MickB Posted May 2, 2013 Share Posted May 2, 2013 I've had issues with Federal brass in 9mm with thin walls and not enough neck tension to properly hold a bullet tightly in place, and others have had issues with Federal .223 brass and loose primer pockets. Is Federal .40 brass also to be generally avoided? Mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cy Soto Posted May 2, 2013 Share Posted May 2, 2013 Nearly all of the brass that I use is Federal and I haven't had any issues with it. FYI, I am shooting 180gr FMJ projectiles atop 5.0gr of Solo 1000 which makes about 173PF out of my gun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexmoney Posted May 2, 2013 Share Posted May 2, 2013 I won't use the old federal brass in 40. It is marked "F C". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Signcutter Posted May 2, 2013 Share Posted May 2, 2013 I've had no issues with the current production once fired brass in 40. I typically will load it two or three times before it starts to get lost on the range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve RA Posted May 2, 2013 Share Posted May 2, 2013 I use the Federal small primer .45 and have no problems with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atlgentlegiant Posted May 2, 2013 Share Posted May 2, 2013 No issues with Federal brass here. It usually loads easier for me than Winchester. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motosapiens Posted May 2, 2013 Share Posted May 2, 2013 I like federal 40 brass. I'm mostly loading minor tho. It is a little bit thinner, which I think may be an advantage if you are loading moly-bullets. I've read that there can be problems using the lee FC die with moly bullets, because the final sizer can swage the bullets to a smaller diameter and cause moly/lead buildup, but with the federal brass the sizing ring barely even grazed the shell. When I shoot moly, I only load it in federal brass for that reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blaster113 Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 I've loaded many thousands of newer Federal brass with no problems. Usually load them a max of four times before dumping them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biloxi23 Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 I had a kaboom in a Glock 35 in 2010 with FC marked hollowpoints. This was new-old stock duty ammo, not reloads. The case head separated and the extractor went into orbit. the gun was about two weeks old and had never fired a reload at that point. so I also recommend against the old FC marked cases. I have used and reloaded other cases marked "FEDERAL" with no problems. YMMV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waterfowl-widowmaker Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 I've never had any problems in either 9mm or 40. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blaster113 Posted May 12, 2013 Share Posted May 12, 2013 Years ago we got in a bad bunch of Federal hollow points of some sort and had to shitcan the whole lot cause of case head separations. No problems since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biloxi23 Posted May 12, 2013 Share Posted May 12, 2013 Years ago we got in a bad bunch of Federal hollow points of some sort and had to shitcan the whole lot cause of case head separations. No problems since. I have the casing and case head somewhere. I'll find them tomorrow and post a photo. I never did find the extractor. Glock did not charge for repairs (I had to pay about $80.00 for next day air). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy Neill Posted May 12, 2013 Share Posted May 12, 2013 Have you measured the case wall thickness and compared it to the same measurement on cases that have worked well? Two possible causes of poor bullet tension (besides thin case walls) is that the sizer is not adequately sizing the cases, or the expander ball is too large. Will a bullet slip into the case after it is sized, but before it has seen the expander ball? If not, that suggests the sizer is doing OK. Measure the diameter of the expander ball. It should be about 0.002" smaller than the bullet diameter. Guy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmbaccolyte Posted May 12, 2013 Share Posted May 12, 2013 The only Federal brass I have is from 2008 or earlier and its marked Federal. It is of excellent quality, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shooting Coach Posted May 17, 2013 Share Posted May 17, 2013 (edited) Older Federal cases seem to be thinner at the case head, and gave a lot of problems. Newer hulls are marked with dots between headstamp brand and caliber, and are thicker near case head. I routinely discard older style hulls. Edited May 17, 2013 by Shooting Coach Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJH Posted May 17, 2013 Share Posted May 17, 2013 I have never had any problem with Federal in 9mm, .40 or .45. The only brand I have had trouble with is PPU; the factory primers seemed to "stretch" out of the case and the primer pockets seem very tight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LuisToledo Posted May 17, 2013 Share Posted May 17, 2013 I had a Federal Hydrashock in .40 fail on me a few weeks ago. The case failed at the bottom and the whole back of the casing blew out in my Beretta 96. I needed pliers to extract the brass tube that was left in the chamber and my extractor was hosed. It was a factory load in nickel plated brass. A little old, maybe 20 years old, but that shouldn't make a difference. Anyone else had something like this happen with Federal factory ammo? I'm wondering how common this is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bike Effects Posted May 18, 2013 Share Posted May 18, 2013 I won't use the old federal brass in 40. It is marked "F C". Please state your reasons why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azrik Posted May 20, 2013 Share Posted May 20, 2013 (edited) I had a Federal Hydrashock in .40 fail on me a few weeks ago. The case failed at the bottom and the whole back of the casing blew out in my Beretta 96. I needed pliers to extract the brass tube that was left in the chamber and my extractor was hosed. It was a factory load in nickel plated brass. A little old, maybe 20 years old, but that shouldn't make a difference. Anyone else had something like this happen with Federal factory ammo? I'm wondering how common this is. Had this just happen this weekend with an older Federal case. There were spiderweb cracks all thru the sidewall so I'm not sure what's going on. Bullet fired fine and didn't notice anything was wrong until I couldn't get the next three rounds to chamber. Edited May 20, 2013 by azrik Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RammerJammer Posted May 20, 2013 Share Posted May 20, 2013 Every time I have a light primer strike I know without looking its a high primer in a federal case. Every time I have to 'crush' a primer into a case... I know its a federal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexmoney Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 I won't use the old federal brass in 40. It is marked "F C". Please state your reasons why. Newer Federal brass in not marked "F C". I might leave something out. If you do a search you can find where this has been covered before. It was just bad brass. Too thin. That is probably why they changed it and the head stamp (I'd hope, but don't know) I know of 2 cases where Factory Ammo blew up guns. One I heard first hand (Para) and the other I saw (Glock). After this, one of our locals took various 40 brass and sectioned it. There were variations in brass thickness from brand to brand...the "F C" marked stuff being the worst of the bunch by far. That's been years ago now. Hopefully that stuff is gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexmoney Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 Anyone else had something like this happen with Federal factory ammo? I'm wondering how common this is. What was the headstamp marking..."F C"? If so, that is the old stuff. I think they have changed the design and it's now marked FEDERAL? (I've been shooting mostly 9mm for a few years now...so take that with a grain of salt) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hf219 Posted May 26, 2013 Share Posted May 26, 2013 I believe the FC stamp on the federal case is their Non Toxic Ammo. Those cases will always cause me a malfunction trying to seat a new primer. I usually toss those to the side, Federal brass is all Ill use, the nickel cases I wont use just because I don't see nearly as many as them as I do the brass Federal cases. Ive used Federal for years and still see some FC cases pop up, they are still around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glock23guy Posted August 22, 2013 Share Posted August 22, 2013 I noticed that 40 federal bass that the primer pocket was sloppy in at least 70% of what resized and primed but the Winchester and Remington was fine I was using Winchester wsp small pistol primers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leas327 Posted August 22, 2013 Share Posted August 22, 2013 I believe the FC stamp on the federal case is their Non Toxic Ammo. Those cases will always cause me a malfunction trying to seat a new primer. I usually toss those to the side, Federal brass is all Ill use, the nickel cases I wont use just because I don't see nearly as many as them as I do the brass Federal cases. Ive used Federal for years and still see some FC cases pop up, they are still around. The old junk is "FC". The new stuff says FEDERAL. Their non-toxic is FEDERAL NT, and has a crimped primer. If you look in the old stuff and the NT you will see that the bottom has a counter bored look to it. The new regular stuff doesn't have that. I will try to take some pics when I get a chance. I have an FC case that has 2 reloads on it and is split from end to end and halfway around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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