#Federal

Vista Outdoor – the parent company for CCI, Federal, Remington, and Speer has just announced that there will be price increases in response to “unprecedented raw material price increases” that have occurred just over the last couple of months. Customers can expect to start seeing the effects of these price increases around July of 2021 for both ammunition and primers.

Federal Premium has been introducing plenty of hunting ammunition, but what about defensive loads? Coming from opposite ends of the power spectrum, the Federal Punch line adds two calibers to its catalog of personal defense ammunition. Introducing Federal Punch .22LR and 10mm Auto.

Federal Premium is no stranger to hunting ammunition. Countless four-legged creatures have become meals thanks to ever-improving ammunition technology. The Federal Swift A-Frame line is one of those improvements. Now, both .327 Federal and 10mm Auto have been added to the expanding list of cartridge options for handgun hunters.

Expanding upon their popular Syntech Range line of ammunition, Federal Premium has added three calibers for your shooting pleasure. The Syntech Range line now includes .38 SPL, 10mm Auto, and .380 ACP. If you’ve been hiding in the woods and are unfamiliar with Syntech, TFB has written numerous articles to bring you up to speed. In short, Federal Syntech is designed (with the use of their Catalyst primers) to lessen lead exposure, which is one of the biggest health risks involved with shooting. All three calibers use the TSJ polymer jacket to keep metal fouling to a minimum. To further the cause of safe range ammo, the bullets themselves are designed to minimize splashback from steel targets.

Minnesota-based Federal Ammunition have announced a further delivery of 5.56x45mm MK311 Mod 3 frangible training ammunition to the US Army. The contract is worth $13.8 million and is part of an earlier contract awarded in 2017. The contract Federal are referring to is one which was awarded to Vista Outdoor Inc. back  in June 2017, worth $52 million. The estimated completion date that firm-fixed-price contract is June 25, 2022.

A worldwide leader in ammunition, Federal, has announced an addition to their Black Cloud line with a new 20 gauge option for waterfowl hunters. Their Black Cloud TSS product offers a 60/40 mix of Tungsten Super Shot pellets, which are a blend of powdered tungsten and iron, combined with Federal’s elliptical “Flitestopper” pellets. Adding Federal’s rear-opening “Flitecontrol Flex” wad, which purports to provide exceptionally tight patterns, the Minnesota-based ammo maker intends to help hunters bring down ducks and geese with ease. The official press release reads as follows.

Federal’s line of Top Gun sporting ammunition has been a popular choice amongst sport shotgun shooters for years. Two new higher velocity offerings are now available at 1,300 fps in both 1-ounce, 12 -gauge 2 ¾-inch loads in either 7.5 or number 8 shot sizes.

A lot of you will remember with explicit detail one of the most devastating ammo shortages in the United States. In 2012, shortly after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, ammunition went flying off the shelves at an unprecedented rate leading to a 22LR shortage. Will this happen again given recent events relating to COVID-19 and the rush to buy firearms and ammunition? This week in The Rimfire Report we’ll explore this idea to see what the future might hold for the lifeblood of this article series.

As you know, this year Vista Outdoor ammunition brands came up with a large number of new products. Some of the most interesting ones we covered in separate dedicated articles and today we’ll take a brief look at the rest of the new products released by Federal Premium Ammunition, CCI, Blazer and Speer.

One of the mad scientists at  Federal Premium has probably thought once “what if to load split-shot sinkers into a shotgun shell?” and that’s probably how the Force X2 shotgun ammo was born. Joking aside, this is a really interesting buckshot design. These copper-plated double ought buckshot pellets are slotted and split in half upon impact! So what we have here is basically fragmenting buckshot.

Lead used in bullets is different depending on the type of the projectile and the job you are expecting it to do. If you want it to deform and mushroom, you need softer alloy or pure lead and if you want the lead bullet to stay intact and penetrate as much as possible, you need what is called hard cast bullets that are made of hard lead alloy (normally with a high percentage of antimony). Why do you need the bullet to penetrate as much as possible? Well, one of the reasons is to defend yourself against large predators like bears that are really tough animals with a strong bone structure and that’s why you need some heavy and hard bullets to punch through that skull or ribcage and reach the vitals. And that is one of the applications the new Federal Solid Core handgun ammunition is designed for.

Vista Outdoor has announced a huge amount of new products for 2020. The most significant ones we’ll cover separately and tomorrow we’ll also publish an article telling about the rest of the new products by Federal Premium Ammunition, CCI, Speer and Alliant Powder. In this article, we’ll take a look at the new Federal defensive handgun ammunition line called Punch.

Federal have been awarded a new delivery order with nearly $13 million for 5.56x45mm MK311 Mod 3 Frangible Ammunition. The order falls under a contract placed earlier in 2017.

Selecting a good defensive round is one of the most overlooked but perhaps one of the most critical elements of selecting your tools for self-defense. Arguably, ammo selection is just as important, if not more important than selecting the gun itself.  However, I would guess that most shooters simply go to their local Academy, plunk down a $20 bill and ask for “a box of them hollow points.”

When it comes to upland bird hunting, we are always trying to squeak the most performance out of our gear. Whether we are hunting grouse, quail, dove, ptarmigan or pheasants we want the best to ensure our tags are filled and our crockpots are overflowing. This can come in the context of buying new shotguns because… I would have dusted that pheasant if my shotgun didn’t fail me! Or new ammunition because… My aim was right on! The ammo never got there! Whatever the case may be (or helps hunters sleep at night), Federal Premium is hoping you look to them to fill any gaps you have in the ammunition department with new options in their HI-BIRD UPLAND shotgun shells.