Winchester Steel Case Ammo Problem

It should be avoided. IMHO Winchester White box with brass cases is the lowest common denominator for plinking ammo. The steel stuff is trash.

WVsig said:

It should be avoided. IMHO Winchester White box with brass cases is the lowest common denominator for plinking ammo. The steel stuff is trash.

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And Yet I shoot the snot out of Steel case in all my semi guns and they love it. NO problem. I actually prefer it to a lot of range ammo. I will agree with you on WWB AND WINCHESTER STEEL SUCK..
(Yes can get stuck in some revilers. )

SOME steel cased ammo is generally considered acceptable quality. Winchester steel cased stuff is almost universally hated.

Are you per chance talking about that USA Forged stuff Win makes? If so I had a real problem and stopped buying it. When I first found out I tried it, worked great. So since I no longer roll 9mm started buying a bunch of it. One day at range had one not fire. Solid hit, just nothing. Couple rounds later I got a hang fire. Felt like a flintlock. Noticeable delay. Then another in the same mag. That was it. Sadly I had 3 more boxes of 150 each at home. Had about that much with me but had dumped it in containers and tossed boxes. So no way to know if it was all the same lot. So I just trashed all of it. Stuff was a buck a box cheaper at the time than other name brand ammo so that was the end of me buying it.

Never had an issue with my autos but got a steel case stuck in my revolver and son got a 223 case stuck in his Ruger 556..no mas steel, thanks, for HG either.

I fire steel case by the thousands through several Glocks I own with no issues. My dad's Ruger SR-9 eats it up too. As does my beat up milspec SA 1911.But- my S&W shield 9 and Mrs. Fl-NC's LC9 want nothing to do with it. It just depends on what the gun will tolerate, I guess.

I don’t have any experience with Winchester steel, but Wolf is fantastic range ammo imo, give that a go. Thousands of rounds and never an issue.

Unless they’re priced nearly identically, I can’t imagine paying more for brass for range use.

in normal times many brands of brass handgun ammo ain't much more than steel. I see no reason to feed steel ammo through a gun to save a tiny bit per box.

now in ak type rifles I shoot plenty of steel case ammo but it's a big difference compared to the brass in costs of ammo. also in makarovs but there is more choices in brass than there used to be and pricing was getting better on the brass, prior to this run on ammo.

now times, if steels all ya can get, okay.

op, id just avoid the winchester in steel.

jhb said:

in normal times many brands of brass handgun ammo ain't much more than steel. I see no reason to feed steel ammo through a gun to save a tiny bit per box.

now in ak type rifles I shoot plenty of steel case ammo but it's a big difference compared to the brass in costs of ammo. also in makarovs but there is more choices in brass than there used to be and pricing was getting better on the brass, prior to this run on ammo.

now times, if steels all ya can get, okay.

op, id just avoid the winchester in steel.

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Tiny bit for Box? Lol, I was getting it shipped right to my door with free shipping for $6.44 per box with any quantity. And I shoot a lot of volumn each month. If you are talking about a box a month shooter than maybe no big deal. But for me the saving was HUGE!

Ernie Bass said:

Tiny bit for Box? Lol, I was getting it shipped right to my door with free shipping for $6.44 per box with any quantity. And I shoot a lot of volumn each month. If you are talking about a box a month shooter than maybe no big deal. But for me the saving was HUGE!

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yep. exactly what I said. tiny bit if someone is buying one box at a time.

6 and change bucks a box, in any quantity and free shipping? when was that where was that? I've never seen it that cheap anywhere ever even in high volume.

Ernie Bass said:

Tiny bit for Box? Lol, I was getting it shipped right to my door with free shipping for $6.44 per box with any quantity. And I shoot a lot of volumn each month. If you are talking about a box a month shooter than maybe no big deal. But for me the saving was HUGE!

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I buy by the case and pre-panic it was $20 per case difference roughly from the cheapest brass stuff.

I’ll happily pocket $20 when the steel alternative is good to go.

S&W620 said:

I buy by the case and pre-panic it was $20 per case difference roughly from the cheapest brass stuff.

I’ll happily pocket $20 when the steel alternative is good to go.

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free shipping to like ernie?

not good to go for the op

jhb said:

yep. exactly what I said. tiny bit if someone is buying one box at a time.

6 and change bucks a box, in any quantity and free shipping? when was that where was that? I've never seen it that cheap anywhere ever even in high volume.

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I buy from AIM as they’re local to me and I just looked back at my orders and I purchase a case for $6.29 per box this year pre-Covid. No shipping as I pick it up in store though. They do ship though.

Outdoorlimited.com was also usually similarly priced.

jhb said:

free shipping to like ernie?

not good to go for the op

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I don’t shoot Winchester, but rather Wolf. If a gun won’t shoot that, in my experience it’s not the ammo. Literally thousands of rounds and not one bad round with 9mm (one bad primer with .223, but again, thousands of rounds fired).

Here’s one from Feb.


Their prices weren’t anything special, I just saved on shipping as they’re local.

Like many of the posters have already stated, I would not write off all Steel because of your Winchester issue. I have been burning thru most of my steel ammo (Wolf and Tula purchased during ammo droughts in the past) since the spring. While I do not have an HK, I shoot steel in practically every pistol that I own. (Glock, SA, Walther, Kahr, Bersa, CZ, Ruger and others). For range work I have no problems with it.

Just my opinion.

jhb said:

yep. exactly what I said. tiny bit if someone is buying one box at a time.

6 and change bucks a box, in any quantity and free shipping? when was that where was that? I've never seen it that cheap anywhere ever even in high volume.

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I was buying all the time at that Price from Target Sports up until a few months back. Now nada. The only 9mm is a few boxes of defense ammo for about $37.00 ea.

MySuomi said:

Like many of the posters have already stated, I would not write off all Steel because of your Winchester issue. I have been burning thru most of my steel ammo (Wolf and Tula purchased during ammo droughts in the past) since the spring. While I do not have an HK, I shoot steel in practically every pistol that I own. (Glock, SA, Walther, Kahr, Bersa, CZ, Ruger and others). For range work I have no problems with it.

Just my opinion.

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As so often happens on net forums like this there is a lot of thread drift here. The OP asked about that Win USA Forged I think. Since it's the only Steel case I have ever noticed Winchester making. Now talking about the Russian stuff, as in Wolf? Now that I have burned a lot of cases of in a few calibers and never had a problem for the most part. The stuff seems to have slightly harder primers so I have seen a couple guns that would now and then not want to set one off that did not have the same problem with other ammo. None of my guns ever did. Stuff always "seemed" to me to be slightly more dirty, as in how fast the guns got gunk but again never caused me any problems. I have seen some manufacturers say to not use steel case in their gun but, don't ever remember one of them saying why they recommended against the stuff. So for cheap plinking ammo for those who do not want to save the cases? Why not. My only bad experience was one time with the steel case stuff with Winchesters name on it. My bad bunch may well have been some kind of fluke with them but, it left a bad taste in my mouth enough to keep me from buying any more of it. If I ran out of 9mm and could only find the Win USA stuff I would buy some again but sure would not buy a case at a time.

I have used a ton of steel case ammo in many different calibers. Apart from the odd FTF or extraction fail it has all worked well, except Winchester steel!

I shot some last week in the woods so I didn't feel I had to recover the brass and it was a fiasco. It was dusty and very rough feeling and would barely feed or extract. I decided to save what I had for my 9mm revolver only! And never pick up any more regardless how cheap it is.

The Winchester USA Forged steel case ammo is terrible. Worse than Russian steel case.