Has anyone ever figured out what kind of powder they use in it yet? Just curious... The stuff groups better than almost anything I can load in 2 of my 270's. Best ammo for the price in existence.

I cannot answer your question but certainly agree about the quality of Federal blue box ammo.

Long, long ago, Jack O'Connor wrote that factory ammo was loaded to a pressure and velocity, but not with any particular powder. I think that still applies. They may have a particular one they use, but odds are very high it comes in barrels, not cans, and each lot gets tested when it arrives and the loads worked up. It may not even be a powder you can buy. You can always pull one down and compare it to stuff you have on hand. If it looks like something you have, and IF the charge weight falls in the range of published data for the powder you're guessing it is, it might be worth working on, but I'd be inclined to just shoot what they make since it's cheap and accurate. Never tried it myself, but that blue box stuff has a lot of fans here.

My 7MM RM loves the 150 grain loading. The bullet is too soft to suit me generally but accuracy is up there.

I've had the same experience with Federal blue-box loads in several calibers. My only beef is that it tends to run a little slow.


Okie John

By slow, I take it you mean it is only 110 fps FASTER than the Remington Core Lokt 130 gr loads? At least it was in my 22" barrel Marlin XL7 .270 Win. Much better accuracy, too.

I have shot hundreds of rounds of 270-130 blue box. Always gives around 3060 in 22” barrels. My best handloads beats that velocity by maybe 50 FPS. Accuracy is within about .25” of my very best handloads. Bullets work pretty well on waterbuck, kudu, and warthogs.

Usually can find it for under $20 a box.

Have torn down cartridges at various times and powder is ball, maybe 760.

I use it to test new 270’s. If a rifle won’t shoot it there is a problem with the rifle. No experience with other cartridges.

No idea on powder, but .308 blue box is some good stuff too.

If by "slow" you mean still faster than Remington or Winchester. Then yes, I agree.

All the Federal Blue Box ammo I've shot, in every caliber I've tried it in, has shot very well and it has proven good on game.

I've shot in my .243, .270, .280 and 7-08 and have no complaints except if I were to miss it's not the gun or ammo fault.

Federal Blue Box is the reason I don't reload.
It's accurate and deadly on game but best of all it's cheap.

The 243 is good stuff too. All the fusion chamberings I’ve shot have been damn accurate as well

I've whacked some hogs with the Fed Non Typical 140gr 6.5Creed ammo (same as Fed Blue Box). Good stuff, very accurate. The blue box 30-06 I've used is the same way.

Hey I apologize for my reply as it does not answer you question on what powder they use. But dang I like that ammo so much I just couldn’t help myself.

The last 270 I owned shot the Blue Box better than anything else I had on hand. In the 90s I asked a guy I knew in Federal's ballistic lab what powder was used in several of their loads and something similar to Win 760 was the answer for most of the loads in question. I have gotten similar accuracy in my attempts to copy the factory loads but velocity was a little low when I hit book max. The difference was not enough for me to care as accuracy was there. I'd guess one could look at Western Powder's offerings and come up with something closer if one wanted to stick with a spherical powder.

Shot my best group ever in .300Win mag with it (3/8") with two overlapping

I can confirm the accuracy of the 150g 7mmRM Blue Box.

I had 5 rounds left over one range session and shot them from my Model 70 and they were one of the tightest off hand groups the rifle has produced.

100's are damn good in my 243 RAR. They could put baby powder in there for all I care.....

Another vote for the .243 version. I had plans this summer to work up a .243 load, I have some 100NP from Shooters on hand. I went to the bench a couple of times, looked at the 2 blue boxes sitting on the shelf and walked away. No reason to try and better it.

Is the Blue box the same as the old red box Federal from the 80s and before. If so, it sure worked on deer.

[quote=Just a Hunter]Is the Blue box the same as the old red box Federal from the 80s and before. If so, it sure worked on deer. [/quote

THIS yep it is and has all ways been very accurate. Coworker asked me for advice on what CF cartridge to get, he favored a 7 mm Mag with no previous experience shooting CF's. I took him out and let him try mine and my 270... He opted to buy the 270 a model 70 pf Sporter. He got the rifle and scoped it. He asked about ammo and I told him to hit the Labelles that was dumping their Sptg's stuff. So he bought 3 boxes of 130 gr red box Fed's. It shot MOA and I told him to get his ass out there and buy the rest $5 /box. No he said" I got 2 boxes left I don't need any for awhile"(30+) years a go. So I went out and bought all they had for myself at $5/box 14 boxes. So 3weeks after that he is pissing that he went for more and it was gone. I said Hey how long do you think it was gonna last at a clearance sale? He just whined around about it. Before the hunting season started I sold him 5 boxes for $10 a box... Hurts to be stupid, he has never got any smarter either liberal demy and no I don't have a damned thing to do with him anymore.

Is it some sort of Sierra bullet in Blue Box or what?

Can't say yes or no on that Fed Premiuns used to feature Sierra BT's in some loads and NPT's in others. Fed called them Hi Shoks,they were a cup and core bullet that worked pretty good.

I think they may be Speer HotCors. I bought some pulled 150-grain 7mm bullets from Rocky Mountain Reloading a while back, and I believe Mule Deer confirmed that they are a HotCor made specifically for Federal.

god I hope not...

I use these in my 270

They work as good as anyone could want, Right Steelhead? MB

I believe it's a Speer bullet, but I'm not positive. I do know it does not match Sierra's offerings. I have 2-3k of the 130gn bullets as components and several hundred+ of the primed brass from the blue box loads. Here's a cross section of one of the 130s:





The jacket has fairly decent thickness and is uniform from base to tip at .025in. I hit the edges a bit while grinding that one so it looks thinner in areas, but it's .025 all the way up.

These bullets are short for a 130, so work quite well in the 6.8SPC as well and offer MVs greater than other 130s(or 120s) due to the increased usable case capacity when seated at mag length.

I have older boxes of Fed B B 300 WM 180 gr. bullets.

These boxes say “Speer Hot Cor” however they’re not recent purchases and
NOT 270 W ........... so ? ?

Jerry

Going off the info on this post I tried to replicate this load with 760/414.... 54.4 grains...FC brass... F210 Primer... 3.13 oal... some of the federal 130 gr boolits from Gunbroker and I got a .68 inch group for 3 shots and right at 3000 fps. Looks like I came pretty close. I was amused by how short they are and still shoot that good... Gonna tweak it and see if I can improve it any.... but I am pretty happy with that.

How is on Game performance?


BTW, I wrote Federal and asked what the difference was between the bullet used in the 180 grain 30.06 blue box loads and the bullet used in the Federal Non-typical Whitetail ammunition

Their reply?

"They are the exact same bullet"



So , for me guys? I will be buying the Non-typical Whitetail ammunition at $4 per box cheaper.

Well, Blue Box Federal 150 gr 7mm RM loads shoot very very well in my Blaser R-93, in the 10 years I have owned that rifle, I have shot 13 deer with it and no real complaints good ammo at a very decent price.

Blue Box Blues......$11.97 at Wally World this evening, couldn't help myself....

Wal-mart just lowered the price of Fed. blue box 130gr. 270 Win. ammo from $17.54 to $11.97! That's cheap for such good ammo. I've shot a few boxes of it and it works just fine for antelope and deer and it's about 150fps faster over my chrony than Rem. 130gr. CL.

I'm going to try a box in my daughter's 270 before our deer hunt! For $12, why not!

Elk Country

You wont be disappointed...

Don’t forget the rebate. Your $12 ammo just became $7 ammo.