Winchester Train & Defend Tarnished? - Page 1

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Winchester Train & Defend Tarnished?

Posted: 3/22/2020 7:00:05 PM EDT

I stopped at the Sportsman's Warehouse in town to pick up some small pistol primers and this ammo was about the only stuff they had a lot of. I don't have a lot of .40 in my stash, unlike 9mm, .357Sig, and 45acp which I'm good. I only have one pistol in .40 and with the stockpile of only 100 range and 100 self-defense, it made sense to pick up the max limit of two boxes.

It was marked at $14.99 a box, but rang up at $9.99 at the register. This is what I found when I got it home; bullets are tarnished and the cases look like....not good.

Attached File

Posted: 3/22/2020 7:10:55 PM EDT

[#1]

In my experience tarnished ammo works just as good as shiny ammo.
On the other hand, those types who lick their firearm clean whenever it has a speck of dust on it may be unhappy with it.

Posted: 3/22/2020 11:39:54 PM EDT

[#2]

It looks typical for Winchester.

Looks just like their Ranger rounds. I’ve seen those with tarnished bullets, and even grains of polishing media stuck in the crevice around the circumference of the primer.

It’s fine.

Posted: 3/22/2020 11:42:01 PM EDT

[#3]

I'm sure the recipient will not notice. At $9.99 that's a deal.

Posted: 3/23/2020 5:22:50 AM EDT

[#4]

Quote History

Quoted:
It looks typical for Winchester.

Looks just like their Ranger rounds. I’ve seen those with tarnished bullets, and even grains of polishing media stuck in the crevice around the circumference of the primer.

It’s fine.

View Quote

Yup. Even our duty ammo at work looks like that. Tarnished is not really the right word, IMO. Just overall poor finishing from Winchester. Sure it functions fine but is just not up to par for an american made, premium brand. Of all the american ammo brands, Winchester is my least favorite and this example is just one of the many reasons why.

Posted: 3/23/2020 7:44:18 AM EDT

[#5]

Quote History

Quoted:
It looks typical for Winchester.

Looks just like their Ranger rounds. I’ve seen those with tarnished bullets, and even grains of polishing media stuck in the crevice around the circumference of the primer.

It’s fine.

View Quote

Same in my experience. Last month I bought a case of Win. Ranger 45 ammo. I looked through every box and picked out the ones with the funky "smudgy" primers and ones with extra gunk (looked like the ones in the OP) and used them to function check in my gun. All worked 100%. I carried 40SW Ranger-T for work for 20 years and I have never had one fail, no matter how ugly it looked. I shot some 20+ year old stuff that still had the evil "Black Talon" coating that had been riding in my trunk for 20 years and it worked great.

Posted: 3/23/2020 9:26:03 AM EDT

[#6]

Thanks everyone!

I was afraid they'd been in a flood or were returns from when Obama was buying millions of rounds of .40 for HUD or EPA.

Posted: 4/16/2020 7:52:02 PM EDT

[#7]

The "tarnish" you think you are seeing on the bullets is a result of the process they use to bond the jacked to the lead core of the bullet. Every single bonded Winchester load, across all calibers, looks similar.

Posted: 4/17/2020 8:03:58 AM EDT

[#8]

Yes, the "defend" rounds use the same bonded bullet that they use in the PDX-1 loads. I bought some in .45 ACP at the Sportsman's here, the bullets also have the tarnished, dull look.
I wouldn't worry about it, they will work just fine.

Posted: 4/18/2020 1:48:41 PM EDT

[#9]

Send to me for disposal

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Winchester Train & Defend Tarnished?

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