Bulk Federal 12 gauge any good?

[Regolith]

The Wal-Mart here has 100 round Federal 12 gauge #8 shot packs going for something like $16.99. Was wondering if its any good, as its at lest $3 cheaper than Remington or Winchester.

 

[USP45T]

I use it for breaking clays and have shot more than 1k with no issues. FYI, walmarts in Southeast MI have had Federal Heavy Field load for $3/box on closeout. #8s, 3.25 drams. I can't tell the difference from the target load at 3.00 drams. 100rd packs are up $1 from last month.

 

[RNB65]

All the bulk loads use steel bases. Some guns run fine with steel bases and some guns hate them and jam frequently. The Remington bulk is usually considered to be the best of the bulk loads. It's a toss up between Fed and Win for 2nd place. The only way to find out is to buy some and see if they work in your gun.

 

[zinj]

Remingtons are considered the best because they are essentially the same hull as an STS and can be reloaded with the same specs. Federals are probably next, they have a paper basewad which prevents reloading but otherwise function quite well. It is the Winchesters that people have problems with, apparently some of the shells are out of spec and can cause failures to extract. Never had a problem with the Winchesters myself though.

 

[Regolith]

zinj....those cheapo Winchester rounds are the reason I ask. I had some in 20 gauge a few years ago that simply wouldn't cycle in an auto, and they didn't even work well in a double barrel, as the cases seemed to be a little too big. I didn't want to buy 100 rounds and have similar results.

Also, the gun I'll be shooting them through is a new Remington 870 Express.

 

[The Deer Hunter]

They go boom. They don't have nearly as many misfires as the Estate(which suck IMO). I don't accually shoot them, but alot of the guys who shoot doubles league just buy one of those and they are good for a night.

 

[Jorg Nysgerrig]

I like the Federal bulk packs. The Remington aren't bad either. No complaints with either and I've run about 1,500 of them through over half dozen different shotguns over the last couple of years.

The Winchester ones, on the other hand, are complete and utter crap. They don't pattern worth a damn and some of them aren't even assembled properly. We actually found that if you loaded a gun with shells randomly selected from all three brands, 9/10 times you'd miss clays with the Winchester where you'd hit it 8/10 times or so with the other brands.