Bad experience with Winchester Varmint x ammo

M

Matt K

New member
I've been handloading for a few years and have always taken the safety of reloading quite seriously. Well yesterday I went out to test some factory 22-250 ammo. Winchester Varmint X 55gr, Hornady 55 vmax and the Superformance 50gr vmax. The two hornady loads shot pretty well. 55gr vmax load shot the best. 3 groups of exactly 1/2" @100 yards. Then I loaded one of the Winchester rounds and fired. After the shot I had a very hard time getting the bolt to open. Once it opened, the bolt came off of the case head and the case was left in the chamber. Upon inspecting the chamber, I saw that the spent primer had fallen out. I took a cleaning rod and tapped the case out carefully from the muzzle end. I'm very disappointed in knowing that at any time, apparently you can load a factory shell and it have way too much pressure to safely shoot. I will be pulling all of the Winchester bullets and using the brass for ammo I can load to SAFE pressures. Has anyone else run into unsafe factory ammo before?
 
Originally Posted By: pyscodogThink I would give Winchester a call before I pulled the bullets.

I agree. Data like this is how recalls get started. Do other shooters a favor and notify Winchester.

Greg
 
Bob, I took a break for a few minutes and shot some of my go-to handloads to confirm. And this could very well just be one fluke. As far as I can recall, I never left the ammo out in the sun and it was 65 degrees when I was shooting yesterday
 
That's scary stuff. I haven't used the varmint X variety, but recently I was out firing off some Winchester USA (the cheap stuff, white box of 40, 22-250) and I had one that wouldn't chamber right. The bolt was really hard to close, so I didn't try to force it. Took it out examined for any dirt or grit on it (shouldn't have had any, was brand new from box to magazine), didnt find any, tried to chamber it again, same thing, bolt wouldn't close. Set that one aside, meant to run the callipers over it and see what I could find, though I forgot about it until seeing this post.
 
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Haven't bought much factory ammo, but did get a Win. white box M1 Carbine round once with the primer smashed into pocket sideways.

Regards,
hm
 
I have shot only 1 box of them in 22-250 and didn't have any problems. My rifle didn't care for them accuracy wise. I have shot a couple hundred of them in 243 (58 grainers), never had any trouble and they are EXTREMELY accurate in my rifle.
 
I have shot 5-10 rds of the Winchester 204R 40g ballistic tips, the cases are shiney like/nickle plated or something similar. They shot ok, no issues and this is in a Savage 12FV and I've had problems/issues with Fiochhi ammo in this gun before but no issues with the Winchester ammo.
 
A friend of mine had an issue with some RP UMC ammo getting stuck in the chamber of his AR15 a couple of weeks ago. Once we finally got the round out to inspect it, the case head wasn't square with the rest of the case.
 
Here's my only 2 malfunctions in Glock pistols. I think it was bulk pack of Winchester in the white box.
And both were in the same box.


 
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It wasn't quite that bad, but I bought three boxes of Federal 55gr 22-250 last year that were all overpressure. Difficulty lifting the bolt head, very loose primer pockets, ejector marks on the brass. I emailed Federal with all the details, including serial numbers of the ammo, and never got a response.
 
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It wasn't quite that bad, but I bought three boxes of Federal 55gr 22-250 last year

This reminded me of a problem I had with a bunch of Federal 5.56 ammo:

http://www.predatormastersforums.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2258010

While investigating this issue found that LC Arsenal was being operated by Federal and that Federal brass is softer than most which could explain enlarged primer pockets at lower pressures than other brass. This was born out by the fact that none of the cases stamped with the nato symbol and crimped primers had expanded primer pockets (due to work hardening of brass cases so stamped.

Regards,
hm
 
Buddy of mine had an issue like that with Winchester ammo in his .243. He notified Winchester immediately. Glad no harm was done to you, the rifle, or others. Stay safe pal.
 
I checked the run out on a box of .308 the other day and was horrified how bad it was. Some of them were fifteen thousands out.
 
Originally Posted By: igorI checked the run out on a box of .308 the other day and was horrified how bad it was. Some of them were fifteen thousands out.

Don't think about checking some PMC then.

Greg
 


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