I found some new winchester brass in 223 WSSM at sportsman Warehouse in Columbia SC on my way home last week and picked up a couple of bags. Out of the 100 pieces 16 had split necks. I wrote a letter to Winchester telling them that I am not a happy camper. Thats pretty poor QC in my book. I have less throw aways when I pick up brass at the range

They definately dont have the qc that they used to. Back in early 90's maybe one throw away per 100. Now lots of dents and some cracked necks.

I bought a 100 count bag of 300 WSM unprimed brass and found one that had no neck. Looked at the headstamp and saw why. It was a 243 wsm run through a 300 wsm forming die. I also sent it to Winchester but never received a reply.

Probably happened when an operator switched products without clearing the forming machine.

bad batch. I bought 300 new 308 casings maybe 2-3 years ago and they were all good to go. Wish we all had lapua money...lol. Thats good brass too but i wasnt superbly impressed with it.

I have noticed lately lots of QC problems with nearly all brands of ammo products. Makes me wonder if the demand is so high they are just pumping and dumping.

Had a run in with some belted mag WW new un primed that wouldn’t chamber. I knew the headspace was correct on the chamber cause I had done the chamber and it was .0015 over “go”. Measured the belts and they were .012 to wide. I have some new old stock WW but I avoid the current products if at all possible.

Over the year's I've had the same problem with Winchester unprimed brass in .6 mm and .284 Winchester with split necks and occasionally .7 mm Remington mag brass thankfully I don't shoot as often as I once had but I agree it's very frustrating to say the least !
Allan

Scuba, I've had problems recently with the necks splitting on new Winchester .222 Rem brass after only one or two firings. Now I think I know why and will stay away from WW. In other calibers I've had good luck with Hornady and Federal brass and have been very happy with Norma brass.

I never had any trouble with hornady brass. Never any trouble reloading federal ammo either. Never bought just their brass

The trouble is that winchester and Hornady are the only two that make brass for the 223WSSM but I'll not buy Winchester again for sure.

I ordered a bag of Winchester 6.5x55 brass a couple years ago and a huge percentage of them had split necks and the case mouth was cut very unevenly on nearly every piece in the bag. It was pathetic and unexcusable. I sent them back to Grafs for a refund. I'll never buy WW brass again.

I’ll vouch for Hornady never had a bad experience with their products.

Winchester is typically more brittle.

Never could get the round count of Winchester like I could Rem brand and others without annealing necks.

Of course, the lawyers got to Remington so their brass is no longer available.

I’ll be trying Hornady, or going to all high end stuff like Lapua and the like.

I am seriously thinking of annealing them before I even load them the first time. Got the ones that passed inspection sitting on the bench all prepped and ready for primers but am still contemplating weather to aneal now or after fire forming them to this rifle

Try Star Line brass. I own several thousand pieces and never had a problem.

Hornady and Winchester are the only two that make 223WSSM unfortunately I like starling in other cases I use

I have a good bit of hornady brass in several different calibers and can recommend them and all of their products of course. Never had a problem reloading hornady brass.

I did have a problem with some Hornady brass . I got 100 in 30-30 to load for silhouette shooting . About 1/3 of the cases had primer pockets that were not punched deep enough , causing the primer to not seat below the case . I recut them with a carbide Sinclare primer pocket tool . There was at least .035 stock in them , and the bottoms had a much larger radius than normal . I figured the punch they were using was worn out . I wrote Hornady about the problem and got a reply that I would say was curt . I guess what I am saying is all companies put out a bad batch once in a while . Pay your money . take your chance .