I've never seen this before and hope somebody here can answer the question, since I can't seem to get anyone from Federal on the phone. I received 1000 rounds of American Eagle .40 S&W today. Some of the boxes appeared to have a slighly-different Eagle graphic on it. I compared the two styles of boxes side-by-side. All boxes were marked .40 S&W 165 grain. Each of the two different boxes had rounds with different head stamps. In the boxes that I generally see, the head stamp was Federal .40 S&W. In the boxes that were a different style, the headstamp said FC 08 (nothing else).

 

Can anyone explain the difference?

All twenty boxes in the same factory case? Lot numbers the same or different on box flaps or back of box? Either retailer made this case up or change of production run at plant. More likely retailer repacking a case to meet sales. Howwever, just a different lot number run. All packaging changes with orders from different suppliers and headstamps from whatever brass they were runnning off extruder machine. FC 08 indicates federal cartridge 2008 production. Box end where size and style is printed should be federal's load number ( AE40R3 ) this should be the same on all the boxes.

I would suspect the FC 08 (already 4 years old) is part of a government contract overrun. Homeland Security uses .40 S&W (the Coast Guard). If loaded to the same specs shouldn't make a difference.

Thanks for the speedy reply Bob. I never saw the headstamp that way, so I was wondering if it could be a problem.

All twenty boxes in the same factory case? Lot numbers the same or different on box flaps or back of box? Either retailer made this case up or change of production run at plant. More likely retailer repacking a case to meet sales. Howwever, just a different lot number run. All packaging changes with orders from different suppliers and headstamps from whatever brass they were runnning off extruder machine. FC 08 indicates federal cartridge 2008 production. Box end where size and style is printed should be federal's load number ( AE40R3 ) this should be the same on all the boxes.

 

Bill I appreciate your reply.. They were loose boxes, not in a factory case. Lot numbers were on the back of the boxes. Different lot numbers for the two different styles. The boxes all had the same load number. The only real difference was the slight design different on the boxes, with contents of each of the two design styles having different head stamps.

I heard back from Federal Ammunition this morning. They are issuing a call tag for me to return the ammo with the FC 08 headstamp. I was told that, if this was 9mm ammo, it would be a non-issue, but because it's very uncommon for .40 to be in brass with this headstamp they wanted it returned to their warehouse for inspection. They'll be replacing it, and throwing in a few extra boxes for my inconvenience.

 

When I heard back from Federal, I called Carl at Cheaper Than Dirt since he asked that I update him after I spoke with Federal.

Not too shabby -- Federal Cartridge retrieved the questionable rounds a little over a week ago. I received the replacement shipment today, including an extra 100 rounds for my trouble.

Very nice. Ha, ha - some HS rounds that weren't supposed to fall into civilian hands.