How friggen hot is federal loading 300 wsm?

[kraky1]

Had a buddy bring over a box of once fired Factory Federal Fusion 300 WSM brass this week. This was bought and shot within the last year so it's not some of the earlier stuff that seemed so hotly loaded.....
Without looking I cleaned them up... sized them ...and started putting primers in....7 of the 20 wouldn't hold a primer hardly at all and the other 13 it was really really a soft seat. I flipped them over and started looking at the head stamp area. All had at least a tiny extractor Circle.... some quite pronounced..... some with a shiney Center and a swipe mark.

He doesn't have a chrono so I have no idea how fast they were going but obviously they are overloaded.
Maybe this is Federal's continued marketing plan of making sure you have to buy more ammo because the brass is not reloadable....lol!

 

[DrMike]

Federal does seem to load "hot." My experience with Federal brass in several instances mirrors yours. I have had factory ammo lock the bolt twice in the years I was doing break-in work with new rifles. Yep! Both times it was Federal ammunition and in the 300 WSM. I decided they were pushing the envelope and tickling the dragons tail in order to claim that the 300 WSM was as hot (or hotter) than the 300 Win Mag. I relate this despite holding a preference for Federal ammunition should someone ask for a recommendation for factory ammo. They do wring out the velocity from their loadings.

 

[Kodiak]

Don't have the 300wsm, but have fired some Fed. ammo in the .270wsm, much to my disappointment. Wild groups, no decided groupings and lightly loaded. Reloading of same proved to be a fired-formed case that bearly needed resizing.

With stiffer loads, that same brass now produces fine groups and top-notch vels.

Good luck w/ the 300wsm, as its a fine caliber. Have you tried any Win. factory ammo?

All the best, Jim

 

[PJGunner]

I don't have a .300 WSM but I do have a lot of .308 Win. Federal brass that was gifted to me, all 1,100 rounds of it. This is all once fired brass from practice used by a SWAT team. All the primer pockets are loose. Federal uses CCI primers and I use Winchester primers. The CCI's are about .0001" fatter than the Winchesters and work OK in the Federal brass.
Frankly, I haven't decided whether to try and load that .308 brass or throw it in the scrap box. I know Federal brass is softer than Winchester and Remington though which is part of the problem.
Paul B.

 

[AFG270]

I have had the same problem with both my 270 wsm, 300 wsm and Federal ammo. The 270 wsm more so as it has a short throat and the ammo would lock the bolt.

 

[BF375]

Have experienced the exact same situation with Federal Premium in all three WSM's. It's just that some stuff is loaded hotter than others.

I did chronograph 7mm WSM Federal Premium ammo with 160 NPT in two rifles; a M70 FW and a Kimber Montana. The stuff averaged around 3280 fps which is way overboard,and the brass was ruined, no longer useable, first firing.

I begged off the entire WSM thing a few years back and got rid of it all. This was after several rifles in 300, 7mm,and 270 WSM. I see no advantages and the cartridges have to be loaded to the gills to perform.But some folks like them.

 

[Guy Miner]

Federal uses CCI primers and I use Winchester primers. The CCI's are about .0001" fatter than the Winchesters and work OK in the Federal brass.

Paul B.

I thought Federal used Federal primers?

Guy

 

[Charlie-NY]

I'd be shocked if Federal factory ammo was loaded with CCI primers. I know that Federal primers are in short supply but geeezzzz.

I have found federal brass to be softer than most other brass. This may explain some of the high pressure signs that have been seen.

 

[HAWKEYESATX]

In my personal experience, I have found that Federal ammo in any caliber seems to run hotter in American made ammo, with Winchester next, and then Remington coming in last.
Now, with that being said, the hottest ammo I've ever shot had to be Norma ammo. I used to have back in the 80's a 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser, and a 7x57 Brazilian Mauser. I would shoot Norma ammo in both of them, and could feel in recoil and muzzle blast how much hotter Norma was. Both of those calibers aren't heavy kickers, but I could feel a little more sharpness in recoil even from 8-9lb rifles with 29" barrels.

HawkeyeSATX a.k.a. Bryce

 

[Blkram]

The Federal WSM ammo in 300 that I have used to date ran across the chronic at close to spec as per the manufacturers; 2960 for the 180 gr load. And yes, their brass is softer. While I have not the experience reloading as DR Mike, I guess I have not noticed much difference in the fit of the primer pocket between the Federal and Winchester brass, whether using Federal or Winchester primers.

Guy, since ATK owns both Federal and CCI, I wouldn't be surprised if they mix components if they need to, depending on supply ( primers mentioned above).

I did find that in the Remington Boone & Crocket Model 700 rifle in 270 WSM that I owned for a short time, that the Federal Premium 140 gr AB loads chrony'd 100 fps slower out of that rifle's 26" barrel than it spec'd out of Federal's 24" barrel. I assumed that this rifle's barrel was just "slow", as I have found most Federal ammo to be closer to their specs than that. But chamber dimensions from rifle to rifle do vary and may account for some difference.

As Hawheyesatx said above, Norma ammo is the hottest, and I can varify the same findings when using their 6.5 x 55 ammo in the rifles I used to own. Weatherby ammo, being manufactured by Norma, is also hotter than most hand loaders can safely duplicate.

 

[TackDriver284]

I found an old box of Federal 160 soft Points for the 7 Mag on the top shelf in the garage and used it as foul shots after cleaning. Shot it through a chrono and primers went super flat at only at 2,850 fps, so I tried my own handloads with RL25 and 168 VLD, chrono speeds were 3,050 fps and primers looked just fine. The factory ammo grouped terrible over 1.5 MOA, its why I went to handloads 15 years ago. Also remembered that primer pockets go loose after 2nd firing with Federal brass, never used Federal again.

 

[snoodcrusher]

I too have found that Federal loads the "hottest" ammo in both rifle and shotgun rounds. I have had a few episodes of sticky bolts with Federal ammo in Rem 700s and a Tikka. With their shotgun shells, the recoil is noticeably more harsh than other brands, especially turkey loads. I do prefer Federal ammo on the rare occasion that I do not shoot my own hand loads.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BF375]

I found an old box of Federal 160 soft Points for the 7 Mag on the top shelf in the garage and used it as foul shots after cleaning. Shot it through a chrono and primers went super flat at only at 2,850 fps, so I tried my own handloads with RL25 and 168 VLD, chrono speeds were 3,050 fps and primers looked just fine. The factory ammo grouped terrible over 1.5 MOA, its why I went to handloads 15 years ago. Also remembered that primer pockets go loose after 2nd firing with Federal brass, never used Federal again.

When I spoke with Federal about the overly "hot" 7mm WSM ammo, they also told me that the 7 REM is loaded to substantially lower pressures than 7mm WSM, hence the difference between the factory 7 Rem Mag and your hand loads. I have seen that myself.

 

[MAinAR]

I still have about 15 boxes of 1st year run 7WSM Federal Premium loaded with 140AB's. Love them as they are super accurate from my Savage gun. But they are HOT. They are marked as velocity of 3,310 fps on the ammo box and they mean it!

Magnetospeed velocity at 55 degrees running average of 3,285 fps from 24" barrel. I save using them for "special" occasions as no way I could load that speed.

 

[kraky1]

So... have you ever tried to reload the brass? Kinda thinking that Federal didn't load it up with some special Miracle powder either? Lol

 

[308 Ragin Cajun]

I don't have a .300 WSM but I do have a lot of .308 Win. Federal brass that was gifted to me, all 1,100 rounds of it. This is all once fired brass from practice used by a SWAT team. All the primer pockets are loose. Federal uses CCI primers and I use Winchester primers. The CCI's are about .0001" fatter than the Winchesters and work OK in the Federal brass.
Frankly, I haven't decided whether to try and load that .308 brass or throw it in the scrap box. I know Federal brass is softer than Winchester and Remington though which is part of the problem.
Paul B.

How much do you want to sell it for?.