Are these rounds safe to fire?

Those are Winchester??? I expect that from A-Merc, but not Winch.

Opinion #1 - I wouldn't shoot the one in the middle with the big gouge.

Opinion #2 - Are all of the cases bulged out? I know the 2 on the left are. Look at the sides, they aren't straight.

Who made that stuff?

check bullet set back

Are they the same length as unbulged rounds?

Looks like they need a call to see how they are going to fix their problem. Things slip through QC sometimes. IMHO anything that looks strange doesn't get shot.

Send that pic to Wincheser and see what they have to say for themselves. (From my dealings with Remington, they probably wouldn't care, but Winchester might have a little more self-respect)

I wouldn't shoot the one in the middle. The others should be safe, but that's not exactly what you pay $1 a pop for.

The center one, with its deep gouge, looks outright unsafe. The other two might be shootable, but remove your barrel and see if they drop freely into the chamber (a sort of "go/no-go" gauge). But, I would not shoot any of them anyway, as Winchester may want to examine them. This is not acceptable on the cheapest WWB, let alone premium, $1 a shot defensive ammo. It is a good thing you inspected them first.

I wouldn't worry one bit about throwing them through my Glock 19. I like to feed it whatever

...

Just take back the entire box where you bought them (with our receipt) or if the know you, you should have no problem exchanging that group/box for another and do a post-20 inspection, to be sure all bullets are pristine.

Those are not safe nor good to even "try" and shoot..

OMMV,


Ls

"What bulge?"

Look at the two on the left. The cases touch places and in other places there is daylight showing. The bullets are really jammed in.

So that's what $1 a round ammo looks like. Ouch. I guess I'll be buying it too when my stock is depleted.

Return that garbage.

All three show the bulge of a seated bullet. Quite normal. The two dented ones are fine. When you shoot them they will lose the dents. The one with the gouge (middle one) is touch and go. I would probably shoot it as I have 9mm X 19s with heavy chambers and wouldn't have a problem, but....Your call.

Good job catching those. This is why I visually inspect each and every cartridge that I buy. I've never personally seen such issues even with inexpensive range ammo from Winchester or any other major manufacturer, but I have seen worse examples that others have put on the Web, including Golden Sabers one time. This is the first such example I've seen of PDX1, though. I guess it happens occasionally. Everybody should be reminded to always inspect your ammo!

Definitely not acceptable for the amount of money you paid for them. It's good you're exchanging them.

"All three show the bulge of a seated bullet. Quite normal."

For so-called premium ammo, wouldn't you expect the bulges to be the same on every round. They appear to be very forcefully seated - jammed together. For instance, why is the one on the right leaning away from the two that are leaning together? Why are any of them misformed?

Looks like very sloppy workmanship to me. For so-called premium ammo.

JT

JohnBT said:

"All three show the bulge of a seated bullet. Quite normal."

For so-called premium ammo, wouldn't you expect the bulges to be the same on every round. They appear to be very forcefully seated - jammed together. For instance, why is the one on the right leaning away from the two that are leaning together? Why are any of them misformed?

Click to expand...

It might be a bad batch or they might have been damaged during the packaging process. For what it's worth, none of my .40 S&W cartridges from Winchester--premium PDX1 or even WWB--have any of these issues. They all stand up straight (I line them up for inspection) and seem very consistent. The bullets in the PDX1 JHPs I have do seem to fit a bit more tightly than is the case with WWB, although the bulge is not much more than a hint, is consistent between cartridges, and cannot easily be seen or felt when viewing along the edge (there's no reason to suspect that there would be any issues with chambering). It's probably there because of the asphaltum used to seal the cartridge and glue the bullet firmly in place. This and the ever-so-slight bulge are actually comforting to me because they should help resist bullet setback in case I ever chamber a cartridge more than once.

The cartridges shown in the OP, on the other hand, look pretty jacked up to me in several ways.

I just bought a box of 20 for more than a dollar a shot and after seeing this I checked.....7 out of 20 rounds of 230 gr .45 acp had knicks that I could catch my fingernail on. I am very displeased with this. How is winchesters customer support? None of my rounds are AS bad as the one in the center of the pic but still I'm worried. For a dollar a shot this should NOT be happening.

why settle for an exchange (and all that driving) when they will mail a whole nother box to you free?

that pic with the receipt in it sent to Winch--
phone them as to where/how they want the proof sent.

When I comes to safety and q/c Winchester/Olin wants to know. I would ask them to thro in a couple of extra boxes for your trouble. That's only fair.

This is starting to get out of hand! Making Winchester aware of the problem is definitely the right thing to do, no matter what, and it wouldn't hurt for you guys to inquire about what they'd be willing to do in order to keep you as their customers. I'm sure they'll make things right (their business obviously depends a lot on safety), but in the meantime I'm putting a temporary moratorium on myself recommending PDX1/Ranger Bonded, which I often do because I use it and have been happy with it, but what's going in this thread, at least with the 9mm ammo as far as we know, is unacceptable!

For those who've had issues, good luck to you, and please keep the rest of us posted whenever anything interesting happens. Be sure to send back all of the defective cartridges for Winchester to examine.