Federal Brass ?

[General RE LEE]

I've got a bunch of nickel plated small primer 6.5 CM from several boxes of Federal Terminal Ascent I shot last year. Great brass and because it's small primer the primer pockets are holding up.

Federal brass from some blue box Powershok lasted 2 firings with a Hornady suggested max load out of my .30 06. I bought a large primer pocket swager and was able to see several cases the primer pockets were too big and junked them.

 

[CA48]

I had some factory 270 Wsm Federal ammo, after the first firing some of the primer pockets were so loose they wouldn't hold a primer. I ended up tightening all the pockets to reload it again. Shot it all and haven't loaded it up again to see how the pockets held up with my mild load but I'm sure it will be good for several firings if loaded mildly.

 

[MagnumManiac]

Ok, this is why I made my statement.
Back in 2000, I was given 200 rounds of Federal Trophy 338WM 250g Partition (10 boxes). They were all nickel plated and shot well. I fired 1 box, and tried reloading it....nope, pockets were loose with all primers I tried.
Gave those 20 and the other 9 boxes away.
About 11 years ago, a guy at my club only ever shot Federal match 300WM, he didn't reload but kept the brass. He offered me a bag of it, it was unknown how many were in there, but they all had been segregated to FC-10 head stamp.
Every one of them had loose pockets.
In fact, over the years, I have seen FC brass in everything from 222/22-250 up to 338 that had loose primer pockets with once fired factory ammo.
I just will not buy it or use it. Their primer cups are soft too....do not know why, but they are.

Cheers.

 

[Barrelnut]

Yep, it's a little on the soft side. Run it hard and the primer pockets will quickly open up. Seems more consistent in weight though that others. Winchester has harder brass but has bigger weight differences and the necks are thin. Pick your poison. Don't run it too hard and it will be good. Have used a lot of it in 25-06 AND 300 RUM...

 

[slikmrc]

I used Nickel plated 300 Weatherby brass for fouling loads on a load test. Shot the brass 10 times with no issues. They were loaded with 80 grains of 7828 and a 180 grain bullet, this is .5 grains below the starting load in the Nosler manual. Federal primer pockets are a little larger at the case base than Nosler and Weatherby brass, a 210 pin will just start to seat in a new case. After 10 firings a .2095 pin gauge will seat quite a ways, a .210 gauge goes about a third of the way into the pocket. Didn't have any primers leak, I was using Federal 215 primers.

 

[okie man]

Interesting commnet - Maybe 3-4 reloads with Federal (,3908) and I am over 10 with Hornady. Luck of the sraw I guess.

I got some Hornady 6.5cm brass that was splitting necks after the second firing.

 

[rml30378]

Buy small rifle primer brass and a few firings large rifle primers should fit.
All jokes aside since the turn of the century (2000) Federal brass has gotten heavy and soft.