Thanks for the info and warning. It will be interesting to see what Cabella does about it. I'm sure it had to be a very frustrating time at the range . . keep us all posted please. Thanks! :bthumb:

 

I would be curious to see what response Federal has. I've purchased boxes and boxes of this exact stuff at Walmart for like $18 a box of 525 (or 550?) and always was satisfied with the result.

Walmart has Fed and Remington in those bulk-packs and after a fairly large quantity used, I have no complaints. Unless you just got some REALLY bad luck with a batch!

 

Better experience

I bought some last month and I'm down to less than 100 rounds left in the first box of 525 and haven't had a single mis-fire or bad round.

I've run it through a Ruger MkII, a Ruger MkIII, and just last Saturday I put about 100 rounds through a nice old Browning .22 semi-auto rifle. No issues.

Maybe they put out a bad batch? Oh, and I bought mine at Cabelas as well. Their Allen, TX store.

 

I have always used their 550 Wal Mart burgundy box and had no problems at all.
ATK should fix that right away or Cabelas/Federal may be buying some ruined guns.

 

I wanted to report on Cabelas Customer Service and the handling of my Federal Ammo problem. I spoke with a CS named Julie, she listened to my complaint and accepted full responsibility for the bad ammo. We discussed what it was doing and she looked at comments regarding Federal bulk ammo. There were 5 good reviews and 1 which was identical to my review. Cableas for what ever reason cannot accept returned ammo sealed or not. She ask if I could drop the ammo off to a PD or other place to be destroyed or disposed of properly and get a receipt for the ammo. Meanwhile she is sending me an equal monetary amount of CCI Mini-Mag which was my choice. She would have issued me a full credit for the purchase. I have a place which will dispose of the ammo so that's not a problem. I couldn't have ask for a better resolution to my problem. Off all the things I've purchased from Cableas this is the first time I've had any problems. Cableas treated me right and I'm still a good and satisfied customer.
Bill

 

Did you look at the primer srikes of the "dud" rounds from both firearms?

 

Yes, both had good strong primer strikes. Thanks for the thought, as I'm looking at all possibilities.
Bill

 

I've not had good results with the 525 packs. Better than Remington GBs, but plinking ammo, not target ammo.

 

If you have a reloading scale, I'd weigh some of the rounds one at a time. Sounds like you have some rounds sans powder ( like a aguila colbri). Not sure how many grains are in a 22lr, but you should see some difference if some of the rounds don't have powder.

Glad too see Cabelas took care of you. I've also had excellent CS from them.:bthumb:

 

I wonder if Federal would be interested in this situation? I'll see if I can find a CS link for them and see what their interest if any is.
Bill

 

I bought some of those 525 during Cabelas Allen, TX grand opening and don't have any problem with them.

I will be glad to dispose of them for you.

 

2100 pack

I bought the 2100 pack when it was on sale from cabelas. It came in a metal ammo can with feder sticker and it does appear to be different quality level then the federal bulk I usually purchase from Wally world. I haven't experience any duds but the lubricant seems to be excessive and some of the rounds have large globs of lube collected on 1 side of the bullets. Other then that I have had no problems in the first 1500 or so i have fired. I prefer CCI blazers or mini mags though for plinking and CCI sv for my attempts at accuracy.

 

I had trouble with the 525 packs. I bought 2 of them thinking they were the same as the 550 packs from Walmart. All our guns had trouble with them...FTF and stovepipes. What I found was that every round that had FTF's had a very loose fitting bullet. You could spin it around easily. I don't know what these means exactly but that is what we found. Even sorted some rounds and tried tight fitting bullets (worked fine) vs the loose ones (failed every time). Switched back to the 550 pack and all our problems went away.

 

Please Post Lot Number

Maybe a bad batch, can you post the lot # please ??

Federal Champion is my "go to" bulk... and given a choice, the blue box.... exactly as shown in your picture. I use it in my MKIII, 10-22s, and all the bolt and revolver guns..

Very little dirt, and the lube they use seems to be slightly "harder" then other brands... I've had other bulk that looks like old flypaper if you drop at the range, with all the junk stuck in the lube.

Sounds like Cabela's took good care of you... always wondered how a vendor would react to a "it really is bad" ammo where they don't take returns...

 

Yes, a batch number would help. Maybe Federal had bad gun powder or someone was sleeping on the job. Try picking up a bulk pack separate from the "ammo deal" and give Federal another shot! (pun intended! :Blasting_ )

I've used many Federal bulk backs with no issues.....I've used one bulk of the golden bullets....worse mistake ever! dirty and a few knawled up rounds prior to even handling them!

 

Awhile back when I was doing some ammo testing out of Mark pistols that were held in a Ransom Rest, I tried a brick of Federal Champion in the 10 count 50 packs. They just wouldn't group very well out of the five Mark pistols I shot them out of.

The only pistol that shot the Champions anywhere near descent was my Mark II with the 10-inch barrel. Here's a typical group with the 6-7/8 Target barrel.

Mind you, this was out of a solid rest fixture without any shooter influence. The Fed Champion group is on the bottom left.

I will be trying some of ths ammo out of my Ruger 77/22 and CZ 455 FS when I get some time to set up my chrono.

 

Kinda strange. I have been shooting Fed 510 for about 10 years now.....maybe 9 years and my MKII loves most of the stuff here is a 30 yard 10 shot group:

Then last spring I bought two bricks of the 50 round boxes and neither of the 10/22s I owned at the time could get through a 10 round mag with out at least two jams. Still shot fine in my MKII Slabside that shot that group. It was in the late fall I bought another brick and everything was fine again and still is.

Nine year w/o an issue and then a "bad lot" but only bad in my semi auto rifles. Fine in my semi pistol, and two bolt actions.

To me I just chalk it up to a lot that my rifles do not like. I can hardly blame ATK/Federal when it shoots fine in everything else.

Folks not every lot of every 22 lr made is going to work in your gun. It is the nature of rimfire ammo. Target shooters and benchrest people spend thousands of dollars looking for the "good lot" and that lot may be crap in their buddies gun. It is the nature of this business.

Live and learn.:bthumb:

 

Federal 745

Mine came from Gander Mt. and was lot 1HT476 and was the worst I have had from Federal. I usually get mine from Walmart in the 550 rd. box and usually have good results with it. This batch on 1 magazine had 4 "soft " rounds, 3 of which did not make it to the target at 25 yds. I found 1 downrange on the floor of the indoor range. I Emailed federal CS and they sent UPS to pick up the rest of the ammo. They will send a refund or credit.
Stew

 

That precise ammunition (Federal Blue Box 525 "Champion") is my staple .22 ammunition. I have fired maybe 10,000 rounds of it in the past year from a combination of Mark Is, IIs, and IIIs, 10/22s, and a Single Six. I have had exactly one (1) failure to fire, which I believe was a dud round. Consistency has always been very good; much better than Winchester "Golden" for example. The ammo is also very clean. Not sure what was going on to make the OP so dissatisfied.

 

That precise ammunition (Federal Blue Box 525 "Champion") is my staple .22 ammunition. I have fired maybe 10,000 rounds of it in the past year from a combination of Mark Is, IIs, and IIIs, 10/22s, and a Single Six. I have had exactly one (1) failure to fire, which I believe was a dud round. Consistency has always been very good; much better than Winchester "Golden" for example. The ammo is also very clean. Not sure what was going on to make the OP so dissatisfied.

Winchester "Golden". I'd like to try those, where'd you get 'em.

 

Sounds like a bad batch.

Now I've made a mistake or two over time when it comes to buying .22 LR. One was buying a whole case of Winchester XPERT without trying a single box because the price - $7.99/Box 500 was pretty good, I just grabbed up a case of it. Mistake.

Another one was on a return trip from Cabela's and stopping at Gander Mountain to buy some Federal 510. The mistake there? Well, at the time it was priced $0.89, but when they rang it up, I was billed $0.79/box and should have went back for 2 more cases!

Now in both instances, I had nary a clue of they would even shoot well in my .22 LR, was only looking at the "bottom dollar savings", though still kinda kicking myself on the Federal 510.

Now, as for the talk of that "Winchester Golden" or "333"/"555" stuff, YMMV. What I've tried I'd keep to manually operated firearms, just like that crappy XPERT stuff (though I have some of that around still). Thats just my thought on the matter.

Ya'lll have a nice day! :bthumb:

 

I expect stories like this will be on the rise. When demand goes up, quality tends to suffer. Anyone that works in manufactoring can attest. Supervisors and Quality Managers have their jobs cut out for them and upper management wants numbers.

I work as a supervisor for an automotive supplier and see it first hand. We are working around the clock, seven days a week and still can't meet demand. When you are about to shut the customer down, what do you think happens? Shortcuts and calculated risks. Sometimes you get away with it, sometimes you get bit in the butt.

This doesn't excuse poor quality, but not only do I expect to see it in ammo, but in the weapons themselves. I'm cruising the used market for my guns, although I did recently purchase a new MKIII. It seems to run okay after a couple a hundred rounds of Federal Bulk and Blazers.

 

I have bought two cases of Federal Blue Box 525 from BulkAmmo.com. Mainly to have as my SHTF EOTWAWKI Democrats-take-House-Senate-WhiteHouse-and-ban-ammo-purchases reserve. Guess I'll shoot up a box out of each case to make sure that these are not a dud lot.

As I have said in this thread; I have had terrific and good luck with Fed Champion Blue Box. I've shot thousands of rounds of it in the past 18 months with exactly one (1) dud round. Not a single FTF or FTE otherwise.

 

I always use the Federal Champion 550 box. They shoot perfectly in my mk3 Hunter, I've never had an issue that was the cause of the bullet (usually a dirty extractor). But, my LGS was out of stock, so I bought the 525 box. Only shot 2 mags of it so far, and they ran fine, but I think I'm going to go search for some of my regular ammo for the match tomorrow, instead of relying on the value pack.

 

I feel kind of bad that this thread seems to have hammered the reputation of Federal Blue Box 525. I cannot say it enough times: I have fired thousands and thousands of rounds of this ammo with stellar results. The OP's experience is an anomaly -- bad lot or some dang thing.

 

I just ran about 300 rounds of Federal Champion through my MKIII Hunter with no FTF FTE. My gun and I both love the stuff. Seems reasonably accurat also. Maybe you just got a bad lot???

 

Ive been using the 525's exclusively this spring and have yet to have any issues after over 3000 rounds.

 

Not a glitch

My MK111 22/45 eats 'em up without a hitch...never tried them in any of my other 22's.....and I'm not exactly sure why?...hmmmmmm.....