Quote Originally Posted by zachomega View Post
Recently i made a purchase of 600 rounds of Winchester M855 5.56. They ship in 200 round "range packs" which are just cardboard boxes with loose ammo inside and 2 pieces of tape keeping it all honest.

I had nothing better going on today so i counted out the rounds in each box. Spoiler alert, all 3 boxes came up short.

2 of the 3 boxes were missing 2 rounds each and the third box was missing 4 rounds.

So... As i see it, one of three things happened.

1. The counting machine (be it by quantity or weight) is off at Winchester. This wouldn't surprise me. I use counting machines at work and it doesn't take much to throw the numbers off. For example, if the scale isn't level or the load isn't balanced.

2. They are knowingly shorting a few rounds in each box to produce more boxes to sell. I certainly hope this isn't the case. I don't want to point fingers like this without solid proof.

Or

3. Somebody at the retail level is taking a few rounds from every box for their own. Unfortunately, this I'd totally believe. With ammo essentially entering retail warehouses and going straight back out, i wouldn't be surprised to learn that companies were taking shortcuts in their warehouses that left ammo in less secure hands.

I contacted Winchester about it today. Don't know what to expect, but I'll post whatever update i receive.

Normally i wouldn't count bulk stuff like this. For example, federal ships their 400 & 420 round cans with a zip tie on both the bag inside of the can and on the latch to open the can making tampering with the quantities slightly more work than the Winchester boxes where all you have to do is peel back some tape and then return it once you've pried a few rounds out.

Is a loss of 8 rounds the end of the world? Not really. But it is the principle of it.

-Zach
I've been told you should only load 29 rounds into your 30 round mags so there's that.