .006 of an inch bigger than the other cases.

Is this the norm for virgin brass today?

Seems to be the norm for Winchester.

A number of years ago, I had issues with WW 25-35 brass, including splitting on the first firing no matter the load. I wound up using Federal Gold Medal 30-30 brass instead. Charges had to be adjusted due to internal capacity variances, but it served me very well.

Can you take them back and ask for another lot?

In my employment, I work with a lot of new brass of various manufactures. Sadly, this seems typical of the Winchester brass I've seen over the past several years. Folded shoulders are common. It's a shame, as prior to their sharp slip in quality control, they made some very nice brass.

I have never been a big fan of RP brass, due to its softness in the calibers I worked with, leading to short life due to expanded primer pockets. That said, plain RP 7mm R-SAUM brass has given spectacular accuracy in match rifles in testing at 1000 yards.

Nowadays, for my own use, I purchase PRVI in preference to either RP or Win., and have been very pleased with it. I necked down some PRVI 7x57 brass to .257 Roberts, and got repeated, consecutive 1.0"-1.1"-1.2" groups at 300 yards while fire-forming/testing loads!

Of course, Lapua is great, and for certain applications it is well worth the cost, but for most uses, I've found PRVI to be a good modern compromise.

I hope this helps,
John

Bulk brass packaged in plastic sacks from any manufacturer is subject to having dents and deformed case mouths. This occurs in packing and shipping. A quick trip through the resizing die (which most loaders do as a matter of course whether the brass needs it or not) cures most of these ailments. Shoulder, and even body, dents are of no consequence and will iron out on the first firing without impacting performance or accuracy.

But the failure to keep the head/rim in spec is not excusable. I suspect that the .006" larger diameter is not the problem -- I've found that it is usually a too-shallow extractor groove that makes brass difficult to get in and out of the shellholder.

All that your disturbed about is an easy fix,resize your brass, case heads? chuck them up in a drill press or hand drill and file them down..25-35 WW brass is hard to come by and yours could be sold at a profit I would bet. WW will outlast any other 25-35 brass out there today..I have several 25-35s and always on the look out for brass, plus I have about 30 boxes of Rem and WW factory ammo..I had case head problems with 25-35, 22 Hi power,348 Win, and 30-30 brass of several different makes, got another shell holder that fit both and that solved that problem. Part of owning old Win. and Marlins in those caibers..

If you can find boxed brass from yesteryear, they won't have dents and oversized case heads, that's bagged brass, just another bean counter making money for the company, dang'um, dang'um, they ought take a rope and hang'um…

Hornady is making brass for the 25-35 but its no better and its soft as butter..