[rhino210]

I just decapped some Winchester .45ACP picked up from the range and found that they were identical in everyway except some of the primer flash holes were larger then the rest. A buddy says that it may be because Winchester is farming out some of it's contracts to other firms. The Winchester box looked the same but the plasic inserts are the same as what Selier & Belloit uses.
Anything I need to do different when reloading?

[ReloaderFred]

There is no difference in loading the larger flash holes, which you will also find in Federal and Speer, especially with the new non-toxic primers. Just load them as usual.

As for Winchester farming out their brass, that's not true. They make all their own brass. The only major ammunition manufacturer that I'm aware that has had an outside jobber make brass for them is Speer, when they couldn't keep up with the initial demand for 357 Sig brass.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[Walkalong]

I have been saving up the big flash hole brass in a seperate batch. I have a hard time believing it does not make a difference. I know a couple of ya'll have said it doesn't but I can't get comfortable with it so I am segregating it for now. :) I have 78 right now, all cleaned and ready to go.

[Primersinmyshoe]

I believe the flash hole size makes little difference in the velocity or performance of the loaded ammo because the 45acp is such a low pressure cartridge. Now if you were talking about 9mm, or 38super that would be a different story.

[ReloaderFred]

I got my information straight from the company reps at the Winchester and Federal booths at the SHOT Show last year. I've since loaded a whole bunch of the them and I can't tell the difference when I shoot them at targets. They all go to point of aim, which is all I can ask of ammunition when shooting paper targets.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[Steve C]

I have been saving up the big flash hole brass in a seperate batch. I have a hard time believing it does not make a difference.

The large flash holes are found in the Win Clean ammo. I loaded up a batch of these cases and an equal batch of PMC cases with the standard hole using Win LPP, 6.1grs of Unique behind 230gr Remington FMJ bulk bullets. The velocity chrono'd at an average of 852 fps for the PMC and 851 fps for the Winclean. The STDev from the Winclean cases was less than 1/2 the PMC's.

My conclusion was there's no difference except better consistency with the larger flash hole.

[jmorris]

you can do a search for more info, it's been gone over a few times. The short answer is they lower your SD with most powder/primer combos.

[Ross]

Not all Winchester ammo is domestic. My white boxes of 7.62x54R Russian are marked Czech Republic IIRC. The primer pockets resemble S&B.
Cheers from Darkest California,
Ross

[Rico567]

Winchester's web site says that the enlarged flash holes make NO difference in reloading. I have reloaded many Win cases with both sizes of flash holes, and I also notice NO difference in my reloads. I used to load them separately when I was checking this, now I just lump them together.

[Walkalong]

I got my information straight from the company reps at the Winchester and Federal booths at the SHOT Show last year. I've since loaded a whole bunch of the them and I can't tell the difference when I shoot them at targets. They all go to point of aim, which is all I can ask of ammunition when shooting paper targets.

Well, that should be good enough for anybody, besides, I have not been able to see any difference on target or on the chrono since I segregated the large flash hole brass. :)