Federal Bullets & Primers

[choprzrul]

So I called Federal tech support on Wednesday morning to ask about how much jump their .308 165gr Trophy Bonded Tip bullets like to the rifling. They didn't call back until yesterday morning....they must be busy?

Anyway, he said those TBT like at least 0.050" jump and their factory ammo is loaded so most rifles have something like 0.100", but he wouldn't give me exact numbers.

I asked about if Federal intended to continue making the TBT as it is impossible to find them right now. He said the bullets are run seasonally to support Federal's premium ammo production for hunting. So, the bullets should start showing up sometime late summer to early fall he said. Cool....I can be patient.

I then asked about Remington ammunition division coming under the same roof via the Vista Outdoors purchase. This got him talking and I just kinda sat back and listened. He said that Rem ammo production was running at about 20% capacity when Vista took ownership. Yikes.

However, he indicated that Rem ammo production is now at or near 100% and they are cranking out ammo.....so I asked when I might start seeing Remington primers become available again.

Here we go....he paused a moment....and then said that Remington primer production is still having issues, so Federal is shipping most all of their excess primer production to the Remington ammo plant to support ammo production.

Well....that helps explain why we aren't seeing much for primers available on the market.....the Remington ammo plant is getting them I wonder what the issues are with Remington primer production....and why Vista Outdoors' engineers and experts haven't gotten them straightened out in the 6+ months since they took ownership??

Anyway, that is what the tech told me.....I have no idea if it is accurate, but I see no reason why he wouldn't be truthful about it.

Just wanted to share what I was told.
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[rayw1128]

Thanks for the info. Guess it makes sense as to why primers are in such short supply.

[divingin]

Anyway, he said those TBT like at least 0.050" jump and their factory ammo is loaded so most rifles have something like 0.100", but he wouldn't give me exact numbers.

What kind of exact numbers are you looking for? Base to ogive? Easy to measure a factory round.

You can't expect every chamber out there to be identical, so I would assume they'd load such that their desired spec (which he gave you) occurs in a majority of rifles out there. So jump in one rifle will be longer or shorter than the next rifle. That's the problem with factory ammo; it's optimized for the average rifle, as opposed to your specific rifle. It's made to fit and function in the vast majority of guns.

Thanks for passing on the news about the primer situation; hope Rem gets their plant up and running at capacity soon.

[Tommy Gun]

Other side of the coin could be argued. If you made primers available maybe it would reduce ammo demand 20 to 30%.

[LynnJr]

https://youtu.be/LQadZyNFLN8

[choprzrul]

What kind of exact numbers are you looking for? Base to ogive? Easy to measure a factory round.

You can't expect every chamber out there to be identical, so I would assume they'd load such that their desired spec (which he gave you) occurs in a majority of rifles out there. So jump in one rifle will be longer or shorter than the next rifle. That's the problem with factory ammo; it's optimized for the average rifle, as opposed to your specific rifle. It's made to fit and function in the vast majority of guns.

Thanks for passing on the news about the primer situation; hope Rem gets their plant up and running at capacity soon.

I use the Sinclair gauge to measure each type of projectile I'm going to test to see what it's max OAL is to touching the rifling. Then I will back off my loading length to a value that is in the middle of known good parameters for a particular bullet. Barnes I usually start at about 0.080" jump. Most cup & core I'll start at about 0.010".

Since I have zero experience loading those Federal projectiles, I figured it would be good to call their tech support to see what they recommend. I did just that for the Swift 130gr 6.5mm Scirocco about a year ago and had the Swift CEO himself call me back. We had a pretty good discussion about what Swift has found for optimal jump, powders, and primers.

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[choprzrul]

Other side of the coin could be argued. If you made primers available maybe it would reduce ammo demand 20 to 30%.

Given the number of brand new reloaders, that number might be closer to reduced by 50%....??

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