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Anyone having issues with enlarged primer pockets with Federal brass? I have loaded Remington brass with the same exact charge and primers but no issues present. Standard reloading manual charges.

How many times have you fired the Federal cases in order to get the enlarged pockets?

But the simply answer for me is Yes, I've found Federal brass to be softer in the pockets than most others. But not the Lake City brass loaded by Federal, that is tough stuff.

Once fired.

Maybe you got a soft batch. I’ve had good luck with Fed brass.

May want to give them a call.

Let us know what you find out.

DF

Just because the load is safe in Remington brass does not mean it won't cause pressure problems in Federaf brass. If you want to use Federal brass, retest your load, or buy Reminton brass.

The loads are under the max too. The primer just falls out with the slightest wiggle. Federal may receive a ring and get the heads-up.

.223 perhaps? Seems to be a pretty common complaint, a lot of AR guys won't use Federal.

I use federal in my AR's. It works great. In other chamberings, not so much: always get loose primer pockets...

We always had problems with soft federal 223 brass (loose primers) when I shot highpower.

270 WSM, but I do use 223 Lake City which has had no problems.

With so much other stuff to choose from, I try to avoid using Fed brass for that very reason.

I've never had any issues with Fed brass as long as the load chronographed in the ballpark with other loads/brass. It never requires as much powder.

I use it because I get 308's, 223's, 9mm, 40's and 45 ACP's by the bucketload.
The rifle brass usually has lower runout than the garbage turned out by Winchester and Remington.

Federal brass i have used it to load hunting ammo or sometimes Winchester or Remington too,but for trying to shoot small groups with my bench rifles i only use Lapua brass then. Federal is fine for just regular target shooting with hunting and black rifles.

Often loaded pretty hot, even in factory ammunition.

I bought some once fired Federal Gold Medal brass from a long time member here that no longer posts (quit just after I bought the brass). The cases without a fired primer wouldn't hold a primer in it, they fell back out. I used some of the better? brass and tossed the rest.

I have only used Fed. brass from factory loads. In almost all instance the capacity was less than Winchester or Remington. The loads your using may be red lined already and you just don't see it due to harder brass and/or larger capacity.

With the WSMs I have seen more variation in case neck thickness than any other cartridge families. One early lot of Winchester looked like they were made from full lenth 404 Jeffrey cases. This batch was so thick I ended up turning the necks for peace of mind.

Due to experiences like yours I give away any Fed. brass I encounter. I like Lake City though. The few times I worked with Federal cases they seemed uniform. In factory form they shot closer to specified velocity than most other American loads, accuracy was good too.

This too. Loading to a full 65,000 psi seems questionable as at that pressure slight variations can jack pressure up to too high. Case capacity, powder lot, fouled bore, high temperatures can put a hot load over the line.

4 out of twenty thus far, tossed them, no since fiddling. Nice to know others have had similar experiences. I would buy Norma or Nosler but will have to wait, maybe prices will drop. For my purposes, Federal will be okay.

I usually find that Federal brass is heavier and requires just a bit less powder for the same velocity. If I had a “max load” in Winchester brass, I would back off a grain or grain and a half if loading the federal brass.

Graf & Sons have some Winchester brass in stock, good price too.

[quote= Federal brass is heavier and requires just a bit less powder for the same velocity. [/quote]

I agree I have always found Winchester brass to be a bit thinner, except for the WSSM'S, necks could be thinner in the WSSM'S. Have not seen the Winchester in WSM though.

But it's so easy to score once-fired Blue Box stuff at the range - it's free! (Yeah, I dumpster dive on occasion)

I was gifted 1,100 rounds of Federal Gold Match .308 Win. once fired brass by a friend on the Border Patrol. it's practically unusable as the primer pockets are extremely loose. I have other .308 win. brass by Remington and Winchester that have been loaded with fairly warmish load and their primer pocket never got to be as loose as those once fired Federals.
Paul B.

Two observations:

I used to buy a lot of Federal component brass, before they discontinued it maybe 15 years ago. Never had any more problem with loose primer pockets than any other major brand of brass--and their Match brass was pretty tough.

Then they quit offering component brass, and like many others I noticed more loose primer pockets after an initial firing of factory ammo. Which in some ways makes sense, especially during the Great Obama Shortages, when major companies quit selling component brass, because they were selling ever round of factory ammo they could crank out. All they had to worry about with factory ammo brass was that it would work the first time.

Haven't used any Federal component brass since they recently started offering it again.

That's strange, as all of my 308 brass comes from two local Tac units and some I've reloaded three times and fired from either a Sako AII or an AR 10 with Remington or Federal primers.

So, has anyone actually tested the freshly manufactured Federal brass to see if they have improved it? Load 5 to 10 cases with max. loads as many times as it takes for them to degrade.

223 brass would be great to beat the snot out of.

Federal once fired brass is what I use mostly these days since I can no longer import LC brass..
I use it for 6.5/260 up to .358..
Have also resized and trimmed to 6.5 & 6mm Creed before I was able to get some factory brass..
I generally start off testing loads up to and past max. book loads..
When I get to what "I" consider max load in my rifle I fire 10+ loads from the same brass to see if the primer pockets enlarge to the point they are unuseable..
I also anneal the case once or twice during the testing..
Case in point recently loaded a .308 up to 3 grains past book max using Alliant 2000-MR under a 185gr Berger Juggernaut..
Fired 12 times and the case is still useable but retired to a dummy round for die adjustment with the same bullet..
Rounded primers, very little primer cratering, no stiff bolt lift, and "very little carbon blow back on the neck"**
** that is what I am looking for..


To the OP, you must have gotten some very poor or overused Fed. brass..
The primer just fall out with the slightest wiggle.
Something very fishy about the primers "just falling out"..

My primers have shown no signs of pressure beyond what would be normal with my experience. The bolt lifted normally, no sticking. I have not used the whole bag of brass yet. Just maybe a soft bat h.

I did Bite the. Bullet and pick a box of Norma brass up yesterday.

with federal it depends on the caliber. Their .223 brass is notoriously soft but i can tell you from experience their 270 wcf brass is actuary pretty good.

Of the cheap brass i prefer Remington or PMC

Back Country if you only use Federal and keep the lots together you should have no issues. It is only when switching brands that the issues arose. You could also chalk it off to bad reloading practices by changing components and not re-working the load.

Gonna keep my Federal brass, just that I was looking for similar incidences.

"food for thought"

The 7RM load my bud took to Africa was 160 gr. NAB, 215 Fed primers, 67.5 gr. RL-26 @ 3,000 fps and in FEDERAL brass...

His trophies, my reloads... No problems, no issues. He was very pleased with the performance of that load.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/13730191/6

DF

Like some other guys here, I found Federal bulk brass in .308, 65x55, and 30-06 that came with primer pockets loose from the get-go. So I measured some primer brands, and discovered that the 5k lot of CCI 200's were substantially larger in diameter. Problem solved. The 6.5 Swede and the .308 brass were then fired in NRA Sporting Rifle Highpower numerous times. I don't think I dropped many points going from Fed 210M(atch) to the plain ol' CCI 200's.

Adk????: No.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

You're probably right on bad reloading practices. "shot in the dark" no pun intended.

But whenever I stick to one task I fail. I just don't think it is about switching brands though. But, just because Rem is strong doesn't mean Federal should be weak. I used Federal because I have Federal, just the same with Rem.

Now that I have Norma in the mail it should complicate my reloading even more so.

In nasty 5 shot 45 Colt loads Federal is the only brass I’ve used

Rem and Win give 1-5 reloads......Federal just keeps going.

I have the opportunity to pick up plenty of brass at our local range...

What I don't pick up there, I buy from one of our campfire members who owns a shop here in town...The BrassMan..
he get used brass from Police Depts, Sierra Bullets, Weatherby etc..

since I use to live near Anoka MN, where Federal is located, I prefer it a lot due to that fact alone..

I haven't had the issues you guys mention about primer pockets being loose...
yeah, I use CCI primers a lot and S & B ( they were on sale at Oregon Located Cabelas a lot, for cheap)

223 and 243 predominantly, as the most common calibers I shoot a lot of...
and then range pick up 308, I neck down to 260 Rem...

even tho I run a lot of low pressure loads for range duty, I also run a lot at max SAAMI pressures, and using a lot of powder in the IMR 4895 and 4064, 3031 range...

Loose primer pockets has not been an issue... I anneal every time I reload them, after reading that is what Scenarshooter is doing for his...ya can't go wrong following whatever Pat does....I'm seeing 20 and 30 loads out of them, and still have life left in the cases... to include the primer pockets...

whether I get them from John Johnson over at BrassMan... or they are range pickup... my cost investment is low, so I could toss them... but I don't do so, until the brass gives up the ghost....

any loose pockets in any brass, I switch to CCI primers and keep the pressure down in the 40K to 45K pressure range according to the reload manuals....and they keep working just fine...

Right now Federal has a 20% rebate on brass, and Midway has some on sale.

I trust Federal 'factory ammo:, but have had many issues with fired brass. The last batch of "supposedly once fired brass" from a guy one GB was in 7mm RM. I had loaded some 175gr Sierras, not heavily compressed but slightly. The nect day, as I'm getting ready to go to the range, I just happened to check my handloads...30% of them were "split" right up the side! I had to pull the bullets, recover the powder. I consider them the softest brass out there, myself.

Have you taken a chronograph reading with both brands of brass? You could be running a hot load because the internal volume in the federal brass is less.

Privi brass in 30-06 takes 2.2 grains less powder than Winchester brass to get the same speed. Privi is heavier which I’m presuming equals less case capacity.

I've thousands of Federal brass for many diff carts and never had an issue with it being soft. Heck, it's actually a lot better than Remchester in consistency and concentricity proves that without turning. Some was bought once fired, most bought new, and no issue with any. The brass is thicker(less capacity) and does require loads to be reduced when originally developed with thinner brass. I've had soft brass with other manufacturers(mostly Win), so it's definitely a possibility. It's not the norm for sure as I know many that have good luck with Fed as well. One good friend that loads a ton of ammo prefers it right behind Lapua. Hard to form a broad opinion on Fed based on WSM brass as it's quite common to have max psi signs on factory WSM loads.

Commercial Federal .223 brass is not made to the same standards are the LC brass.

Commercial Federal, bad. Leave it on the range.

Mil Spec LC Brass, good. Keep it!