Federals new cartridge any guesses?

Automakers update vehicle models every year…

Well, they have to keep the cash flow going to stay in business and Americans are suckers for new vehicles. I am not one. My current ride will be 8 years old in March and is just broken in.

As to the new cartridge I knew nothing about it because I no longer keep up with things like that. I haven't bought any factory ammo in years except 22 LR and a couple of boxes of 22 TCM of which is mostly still here as my shooting stopped shortly after trading for the rifle. I only bought that to see what the rifle would do and get brass to reload.
 
Model T's predate me and I never had the pleasure of driving a Pinto although that was what my future SIL was driving while dating my daughter. I did get stuck with a Falcon as a loner while the dealer was waiting on parts to fix my Pontiac. Miserable thing and it was so slow I wouldn't pull out in front of a vehicle that was closer than 2 blocks from me. American companies built some very crappy cars but also some nice ones back in the '70's. I only had that one problem with my Pontiac and drove it several years and enjoyed doing so.
 
Pretty much everytime someone moans about new cartridge X that doesn't do anything that old cartridge Y did, there is always some detail they are conveniently ignoring such as;

Cartridge Y was designed in 1895 for 45,000 psi chamber pressure
Cartridge Y was saami approved for too slow of a twist rate
Cartridge Y has a throat designed for bullets 20 grains lighter than we want to use now
Cartridge Y doesn't fit in an AR15 or AR10 length magazine
Cartridge Y hasn't been chambered in a factory firearm in 30 years
Cartridge Y has a belt or semi rim or rebated rim or radius shoulder or some other such useless feature
 
View attachment 1244475Whatever this is going to be is your new cartridge I grabbed that screenshot straight from Federal of their Instagram page…

So trying to roughly caliper the screen, if it's a .30 cal, it seems to be .473" case head, 70mm case length and something like 3.8" OAL? Maybe I'm off somewhere, but that's a bit of an odd duck.

Edit: Nevermind, this guy claims to know what it is, "7mm Backcountry" maybe with a steel or hybrid case.
 
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Edit: Nevermind, this guy claims to know what it is, "7mm Backcountry" maybe with a steel or hybrid case.
I'd be interested in a 7mm - but not that type. That's about the same or maybe a little more powerful than 7mm PRC - which is already plenty powerful enough.

I'm a big 7mm-08 fan, but I'd love something in rough performance zone of a 6.5 PRC necked up to 7mm rather than what the 7mm PRC actually was. A little more oomph than 7mm-08 but not fully into magnum territory (basically something akin to a .280 AI but in a short action).
 
So trying to roughly caliper the screen, if it's a .30 cal, it seems to be .473" case head, 70mm case length and something like 3.8" OAL? Maybe I'm off somewhere, but that's a bit of an odd duck.

Edit: Nevermind, this guy claims to know what it is, "7mm Backcountry" maybe with a steel or hybrid case.

Wonder who gave this guy all the insider information a few days early?
 
I'd be interested in a 7mm - but not that type. That's about the same or maybe a little more powerful than 7mm PRC - which is already plenty powerful enough.

I'm a big 7mm-08 fan, but I'd love something in rough performance zone of a 6.5 PRC necked up to 7mm rather than what the 7mm PRC actually was. A little more oomph than 7mm-08 but not fully into magnum territory (basically something akin to a .280 AI but in a short action).
Hmmm like a .284? The problem is, the coal gets long in a short action with the long bullets, does ok in an intermediate action. Maybe wildcat and neck up the 6.8 western to a 7mm?? Run a slightly faster powder than the magnum h1000 types, I'm thinking like h4831, to get roughly 2800 with a 160 class would be pretty reasonable, running something like 50-55ish gr.
Eta, be just under 7wsm load data.
 
I'm not thinking its a 7mm. If it's a 7mm the case size would line up darned near identically with .280 AI. If it was a new case with higher pressures (a la .277 Fury) I don't think they'd take the legal risk of people blowing up .280 AI guns.

1736050785057.png
 
Hmmm like a .284? The problem is, the coal gets long in a short action with the long bullets, does ok in an intermediate action. Maybe wildcat and neck up the 6.8 western to a 7mm?? Run a slightly faster powder than the magnum h1000 types, I'm thinking like h4831, to get roughly 2800 with a 160 class would be pretty reasonable, running something like 50-55ish gr.
Eta, be just under 7wsm load data.

Ballistically, yes, but for the reasons you mentioned .284 Win has limitations in short actions. A necked up 6.5 PRC wouldn't have that problem as it uses a case that's about ~4mm shorter and ~0.8mm wider.

Plus .284 Win is SAMMI specc'd for 1:10 twist rate, which is slower than most people want these days. 7mm PRC is 1:8 and even the 7mm-08 is 1:9.5.

Its already a wildcat round that people use for competition but I've never been one for loading wildcats.
 
Ballistically, yes, but for the reasons you mentioned .284 Win has limitations in short actions. A necked up 6.5 PRC wouldn't have that problem as it uses a case that's about ~4mm shorter and ~0.8mm wider.

Its already a wildcat round that people use for competition but I've never been one for loading wildcats.
I've felt that pain myself, the 6.5 leopard still calls to me, but I've settle for the "easier" prc option. If winchester or hornady is quick in their feet to launch a 7mm western it could survive, though I'm not as optimistic about the 6.8 version.
 
These articles are just to throw everyone off. The ghost cartridge image just needs to be put into perspective.
The new cartridge will be a 14 caliber with a new type of bullet. The technical name for the new composite bullet is “Projectile Formulated For Flattest Trajectories”.
The new round’s nickname is the 14 Pffft. 😉
 
The 30-06 was all the rage when the model-T was new
It still is king.
That is all.

30-06 is one of my favorites. But it hasn't been in the top 10 for years when it comes to rifle and ammo sales. In fact some new rifles aren't even chambered for 30-06 or 270 any longer. Factory 308 loads in 2025 are 150 fps faster than 30-06 loads were when the model T was new.
 
30-06 is one of my favorites. But it hasn't been in the top 10 for years when it comes to rifle and ammo sales. In fact some new rifles aren't even chambered for 30-06 or 270 any longer. Factory 308 loads in 2025 are 150 fps faster than 30-06 loads were when the model T was new.

Before someone inevitably steps in and claims "Well, 30-06 gets that bump too" if I'm going to step up to a larger action size for more performance, I'm just going to skip 30-06 and go straight to 300wm and get a performance increase that'll actually make a difference.
 
I'll throw my unfounded guess into the ring that it's a Shell Shock stainless steel case loaded to 80,000 psi.


I bet it's approximately 30-06 AI or 280 AI in dimensions but ballistic performance approximately like 7mm RM or 300 WM.

I'll be delighted if that is the case. I've been loading 6.8x51 Sig hybrid cases reformed to 308 for the last year and I'm loving it. I'm not even leaning on it hard at all and getting fantastic velocity, very low powder use, very low recoil, and low muzzle blast. I know the muzzle blast is counter intuitive, but the faster burning powders used to get the pressure higher means the pressure curve is steeper and thus lower muzzle pressure than the bigger cases. 60,000 psi is obsolete in my opinion.
 
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