Hunting Washington Forum

Equipment & Gear => Guns and Ammo => Topic started by: N7XW on January 22, 2018, 09:06:52 AM

Title: Take caution with Winchester Super-X ammo.
Post by: N7XW on January 22, 2018, 09:06:52 AM: FYI -

I'm breaking in a couple of new rifles, so I recently bought 7 boxes of Winchester Super-X 150 grain 270 Win ammo (Walmart $13.94 a box - good deal, I bought them out of it). After watching a Youtube video showing a guy pulling the bullets out of the casings by hand, I thought I better check mine. Yep, of the 2 boxes I checked so far, 7 ROUNDS HAD LOOSE BULLETS. Some worse than others, but all 7 you could move the bullet by hand. Not properly crimped for sure. I don't know if these are safe to shoot or not, but I opted not to shoot them. At the very least, I'm sure they would differ in pressure, velocity and therefore grouping.
Title: Re: Take caution with Winchester Super-X ammo.
Post by: Zardoz on January 22, 2018, 10:36:43 AM: I would contact Winchester about it. :twocents:
Title: Re: Take caution with Winchester Super-X ammo.
Post by: jrebel on January 22, 2018, 10:40:21 AM: Before reloading....I shot winchester super X exclusively with absolutely no problems. Matter of fact it was hands down the most accurate round in my savage .270 win. I too would contact Winchester.....Sounds like they may have develoved a QA problem.
Title: Re: Take caution with Winchester Super-X ammo.
Post by: Old Dog on January 22, 2018, 10:56:40 AM: The Winchester/Olin name was sold several years ago. Not the same company, not the same quality. :twocents:
Title: Re: Take caution with Winchester Super-X ammo.
Post by: N7XW on January 22, 2018, 11:43:43 AM: I think I'll get ahold of Winchester after going through the remaining boxes. Curious to see what percentage of rounds are faulty.
Title: Re: Take caution with Winchester Super-X ammo.
Post by: Woodhunter on January 22, 2018, 12:15:59 PM: The danger is you may chamber a round, not fire it, then eject. The bullet may remain in the throat of the chamber. Chamber another round and fire it and you have a blown up rifle.

I have seen this happen!!!!

I would pull the bullets, dump the powder, and start over. New brass for reloading. Just resize the cases for proper neck tension.

Take 'em back to Walmart? Hmm. They likely will wind up back on the shelf for an unsuspecting soul to buy.

Best is to let Winchester know what is going on with that lot number.

Moral of the story: Do not buy ammo from the lowest bidder!
Title: Re: Take caution with Winchester Super-X ammo.
Post by: HntnFsh on January 22, 2018, 12:35:54 PM: Most places won't take returns on ammo no matter what.
Title: Re: Take caution with Winchester Super-X ammo.
Post by: N7XW on January 22, 2018, 01:43:37 PM: Wasn't even thinking of taking it back to Wal-Mart. I know they won't take it back.
Title: Re: Take caution with Winchester Super-X ammo.
Post by: PlateauNDN on January 22, 2018, 01:47:29 PM: I thought they were okay until I tried the federal premium vita-shok in the .270 win. :tup:
Title: Re: Take caution with Winchester Super-X ammo.
Post by: jrebel on January 22, 2018, 03:27:15 PM: Absolute worse case scenario is you have a fair price on components. Heck...you could pull the bullets neck size the brass and reinsert said bullet and go shoot. Otherwise pull all bullets, deprime, waste powder and start from scratch.
Title: Re: Take caution with Winchester Super-X ammo.
Post by: N7XW on January 22, 2018, 03:30:56 PM: Quote from: jrebel on January 22, 2018, 03:27:15 PM
Absolute worse case scenario is you have a fair price on components. Heck...you could pull the bullets neck size the brass and reinsert said bullet and go shoot. Otherwise pull all bullets, deprime, waste powder and start from scratch.

That's what I'll probably end up doing with the loose fit ones. I'm going to shoot the good ones though.
Title: Re: Take caution with Winchester Super-X ammo.
Post by: Bill W on January 22, 2018, 03:37:42 PM: the factory will want the loose bullet cases back. I'm surprised there's not a recall out on them right now.
Title: Re: Take caution with Winchester Super-X ammo.
Post by: Duckslayer89 on January 22, 2018, 04:06:34 PM: I’ve seen this with my brothers 30/30 with Winchester ammo. Bullets being pulled out and pushed down into the case easily. Zero accuracy. Scary
Title: Re: Take caution with Winchester Super-X ammo.
Post by: yorketransport on January 22, 2018, 08:48:16 PM: Why not just get somebody with a set of 270 dies to crimp the ammo for you?

I honestly don't think it's a big deal. It's very unlikely that you'd get one of bullets stuck in the lands; the bullet would just get pushed back into the case since there isn't enough neck tension to really jam them into the lands. Even if you did end up pulling a bullet out of the case and it stayed in the chamber, all you'd have to do drop the rifle on the butt stock a couple times and the bullet will fall right out.

If you're worried about it, just check all the ammo for loose bullets and don't shoot those rounds.
Title: Re: Take caution with Winchester Super-X ammo.
Post by: N7XW on January 25, 2018, 11:10:08 PM: I finally got around to checking all the boxes and out of 140 rounds, 38 were bad (27%). I don't care how cheap this ammo was, that is totally unacceptable. I'll be emailing Winchester a list of bad rounds per lot number tomorrow. By the way, all of the bad rounds but two were from the same lot number.
Title: Re: Take caution with Winchester Super-X ammo.
Post by: Alpine Mojo on January 26, 2018, 07:49:23 PM: For my 270 Win I've been shooting Federal blue box for years with good results. I haven't tried the Winchester but I have shot it in other calibers with no problems. Sounds like you got a bad batch.