Beware Walmart WWB

[RoundEye]

Today, on my way to a match I picked up a couple boxes of .40 Winchester White Box (WWB) from a Walmart near the range. Later in the day when I was at the range, I noticed that a number of the rounds in th sealed box were less than the minimum overall length for the caliber. I'm glad I caught that as who knows if the over pressured rounds would have caused a catastrophic failure or injury.



I placed one normal length Winchester JHPs on each side of the group for reference.

I decided to keep the defective rounds of ammunition and take them back to Walmart for a replacement or partial/full refund. I was told by a manager that she is sorry that I could have been seriously injured, but ammunition sales are final it even says so right here in the receipt as she pointed. I thought they would be more considerate given the potential for injury, but I guess that's too much of an assumption.

Anyway, to those that frequent Walmart you may want to pop on the box before heading out of the store just to make sure that you're getting what you paid for.

Has anyone ever had this happen to them? I thought about calling/writing Winchester to see if they would do anything about it.

[Rhythm of Life]

I haven't seen that with the WWB. Interesting and good to check newer batches I pick up.

Just checking but that is the 50rd .40 cal box right?

**nvm noticed the top flap. its the 100rder

[PolishMike]

Winchester will probably replace them but remember, you get what you pay for.

[canative]

I just bought the exact same in the 100 rd. box. I better open mine and check it out.
Thanks for the heads up!

[G60]

I thought about calling/writing Winchester to see if they would do anything about it.

Do this. They'll want to know about it.

[HKMadness]

Hmm, interesting. Yeah, talk to Winchester about it.

[Quinc]

Tell winchester about them and post back what they say.

[Clownpuncher]

Wow... good find. I have never seen that before from factory ammo. I got some WWB at the gun show for 45 and it's smoky as heck but Ive never seen anything like that. I'd certainly let winchester know.

[johnthomas]

I am curious why you didn't use the good ammo in the box as a comparison?

[NotEnufGarage]

Scary stuff!

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk

[randomBytes]

FWIW I've shot many thousand rounds of WWB (9mm), and have had only 2 duds, but both were seriously mangled at the factory. One had been crushed on one side - I didn't notice when putting it in the mag - resulted in a jam that was very hard to clear, about the only jam my g34 ever had. The second the bullet had torn the side of the case, when it was inserted, the round fell apart quite easily.

[RoundEye]

It appears that Winchester would rather all inquiries go through their dealers than them directly so they don't make it easy to find an email address. I did find one for dealers, so I sent an email off to it about the issue. I also plan to follow up with a phone call tomorrow.

I am curious why you didn't use the good ammo in the box as a comparison?

I only purchased two hundred rounds for the match I was in my way to. All of the good rounds were sent down range. Lord knows I cold have used those for extras for stage 3.

[Turo]

Holy setback Batman! Do you have a set of calipers? Or maybe just a ruler to get a rough measurement on those? With setback that bad, I'd be surprised if something didn't go terribly wrong if someone tried to fire those.

In my (albeit limited) experience, those 165gr WWB loads are pretty low power. Avg about 970 fps out of my 3.5" barrel, probably wouldn't get much over 1100 with even a 5" or 6" barrel, so they aren't hot loads by any stretch, but with an eighth of an inch setback, who knows how high the pressure would be?

[P95]

I had the same problems with UMC Mega Packs (purchased from several different retailers, including Walmart and mail order). The mega packs were prone to having compressed rounds due to the way the ammo trays were stacked in the package. I started looking more carefully at the condition of the packaging after that including inspecting the ammo if necessary. Glad you caught the defects before loading them.

Make sure you safe the production code from the packaging when you contact Winchester.

[RoundEye]

In my (albeit limited) experience, those 165gr WWB loads are pretty low power. Avg about 970 fps out of my 3.5" barrel, probably wouldn't get much over 1100 with even a 5" or 6" barrel, so they aren't hot loads by any stretch, but with an eighth of an inch setback, who knows how high the pressure would be?

It doesn't reference what length barrel, but the box says they're rated at 1060 fps at the muzzle.