Boys
A bud of mine has asked me to work up a load for him is his 25-06 and has given me 200 pieces of Federal once fired brass and a box of 115gr Barnes TSX bullets.

I have seen a number of folks refer to the Fed. brass as being soft, should I not use this or use Win brass instead? FS

I'd use it, just toss those with loose primer pockets. FWIW, Federal primers seem to fit better than the Remington or Winchester variety.

The only problem that I have had with federal brass is,when new it lacks the defined shoulder that we all like.
Being that this is already fired it should be no problem and if any primer pockets are found to be loose just chuck it.

Federal has always worked as well as any other brand in hunting rifles.
About 30 years ago there was an article on 7mm Rem Mag. In the article Bob Hagle was able to use hotter loads with Federal than Rem or Win.
He had the brass tested and the heads turned out to be harder than the other brands. Use the 25-06 brass and use Federal 210 primers.

All of the Federal .223 brass I've used has been really soft. As Plainsman mentions it also has a bad habit of not always holding the primers. Consequently I don't use it for anything more important then shooting P-dogs.

quote:

Originally posted by Antelope Sniper:
All of the Federal .223 brass I've used has been really soft.

I have only been "blessed" with one batch of Federal .223 Rem (Gold Match) cases. It was miserably soft, and cured any desire I might have had to buy more Federal brass. Once fired factory brass is free, so I guess it is worth reloading and see how it works...

- mike

I can only speak to 308 GMM brass. Due to occupation I'm lucky and get to shoot a lot of the 308 GMM. I keep the brass and reload it often.

Some lots of the GMM exhibit loose primer pockets after the initial fire (factory loaded mind you). BUT 2009/2010 lots (we buy5k a year) have been excellent. 09 lot I am getting 8-10 loadings (anneal every 4) in a few bolt guns and on loading #7 on a AR-10. Pockets have been great. Using Wolf LR primers and loading to just about max with Varget and/or RL-15.

Nt sure if they changed up their ways or not, but past stuff I've gotten was soft in the pocket. Latest stuff seems damn good.

I haven't come across any Federal brass that appears to be inadequately hardened in the head area, but brass can and does vary from lot to lot. I'm not sure if you'll find any more consistency in WW or RP. You'll have to pay a lot more if you want highly consistent quality in Lapua. And you can pay a lot more and have consistently soft brass in Norma (although they now probably harden their heads somewhat more than they did in years past.)