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.