The only "negative" experience I have ever had with Winchester occurred two years ago in July 2012. I had a brand new Savage model 12FV chambered in .22-250 with a 26" bull barrel but, due to the ammo scarcity at the time, I had difficulty finding ammo for it. I finally located some at a Walmart about 75 miles from home, so I made the drive and bought my store imposed limit of three boxes. It was Winchester 55 grain Varmit X in .22-250, a line that I had never used before. As luck would have it, all three boxes were from the same lot number, 55GD80
Two days later I finally got a chance to try this ammo. Well, upon firing the first round I noticed that the muzzle blast was much louder than what it should have been, plus recoil felt more like a .300 Win Mag than a .22-250. When I tried to lift the bolt, I discovered it had seized. The bolt would stiffly unlock and lock, but not lift. I was finally able to open it by hitting it with the heel of my hand. When I tried to pull the bolt to the rear I also had to use the heel of my hand again. When I ejected the fired case, I discovered that the primer was totally missing. IT had apparently disintegrated and the case head was blackened all over. No other visible damage could be seen on the fired case.
Well, believing that factory ammo was always safe and being ignorant of pressure signs at that time, I "assumed" that particular round was just a fluke anomaly. I checked my gun out as best I could and could not find anything wrong, so I went ahead and fired the remaining 19 rounds of the first box. The same situation happened four more times.......a total of 20% out of one box of ammo! I immediately stopped firing, gathered my equipment and went home.
Once at home, I took the rifle to my workshop to examine it under brightly lit magnification. Although I could not find any obvious damage to the receiver and other parts of the action, I did notice a chunk of metal missing from the face of the bolt. It also appeared to have been scarred. I got online and found a customer service number for Winchester-Olin. I called them and explained what had happened to the customer service agent.
The next day UPS came to my front door and picked up the box of fired cases along with the two unfired boxes of factory ammo. While waiting for Winchester-Olin to examine the fired cases and unfired ammo, I took my rifle to a local gunsmith. While he was checking out the rifle, his no-go gauge literally fell into the chamber. He used several other types of gauges to take various measurements, then compared readings to various reference books. He told me that the rifle was unsafe and not to fire it any more under any circumstances. He explained that the chamber had been lengthened and also bulged outward due to very excessive chamber pressure. He further told me that I had been extremely lucky that the rifle had not literally blown up in my face!
When I got back home, I again called Winchester-Olin to explain what I had learned. Their customer service department told me how to package the rifle to return to them for inspection. A few days later, UPS came to my house and picked up the rifle. A week or so after that, I received a check for the purchase price of the ammo, but no word on the status of my rifle. Days later I received an email explaining that a recall would probably be issued for that particular lot number of ammunition - .22-250 Winchester 55 grain Varmit X, lot #59GD80.
Winchester was unable to repair my rifle so they forwarded it to the Savage factory. Savage ran multiple tests but could not salvage the barrel, so they replaced the barrel and billed Winchester-Olin for expenses.
The bottom line? While overall I was very pleased with Winchester's customer service and the repair of my rifle, I was extremely disappointed it took four (4) months to do so. Plus, I have followed ammunition recall listings since this incident, but I have never seen any type of recall notice published for that type and lot of ammunition.
So what is the moral of this story? NEVER ASSUME that factory ammunition is always safe because there is always an inherent risk. It may be a very small one, but it is always there. Also, whether you reload or not, LEARN to identify the various signs of excessive pressure.....it might just save your life or that of someone you know. I was lucky because I lived to tell the tale.
