federal brass

4339 Views 23 Replies 13 Participants Last post by kdub, Feb 16, 2011

j m martineau

Discussion Starter · Feb 12, 2011 (Edited)

I have searched high and low for Federal brass and it's not to be found, so I came up with this. Go to Wally World, purchase Federal hunting ammo for $18 you get 20 rounds, for $36 YOU GET 40, use them for foul shots and fireform them at the same time. Now you have 40 reloadable cases. If you were to by 50 brass cases you would pay just about that much and still have to load fouling rounds. Before you say anything I have been using the same ten cases for the 11th time and have not had to full length size them for my Rem 700 .308 only neck size, and am getting 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 inch groups at 500 yards. Just food for thought for those looking for Federal brass.

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broom_jm

· #21 · Feb 16, 2011

Bandit, have you ever necked up 7mm-08 or 260 Rem cases from Federal, to shoot from your 308 rifles? Probably a silly exercise, but you feel very strongly about the 308 Federal brass, so maybe it would be something to check out?

I was given 60 Federal GMM 308 cases and used them to load ammo for my friend's semi-auto 308. He's used them for years with no trouble, but none of them will be loaded a 3rd time, so I wasn't all that worried about them until I read some of your posts. I'm still surprised that a company with a great reputation for ammo would let very many questionable cases out the door, but it seems like more than a few folks have the same impression of the Federal 308 brass as you do, so...?

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dmsbandit

· #22 · Feb 16, 2011

broom_jm said:
Bandit, have you ever necked up 7mm-08 or 260 Rem cases from Federal, to shoot from your 308 rifles? Probably a silly exercise, but you feel very strongly about the 308 Federal brass, so maybe it would be something to check out?

I was given 60 Federal GMM 308 cases and used them to load ammo for my friend's semi-auto 308. He's used them for years with no trouble, but none of them will be loaded a 3rd time, so I wasn't all that worried about them until I read some of your posts. I'm still surprised that a company with a great reputation for ammo would let very many questionable cases out the door, but it seems like more than a few folks have the same impression of the Federal 308 brass as you do, so...?

I have so many Military, Norma, R-P, and winchester brass, I've never thought of neck sizing smaller cases up for the 308. I do run 243 cases up thru my 260 dies for my 260Rem.

Federal only really cares about making the first shot the most accurate, and I doubt they worry about case life after that. Like I said, other calibers seem ok, but the 308 is very troublesome.

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unclenick

· #23 · Feb 16, 2011

And, the non-troublesome ones may be the happenstance of your load levels. As C. Robertson said, the .223's don't last as long, either. As I mentioned earlier, Dan Newberry's extensive load development experiments indicated to him that none of it was suitable for reloading. I think that's going too far. It's been just fine for me in handgun cases, but they weren't running at rifle pressures. It should be just fine for reduced loads of any kind and is probably fine for many loads that just don't push upper pressure limits. Try running your .308's in the mid 40's of kpsi, and they may last just fine.

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kdub

· #24 · Feb 16, 2011

I think what's evident is the Federal brass is probably not recommended for those that load to the high end of the spectrum. Reduced and moderate loadings appear to be at least equal to other brands.

I've got tons of once-fired .308 Win brass of all makes due to working at the local gunrange. Previously had a Rem Mod 7 in .308 and now only have the Rem Mod 40-X heavy silhouette rifle to feed. Accuracy is the name of the game with this rifle, so loads are tweaked in that regard. As stated previously, my personal finding is the most accurate loads are normally below max listed and more in the moderate range.

Oh, Yes - Varget is one of my favorite powders for the .308 Win.

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