Problems with Walmart Winchester ammunition or other ammo?

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timcsaw

timcsaw

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A friend and I buy a lot of ammunition from Walmart for range practice, mostly the Winchester white box FMJ stuff. Recently, my friend found some seriously bad rounds in two boxes of 9mm. The pics of these rounds are on my wife's camera and I'll post them a bit later this afternoon.

When I say "bad", I mean REALLY bad. He was shooting his Glock 17 and had his FIRST ever round that failed to fully chamber... wouldn't seat. Upon inspection he noticed that the casing was slightly crushed on the rim and protruding just enough to keep the round from seating. While doing a mag reload from the same box, he pulled another round out and it just didn't feel right... It was a .32 round stuck in the box among the 9mm's. He grabbed another round and it didn't feel right either. This round had a problem similar to the first, where the lip of the case had been "rolled" outward and obviously wouldn't have gone to battery.

After finding 3 bad rounds from the same box he and I both started to be a bit more attentive when reloading our mags. In a second box, he found 2 more rounds that were in just horrible shape. In one case, a bullet had obviously been forced into the casing at an angle with such force that it bent both the casing and the actual projectile (the round looks like it has a stinkin' elbow). Another round had a casing with an 1/8 wide piece rolled down about 1/4 inch. It appears that the bullet was forced in at an angle rolling the brass edge.

Now I have never really critically inspected each and every round out of a new box at the target range, but now I do give them a much better going-over than I used too... especially the Walmart, Winchester White box of any caliber.

I have run hundreds and hundreds of these rounds and have NEVER had a bad round that I know of (my Glock has never failed to eat one).

When I load my guns for daily carry, I do check each round VERY carefully.

How many of you out there have had bad rounds out of a new box (of any brand ammo)? This is the first time I have ever seen anything like this.

I suggested that my friend send some pictures of these rounds to Winchester (along with the box lot numbers) to let them know what happened. A .32 cal round in a box of 9mm?:eek: 5 seriously bent/mangled rounds from two, new boxes of ammo?:eek: What the heck is going on here!?!

What would you do?
 
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Well, Yes...and writing WW and enclosing the examples is what you should do.

I'm just an old trigger puller but do shoot a lot. I found WW .22 DynaPoints to be a good bulk pack round..a couple of years ago WW moved their rimfire production line from the NE somewhere to MS..during that period that load was unavailable at most places..when they again became available I bought 2 cases [10k rounds] and experienced quite a few FTF. I contacted WW and they said send in some examples with lot numbers from case/box - I MAY do some day..or not.

Was at the range this morning and had 2-3 FTF out of 150-200 rounds..dropped in my zip lock bag. Since whining about the FTF on line my sense is that bulk pack/economy .22 ammunition FTF may be spread across brands and mine was no worse than anyone elses.

I have not had a bad factory CF round yet.. The .32 in w/your factory 9 MM is a real mystery to me...that should have stopped/jammed a reloader..of course, could be some idiot that picked a round up off the floor and dropped in a bin.
 
First, don't blame Walmart; it's Winchester's product.

Second, retain the cardboard boxes from the bad rounds as they probably have a date or lot code on them that Winchester will want. Call Winchester and talk to someone in their customer service department. Get that person's name and Direct number.

This may be a problem which they are already aware of and they will probably send you some coupons for replacement product.

Otherwise, be ready to scan all markings on the box and send those scans along with good pictures of the rounds to the person you talked to via e-mail.
 
Gollnick said:
First, don't blame Walmart; it's Winchester's product.

Second, retain the cardboard boxes from the bad rounds as they probably have a date or lot code on them that Winchester will want. Call Winchester and talk to someone in their customer service department. Get that person's name and Direct number.

This may be a problem which they are already aware of and they will probably send you some coupons for replacement product.

Otherwise, be ready to scan all markings on the box and send those scans along with good pictures of the rounds to the person you talked to via e-mail.
Click to expand...

Thanks Gollnick... I understand that it isn't really a problem with Walmart but instead, with Winchester. Someone did suggest to me that Winchester might dedicate an entire production facility to ammo made exclusively for Walmart during certain times of year because of the quantity they order. Just hear-say however.

As you suggest, I will be contacting Winchester about the problem and will give them all the details that I can.

I'm not sure how a couple of these made it through their QC... I'll be checking my target ammo more closely from now on. Have you (or has anyone here) ever seen rounds come out of a new box like this?
 
I can't count the thousands of rounds of 22 I've run through the years, and never had so much as one round like what you're mentioning. Weird.
 
I agree with Gollnick. That is just poor quality control.

I tend to avoid Winchester ammo these days. I have had problems with some of their shotgun shells and .357 Magnum ammo.

When someone calls to complain about extraction problems in their 12 gauge bump shotguns, it is almost always with cheap Winchester shells. We
rarely have problems with Remington and Federal. The better quality Winchester shells are fine.
 
I found one in a box of Remington .45 ACP that looked like your middle pic. I've shot thousands of rounds of WWB .45 and never come across a bad round.
 
I found 4 rounds in a 100 count Winchester FMJ .40 cal. All 4 rounds had the bullets pressed to far into the casing. The over pressing is in the range of .250" each. I contacted Winchester online, but I have gotten no response from them yet.
 
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