Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Federal factory ammuntion quality control?

A few years ago I noticed that a Federal Fusion .308 case had split at the shoulder after firing, and last week I noticed a .270 case with a dent straight out of the box. I don't recall Remington or other various brands of factory ammunition having similar issues. Has Federal been having QC problems as of late?

Remington is legendary for dents

I don't fool much with factory ammo, but for some reason I ended up 2 boxes of Black Hills 'Gold' 178 gr eldx in '06. Weather was good yesterday for a change, so I decided to shoot some of it, much to my surprise...6 rounds in one box were primed empties. I examined the empties...they appeared brand new, no sign of a factory crimp...just no powder, no bullet. From what I heard about Black Hills, they are supposed to be all about quality. Strange.

I had a box of new 7x57 Remington cartridges a few years ago that had a bullet seated shorter than the others. Then I noticed it would spin. Then I pulled on it and the bullet came out. The neck was split.

Other than that and having Winchester ammo that looks like it was crimped with a pair of vise grips I’ve haven’t had too many issues. That dent wouldn’t bother me.

Don’t know about federal…

I once dissected a Winchester Xpert steel waterfowl load. The shot was all different shapes and sizes and several pellets had holes in them like a do-nut. I switched to Federal steel and my kill rate when up immediately.

I had some federal fusion in 7.62x39 that split necks like crazy and allowed bullet setback well into the case. But it was freaking accurate and killed stuff.

Over the years I've shot Remington AccuTips, Ballistic Tips, Core-Lokts, and ERBTs, and I don't recall having any dented cases. However, it's been a while since I've bought any Remington ammunition, other than the odd box of Core-Lokts for the initial few shots after cleaning barrels.

Back in the early 70’s I bought a box of Norma .44 magnum “Carbine Loads” with 240 grain HP’s, one of which in the box of 20 was seated backward.

Lol, guy asks about federal ammo quality control and 12 replies about everything but federal comes along.

I think you have your answer bud. Rare. I’ve only ever shot factory and federal has always been a go to for top ammo.

Not to mention, who knows what that 1 shell went through from manufacture to retail sale. I've bought factory ammo and when I opened the box, there were different shells in the box. People do a lot of weird stuff when they can get their hands on it! Very good friend used to be one of the managers at the Kenosha Gander Mountain. Amazing the stories he used to tell me about what people did to merchandise sitting on a shelf. Point being, that shell may not of come from Federal that way.

Been using alot of Federal .22LR, 350L and shotshells over past 6 months. Zero issues. But Winchester is terrible. I sent back two 350L boxes with QC issues last year, and have another three boxes of 350L waiting to be reported & sent back. Ditto their (lower shelf) shotshells.

I was shooting some HSM 45 Colt a few years ago and one shot didn't 'boom' like the rest. Turned out it had no powder, but the primer was enough to send/lodge the bullet in the barrel of my S&W. Fortunately, I wasn't shooting fast action and was cognizant enough to stop and check the barrel before firing the next round. Had to pound the bullet out with a rod.

I can't say much about federal mostly because I very rarely use their product. Results I got on a hunt way back in the 1970s soured me on Federal ammo. Shot a nice eating sizes Mule Deer back in 1973. Shot was IIRC about 35 yards and the deer took off at a run. Found blood where I shot it and was confident I'd made a good hit. I sat down and has a smoke, then took up the trail. The blood petered out in about 50 yards so I tried to look around and try to spot the deer. My wife was with me and we looked until it was too dark to see anything. BTW, I'd shot that deer at just about 8AM. I went out the next AM and found the deer when I spotted the birds. Damned coyotes didn't lave much. Guess they ate quite well with dinner on me. When I got home later that day I decided to sell that rifle, a neat lightweight custom on an M93 Mauser. I kept the ammo though never giving much thought why I did so. Years later I acquired another rifle in 7x57 and just shot reloads until I got a chronograph. That M93 had a 23" barrel and the rifle I bought as a replacement about seven years later was a Ruger tang safety with 22" barrel. I ran some of that Federal 175 gr. round nose over the Chrony and got barely over 2000 FPS. I'd pulled a couple of bullets and sectioned them and felt the jackets were too tough to properly expand. I still think so.

I haven't had any problems with Winchester brass other that ironing out bent necks, but I get that with every brand of brass, sometimes worse, sometimes a lot worse but I catch the and fix them whenever possible.

Only problems I've ever had with Remington has been one batch of 100 new cases were not properly annealed and I lost about 25 out 100 cases. I annealed the survivors and they worked just fine. The other problems was with a bag of Remington nickel plated brass that had severely crushed necks that were not salvageable, so I took what was good and sold them.
PJ

I've been testing some Federal Premium ammo recently in 3 cartridges and haven't come across the issues mentioned. Just so happens the nominal MVs are remarkably close to the actuals I've been getting.

I have some federal power shoks on hand. 180 and 150 grain 308 winchester. Excellent! It was tough for me to match the accuracy of both bullet weights with handloads

Apparently there was more than one dented case in the box. Guess it could have been a Monday or Friday box . . .

Looks like something was wrong in the brass production line. Or they had something in the dies that they make the ammo with? I'm sure that happens with any manufacture. The reason they probably have to check their equipment often. The only thing I've seen with my factory Federal ammo is minute corrosion:


The blue box Federal ammo usually shoots very well in my rifles though. I don't buy factory ammo, but if I did, I'd just as soon just buy that stuff.

Hi bsa1917hunter, just wondering have you ever seen a bad round in a box of Winchester SuperX? I never have.

Also, which do you prefer out of your BSA's, Winchester or Federal?

Cheers ~

I'm more of a goodenuff guy rather than a precision shooter ... and with uncertain supplies ... it's just as easy in my '06's to buy Fed bluebox, and save the brass. I like the smaller internal capacity of Fed brass because I tend toward faster powders in the '06 than most guys.
Anyway, I just opened 4 boxes of bluebox bought over an extended time, nary a blemish. At one time I tried to identify the powder used in '06 bluebox, thinking I could home brew the load myself, but I never could identify the powder, probably not a canister retail powder. It is a ball powder, a fairly large coarse powder for ball, no metallic sheen like most ball powders. It physically appears to be the same powder in 150 and 180 gr loads. 54.8 and 51.4 respectively.

Great post!

Agreed..........dead is dead. Dead is good enough for me.

I do understand why people load, whether it's to save money if you shoot lots of rounds, or if you want to develop a special load for a certain long-range rifle, or if you just want a hobby and need a challenge, it's all good.

Growing up and hand-loading thousands upon thousands of shotgun rounds, I am not interested in hand-loading another round.

I have never had any issues killing animals or birds with factory rounds by a shotgun or rifle cartridge manufacturer, and as I mentioned I have never seen, not once, a bad round out of a Winchester SuperX or a Nosler Trophy ABLR box. Every round has been accurate and deadly.

If you shoot enough factory ammo, you’ll eventually run into some with issues. IME, I’ve had more misfires with Federal .22 ammo than anything else, though some of the last Winchester, their high-priced super-duper HPs was really bad, and those, combined with their troubles with primers have put me off the brand, except for their better shotshells.

Had a weak Remington Gun Club shell yesterday. Not long ago one round in a box of 12ga STS was deformed and wouldn’t chamber. Others I shoot clays with have had duds as well, with factory of various brands. Almost all shoot the cheapest they can find.

I buy Fed 9mm and .223 when it’s cheap, also Fiocchi and Blazer (9mm). No issues yet with any of that.

Federal 22lr, is the only 22 ammo my 10-22 hates. It won't cycle the action about half the time. No other ammo has given me any problems. And yes I clean it every couple years.

I've put a lot of Federal Lightning through a Remington 572 and don't recall ever having any misfires from it.

Cleaning, at least the chamber, matters with my 10/22 CSC as lube buildup can cushion the primer strike. The misfires I've had have been in various guns. I bought a few boxes of Fed & Win bulk during the Obama shortage, whatever Walmart had on a given day. The Win is better than the Fed. I whittle away at those when I remember to, trying to clear them out, but I suspect they’re breeding in that storage tub I keep them in…..

i have had trouble with all manufactures of centerfire ammo years ago that`s why i hand load the families ammo and mine. i have had more trouble with the cheaper 22LR Remington ammo so every December 1st i clean the barrel and the chamber on the 22 LR rifle that sits year around in the cold/warm garage next to my 22 K-Hornet Ruger 77,this old bolt 22 LR Marlin kills plenty little critters all year long.

Remarkable! You find a split neck after shooting on one case and a dent in a Remington case and think the manufacturer's have QC problems. hate to be the one to tell you this but every manufacturer of any product let's a bad item get out now and them. as for ammo I couldn't tell you, been a lot of years since I've bought factory ammo but I do use factory once fired cases when I find them and most work very well!

That dent wouldn't even catch my attention.

Had Hornady ammo 20+ years ago that had split necks straight from the factory. All that did was told me to never buy their ammo again but I have bought their brass and ammo since with no other issues.

Had a Winchester XX turkey load with a smashed brass straight from the box, called Winchester and they sent a prepaid ORM-D box to send the whole box back and they sent me a new box of ammo.

I've always had good luck with Federal ammunition.

The only rifle ammunition that I've seen a real issue with was some Remington 7mm08 140 grain CoreLokt about 25 years ago. One of the rounds was significantly over pressure and locked up the bolt on my wife's Remington 700. I had a gunsmith pound open the bolt and check for damage. Luckily everything was OK. I've also had a few dud rounds of Remington green box.

I haven't shot much centerfire factory rifle ammunition for some years though, so I can't speak to recent production.

Never had a problem with anything from Federal.


Okie John

If you are having issues with Federal 22lr, I suspect it's the rifle. I've never had issues like you claim, in any of my rimfires. You may want to check, or have your rifle checked by a competent gunsmith.

The .308 Win. Federal Fusion case didn't split at the neck, it was split at the shoulder. The .270 Win. are Federal Fusion as well, not Remington, with more than one dented case in the box. To reiterate, the .308 case that split at the shoulder and the .270 cases with the dents are all Federal.

Since I haven't had any Black Hills, Hornady, Norma, Remington, or Winchester factory ammunition split anywhere at all or notice cases dented as deeply as those, then, yes, I'm going to ask if Federal is having QC issues.

I've always used Federal ammo and found it to be highly accurate, precise and without fault. In addition I've used Remington, Winchester, and Hornady rifle ammo and still place Federal at the top. We purchased some Sellier & Bellot to try in a pistol: "Never, ever, again". We were at the 'range' with a military person as he witnessed the action. A 'flyer' at 25 feet; I mean it had taken a left turn out of the barrel (Beretta). Never seen anything like that in my entire life. Will never consider or use Sellier & Bellot again 'Period'.

** And as a side note: Some ammo manufacturers are using "identifiers" in the ammo to 'trace' where the items were purchased.

* I forgot about the A-Square .300 Win Mag. ammo. Should have stocked that, no longer available: long story. 'Good stuff'.