Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Federal 525rd bulk packs on sale at Cabela's..................

I just stopped by Cabela's and picked up some Federal 525rd bulk packs for $16.49/ea and used my $25 off a $200 purchase coupon. Not a great deal compared to what they used to be but probably a better deal than we'll see anytime soon!!

Federal bulk is the best buy in 22 ammo.

Fixed that for you.

Sadly, in my experience, their bulk HP stuff is crap.

Jim62, you obviously haven't tried Remington bulk then lol.

Federal are generally 'the best of the bulk' besides CCI Blazers, which are rare around here on the east coast.

I have had good results with the newer Winchester 333/555 which are a direct competitor to the Federal 750 'Walmart' packs.

I HAVE shot the Golden bullet HP BULK PACKS.I have shot the rems compared to other bulk packed loads over an 8 year period.

Many lot #s over many years.

Do they fail to fire at times? Yes

Are they dirty to shoot? Yes

Do they feed poorly in some semi autos- YES

But guess what? EVERY BRAND of bulk packed ammo has MOST if not ALL of those faults. And ,in my experience, over the long haul, the Federal bulk packs are the worst.

They are NOT the same quality ammo as their Lighting /Champion/ American Eagle ammo. And yet they cost little if any less per round.

The last batch was so bad, I gave it away.

I think it depends on the rifle. Rifles are funny like that. I keep a stock on Remington, Winchester and Federal bulk ammo.

J,

You are rifle about that for sure.

In accuracy ALWAYS and with regards to function especially with semi autos.

As an experiment I once ran a batch of Remington bulk pack that had some feeding failure to fir issues in other less quality semi autos though an older 100& reliable Ruger 10/22.

It was like night and day. The SAME ammo shot almost flawlessly through that Ruger.

So, yes, the rifle does make a differnce.

Thank's for the heads up. My favorite plinking round, heck no real need for CCI mini-mags when it comes down to it.

Wish it were true ... my Kimber 22lr 1911 conversion does require the Mini-Mags ... the Federals don't have quite enough umph.

Fortunately, they aren't much more expensive.

I like the Federal bulk. I'm heading to Cabela's with a 10% off coupon tomorrow to get some. I'm also planning to get the Federal 17 HMR ammo they have on sale. Any opinions on Federal 17 HMR with 17 grain V-max bullet?

Nebraska: I use the Federal 525 bulk packs for several of my 22 Rifles and a couple of pistols.
This year I have gone through 5 1/2 of the Federal bulk packs so far this year - mostly on Ground Squirrels.
Normally I go through 8 to 10 of the Federal bulk packs a year, but we had a wet and cold and long spring this year - interrupting my normal shooting regimen.
I just drove past the Cabellas store in Post Falls, Idaho Wednesday and wish I had known about this sale then.
Thanks for the heads up I may have a relative coming through there soon and will advise him.
I would be happy to pay the price you mentioned for this excellent ammo.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I got an ad this week for a "Door Buster" sale that included four bulk packs in a metal ammo can for $69.99. Combine that with a 10% off coupon and it would be a good way to stock up on rimfire ammo and get some nice ammo cans to boot....

BTW - I've already used all my codes so if anyone has an extra 10% off code, shoot me a PM!! Thanks....

The Federal bulk ammo (525 round packs) on sale at the Phoenix Cabelas is their Champion line. 525-round box of Federal Champion for $15.99.

Even at $10 per brick they would STILL be schit.

Didn't you just tell bea175 that Federal Champion (along with Lighting and American Eagle)is a best buy in .22LR?

Yes, and they are NOT the same ammo as 525 pack hollow points.

Buy some of them ALL and shoot and compare them.

Better yet- do so over about 8 years over many different lots. and then shoot them in many different guns as I have done.

Then you will see.

Thanks for the info, Jim.

When I picked these up at Cabelas yesterday I assumed since the box said "Champion" it would be the same cartridges as the Federal Champion ammo I've purchased previously in the plastic 100-round packs.



So apparently, Federal is producing two different grades of Champion ammo? Thanks for pointing that out

A,

The "525" packs I was talking about are not Champions. Those you show are different animals from the ones sold by Walmart- at least the packaging and names are.

Here are the ones I have bought at Walmart, thi box is about two years old-



The biggest beef I have with the azzhats that run ATK is they have played enough games with their rimfire trade names and ammo specs the last 8 years or so that they should be sued for consumer fraud.

ATK also owns CCI. In 2003 or 2003 their beancounters got the "bright idea "of CROSS LABELING various loads to save on production costs by making certain loads in only ONE of the plants but labelling them under BOTH brands.

All the 50 pack 40g solid ammo in boxes were Federal Lightnings but were labelled as BOTH Federal Lightning AND under the CCI Blazer label. Likewise, the 100 round plastic packs of CCI Mini Mags also were labelled as "Federal Highpower". Same ammo- two different brands.

Apparently, nobody clued in the morons at ATK that folks who buy CCI Blazer and Federal High power ammo ACTUAL GIVE A SCHIT which load is in the boxes!! LOL

Anyway, they stopped that crap after a few years (no doubt due to complaints) but lately they have been playing games again at Federal.

A few years ago, they started calling the 40g solid Lightnings, "Champions". Worse yet, they claimed Champion high velocity loads were somehow target ammo. Now at Walmart the same loads are back to being "Lightnings" again.. It really pisses me off. Here are the packages. They are the SAME ammo. The Champions were bought about a year ago. The Lighning box was just purchased about 5 days ago-






Anyway, the only way we will know what is in that box of 525 Champions above is if you post a pic of the round. That might give us a Clue what rounds you actually purchased because the Label on the box sure as hell will not.

Here is a pic the actual rounds from those same boxes shown-



On the left the truncated cone shaped 36g HP rounds from the 525 pack above-

The plain lead bullets are from left to right- Lightning, Champion and Auto Match bulk. The glare in the pic does not show the knurling on the front driving bands well but rest assured, they are THE SAME loads. The only difference is the scarred up bullets on the Auto-match because they are bulk packed. Anyone who pays $16 for 325 rounds of "Auto-match" LOOSE in a box when you can pay $19 for a 500 rounds individually packed Lightnings is crazy.

I will tell you what A, I will run by Walmart in the next 24 hours or so and pick up a box of the federal bulk stuff I am railing about. I have had a good month overall and I guess I am due for some self inflicted frustration..LOL

I will take pics of the box AND the individual loads as well.
I will also shoot it in a few rifles to see if the newer lots are as bad as the ones I tied last year..

Anyway ,we can discuss ,compare and maybe LEARN in an attempt to keep up with the scumbags in Federal's marketing dept.

I've had good luck with both the Wally World 550 packs and Cabela's 525 packs. I've shot them both side by side and there was zero difference in POI or group size.

Pretty much also my experences. I buy large amounts of Wally's 550 Value Packs for the price, because much of it winds up donated to youth shooting programs, or "training venues", like when our club runs WITO programs.

I happen to have a 525 pack from a gunshop; 550 pack from Wallys and a brick of Champion (gunshop) handy.

The 525 pack of Champions, are 36gr as are the 550 Value Pack. Both are copper plated HPs. The 525 pack Champions claim 1280FPS, the 550 pack from Wally's, claim 1260FPS. The Champion brick variety are 40gr solids (lead), claiming 1240FPS.

No discernable differences in reliability or accuracy, in my experience thus far. Feed/function fine in most rifles I have fired them in over many years.

Cost wise, the 525 pack was around $18, back when the Wally's 550 packe were still $15 (now $18 and change). The brick of 40gr Champions cost around $22, but I bought them over a year ago at a gunshow, when most local shops had little 22 ammo in stock.

100 packs of Mini Mags run around $6 to $7 in these parts. So a price comparison with Fed bulk packs shows that Mini Mags actually are far more expensive. And although I've been shooting Dynapoints for many years and still love 'em, they have gotten nuts with their pricing and are roughly about what Mini Mags now cost.