Federal 40 S&W Brass

[mohunter55]

I've been doing some research trying to see if there is an easy way to tell which Federal brass is the post 1995 "Glock Kaboom Era" when Federal redesigned the brass at the casehead to make it stronger. Is there an easy way to tell if you do not have the original ammo boxes? I have range pickup marked FC and Federal and I have factory new marked Federal. From what I've found so far, FC is the old stuff. What I'm hoping is that someone can confirm that the FC is the pre 1995 headstamp and Federal is the post 1995 headstamp....that would make things very easy, but thats probably too much to hope for.

 

[mohunter55]

Looks like Federal has fast customer service. here is their response to the question i asked above:


Please dispose of the FC stamped cases. This brass is over 15 years old
and should not be used. The FEDERAL stamped cases are good to use.

Guess I'm good to go as long as i throw out my FC 40 s&w brass

 

[LiveLife]

Please dispose of the FC stamped cases. This brass is over 15 years old
and should not be used. The FEDERAL stamped cases are good to use.

So does this mean 40S&W Federal ammunitions with "FC" on the headstamp that are 15 years old are bad???

I didn't know brass got bad because it's 15 years old. What about when new "FEDERAL" headstamp cases get 15 years old? Will they be bad too?

I think this might be Federal's legal response like Glock's "Don't shoot reloads in Glocks" - If Federal identified their 40S&W cases to be too thin, perhaps a general press release and recall might be a better option than an individual email response like this.

I think I still got some 40S&W HydraShok ammunition somewhere in my old ammo boxes - I will go check for "Best used by" date.
I KNOW my Remington Golden Saber and Winchester "Copper Talon" did not come with any expiration dates.

I certainly have quite a bit of brass that's over 15 years old and some even older (I got some 5 gallon buckets of brass I haven't touched in 10 years after they were polished). I plan to continue reloading them, but now I gotta sort out "FC" cases to my case processing steps??? - please give me a break, even for this OCD reloader.

Guess I'm good to go as long as i throw out my FC 40 s&w brass

Don't throw those FC cases out.

Forward them to THR members short on brass who promise to not overcharge the cases and only shoot them in fully supported barrels.

OK, RANT BUTTON OFF

 

[Walkalong]

There were some problem with early Fed .40 brass. I do not remember all the particulars, but Reloader Fred posted them here some time back.

I am sure that light to midrange or so loads would be fine in it in well supported barrels. I am not going to toss my FC .40 brass.

 

[mohunter55]

i think the guy meant that they are 15 years old since 1995 was when they changed the headstamp to make the case web thicker. I would not think 15 year old brass would be bad if it is taken care of from the elements. I would also think FC 40 brass is fine with light loads, but i dont have much of it and i didnt want to take the chance since 40 once fired brass is so cheap

 

[popper]

FC headstamp 40 S&W

Dump the FC. Blew the back end off one yesterday.
Got a round cylinder in the barrel and the back end on the ground.
Inspected other rounds with 10X and see a ring at the groove.
From a bag of 'once-fired?' from the local gun shop.
180 gr plated with ~4 gr unique. NOT a heavy load.
Fortunately, no damage to me or the XDM, but about 3 hours inspecting everything.

 

[Hondo 60]

What about when new "FEDERAL" headstamp cases get 15 years old? Will they be bad too?

Email fed in 15 yrs & ask.

 

[LiveLife]

OK, I am going to hack saw some "FC" and "FEDERAL" 40S&W cases in half and take a peak.

From a bag of 'once-fired?' from the local gun shop.

How do you know that they were "once fired"?

For me, unless I saw them come out of factory new ammo box they are just "range brass" with unknown number of reloadings REGARDLESS how shiny they are (I have seen what some of you can do to brass to get them better than factory new shiny). Who knows, your FC cases may have been reloaded several times with hot over pressure loads that weakened the brass.

 

[popper]

FC brass

Don't bother to saw them open, won't show the flaw.
It appears to be a stress fracture at the rim.
Imagine a tube with a thick rimmed plug pushed into one end.
The plug came out. It was fire-cut all the way around.
The plug is 0.170 thick. If it were a thin wall, it would separate in the tube.
Yes, once fired is usually range brass. These had been ultra-sonically cleaned and really looked good. If you don't dump the brass, at least look for the really small black line just under the rim.