austinrealtor wrote:Called Federal four times today. No answer. Left message and sent electronic message via their web site.
About 3:30 this afternoon, received a call back from a guy in Minnesota (who said he'd been on calls non-stop all day). I asked him about the Federal Champion from Wal Mart and he said the lot number is located on the inside flap. I had seen the number but looked right past it because it did not seem like a lot number (didn't follow same numbering sequence, wasn't printed in same big smeared black ink as other lot numbers). But he assured me this is the lot number for those Federal Champion packages and that my two boxes were both OK (he confirmed this by asking me the color of the primers, which were brass like the cases and said the bad ammo had different color primers - not saying that ALL such primers are bad, but the bad lots all had non-brass primers).
And of course he called RIGHT AFTER I'd just purchased four more boxes of ammo at GT Distributors to be sure I'd have enough for IDPA classifier this weekendOh well, not like I won't shoot it at some point - but wish I could've waited a bit to put it on my credit card which I've stretched a bit this month with other purchases. As a side note, GT's had to send back thousands of rounds of Federal bulk pack 250-count boxes just like the kind I bought from them last week. Luckily my box, of which I've already shot about HALF
, is not in the bad lot number sequence. A bit scary to think I could've pulled one of the other boxes quite easily.
Anyway, I'm satisfied now that all my ammo is OK. But it took a bit of doing - the American Rifleman link and Federal's own PDF link http://www.federalpremium.com/pdf/45_Auto_warning.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; are a bit hard to decipher for ammo boxes with lot numbers not printed in same spot or using same numbering sequence.
As an example, here is a photo showing three separate boxes of Federal .45 ammo with three different types of lot numbers located in three different places (circled in green)
* American Eagle 250-count box AE45A250
* American Eagle 50-count box AE45A
* Federal Champion 50-count box WM5233
Thanks Austinrealtor for the info. I have two boxes of the Federal Champion and couldn't figure out the lot number location. This clarified it for me, and I'm all good!
Also, my primers are all brass colored.