The other day when I was out at the range, I came upon a trove of once fired Winchester 5.56 brass and the boxes they came in. However, their headstamp was one I hadn't seen before.  They were marked with the NATO cross and 5.56 with "WMA". I looked them up on my handy headstamp site but no listing so I googled them and found out that the feds want a different headstamp for each plant making ammo.  

As WCC is already in use for another plant, these are stamped WMA for "Winchester Military Ammunition" because they're made at a plant different that the one making the WCC ammo.

This article I found was dated 2011 which I find surprising as I've never come across any WMA headstamps before. My questions are, how long have these been out in the wild? How many of you have seen them before? Are they as good as WCC? (I assume so but just asking.)

I forget where to find it but we had this come up a while ago.

I threw it in with the mixed brass.

Why would they stamp it "military ammunition" when I have personally shot taxpayer ammo stamped WCC with nato cross? I'm sure I can go dig through my brass bins and pull plenty of .223 and 9mm cases stamped as such, probably find those WMA .223s along the way.

Steve,
    Winchester moved a small part of their ammunition production to Oxford MS a good number of years ago. I think it started as a .22 RF production facility in or around 2010. Apparently, it worked out well for them because they moved the bulk of their ammunition production to that facility. The Oxford plant employed about 800 people last time I checked, maybe more by now. It manufactures about 8 million rounds a day in every caliber Winchester offers from .22RF to .50 BMG. That is about 2X the daily production at LCAAP IIRC. OLIN has now regained the contract to operate LCAAP as well so it will be interesting to see what all happens in the next year or 2. All the different WMA headstamp military ammunition made at the Oxford plant goes thru the same mil-spec acceptance protocol as the WCC or LC ammunition. I don't specifically remember reloading any of the WMA 5.56MM brass yet but I may have. Employees at the Oxford plant are allowed to buy ammunition at the company store. HTH

I have seen WMA head stamped 9mm and 5.56 "in the wild" since about 2016 or so. I've reloaded a bunch of the 9mm brass and some of the 5.56. No issues with the brass, but all of the factory loaded 5.56 I have (spanning multiple lots and years) have had some QC issues. Very inconsistent OAL, crimps, sealants, and one 5.56 that was almost a squib. The current lot of WMA 5.56 I am working through is strictly target practice ammunition and the brass will be relegated to target practice grade reloads. Just not having a warm and fuzzy feeling about this stuff...

Thanks to both of you for the information. I was hoping to hear that it's good brass. I suspected it must be due to the NATO cross stamp on it.

Anyway, I've just finished up tumbling and then storing all the brass I collected at the range and it turned out to be quite a good haul. I ended up with 300 pieces of Hornady .308 brass, 1,240 pieces of WMA 5.56 brass and 520 pieces of LC 5.56 brass. I left a bunch of 9mm brass for someone else as I don't handload or shoot that caliber.

Best of all, it's all real 'once fired' as the boxes the ammo came in were also in our trash bins. I'm suspecting that one of the local PDs or the State Police and their swat teams had a few days training just before we reopened. We let them use our facility for free with an agreement that they leave their brass at the range.  So this isn't the first time I've got lucky with a brass haul.

Just checked to be sure. The 500rd. cases of Winchester Q4318 9mm NATO 124GR. ammunition purchased just before COVID-19 hit early this year is in WMA (+) 16 marked brass. The LOT before that was in WCC (+) 13 marked brass. Quite a bit of the M855A1 & M80A1 ammunition I am seeing is also in WMA marked brass with WMA prefix LOT numbers. Even some .50 BMG is WMA but that is the one caliber that employees can not purchase at the company store in Oxford, MS. Something one of the Oxford employees did say is along the lines of what DD stated above. The Oxford employee stated that DOD gets their choice of the best WMA marked ammunition produced at Oxford and civilian shooters like us only get whatever DOD does not want. I think I'll stick with new unprimed LC 5.56MM brass for 5.56MM NATO hunting handloads. Hopefully, more of it will come available in the next year or 2. HTH

I’ve seen WMA 9mm brass for years. I’ve never come across any 5.56.

Not all WMA 5.56 brass has the NATO cross. I have one lot that has "WMA + 19" and "W M A 1 9" head stamps in the same box... Pretty sure I have other years without the NATO cross as well.

This 2018 run does.

Have shot a ton of WMA marked 5.56 55gr FMJ (Q3131)  and some 64 gr bonded 5.56 as well the last few years.  Have not reloaded any of the cases (yet) but the ammo was great.

All the 124 gr Nato spec 9mm I picked up is WMA marked as well.  Crimped primers, kind of a pain, but I quit bothering with the crimp and found that 99% take a new primer fine, at least after they have been fired out of an open bolt UZI that munches the primer anyhow.

All from the same lot of WWB Q3131 purchased in December of 2019. Sorry for the crappy pic.

Lot contains head stamps: WMA + 17, WMA + 18, WMA + 19, W M A 1 8, and W M A 1 9.

I have some WMA + 16 and W M A 1 6 brass around here as well, also bought as WWB M-193, M-855, and Frangible ammunition.

Attached File

"W.C.C." is or was 3131A made by IMI for Olin / Winchester back in the early 2000's.  That was highly sought after stuff!

"WCC" was used on both Q3131 and Q3131A. It does not specifically indicate Israeli manufacture for Winchester.