Not sure if anyone has had this happen but this is the second time in 10 years I have had a Federal 10 Gauge shotshell "explode" in the chamber and separate the brass from the hull. The shells were never out in the weather, albeit they were over 10 years old. I made the mistake of throwing the original box away after I removed them and put in a MTM waterproof shell holder box. I had a similar box of Remington "T" shot that was over 20 years old and never have had an issue or misfire. I spoke with the Federal rep and he said they only warranty their shells for ONE YEAR!

The contents did go down the barrel but at no harm to the goose at which clearly should have crumpled at 30 yards, feet down coming straight in. One of the clients in the blind was shooting a BPS 10 gauge and offered to dig out the shell casing. When I pulled the trigger there was a violent discharge, enough to knock the charging handle out of the bolt! Luckily it only went about 6' away and was laying on the floor of the blind. The top part of the brass casing (missing in photo) must have ejected outside of the blind as it was not present in the magazine of the Browning Gold 10. Ironically the bottom of the brass casing with spent primer intact was still held in by the extractor. The plastic hull was lodged in the chamber of the barrel. The client is an avid trapshooter so he was well versed in "misfires". He verified the barrel was clear of obstruction and two Boss Bismuth #2 lead to the demise of the next two geese that used the same flight path.

What is disappointing was the cavalier attitude of the Federal rep (name withheld) who tried to tell me that the shells were old and brass deteriorates over time. Well little does he know but I build fire trucks and we use copious amounts of brass that does NOT deteriorate or weaken over time, UNLESS it is defective from the onset. He offered to do nothing. This may be old but I think by law they may be liable for injury or at least to issue a recall or safety notice. I am conferring with a lawyer friend/client that does nothing but product liability and he is researching to see what recourse I may have. All they would have had to do was offer to take back the remaining ammo I have and replace with new. Not the old Federal we used to know and trust I guess.

Guess I will switch to Boss. I shoot a Browning Gold and never had an issue with Boss.

Not good

Hunting at Horse Chit Lake, maybe?

I own Mazonia Hunt Club in Central Illinois. Last couple of years have been brutal, as well as the start of this season. When the artic blast hit we had over a 100,000 geese hit the warm water of the nuclear power plants (3 within a 15 mile circle of my club properties) and within a day it was on. One pit shot over 250 geese (3 bird limit this year) in 6 days, only hunting mornings and letting the birds feed the fields in afternoon. We are nearest Braidwood Lake.

MAGA.

Its the Browning IMHO. I've had that happen a few times in my BPS. they have been both RP and Federal. I really suspect their chambers are a bit large. IIRC I actually lost more cases to RP than Federal but it was both. and when they didn't split, typically the Fed cases, the extractor would rip a part of the rim off and leave the case stuck.

shotshell Brass, likely isn't, never keep steel shot beyond 2, maybe three years at max. you seriously expect a manufacturer of disposable goods to warranty something a decade old? I swear to god the only people dumber than iowans come from illinois

Naw the whole point is to go to Mazonia hunt club to shoot some geese got to admit sounds like a good infomercial.

I keep steel shot way longer than that.

Buds then new Browning 10 ga auto would rip the brass off the plastic...... on some turkey loads.

What is that foreign material in the receiver (pic)?

not me, i learned long ago 3 years is it, if it hasn't been out, no more than one season in a blind bag and even then as soon as I start to see any oxidation on the "brass" it goes. ive had too many issues from failure to detnate to not being able to chamber a round.

Wow. I have steel thats 10 years old. Still goes bang every last time.

Have lead thats even older and its never been an issue. Interesingly the only stuff that didn't at times was some new RP stuff in 20 years ago when I was a kid.

SF that's the remains of the rolled paper wad. Federal hulls have had a steel head that is brass washed or coated for along time. I don't think I'd say the shell b lew up, more like a case head failure. I'd also want to see if the chamber had been properly maintained. Mb

Exactly.. its weird thats at least 3 of us with 10 ga brownings that have had issues... Always wanted to trade to an SP10 and then the 3.5 12 came along and I just lost interest in paying for the swap.

I bought a pile of brenneke slugs on deep discount $1 for a 5 pack. They were litearlly from a fire sale when the old davis sport shop burned. Years ago.

They were water damaged, the boxes all ruined, and I bought about 8 or 10 boxes. Used them at the range and hunting. Years later you could see full blown rust holes in the brass. Rusted to all hell. In my Mossberg 500 I still used them to take deer. all went bang. one stuck.

I figured the brass doesnt do a whole hell of a lot on a shotgun shell in terms of safety. Was I just lucky? might even have one or 2 left.

Ok, you made me laugh!

I suspect that it was a firearm issue over an ammo issue too. I’ve shot thousands of rounds of ammo waaay older than 10 years old without issue. I don’t think of 10 year old ammo as being all that old.

I’m not surprised by Federal’s response though. Given the amount of ammo that they sell I’d guess that they get complaints frequently just based on sheer volume. Without a box or the lot number and without Federal knowing the condition of the gun or other factors leading up to a failure I wouldn’t expect them to do much for 10 year old ammo with no further info and a random call from a guy that they don’t know from Adam.

For all the "experts" and those that think they are better than anyone else here....(gitem..12). I was a gunsmith for more than twenty years. Yes the chamber of the Gold Hunter was honed and polished years ago and every year it gets a refresh with Flitz. (Someone as smart as gitem ...12 would tell you that if it can eject Boss shells it should eject any others).

As far as the other snide comment on my "infomercial" , we are booked solid every year so I do not need (nor do I) advertise. 24 years as the number one rated club in the Central Zone.

Interesting how the trolls come out when someone tries to make an informational post so as to prevent someone else from possibly having a shell failure that could result in injury.

Ruger 1-V: I am glad you were not injured!
Don't want to get into the puzzling character assassination that is going on.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Thanks VarmintGuy. Yeah I don't understand the need to snipe or to be demeaning when the intent of these forums is to share information on a platform that reaches a wide audience.

On a side bar, did a fire training for the department in Gateway and got to do some revisiting in the immediate area. How things have changed. A burger in Gateway is $17-20 and locals can barely afford to get groceries unless the travel into Bozeman or similar. The pioneer families are certainly not on board with all the recent rule changes, especially for those bordering the Park. Bison controversy is a real sore spot for many of those that grew up subsistence hunting the area.

Just because one brand of ammunition works doesn’t necessarily mean another will, especially with shotgun shells and their widely varied rim diameters and construction. As said it’s likely an incompatibility issue with a chamber or headspace one one end of tolerance and ammunition at the opposite end of allowable tolerance.

If it works with Boss shells you should use them.

“Warning” people about possibly decades old Federal brand ammunition you don’t even have a lot number for isn’t going to do anyone any good. And I don’t see where you have much right to be upset with Federal for not warranting them since you have no box, lot #, or even proof of purchase or that they aren’t reloaded.

I guess I left out one important note. I hunted five days and shot 14 others of the same shells, from the same box, from the same gun and did not have an issue. I use them primarily as "swatter" loads as I normally use BB or BBB if shooting steel, and #2 Bismuth. It is a well known fact that the Browning Gold Hunter can be problematic with ejecting certain shells. Again, I did gunsmithing for over 20 years and saw this frequently and the primary fix was to hone the chamber and polish the feed rail (both of which I did over 15 years ago when I got the gun) and make sure there were no burrs on the ejector. I honestly probably shot 30+ shells in that five day period. Each night I would take the action out (simple one pin removal) and clean and inspect it for any foreign matter. The barrel would get swabbed with mop/cleaner and then dry patch. The piston assembly was cleaned and barrel ports inspected and cleaned to make sure gas ports were open and allowing full function of the piston assembly. Now, for the untrained it seems like that would take a good deal of time. I did all of this in ten minutes or less each night and that is why my gun runs reliably.

More fodder for the experts to dissect.

I have not had the opportunity to get back to the storage unit where my ammo safe resides as I suspect I have more boxes (which I advised the Federal rep I would supply the lot numbers and return any full boxes if they wanted them) as I typically buy ammo by the case. So, slow motion recap...shot same shells many times with no failures...but it only takes one time. Just to further dispell any other doubts about firearm reliability, I shot two Boss shells immediately after the failure and no issue, even with all the crap from the misfire still present in the action as shown in the photos the very night I removed for routine maintenance. If you look closely at the photo it is the fibre material used to capture the brass/plastic hull and it was not allowing for easy travel of the spring and follower for cycling.

I suspect a manufacturing defect. I had a few WW AA 20 gauge shells where the brass split while sitting in the box. Probably 20 or more years old. I never had that problem with other lots of 20 gauge, 28 gauge, or 12 gauge. I suspect the brass was somehow stretched too tight.

https://parkerguns.org/forums/showthread.php?t=40971

Boss is not your friend.

Boss Ammunition has a love/hate relationship. The only reason I brought them up it is well known that Boss Shotshells (cheddite) are problematic in a whole host of semi-automatic shotguns, especially gas operated systems such as the Browning Gold. This was more of a recent discovery as Boss is not that old. Keep in mind the Browning Gold experienced extraction/ejection issues nearly from its onset. When I conferred with Browning custom shop years ago they came up with the solution of honing/polishing the chamber and feed rail along with inspection/deburring of the extractor. I shoot HUNDREDS of goose loads every year (well, not so much the prior year) and let alone the same failure over ten years ago (with Federal shells with the "engraved goose" on the shell base (circa 2002) I have not had any issues...period. I fully understand this shell is 20+ years old. I have some old Remington T (even some old F that cannot be used on waterfowl but do a real number on coyotes) that have fired without failure or hint of fatigue.

I am sure Federal is well aware of the issue and the corporate "brass" (pun intended) are distancing themselves from admitting they had issues with certain lots or runs of shells. Again, my warning was well intentioned as I will NOT shoot any more of these for sure! I don't want anyone getting hurt that may have hoarded these shells for that "day" when they can get out on the water or in the field for pursuit of the Canada goose.

I'm confused?

So, do they work or don't they?

Man I wish I could find some of the RP hulls that split and wouldn't eject from my BPS.

You noted that Browning had an issue and knew it.

I never got around to polishing my chamber but that was on my list just didn't get there. Need to keep that in mind.

Of course as noted I've seen bad rounds in about every make of ammo and I"m far from the person that because of a few rounds to say n never a certain brand. They all have failures.

OTOH I don't know that I can ever forgive Bill Ruger for his AW debacle so I do have issues sometimes that I shouldn't. I suspect we all do.

Sure hope I recall and have time to polish on that browning chamber when I get back to Alaska. Going to have to google that process for dang sure.

I am not here to promote any brand and I get no "deal" from Boss. I just know they are hard hitting and heavier than steel. The issue as noted was they are using a higher brass and it is prone to "stick" or cause extraction/ejection issues. If you are shooting a semi-auto than I would certainly suggest you visit YouTube as there are several tutorials on polishing the chamber (especially for Browning Gold). There is even a well known manufacturer of quality hones that makes a hone especially for the 10 gauge. You can go that route or if you want to go on the cheap like I did, you can take a brass bore brush, wrap it with copper wool (the scrubbing pad but MUST be all copper) and fine grit abrasive for first round of "cleaning". You must be careful to mark your cleaning rod so you do not progress past the chamber into the barrel itself. Once you have honed the rough stuff you can progressively polish with finer grit and use a product similar to Flitz for final mirror polish. Again, go to YouTube.

So to answer your question Boss will work but you must read all of the above if you want reliability.

BPS is not a semi obviously but it still has the same issues. Hence the polish. Thats what I would have done without youtube, is a brush and wool and a drill and marked rod section.

Why they don't make low brass only stuff is beyond me. high brass does nothing thats needed. Never has that I can tell. But I could be wrong. We loaded hot steel reloads in the late 80s with super low brass AA hulls... never had an issue.

Bismuth shot works really well as do some of the tungsten stuff at least in Alaska. Shot our emperors with #4 bismuth and no issues pass shooting the birds.

Yeah, my experiences with Browning shotgun chambers echoes yours.. They tend to rust just by looking at 'em.. I can't tell you how many Brownings I'd get in every year with corroded chambers vs. other makes without similar problems..

^ Cant help but agree here, though I dont own the gun or ammo mentioned I've used some really old stuff, and ammo that wasnt cared for properly. Only stuck cases were my fault for not sizing brass on shells scrounged on the ground from the range as a kid.

What is it you think Federal should do about this? Just exchange your 10 year old shells for new ones?

I’d cut the rest of those shells open and check the payload to see if it had perhaps rusted together, or if other issues had developed. Might weigh powder the charges too.

I shoot casual 5-Stand weekly, 2-3 rounds, and have experienced and seen others’ issues with factory ammo from various makers, mostly FTFs and blooper charges. We shoot a number of brands, mostly the cheapest we can find. Never saw anything like this, yet. I have had issues with an old Ithaca 37 that wouldn’t extract some steel-head cases, and a little research revealed that it’s common with older guns, 37s and M12s. The solution is to use brass-headed ammo, which is still available from Federal and possibly others. I bought a flat of their paper shells and they worked perfectly.

Thats even better news in a way. I have 2 browning barrels. I"m going to have to look hard at them. Then polish one or the other if it will, and then send it back to TX to have it salt bath nitrided. That might help quite a bit.

I've shot a 10 for years and had many a shell issue. I bought some federal empties from ballistic products and some with magic marker code on the hull stuck. Turns out they had been used as proof loads and even resizing couldn't get them to spec.

Had Winchester hulls that would tear out the rim rather than eject, the brass was just too soft and was only suited to O/U and S/S guns as they grip a wider % of the circumference to extract/eject.

Had federal hulls that shot the whole tube at the geese leaving only the brass and base fibre to eject.

The # of these was relatively small compared to how many shells were fired and I never felt that I was in any danger from them other than not getting my limit.

Those proof shells stuck TIGHT. Fortunately they were easy to sort and toss.

Most of these issues were with reloads/steel except the Winchester problem.

All were with a BPS cause autos cost way too much for a single shot.

The 10 gauge is a high performance load at high pressure. Wear and tear on hulls is significant sometimes it occurs on its first use sometimes not. I shoot both an AYA matador ll and a bps stalker pump. I haven't polished a chamber on either but the chambers get cleaned after every outing. Any grunge in a chamber makes the hull wall grab or seize at firing and when the ejection cycle starts something has to give either the hull wall relaxes or the head gets a beating dinged rims, split rims, or split heads. I been shooting federals since 1967 in all gauges , back then the case heads were all brass and they cracked and split in all gauges at times. In the 80's with the advent of steel shot most all ammo manufacters went to steel case heads with a brass wash or nickel. Both Remington and ww eventually went to plastic base wads in their hull construction. In 10 ga. Federal hasn't unless they have done so in the last few years. They started evolving to plastic base wads a few years back in the 12 and 20. I think 16's and. 10's are still a rolled paper basewad. I shoot all brands and reload them to see which perform and have longevity. My federal 10 ga hulls will usually go 3-4 reloads before being retired. That's reloaded with 1 1/4 oz lead at 1300 fps for target loads. You want good results with a 10 it requires practice same as anything else. Ballistic Products sells high performance 10 ga components and the 1st thing out of their mouth is use new unprimed hulls they don't recommend loading the 10 with used hulls period. You've used federal for years and no problems and now you had one yet you are condemning the brand and expecting federal to replace them because you had 1 problem . Granted none of us think there should be any problems. Nobody got hurt, your gun wasn't damaged count your blessings. Get rid of the rest of it if you can't trust it anymore. Magnum Bob

What are you doing taking "clients" out to hunt if you have to have them do a safety check on your own gun?

You of all people should be doing a safety check on their gun if need be.

Be careful. It doesn’t happen all the time but I have had multiple cases of silver solder joints failing after nitride. Mostly it was 700 bolt handles here and there and no big deal to polish everything up and TIG them on before sending them back for another trip through the nitride bath. But shotgun barrel lugs were another story, they usually have detents staked in and the salt bath can kill the springs and they can be difficult to get back in exactly the right spot if they need to be reattached. It can end up being a can of worms. 95 percent chance it’ll be fine but have a backup plan if it goes south.

I had an early Ithaca Mag 10 and never had a problem with it shooting Remington or Federal 3 1/2' magnum loads.

Is your ammo storage facility climate controlled? There's an awful lot of humidity in those things when cement floors "sweat" as the frost is coming out in the spring, probably plenty of humidity in the summer months as well if there isn't AC to pull it out.

Not that it can't happen in other ways, but, the vast majority of shotgun case-head separations, especially w/semi-auto's are from the bolt not fully into battery causing part of the case-head to not be supported/surrounded by the chamber and giving 12-15K PSI somewhere other than down the bore to go. Very much like semi-auto rim-fire rifles having case failures.

Ruger1-V: Yes certain areas of Montana the meals and food are not just expensive they are very expensive!
My first ten years on this forum I ignored the pettiness and personal attacks - then I thought better of that and the useless posters who attack me (and others!) for NO reason are on a list and I take them to the cyber woodshed and humiliate them as best I can whenever I choose to.
It seems to work, though I wish it weren't necessary.
Again thankfully you weren't hurt. I am not much of a "shotgunner" only owning a handful of them, that I shoot, and never owned a 10 gauge of any kind.
Carry on - carefully.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

This is entertaining.

I shot 3 cases of non toxic this season.

Guess what? They make shells every damn day.

I think many missed the point of the entire post. First, I can well afford to buy shells. Second, I am 71 years old so I think I've seen a lot in those years since I have been hunting since age 9. VarmintGuy, thanks for the insight and support. Some people on this and other forums want to "prove" how smart they are by badgering or giving the aire of significant knowledge. In real life I fear they do the same because people that know them, know better.

The entire premise of the post was a WARNING that others may posses this or other ammo from Federal in #2 Shot Steel from the 2001-2002 era and could possibly suffer injury if the same thing happened to them. I am indeed lucky. I was a firefighter (Chief for 13 years) and paramedic for 27 years. I vividly remember gunshot injuries, purposeful, self-inflicted and accidental. One of my best friends was a LEO that fashioned himself as a quick-draw cowboy and ended up shooting himself in the lower calf of his right leg! (Needless to say his nickname hereafter was QuickDraw). I have witness a barrel explode while pheasant hunting with a group in North Dakota. LUCKILY the gun resembled a blunderbuss and the user was shaken up but fortunately not injured.

So, to the experts....if you have nothing constructive to say or to add to this post or any others, you can always kick your cat (as you most likely already do anyway)

Wow so many questions..

Climate control storage....I have three (3) 24-gun safes in my heated/humidity controlled "man cave" that are used solely for ammo storage. I have a vast collection of Ruger #1 single shots (168) of virtually every caliber that was made and a smaller collection of Ruger 77 (68) in various calibers. then comes the Sako's, the Remington's, Marlin's, etc. etc. etc. The factory rifle ammo is all in original boxes, catalogued and indexed with bar codes for easy identification. Safe #2 is all shotgun ammunition, including but not limited to slugs, buckshot, TSS, TSS Matrix, Steel Shot, Bismuth, etc. Again, it is sorted and easily identified and all in original boxes. Safe #3 is for reloads, reloading components such as powder and primers and "odd ball" collectible ammunition. Then I have two rolling work stations full of dies, projectiles, and just about anything for reloading ammunition. I do mine the old fashioned way of one bullet at a time. My son has all the automated Dillon presses for rifle, handgun and shotgun. Currently my home is undergoing a massive remodel and the man cave is off limits with the Visqueen and temporary wall so I cannot get into the safe with the shotgun ammo to verify if I have more of the Federal 2 shot (which I suspect I do).

What do I want from Federal? I asked if they had an issue in the past and there was dead silence. The conversation immediately turned to "20 year old ammo and the brass gets weaker with age (calling B.S. there). So I do not expect Federal to do a damn thing. That is why I posted here.


Customer inspecting my barrel? Of course I checked it as well. I had to load new shells so did a quick visual using my cell phone light to verify. Anytime we have a client have a magazine jam, or possible "dud" our guides are required to verify the weapon to be safe (steel pits with4-7 hunters) so we don't want steel shot ricocheting of walls, etc.


So, now the air is clear. Back to the purpose...WARNING if you have Federal 10 Guage #2 shot with the engraved goose on the shell base beware that I have had this happen twice.... and now for the experts..Federal did replace four boxes for me 10 years ago when this happened and the same rep that told me the brass weakened said that if the shells were only 10 years old they would most likely replace them.

So you had this happen 2x before, got 4 boxes replaced and didn't divest yourself of all the rest of your ammo in that lot?

Makes me wanna rethink some of my 16 gauge ammo!

A work mate that does garage sales bought a dresser that had a butt load of 16 gauge ammo in it.
He brought me one of those small, bathroom sized trash cans half full of Remington Hi-Velocity #7.5's and Rem Field Load #8's.
That was 1988, the stuff was probably at least 10 years old then!
It's 2024, and I've still got about half of that stuff!
I've even killed turkey's with the 7.5's! ....and that was 2017!

So you have a lot number for this? Thanks in advance.

"... I have a vast collection of Ruger #1 single shots (168) of virtually every caliber that was made ..."

😛 CAN I COME TO YOUR HOUSE AND DROOL????

I've been collecting for over 55 years. Own a few of Bill Ruger's guns and J.D. Clayton's as well. LOVE the Ruger No.1. This year in Illinois we can use straight wall single shot rifles for deer. I will be taking one of the J.D. guns in 45-70 out next season. Yes, it is overkill but it also has a very special meaning for me. You can read about the rifle in the bible for Ruger collectors "Ruger No. 1 Rifle" by Joe D. Clayton.

At last count there were approximately 70 "factory" chamber/calibers offered, along with a few special offerings through elite distributors. There are a number of variants of certain calibers as well.

Geez. Always something. BPS was the only one in the game at the time I bought it IIRC. Anyway I've no love for browning guns. Should have sold it the minute I could have gotten an SP10 LOL.

Not sure of your point.. Some of us prepare ahead of time and don't rely on a current supply. They make em every day. Maybe maybe not. But sometimes shells are hard to find.

FWIW brass weakening.. maybe maybe not. The 1918 45 acp we shot 1000s of rounds of about 15 years ago had no weak brass. Though one now and then would not go off.

Normally if I have "suspect shells" they get put in a baggie and shot out of one of my double barrel shotguns. This is quite easy for me to do with any 12, 20, or 16 gauge shell. Unfortunately the only 10 gauge double barrel I have is an old Remington Model 1894 manufactured in 1904 with modern steel barrels. I would not dare shoot any steel shot in this gun.

The debate could go on and on, but pure fact is that I have shot hundreds of rounds of shotgun shells that were 10+ years old without fail. I did have some Remington that did split the brass, but they fired and ejected. So to say this was a "fluke" was not factual as it happened before (I was able to provide box and lot number) and Federal immediately replaced the shells with no questions asked...but that was over 10 years ago.

Once again, the reason for this post is AWARENESS that these particular shells with the engraved goose on the bottom had issues as admitted by the Federal rep I spoke with. It is not up to me to police the matter or tell anyone not to shoot them (I shot several that day that did not explode). All it takes is one.................