OK read a few posts lately being less than complimentary about Federal Brass.
So whats the general consensus.
What are you guys finding wrong with it?
I've worked up a load I really happy with, and you guessed it's in Federal Brass, and I dont really want to do it all again in a real hurry.
I do have a 100 Lapua cases sitting in the box waiting (they appeared AFTER all the other workup was done).

If you shoot them all before tomorrow night, they won't develop "brass rot".

Seriously I've never had a problem with Federal brass and have always stayed in the middle of the road as far as loads.

That Lapua brass is very good, should give you quite a few more loading's than the Federal rounds.

For the .308, Federal brass was all I used at one time, but then I started getting loose primer pockets after 1 reload so I changed. I now use Norma and am on load number 17 on some of the brass. But Lapua, Winchester and Remington is good.

For my .338LM, I only use Lapua. Also. for this caliber, don't waste your time with Hornady brass, I found i too soft and dented at the shoulder like there was too much lube.

From what I've gathered from the hi-power shooting community, is federal brass is too soft. With 1 exception, 308 win. I dont know if they change the formula for it, but I know a lot of shooters that its all they will use in 308.

Donut Slayer wrote:

From what I've gathered from the hi-power shooting community, is federal brass is too soft. With 1 exception, 308 win. I dont know if they change the formula for it, but I know a lot of shooters that its all they will use in 308.

That is probably because .308 is also 7.62mm which is the NATO round. Federal may well have developed a brass alloy that is suitable for that round. It is my understanding that all bullet manufactures supplied some of the 7.62mm NATO ammo to the US Defence Force. Out here in Australia, our Defence Industries (ADI) produced all military rounds, although I believe that is not necessarily the case now.

As far as Federal cases go...I purchased a pack of 50 brass .357 Mag cases back in 1981. I have no idea how many loadings, albeit target loads, that these cases have had, and I still have at least 80% of them left. I also have a few hundred nickel Federal cases left that started life as factory cases back in 1981, and these too have been loaded more times than I can remember. To give you an idea, I shot at least 200 rounds a week from 1981 till around 2001 and for at least 15 of those years I was using the Federal nickel cases almost exclusively. Only problem I had was tiny splits in the mouth of the case because of the roll crimp I was using.

I use Winchester and Remington cases now in my 30.30 and .243 rifles and have no complaints.

Cheers, Vince

Problem with Federal cases? No...Problem with some reloaders? Yes...

80% of my cases are federal. Most of this was originally American Eagle factory loads. Up here I would guess more than half of the range brass gleanings are Federal with Winchester next.

I've used plenty of Federal 308 Winchester brass. Maybe it is softer than some and may not last as long; I don't know, but if primer pockets get loose, etc. I just discard it like I do with other brands of brass that also wear out.

I had a high-power rifle shooter give me all his Fed .308 brass because the brass was softer and thicker resulting in less powder volume. I used it in my .308 before I sold the gun. The two problems I had with it is that case length grew beyond max after a few reloads and there wasn't enough capacity to load to the max with several bullet types. I was shooting near/at max capacity. Just this month, I ran into problems using Fed .270 Win brass. I found that it "sprung" back after going through the FL resizing at the base and 1/2 the cases wouldn't go into my chamber. Remington Brass was coming out 0.0010 and 0.0015 less and would chamber fine.