Just noticed that on the Federal website that they have only 1 load listed as HE.

All .30 cal listings have disappeared.

I also looked at Midway for the .300 win mag and noticed that they no longer list "High Energy" loads either.

Are they being discontinued??? Why?

I thought about some HE loads last year. I couldn't find a good enough reason to buy them; apparently not enough other people could either.

Possibly you're right, but for the non-handloader, they do offer a good increase in velocity and energy. They're also loaded with premium bullets.

I just found that interesting. They worked great in my .308 win. I used the 165gr TBBCs on many a Caribou hunt.

YAWWWWNNNNNN.......

quote:

Originally posted by seafire/B17G:
YAWWWWNNNNNN.......

Great value added to this topic

Those mfg's are going to drive me to handloading if they don't quit messing around with ammo after ammo after ammo. By the time you find "the one" that a rifle likes it has been replaced. That just cannot be profitable for them except for the fact that every change in ammo requires a price increase! You have noticed that? Surprise, surprise. Yep, handloading is just around the corner for me.

Ya shoulda been doin' it fer years already.

Look again at the Velocities listed. The high energy label may have been dropped but the loads are still there.

Good point, but the velocities ae no longer there either.

Cheers,
CL

If you shoot factory ammo, once you find a load that works, buy plenty of it!

From federals website

Federal Rifle ammo

Check next to each of the below part numbers and scroll back up to the top and pick compare.

All are 180 gr partition loads

30-06 Spring
P3006F 2700fps
P3006T 2880fps

308 Win
P308E 2620fps
P308G 2740fps

I believe the higher velocity loads are the high energy ones.

BigGuy is correct.
Ballistics are listed and the higher velocity loads are the same as the high energy. I have no idea why they dropped the name.

Mike

Yes, you're right.

But, I tried that with the .300 win. mag. and all 180 gr. loads came out below the 3000fps; while the HE loads were 3100fps.

Interesting.

And no more .35 Whelen.

"If you buy it, they will make it." That's how it works. Market forces. It costs more to make HE ammo. So the prices are higher. NO BUY; NO MAKE.

That sucks it doesn't look like they make my .338 win mag loads anymore. I used to buy the 250 partitions that were going 2800 fps.

There still making HE in 308 and 30/06 as far as the 338 win mag i called them and they discontinued it they also discontinued certain weight bullets in the 338 wm and the 338 ultra mag if you go to there website the high energy loads have a red HE in the discription you can check all the calibers on the site. They simply weren't selling thats the reason for the loads being dropped. They also dropped the only 35 Whelen load that they had.

You want to download there interactive ballistics program thats the one that shows the High energy loads its at the federal home page.

quote:

Originally posted by muygrande:
Those mfg's are going to drive me to handloading if they don't quit messing around with ammo after ammo after ammo. By the time you find "the one" that a rifle likes it has been replaced. That just cannot be profitable for them except for the fact that every change in ammo requires a price increase! You have noticed that? Surprise, surprise. Yep, handloading is just around the corner for me.

Even if you do find a factory load you like, the loading will change between lots unless you buy a bunch of boxes of the stuff you like with the same lot number. A couple of years ago we sighted in my cousin's 7mm rem mag using federal premium 140 gr partition's. He had 4 rounds from an old box so we shot them first, then broke open a new box of the supposedly identical ammo. Across the chronograph the rounds from the second box went an average of 150 fps faster than the first box. This from two boxes of supposedly identical ammo that only differed in lot numbers.

My opinion is that you're wasting your time trying to find a factory load that your rifle likes then relying upon buying the same ammo year after year. The stuff's not the same unless it was all made at the same time. At least my handloads I load today are the same as the load I worked up five years ago.

Hornady still makes the "Light Magnums"

Advertising departments are paid to find "hooks" and capitalize on them. One of the latest was "Titanium". The word "Titanium" sells everything from golf balls to razor blades.

"High Energy" was just another attempted hook that didn't catch enough buyers. The Ad-men will no doubt come up with something else to try to seperate us from our cash.

Why be at the mercy of marketers?
If you can afford to shoot enough factory ammo to stay proficient, and you actually shoot that much (most don't), then you can afford to have a local handloader work up a load for your rifle and crank out the exact same recipe for you whenever you need more for less cost than you've been paying the factories.

In my experience, there are only three classes of shooters who actually shoot enough to keep their edge: serious competitors, handloaders, and milsurp plinkers. Notice I didn't include hunters, though there are some hunters that are also in one of more of those groups, just damned few. Most hunters I know make a box of factory ammo last as long as possible - years ideally. And misses due to their lack of practice are invariably blamed on rifle, ammo, scope, etc.

Personally, I think in a perfect world every hunter should load all of his (or her) own ammo, but this is reality and not all hunters (even good, successful hunters) have the patience or the attention to detail needed to produce safe and consistant loads. That does not mean that they cannot enjoy all of the benefits of handloads, merely that they have to find someone to do their loading. We're not hard to find, just go to any range or shooting club and ask. With a little patience, you will easily be able to find someone you can get along with that will be happy to help you out. I currently load for about fifteen different shooters/hunters who cannot or will not load their own for one reason or another, and I'm an irascable SOB. But if I were of a more even temperment, I'd never have time to load and shoot my own.