I did the math and it did not pay to reload plinking 223 fmj ammo when my time was included. Teaching my son to reflex shoot was going to chew up a lot of it so I ordered a 1000 rd loose pack of federal american eagle 223 55gr from a reputable supplier. I will not name the supplier as this is not an issue with them at all. I opened the box, grabbed a handful and looked, found two cases that I would reject, on further inspection so far I am running approx 15 percent rejection based on one major neck/throat defect or three minor, an apparent crack is instant fail. I am ignoring case body dents as they will fire out or I would likely be around 40 percent. Anyone else notice this with this ammo or did I get a bad batch. Federal had a decent name in my mind until now!
Bad federal bulk 223
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I am hoping so, going to see if I can borrow a high macro camera from work to get good pictures of the defects. I do believe in the more flies with sugar philosophy. I just emailed the supplier as they put a shipping label over the lot number, one of the first things to include when such matters arise! Being a re loader it honestly appears as though a gravel truck lubed their dies for them.
Can you post info of batch and what actual ammo you got?
I have about 20K rds of American eagle AE223BK 55 grain.
Just picked up another case (batch -SMQ18K816-496) and I did not see any obvious problems while loading on stripper clips..
Thank for the heads up !
R
I have about 20K rds of American eagle AE223BK 55 grain.
Just picked up another case (batch -SMQ18K816-496) and I did not see any obvious problems while loading on stripper clips..
Thank for the heads up !
R
This ^
The only batch of federal bulk 5.56 I tried was 1k rounds of 4 moa ammo. They all looked and fired fine though.
The exact ammo is AE223bk, I am waiting for the lot number from the vendor as it was distroyed with shipping labels and tape. Yes this is based on visual inspection and I have not fired any of the ammo yet. In bulk I would expect the odd glitchy round but this truly is horrible qc, the fact that it is so easy to see makes me wonder if somehow rejects got into the packaging department.
Cameron SS
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Reloading never makes financial sense when you factor your time, unless you scale up your equipment and throughput to significant quantities which rival low scale manufacturers.
I've probably gone through 20-25 of these bulk packs in the last 5 years, and I don't think I've found more than one bad looking round ever. And it fired just fine.
I have some guns that are so far past their service life that I'd shoot just about anything in them in pursuit of science. I've shot a lot of dodgy looking ammo in these guns, including those with visible cracks in the neck. Semi Auto guns like the AR-15 has pretty generous tolerances in the working parts and can actually handle some really rough ammo.
I have other guns that I'd never shoot anything by my own reloads in. SO I also understand wanting to baby your gun and only feed it quality ammo.
Can you show pictures of these defects? Curious to see what you see that makes you concerned.
Even with budget ammo, from a reputable retailer we expect a certain minimum amount of quality, and your experience definitely seems out of line with that expectation.
The one time i had an issue with a federal ammo product, they were very good to me. I had a box of 25- 00 buck rounds, and one of the rounds was defective. The plastic cover that sits at the top of the shell which holds the shot in the shell was installed sideways, and had displaced the shot outwards such that you could see bulge marks in the shell. The bulging was severe enough that the round wouldn't chamber. I sent them an email: "asked them for nothing, just giving you an FYI hey this happened, here is the lot number, here's my receipt, here are pictures, it was one round out of 25, one box out of 10, everything else looked fine. Love your ammo."
They refunded me an entire box of ammo, in USD, and sent me a coupon for $10 USD off my next federal purchase, which I spent in the US to avoid complicating the life of a Canadian retailer.
If you reach out to Federal, I am certain they will take care of you.
I don't think that the prohibition of Canadian ARs would have had much of a dent in US domestic ammunition manufacturing.
I'd be surprised if any reputable ammo manufacturer thinks that split necks are within tolerance.
Interesting theory. Flagging the lot number will usually let you know right away if something is up. If its a lot problem, chances of you being the first to detect it are low, given the length of the supply chain from federal to you.
After reading this thread I dipped into my boxe of rejects I have collected over the years. It's nearly all from Federal and Lake City M193 which aside from the headstamp is exactly the same ammunition. Despite the wrinkles and crinkles, dents and dings and too short and too long OALs it all fed and fired just fine, made my gong out at 200m have a pretty bad day too...
I don't know how bad your ammo is but I can all but guarantee it is a hell of a lot better than what I ran without any issues. I didn't just run a bit either, more like 500 rounds. I still have another several hundred that I don't doubt work work just as well.
My only real point here is if Federal gives you any grief, which they almost certainly will (I speak from experience) you should just save your time and energy and move on.
I don't know how bad your ammo is but I can all but guarantee it is a hell of a lot better than what I ran without any issues. I didn't just run a bit either, more like 500 rounds. I still have another several hundred that I don't doubt work work just as well.
My only real point here is if Federal gives you any grief, which they almost certainly will (I speak from experience) you should just save your time and energy and move on.
Those are hardly anything to be concerned about. Keep in mind you are buying some of the cheapest and crappiest bulk .223 that you can get in this country.
This, is bad. Some of the rejects I mentioned earlier. These ones cannot be fired obviously.
This, is bad. Some of the rejects I mentioned earlier. These ones cannot be fired obviously.
I finally got in touch with Federal. It was explained that this was not Federal Ammo but made in lake city to mil spec for Federal. My response was Federal is on it, that is who I contact and Federal is a go to brand for me, that is why I bought it. I was told I am expecting too much for bulk ammo to which I replied that after consuming several Remington range buckets and seeing nothing like this possibly federal was a purchase mistake. After that is seemed like sucks to be you, buy federal, have a nice day.
Next centerfire purchase will not be federal or winchester. Rem, prvi, sellier or pmc from now on.
Next centerfire purchase will not be federal or winchester. Rem, prvi, sellier or pmc from now on.
I had some IWI engineers blame their ammo for blowing up a rifle. They didn't care and I spoke to everyone that I could find... I find it especially irritating how they deflect by saying the ammo is made by the Lake City plant. Up until recently Federal was running it so effectively it's still their very own ammunition. Not to mention I have seen plenty of good Lake City ammunition throughout the years. No excuse at all.
Id shoot that stuff tbh, its not to bad. Funny how federal blamed someone else when its their label on the box though eh? "yeah we outsourced the manufacturing to save money, that's totally not our fault." Imagine explaining to a client that it was a subcontractors fault.. smh
