I had recently bought several 100 rd value pack WWB 9mm from Academy. The first few boxes were quite smokey, but functioned fine and accuracy was normal. Today, I tried to shoot a box of it at the range through a P229 and a P365 and had all kinds of issues. These pistols have had thousands of rounds fired through them previously without issue. To complicate matters further, there were two completely different types of failures.

The P229 had at least 10 light primer strike failures out of 50 rounds. Running the round back through did nothing. Looked like the round was hit hard enough to go off, but didn’t. The 229 is at least 16 years old and has never had issues of any kind. It has also been maintained to include a recent replacement of the firing pin spring and main recoil spring.

So - I switched to my carry P365 to see if I could replicate the same issue on a different weapon, but instead got 2 FTEs out of the first 30 rounds. The round was only coming about halfway out of the chamber. As with the 229, the 365 is cleaned after every range session and has never had FTE issues.

Is anyone else seeing quality control issues on recently purchased WWB? The ammo seems much dirtier than older WWB (prior to Covid shortages).

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They had a recall on 9mm FMJ ammo last year. Yours is unlikely to be part of the recall, but you should check to see if you have some old inventory.

https://winchester.com/support...-Luger-115-gr-Recall

I'd contact Winchester w/ your lot numbers, so they can see if they have a pattern of bad ammo and perhaps another recall necessary.

Thanks - I’ll check it out.

Usually Academy stores here in Houston turn ammo pretty quickly. Could have been sitting in a distributor’s whse for a while though.

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