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Federal Premium Ammunition is one of the leading ammunition manufacturing companies in the USA. Founded in 1922 by Charles Horn, it was a relatively small venture, however, the company continuously grew over the years and today Federal’s Anoka, Minnesota plant is a 700,000 square feet facility with about 1,500 employees working in three shifts, 24/7. Federal Premium is one of the Vista Outdoors companies along with several other ammunition and components manufacturers such as CCI, Speer, Blazer Ammunition, Estate Cartridge and Alliant Powder.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- Introduction/Overview
- Products
- History
- Locations/Facilities
- Competition/Training
- TFB News/Reviews
- Where To Buy
1. Introduction/Overview
Whether you are looking for ammunition for hunting, practicing, defense, competition or target shooting, you’ll most likely find at least one offering by Federal Premium suitable for your application. With a wide variety of products, this company has everything any shooter will need. Some of the product names made by the company, like the HST, have become synonyms of top-notch performance.
2. Products
By visiting the Federal Premium’s website, you’ll see that the company offers ammunition for handguns, rifles, shotguns, rimfire guns as well as reloading components (brass, bullets, primers, wads). The company markets its products via the following six brands: American Eagle, Black Cloud, Federal, Federal Premium, Fusion, and Prairie Storm. Its products for the law enforcement customers are marketed in a separate Vista Outdoors website dedicated to LE products.
AMMUNITION
Federal Premium offers ammunition for handguns, rifles, shotguns and rimfire firearms. Within each of these ammunition categories, you can find a large variety of products with different loads and projectiles tuned for virtually any application. Over the years, the company has been involved in designing or co-designing cartridges, too. Perhaps some of the more known Federal designed cartridges are the .327 Federal Magnum, .338 Federal and .224 Valkyrie.
Federal Premium Rifle Ammunition currently includes 70 cartridges (from .17 Hornet to .50 BMG and every popular caliber in between) introduced in 8 product families and offered with many different bullet weight and load options. Overall, the company offers 389 products in the rifle ammunition line. The eight product families of rifle ammunition include the American Eagle, Fusion, Gold Medal, Non-Typical, Power Shok, Premium Centerfire Rifle, Premium Safari, Premium Varmint & Predator.
Federal Fusion line of ammunition is designed for hunters.
The lead core of Fusion bullets is electro-chemically fused to the jacket providing a consistent expansion and weight retention.
Premium Centerfire Rifle Ammunition loaded with Trophy Bonded Tip bullet. 1 – Nickel plated for easy extraction and corrosion protection; 2 – Grooved shank minimizes fouling and improves accuracy; 3 – Exterior skiving for optimum expansion; 4 – Gold Medal primer; 5 – Robust bonding maximizes weight retention; 6 – High-performance polymer tip and boat-tail design for flat trajectory, better accuracy and more energy.
Trophy Bonded Bear Claw Rifle Ammunition. 1 – Nickel plated for easy extraction and corrosion protection; 2 – Grooved shank improves accuracy across all gun platforms; 3 – Bonded jacket and core retain more than 95 percent of the bullet’s weight for deep penetration; 4 – Gold Medal® primer; 5 – Specially formulated propellant with copper-reducing additives.
Federal Trophy Copper Rifle Ammunition. 1 – Nickel plated for easy extraction and corrosion protection; 2 – Grooved bullet shank decreases fouling and improves accuracy; 3 – Copper-alloy construction for up to 99 percent weight retention; 4 – Gold Medal® primer; 5 – Specially formulated propellant with copper-reducing additives; 6 – High-performance polymer tip and boat-tail design for a flat trajectory and match-grade accuracy.
Federal EdgeTLR Rifle Ammunition. 1 – Black nickel-plated brass and bullet; 2 – AccuChannel™ groove technology improves accuracy and minimized drag; 3 – Extremely high ballistic coefficient for less wind drift and drop; 4 – Copper shank and bonded lead core retain weight for deep penetration at any range; 5 – Interior skiving; 6 – Exclusive Slipstream™ tip’s hollow shank helps flatten trajectories and initiate low-velocity expansion.
Federal Premium Handgun Ammunition includes 26 cartridge offerings (from .25 Auto to .500 S&W) in 10 product families. The number of offered cartridges in combination with 19 different bullets make a total of 129 handgun ammunition products currently offered by the company. The handgun ammunition product families include the American Eagle, Federal Personal Defense, Federal Target, Fusion, Gold Medal, Power Shok, Premium Centerfire Handgun, Premium Personal Defense, Syntech, Train+Protect.
Federal Premium defensive handgun ammunition loaded with HST bullets. 1 – Nickel-plated brass case; 2 – Patented co-aligned internal and external skiving; 3 – Deep tapered hollow point; 4 – Federal primer; 5 – Cannelure locks jacket to the core; 6 – Tapered jacket profile.
HST bullets are one of the most successful defensive handgun products of the company. They provide reliable expansion and weight retention both in bare ballistic gel and after passing through various barriers.
Federal Premium defensive handgun ammunition loaded with Hydra-Shock bullets. 1 – Consistent propellant; 2 – Nickel-plated brass case; 3 – Center-post hollow-point design provides efficient energy transfer; 4 – Federal primer; 5 – Consistent lead core; 6 – Notched copper jacket initiates and controls expansion.
The unique center post design of Hydra-Shock bullets proved to be very efficient and remains popular since its introduction in 1989.
Federal Hydra Shock Deep bullets. These new bullets represent the evolution of the time-proven Hydra-Shok line. While utilizing the same center post hollow point concept, the Hydra Shock deep has a different jacket design.
Federal Premium handgun range ammunition with Syntech bullets. 1 – Reloadable Federal brass case; 2 – Lead bullet core drastically reduces splashback on steel targets; 3 – Total Synthetic Jacket (TSJ™) polymer coating eliminates lead and copper fouling; 4 – Catalyst™ high-performance lead-free primer; 5 – Specially formulated clean-burning propellant; 6 – Reduces friction for 14 percent cooler shooting and longer barrel life.
Polymer-encapsulated Syntech bullets are designed to minimize the lead fouling in the bore extending the barrel life and reducing the frequency of cleaning.
Federal Premium Shotgun Ammunition is available in one of the six gauge options: 10, 12, 16, 20, 28 and 410 bore. These shotgun loads are also categorized in eleven product families: Black Cloud, Federal Target, Federal Upland & Waterfowl, Gold Medal Grand, Power Shok, Prairie Storm, Premium Personal Defense, Premium Slug & Buckshot, Premium Turkey, Premium Upland, Top Gun Sporting. Different combinations of gauges, product families and load types (from slugs to upland hunting birdshot loads) make 330 different shotgun ammunition products currently offered by Federal Premium Ammunition.
Federal Premium Balck Cloud TSS load. 1 – Lead-free Catalyst primer; 2 – 60 percent HEAVYWEIGHT TSS pellets—50 percent denser than lead; 3 – 40 percent FLITESTOPPER Steel; 4 – Black nickel-plated head; 5 – Clean, fast-burning propellant; 6 – FLITECONTROL FLEX wad provides the most consistent patterns in all waterfowl chokes.
Federal Premium Prairie Storm load. 1 – 70 percent Premium® copper-plated lead shot; 2 – FLITECONTROL® wad’s rear-braking design ensures dense, consistent patterns; 3 – Specially formulated propellant; 4 – 30 percent nickel-plated FLITESTOPPER® lead for even edge-to-edge patterns and bigger wound channels.
Federal Premium Gold Medal Grand competitive trap, skeet and sporting clays shooting load. 1 – Rigid PrimerLock™ head improves primer sensitivity, ensuring proper ignition; 2 – Reliable Federal® primer; 3 – Integral base wad maximizes reloadability, 4 – Two-piece wad utilizes SoftCell technology to decrease perceived recoil and produce more uniform patterns; 5 – Lead shot is engineered for the optimum blend of hardness and density for even patterns and maximum downrange power.
Federal Premium Vital Shok Trophy Bonded Slug load
Federal Premium Shorty Shotshells. Short 1-3/4″ shotshells that still pack a punch. They are compact and will allow having more ammunition at a given tubular magazine length. The Shorty Shotshells are available loaded with 1oz slugs, #8 birdshot or #4 buckshot.
Federal Premium Rimfire Ammunition includes four cartridge options – .17 HMR, .17WSM, .22LR and .22WMR. The company’s rimfire ammunition is also marketed within several cartridge families that provide different features for different applications. The Federal rimfire cartridge families are American Eagle, Champion, Federal Small Game & Target, Gold Medal, Premium Rimfire Varmint & Predator.
Federal Small Game & Target .22LR ammunition loaded with Hunter Match bullets
Hunter Match hollowpoint .22 LR bullets are designed to reliably expand at distances of up to 100 yards.
Premium Rimfire Varmint & Predadtor V-Shock loads.
RELOADING COMPONENTS
Although the loaded ammunition is the primary product line of Federal Premium Ammunition, the company also offers a variety of reloading components including handgun and rifle cartridge cases, handgun and rifle bullets, muzzleloading bullets and primers, handgun and rifle primers, and wads.
Federal Premium Gold Medal® unprimed .224 Valkyrie brass cases.
Federal Premium Edge TLR bullet. The Slipstream™ polymer tip is designed to initiate expansion at longer ranges.
Cutaway of a Federal Premium .50 Caliber Trophy Copper Muzzleloader Bullet
3. History
Below you can find the Federal Premium Ammunition history timeline where you can learn about most notable events in the company’s history.
1922 – Charles Horn purchases plant and begins production of Federal.
1923 – Horn builds distribution through unique channels like barber shops, gas stations and grocery stores.
1924 – Federal adds .22 rimfire to the product line-up.
1934 – Horn helps institute 4-H Club Conservation Program—Federal becomes first company to sponsor camps nationwide.
1937 – The Pittman Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act passes after Federal encourages congress to do so. This self-imposed excise tax on ammunition and firearms raises billions of dollars to help enhance wildlife populations and their habitat.
1960 – Federal introduces color coding for shotshells – this safety measure becomes an industry standard.
1963 – Centerfire rifle and pistol cartridges join the product line.
1973 – Federal becomes the first company to develop steel shotshell loads.
1977 – Federal Introduces the Premium line of centerfire rifle cartridges.
1982 – Conservation partner Pheasants Forever is founded; Federal begins supporting the organization immediately.
1984 – Federal begins supporting National Wild Turkey Federation.
1985 – Federal sponsors NRA’s inaugural Youth Hunter Ed Challenge. We add Safari Club International and the Ruffed Grouse Society to the list of conservation groups we support.
1987 – Ducks Unlimited joins the ranks of Federal-sponsored organizations.
1988 – Elk populations get a boost when Federal begins sponsoring Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.
1990 – Federal begins supporting Whitetails Unlimited’s private lands access program, POLITE. We also begin sponsoring the Future Farmers of America with Collegiate scholarships in wildlife management.
1991 – The future of the shooting sports gains strength as Federal begins sponsoring Boy Scouts of America and Becoming an Outdoors Woman programs.
1992 – Gold Medal Ultramatch helps America bring home Gold and Silver Medals in the Olympics.
1998 – Federal begins sponsoring the NWTF’s Women in the Outdoors.
2004 – Federal receives an award for 70 years of 4-H sponsorship.
2007 – The introduction of Black Cloud changes the face of waterfowl hunting.
2008 – Federal Introduces Trophy Bonded Tip.
2010 – Prairie Storm FS Lead is introduced, redefining performance on pheasants and other upland birds.
2011 – Federal celebrates its 90th anniversary.
2012 – Trophy Copper Rifle and Trophy Copper Sabot Slugs hit the market.
2013 – HST handgun ammunition joins the Premium Personal Defense line after being proven by the law enforcement community for years.
2016 – Federal rewrites the rules of range ammunition with the introduction of Syntech polymer bullet coating. Also, the 50 millionth Pheasants Forever edition shotshell is sold. A portion of the proceeds of every box purchased goes to support the organization.
2017 – Gold Medal Grand improves upon the legendary Gold Medal shotshell design, offering better reloadability, less felt recoil, and more consistent, powerful patterns.
2018 – The MSR 15 platform changes forever with the introduction of 224 Valkyrie, a cartridge that can produce supersonic velocities past 1,300 yards, with far less drift and drop than any other cartridge in its class.
4. Locations/Facilities
Federal Premium Ammunition
900 Bob Ehlen Dr,
Anoka, MN 55303
USA
Phone: +1 800-379-1732
Website: www.federalpremium.com
5. Competition/Training
Federal Premium Ammunition sponsors a number of brand ambassadors from shooting, hunting, competition worlds as well as firearms media. Currently, among the list of Federal Premium ambassadors found on the company’s website are Julie Golob, 22plinkster, Hickok45, Ashley Carroll, Caitlin Connor, Chad Belding, Colion Noir, Corey Cogdell-Unrein, Courtney Smith, Dakota Overland, Jake Wallace, Josh Froelich, Krystal Dunn, Mike Stroff, Missy Gilliland, Nick Hoffman, Steven Rinella, Troy And Jacob Landry, Vincent Hancock, Katie Jacob and Kayle Browning Thomas.
6. TFB News/Reviews
7. Where to Buy
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Images from www.federalpremium.com
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