I'm done with Wideners (Bad Brass)

[hollohas]

Rant - The last few times I have ordered once fired brass from Wideners it has been SHIT. No matter what they say in the description "Great quality LC brass!" "Best brass we have seen in a while. Not from a SAW", etc, etc I get shitty brass. The last 308 brass I ordered from them looked like it had been sitting in a bucket of water for a year.

The last 5.56 brass I ordered had this description and I quote...



This lot of brass is EXCELLENT! It is 90% LC -lake city - with the NATO cross. It is either 08 09 or 10 year manufacture. It may be all 10 or all 08 or mixed. Most cases will be the same year MFG, but we can't inspect every case, so no guarantees on that.BUT many cases will be all the same head stamp. CASES ARE ONCE-FIRED!!! No remanufacutured in this lot.THIS LOT IS NOT SAW BRASS. EXCELLENT CONDITION!!!!



But this is what I got. These came out of just the first few handfuls I took out of the box. Once again corroded, bent to hell. F Wideners. They used to be a good company, now they suck ass. They just lost a customer for good. [Mad]

http://i971.photobucket.com/albums/ae191/sholloh/IMAG0030_zps032848ff.jpg

[dwalker460]

I could be wrong, because Im not holding them in my hand, but I do believe all but a couple of those will clean and size fine... Range brass is always a PITA.

[hollohas]

It will clean, yes. But much of it won't size because it's not just the case mouths that are smashed. Range brass takes effort, I know. But I have collected or purchased thousands upon thousands of once fired brass and the last few shippents from Wideners have been the worst I have seen. And this is coming from a guy who just dug up a few hundred .223 cases from under the snow and mud at the Keystone range. This "excellent" brass from Wideners is way worse than that stuff.

[Danimal]

I have had similar problems. I bought the same brass with the same description from them before and when it came it looked like that and was only about 50% LC. They tried to make it right and acknowledged that it was not as much LC as they thought, but it was in the form of a $10 credit to their store. Most of it did clean up and worked just fine, even the ones like you have pictured, but I too was disappointed in their description and representation of the brass I received.

[Danimal]

It will clean, yes. But much of it won't size because it's not just the case mouths that are smashed. Range brass takes effort, I know. But I have collected or purchased thousands upon thousands of once fired brass and the last few shippents from Wideners have been the worst I have seen. And this is coming from a guy who just dug up a few hundred .223 cases from under the snow and mud at the Keystone range. This "excellent" brass from Wideners is way worse than that stuff.

I know sucks because it is an additional step, but if you take a screwdriver that fits in the dented casesyou can roll the dent out a little before you size it. It doesn't have to be perfect, but just enough for the expander to clear without folding it. Better than trashing the brass.

[hollohas]

Thanks.

I have no problems spending time prepping brass. Hell, I''ve spent countless hours doing that. My problem is if I buy something that says it's "excellent", it should be f'ing excellent. I take issue to being lied to.

[Jherexx]

It looks like you could use Rondog's cement mixer operation to polish those up. I have bought from wideners before and have been satisfied with what I bought but never surplus brass, those are definitely not in excellent condition. I hope it turns out OK, but it looks like alot more time doing brass prep to get it loadable.

[electronman1729]

The last time I bought brass from Wideners I got a bunch of crimped blanks

[USMC88-93]

I'd check it for headstamps as well, as some of it may be berdan primed. See link below.
http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_6_42/395860_Once_Fired__223_From_Wideners_Warning.html

[hollohas]

The last time I bought brass from Wideners I got a bunch of crimped blanks

Got 10-15 of those too.

[XC700116]

I just made the same mistake and bought 2K pieces from them, Absolutely terible condition, and short by a significant amount. I get it that it's range brass and some loss should be expected, but what I got was first and foremost short by 172 pieces, and I had 156 pieces that are completely unsafe to load and another 30 or so that are smashed flat as a pancake, but only one blank. Then there's another probably 15% that has dents I'm not fond of but expect will be ok after a loading to fire form them. If I culled out all the dented stuff, over half would be in the scrap bucket. It's really pathetic IMO and we'll see what their reply will be to the email I just sent them.

[XC700116]

Little update on mine, they are sending me another 330 pieces of brass, we'll see what shows up.

[Dalendenver]

I bought from PSA a few months ago, they said ~700 in a metal ammo can. I got 737 cases, all but two were usable, mostly LC. Good new ammo can too. My wife took the two and made jewelry from them.