Federal 9mm ammo warning. Anyone else have this happen?

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Umaine grad

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My brother and I bought some Federal 115gr FMJ 9mm ammo from Wal-Mart last week.

Of 100 rounds that my brother shot, he had 7 split casings
I have 9 so far out of maybe 300 shot.

They are blowing out the side and not splitting at the mouth

4668643907_cd7e21648a_o.jpg


I have called Federal and emailed them...no response to me yet. My brother said that he got a message from someone but they have not had a conversation as of yet.

the lot number is 43X523 but there may be others since I have put about 4,000 rounds downrange in the last 2 months and out of habit I dump my ammo into a big box and don't save all the original boxes.
Anyone else experiencing issues with Federal ammo? Would this be a concern to you if you were shooting this ammo. I have had wildy differing opinions on other forums...from don't worry about it, just throw out the brass to stop shooting this immediately and notify Federal because I could ruin your gun.
Thoughts?
 
It would be interesting to see what velocities some of that lot of ammo chronographs at. You might save some of it for a time when you are on a range with a chrono present and verify some of it.

I've never liked Federal brass in any rifle calibers because of primer pocket issues, looks like maybe their pistol ammo is going to hell as well.

What are the primers looking like?


Good picture by the way.
 
I'm new to guns so didn't even think to check, been just sweeping and throwing the casings.

I still have a few hundred rounds of Federal for my M&P9 from Wally world, I'll look closely next week.
 
I have a bunch of American Eagle (made by Federal) 9mm and haven't see that. I would trust HK to get the chamber right but you might want to try another gun just to narrow it down.
 
I have never experienced any problems using Federal brass in 9mm, 40 S&W, 38 Special, 357 Magnum, and 45 ACP. I would suspect either poor anealing of the cases or an issue with the guns chamber. Try a diffrent gun with the same ammo and different ammo with the same gun.
 
This issue is happening with two different guns so the chamber isn't the issue. I also went through my old ammo including a lot of Winchester and zero split casings. It has to be the ammo IMO.
 
Umaine grad said:
This issue is happening with two different guns so the chamber isn't the issue. I also went through my old ammo including a lot of Winchester and zero split casings. It has to be the ammo IMO.
Click to expand...

Yes but both are P30Ls and might suffer from the same problem. Try a totally different 9mm gun with the same ammo.

Like I said above, I doubt HK would get that wrong but it's possible.
 
I've seen that before; rarely with 9mm, but fairly often with .38sp and .357Mag cases. HOWEVER I've only seen it with cases that have been reloaded umpteen times. I have never seen that with new ammo.

I am very curious as to what is going on with this ammo. I'm assuming these were brand new cartridges, with (presumably) virgin cases. Are the boxes of ammo stamped "remanufactured" anywhere? I suppose it's possible that Federal got a bad lot of brass. As a reloader, I'd be a little ticked off if I bought factory fresh ammo and found that I was losing 7-9% of the brass after initial firing.

I'll be watching this thread with great interest to see what the resolution is.
 
Split cases here are certainly odd.

Even if these were reloads, I'd still consider it odd... I have yet to have a split case in 9mm, and I have some pieces of brass that have probably been reloaded 4 times or more now.

Probably a run of "marginal" brass.

-Mike
 
These rounds were newly manufactured, not reloads or re-manufactured. It is the $9.47 Federal 9mm Luger 115gr FMJ RN from Wal-Mart. I am getting a bit disappointed in Federal for not replying to my email or phone call. I have 4,000 rounds of this ammo sitting at home and my brother just spent over $600 to get set up to reload 9mm....not so thrilled with the idea of reloading this stuff.
I went to the Wal-Mart last night and they have the same lot number sitting on their shelf. I told them the problem with it and they said they will continue to sell it until Corporate tells them not to. So I ended up with 500 rounds of RWS 124gr FMJ at $12.97 a box. Annoying as hell.
 
PaulD said:
Yes but both are P30Ls and might suffer from the same problem. Try a totally different 9mm gun with the same ammo.

Like I said above, I doubt HK would get that wrong but it's possible.
Click to expand...

I will try another gun at the range if someone has a 9mm there. I find it very very unlikely that something could be wrong with a chamber that would let it shoot Winchester, Hornady, and Speer without a problem and only blow out Federal ammo though.
 
Where are you guys finding the lot # on these? Is it the # on the flap when the box is open? I have 10 boxes of this stuff and if its bad I dont want to shoot it.
 
That looks like some of the reloads I have purchased at a gun shop when I first started shooting .45 ACP. Bummer, but I don't reload any Federal brass or use it in my guns unless it is free.
 

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