Some ammo questions

B

BlW500

Inactive
So, my neighbor works at federal and I was talking to her a couple days go and she said she could get me lots of really cheap ammo but they would all be the factory seconds/discards. She told me most of the time they get taken out due to minor flaws such as blemishes on casings and scratches on bullets but there are other more severe one as well. I was wondering from you guys if you think it would be worth it to get the ammo? If so what should I pay attention to when inspecting the rounds before use? I would only be taking the 9mm, 45acp and 5.56/223.
 
Factory seconds are usually cosmetically damaged only. Federal would never even think about selling live ammo that isn't safe. They're liable if anything gets out of their factory and is unsafe.
A scratch/blemish on a case or an imperfect bullet jacket doesn't bother anything. including accuracy. Bought several hundred Speer 90 grain .243 seconds(slight damage on the jacket), years ago. Every one of 'em shot the same as any other bullet. Drilled neat puncture holes in ground hogs.
Dents in cases don't matter at all. Even bad ones will, um, iron out upon firing. Discolouring of the brass makes no difference either.
 
Seconds are kind of a gamble, at least in my neck of the woods. If you can get the rounds that are specifically cosmetic blems you wouldn't have much to worry about. I'm pretty sure federal doesn't make bullets so I imagine the list of reasons their ammo would end up as seconds would be:
Dented cases, bent ballistic tips, scratches on cases/bullets and cartridge concentricity. Also I imagine they shoot their ammo periodically and have grouping standards. If a batch of ammo doesn't meet their shooting standards they probably sell them as seconds.

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The first question I'd ask is whether Federal has authorized your neighbor to sell this stuff. If it is a "Midnight Express" deal, you want nothing to do with it.
 
Since there is a price mentioned, I would assume it is a legitimate transaction. Used to get Sierra second bullets the same way. Would like to get numerous boxes of Federal American Eagle 30-06s for the M1 Garand from your neighbor.
 
I spent a LOT of time at Federal back in the Blount Group days,
Federal used both mechanical & visual inspection.
Cameras, automated measuring, weighing,
And a line of visual inspectors (humans) to qualify the ammo.

Weight issues always got taken down in plant. A light powder charge or heavy weight bullet sneaking in got taken down,
While knicks, scratches, dinged Case mouths, etc went into the 'Seconds' bins.

Federal also loaded their generic box ammo with 'Seconds' bullets, some that came in with slightly shifted cores, +/- specified weight, ding on the nose from die punch/not enough lube, etc.

The 'Wrong Color' case is an example, a million cases rejected for first quality because the lube used during case forming darkened the cases slightly while in storage, these were loaded as 'Seconds' and put into generic boxes, no difference what so ever in function.

I WOULD keep in mind I'm shooting seconds,
I WOULD use reloading safety protocols, checking for squibs or barrel obstruction if I had a missed target or 'Miss-Fire', the same way you should be doing with handloaded ammo.

The reason is, seconds aren't treated with the same respect that first quality ammo is, they CAN get knocked around pretty good headed for those generic boxes... and you don't know for sure what culled them in the first place...

I shot a BUNCH of 'Second Quality' ammo from Federal, and had no issues what so ever other than the obvious case neck fold in pistol ammo once in a while.
They let us shoot up as much as we could stand, and other than the occasional scratch or knick on rifle ammo, or case neck fold on pistol ammo it all fired & cycled just fine.
 
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