Call federal and let them know what happened. They will probably ask you to send the ammo back to them. And they should send you a couple of boxes back in return for your trouble. This isn't as uncommon as you would think, we had a whole lot of hornady ammo do that at the small arms firing school a few years ago. Considering that the box says urban tactical ammo it is probably supposed to be frangable if the jackets were too thin in that lot a high twist rate will very easily make them come apart. Good thing you found out at the range instead of the house.

 

Hi speed with fast twist can do that -- bullets spin VERY fast. Especially a 55 gr. in a 1:7 twist. Over 300,000 rpm! Think about that. I am amazed they EVER stay in one piece.

Do let Federal know and don't buy any more. Post a thread here with the title of the name of that ammo so people can search and find it. It'll get someone killed it seems to me.

 

They only problem with that is we shot all the other bullets that were in the same box. He does have about 300 more rounds of that brand though.

 

Buy the BTHP target bullets and you will be fine. My brother has an AR-10 chambered in .243 Win. and it shreds plastic tip hunting type expansion bullets because the M.V. is high and the twist rate is tight.

 

One bad bullet! It happens once in a great while.

 

As stated above, fast twist, fast velosity, light bullet= frag

 

Next time around we won't be buying those bullets with the plastic tips but at the time it was the only ones we could find during the peak of the shortage.

 

I shoot bullets with the plastic tips all of the time, have never had one come apart on me.

My .243 shoots the 58 grain Hornady V-Max at quite a clip, with no problems. - Much faster than any .223.

May have just been one of those things, a fluke.

Unless it happens again, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

I think your right. I just can't imagine how a bullet can just go to pieces like that

 

Next time around we won't be buying those bullets with the plastic tips but at the time it was the only ones we could find during the peak of the shortage.

NP It won't shed its skin till it's out of the barrel. If it happens again. Just don't bet your life on them.

 

We put well over 20,000 rounds of Hornady down range at Camp Perry loosing about one in fifty and it wasn't a safety concern... Although it was darn aggravating.

 

It is not a fast light bullet that causes this. It is a THIN JACKETED bullet spun too fast that will do that. "Match" or "Varmint" type bullets in fast twist barrels, shot close to max velocity will give the gray "puff" about 15 feet from the muzzle. Handloaders can reduce the load to about 3000 fps and overcome this.

 

It is not a fast light bullet that causes this. It is a THIN JACKETED bullet spun too fast that will do that. "Match" or "Varmint" type bullets in fast twist barrels, shot close to max velocity will give the gray "puff" about 15 feet from the muzzle. Handloaders can reduce the load to about 3000 fps and overcome this.

What he said, the bullet is not defective, the ammo is fine. Please don;t go bugging the manufacturer. You were trying to shoot ammo that is not really suitable for the gun. I can just about guarantee the barrel is stamped 1:8 or 1:7. That barrel is meant for heavier weight/heavier jacketed ammo. Buy the right ammo for your gun and you'll be fine.

 

IMO any bullet labeled tactical should be able to handle 1 in 7 since that is the mil spec twist rate I would contact federal about it.

 

I agree. What are the odds of someone NOT putting those rounds in a 1:7 to 1:9 twist barrel? I'd say it's a virtual impossibility. There was a defect in the bullet is stll my opinion unless there's something we don't know!?

 

Pfffffffffffffffft! Silly squirrel guns shred their own bullets, LOL!

Never have that problem with an SKS.

 

IMO any bullet labeled tactical should be able to handle 1 in 7 since that is the mil spec twist rate I would contact federal about it.

The bullet is not labeled tactical, the ammo is. That ammo is just designed to work well in short M4 barrels (14.5") and SBRs with 7"-11.5" barrels. The kind of gun you'd normaly find in a CQ encounter. You put this sucker in longer barrels where it has the room to gain full speed and you will have trouble. It is a thin jacket varmint design specially made to shed it's jacket and self destruct. It really can't handle the HIGH RPMs a fast twist puts on it. I've had that problem before with some of my ARs but never with my 10.5" SBR. Changed ammo and it's gone. LE Only Gold Dots in the 64 gr. range work really well out of fast twist guns fo SD.

BTW I actually agree that it is silly for Federal to be marketing this bullet as Tactical without some sort of warning.

 

They only problem with that is we shot all the other bullets that were in the same box. He does have about 300 more rounds of that brand though.

What is the bullet weight and what is the barrel twist rate?

 

If you split a hair fine enough your bound to find a slice you like. Notice that the OP didn't mention his barrel length but I'd be willing to lay 5 bucks down on it being a 16". That's only and inch and a half from your 14.5 which is somewhere in the ball park of 50 fps worth of average muzzle velocity. If the ammo is loaded to 3,050 fps from a 14.5 inch barrel it be spinning at 313,714 rpms. If it leaves the muzzle at 3100 fps it will spin at 318,857 rpms which represents an increase of only 1.6% in the rate of rotation. Even if you doubled this to 3% I don't think you could justify a bullet loosing its structural integrity, especially since standard deviation in SBR's regularly exceed 80 fps. So I stand by my previous statement that I would call federal and complain and feel justified doing so.

 

I don't have the rifling of the barrel but I do know its a 20 inch barrel. I do know it will shoot .223 and 5.56. But I would think that any modern day AR15 type of gun would be able to handle modern loads. Wished I knew to look what grain the bullet was but didn't think about at the time. Do 20 inch barrels all have the same twist to them?

 

I don't have the rifling of the barrel but I do know its a 20 inch barrel. I do know it will shoot .223 and 5.56. But I would think that any modern day AR15 type of gun would be able to handle modern loads. Wished I knew to look what grain the bullet was but didn't think about at the time. Do 20 inch barrels all have the same twist to them?

I stand corrected, who gets the 5 bucks?

Twist rates and barrel lengths are not necessarily tied together. I still don't think federal should be marketing ammo to the civilian market if it won't hold up to civilian firearms but I must recant my previous statements about velocity and rotation because that is quite a bit of difference.

 

I just checked on the weight of the bullet. It's a 55 grain Nosler tip bullet if that helps. Bullet velocity is 3220 fps. Father in law can,t read the writing on the barrel to tell what twist it is.

 

I just checked on the weight of the bullet. It's a 55 grain Nosler tip bullet if that helps. Bullet velocity is 3220 fps. Father in law can,t read the writing on the barrel to tell what twist it is.

Now that's interesting because I hand load that bullet with CFE 223 (can't remember the charge) and it goes through the chrono at 3100 fps from my 16" psma (1in 7 chrome lined) with no problems at all... When is the last time that barrel had the copper fouling removed from it?

 

It's brand new. Prior to that day it only had 20 bullets shot thru it and I cleaned it after that.

 

Probably a defective bullet, thinner than needed jacket or out of balance. I seriously doubt this is any reflection on quality of the rifle.
I knew a guy once that had a bunch of these once. He was trying to hot rod a .17 Remington.
Useless, and kind of funny, but it never really hurt anything.