Federal brass...how good is it?

Crashman

Crashman

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Hey guys, I have never used Federal brass before. How does it compare to the other name brand moderately priced brass? I know it is not Norma or the other high end stuff, I mean compared to Remington, Winchester, and so on?

Thanks!
 
Federal would be my last resort. Lapua makes the best brass but if you don't want to spend the money, Winchester or Remington for bulk brass.
 
Federals only fault that I have ever discovered is that is is somewhat "soft" and in some instances they don't have as much internal capacity as other brands - and so they won't handle quite as stiff a load as other brands with harder, tougher or more voluminous brass. They seem consistent and held to high standards in every other way.
 
Dimensionally, I have found Federal match brass to be as good as any. On the downside, it may the only brass softer than Norma. If you want to load hot, Lapua or Winchester are the best. Regards, Bill
 
I used lots of Federal brass, sold a few thousand on the EE. I like it. My customers like it. I also think it is SLIGHTLY softer then others but that doesn't mean it's like butter just waiting to come apart in your gun. I loaded thousands of stiff but not stupid loads in 308, never any problem, ever.
 
I have found that good loads in the Win brass are too hot in federal...I think the internal capacity may be slightly less...
 
I use a lot of federal brass for my 30-06, I've never had a problem. but my pet load is about 2gr under max load.....

I have some Fed brass that is on its 18th reload, 6 & 7 trimmings and its still good, tight pockets etc. there is no indication that it (IMHO) that it is in need of replacement either.

My $.02
 
As far as I'm concerned Winchester makes the best North American rifle brass. You have not indicated if you are shooting pistol or rifle cartridges and while I have had good luck with Federal's .38 Special brass, their rifle brass suffers from expanded primer pockets much faster than their competitors. Some folks report loose primers on the second loading of a Federal rifle cartridge case, but my experience is that you will normally get 4 or 5 before the case must be culled. Despite the low cost, that makes Winchester better value. I always seem to have a lot of Federal brass on hand, probably because that is what gets picked up most often at the range, but I mostly keep it for shooting reduced loads. I load lots of Remington brass as well, mostly because they are the pretty much the only guys who produce Ultra brass, and all in all I don't mind it. I get good accuracy and up to 10 loads of .375 Ultra before the primer pocket gets too loose.

Hornady brass appears to be a very good product, but I have only loaded it in .375 Ruger.

I have a box of .30/06 Nosler brass, and its expensive, but is said to be as good as Lapua. I don't know, I haven't loaded any yet. Some say the primer pockets loosen quickly with it, but I suspect that due to the heavy brass resulting in less powder volume those folks might have been overloading the case.
 
Wow! Thanks for the replies so far guys. I am loading 280 Remington in the Federal brass, and like I said, I have no experience with this stuff. I don't tend to load too hot, I prefer accuracy loads. Unless of course the accurate load is also the hot load!
 
Older Federal brass is truly excellent, the newer stuff is much softer. That said, it's pretty much the same for all North American makers - some of the Winchester Factory ammo I've fired recently had really bad brass.
 
I've had a few case neck splits on brand new WW brass recently, and I've read reports of this happening on 24HCF to a few other people as well.

Fed brass is a bit softer than RP or WW.

I prefer RP, myself, based on the fact that I've never had any trouble with RP brass, like I have with WW and Fed brass. RP tends to be quite consistent, too, IME.
 
I had a issue with Federal 270WSM, I also filled a claim and got a refund.
DONT USE Federal brass for 270wsm they are too soft and thin. They will crack and lock the bolt at min charge. At least this is what happened to me. I even got hard to open bolt with factory ammo. I dont buy federal ammo anymore, I rather pay a few $$ for Winchester. Federal could be ok for other Caliber
 
I have been using both federal and winchester brass for my .300wsm - both work fine for me. I have heard bad things about federal nickel plated rifle brass but I havent seen it in a couple years.
 
I have found that Federal brass gets loose primer pockets faster than other brands I have tried. In 308 win for example (45.0 gr IMR 4895, 165gr SST, SB resize for use in semi's) I often get loose primer pockets after five reloads, whereas I'm good for seven with Winchester.
 
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