FAQs

Call us at (800) 379-1732. Representatives are available to answer your calls between 7 a.m. – 5 p.m. CST Monday through Friday.

For ammunition questions or to speak with a Federal Product Services team member, please call 800-379-1732. Representatives are available between 7 a.m. - 5 p.m. CST, Monday through Friday.

Emails us at vistaoutdoorhelp@apfco.com HOURS: 7:00 AM –7:00 PM CT Monday –Friday, 9:00 AM –5:00PM Saturday and Closed on Sunday (Holidays excluded).
Or Check your rebate status 24 hours a day, at promotions.vistaoutdoor.com and click on “Status Lookup”.

Vista Outdoor Sales LLC is a subsidiary of Federal Ammunition that processes sales orders for Federal.

Upon receipt of an order, you will receive an order acknowledgement with an estimated sales tax. Upon acceptance of the order, the estimated tax will be adjusted to the actual tax and the charge will be revised accordingly.

We do accept gift cards, but for security measures, some gift card sellers require the recipient to activate the card before it can be used. Though stores often activate gift cards at the cash register, online gift card sellers generally require the recipient to activate the card once it is received in the mail or via email. If your gift card does not work online, check to see if it needs to be registered before use. Registration usually involves linking a name and billing address to the prepaid card. Though you generally are not required to register a gift card in order to use it in stores or restaurants, the process is important if you intend to use the gift card online.

All ammunition and components sales are final.. While ammunition and component items are not eligible for return, we are committed to your 100% satisfaction. Please contact customer support for more information.

For general merchandise, please contact customer support and let us know how we can help fix the problem.

We’re proud to offer direct online sales for all of our Premium ammunition and a wide selection of standard Federal products, as well as branded merchandise.

Federal recently underwent a complete rebranding, an effort that ushered in a new logo and redesigned packaging across our product line. As we complete this transition, the packaging you receive might vary in appearance from what is displayed online. However, if the item number on the box you received matches what you ordered on the website, the actual product inside is the same.

Federal recently underwent a complete rebranding, an effort that ushered in a new logo and redesigned packaging across our entire product line. As we complete this transition, the packaging you receive might vary in appearance from what is displayed online. However, if the item number on the box you received matches what you ordered on the website, rest assured the actual product inside is the same. Custom Shop offers exclusive line of ammunition hand-loaded by an elite group of Federal’s most experienced employees. Using the best components available, these expert engineers handcraft this ammunition to order. Each box of Custom Shop ammunition will be signed by the Federal employee who hand-loaded it.

Federal’s online shopping site features a dedicated section featuring Custom Shop, where customers can access the rifle and shotshell landing pages, select their ammunition, add their custom loads to the cart and complete the ordering process. On the product detail page for each option, customers can add notes for Federal’s hand-loading technicians to consider when building the loads. Once the order is placed, it will be processed and the custom loads will be meticulously hand-loaded in the Custom Shop. Each round is then hand-checked, cleaned and inspected before being packed and shipped. Since ammunition is made-to-order, typical production time is approximately two weeks. Custom Shop orders will be processed and shipped separately from standard ones.

Loading details such as cartridge length and bullet seating depth, as well as performance criteria such as velocity will not be available for selection at this time. Every ammo combination offered in the Custom Shop has been optimized by our engineers to produce the most consistent velocity, accuracy, safety and overall performance.

For now, yes, TSS is the only shot type offered. The incredibly dense material has taken hand-loading by storm, and it’s an integral part of Federal Premium’s HEAVYWEIGHT TSS and Black Cloud TSS loads. The pellets have a density of 18 grams per cubic centimeter and are 56 percent denser than lead. Shooters who have been asking for more options in TSS loads, such as a 2¾-inch shell length, 28-gauge or 16-gauge, can now get them from the Federal Custom Shop.

All components are selected appropriately for each load and hand-loaded. This means components vary depending by load; 28-gauge hulls with primers are currently sourced by Federal. All powders are high-quality, reliable propellants from Alliant Powder and other sources, selected to produce the best performance based on the Federal Custom Shop’s expertise.

Custom Shop shotshell loads use high-quality plastic hulls built to the needs of specific gauges. Colors are the same as standard Federal shotshell ammunition: Brown for 10 gauge, purple for 16 gauge, yellow for 20 gauge and Burgundy (red) for 12 gauge, 28 gauge and .410. Hulls have the length and payload information printed using a high-quality Apex printer, not a print stamp that can wear off. Wads and over-powder or over-shot cards (when appropriate) are the best available. Some loads feature FLITECONTROL wads while others might feature standard wads, depending on gauge and other criteria. Card materials depend on availability for each specific gauge. Some cards might be plain and others might be clear with Federal branding.

Each batch of centerfire Custom Shop loads is tested for pressure and velocity. Accuracy is also validated for each batch of centerfire rifle loads. For shotshell loads, the design and pattern is pattern tested, but each batch is not, which is the same procedure for our standard factory-loaded shotshell products.

If customers create an online account, their Custom Shop order details will be saved. However, component lots could change over time and their options might not be available at the time of reorder.

Customers will not receive their order’s component recipe and load data from Federal.

If you can’t find your desired cartridge, bullet, bullet weight or shotshell load in Custom Shop, let the team at Federal know what options should be considered for future offerings via the Custom Shop order form, on social media, or through our website’s contact form at https://www.federalpremium.com/support/contact-us.

You can buy Premium ammunition as well as Federal merchandise directly on this website. You can also purchase Federal ammunition from a wide array of dealers and sporting goods businesses. To find a dealer in your area, go to the Dealer Locator. Premium 365 dealers offer the widest selection of our products.

Store reloading components and ammunition in a cool, dry place, protected from direct exposure to sunlight. If stored properly, loaded ammunition has a 10-year shelf life.

There are small differences that make each of these cartridges unique. Most notably are the standards in which pressure is tested and measured. You can shoot 223 Rem. ammunition in a 5.56x45mm chamber, but not the other way around due to these pressure variances.

Open tip match (OTM) rifle bullets are typically used for shooting targets at the range. The slender, streamlined bullets feature a copper-alloy jacket with a hole at the nose through which the lead core is poured during the manufacturing process. The result is a highly consistent, accurate projectile. However, unlike true hollow-points and bullets like the Trophy Bonded Tip, OTMs are not designed to offer controlled expansion, penetrate the target or retain a given percentage of their weight, making them a poor choice for hunting.

We recently upgraded our Premium centerfire rifle varmint and big game product lines, giving these loads nickel-plated brass to prevent corrosion and provide faster, smoother extraction. Aside from the plating, the brass—as well as the bullets, powders, primers and construction processes used to build the ammunition—is identical to that of your previously purchased rounds. Expect the same ballistic performance achieved by older, unplated brass product with the same part number when fired through the same rifle. The nickel-plated cases also offer the same outstanding reloadability as unplated Federal brass.

Recently improved Black Cloud FS Steel, Black Cloud High Velocity and Black Cloud TSS use the FLITECONTROL FLEX wad, which is designed to open from the rear for denser, more consistent patterns. Unlike its predecessor, the original FLITECONTROL wad, the new design works through all waterfowl chokes—including ported ones.

It is a method of correlating relative velocities of shotshells loaded with smokeless propellant to shotshells loaded with black powder. The reference black powder load chosen was a 3 dram charge of black powder, with 1 1/8 oz. of shot and a velocity of 1200 fps. Therefore, a 3 dram equivalent load using smokeless powder would be with 1 1/8 oz. of shot having a velocity of 1200 fps. or 1 1/4 oz. of shot and a velocity of 1165 fps. A 3 1/4 dram equivalent load might have 1 1/8 oz. of shot and a velocity of 1255 fps. (Also see SAAMI.org/faqs/)

You can request to become a dealer by completing a Contact Us form and selecting the subject Become a Dealer.

Try your local dealer. We get many requests for sponsorship and do not have the resources to support them all. Our efforts are focused on national strategic sponsorships among our current partners in the industry. You can request a donation by completing a Contact Us form and selecting the subject Donations.

Not through Federal. The best bet would be to check with your local retailers. Some businesses may have what you're looking for.

Contact your local hazmat facility. Each state, county or city may have different regulations for proper disposal.

We offer recipes for a variety of loads featuring our component bullets. Please visit our Reloading Data page, as well as those of sister brands Speer and Alliant Powder for more information.

The Federal 12-gauge Multi-Purpose shotshell loads (part numbers MP12 7.5 and MP12 8) feature a hull that is not recommended for reloading. It uses a European-style hull that works best with a European-style primer.

For decades, we’ve loaded the industry’s finest bullets, including our proprietary Trophy Bonded Bear Claw, Trophy Bonded Sledgehammer Solid, Trophy Bonded Tip, Trophy Copper and Edge TLR, in our Premium rifle ammunition. We also build Fusion bullets for deer hunting, Syntech bullets for range use and HST and Hydra-Shok projectiles for self-defense. We currently offer Trophy Bonded Bear Claw, Trophy Bonded Sledgehammer Solid, Trophy Bonded Tip, Edge TLR, Fusion, Hydra-Shok and Syntech as component bullets for reloaders.

We do sell reloading components including brass, however, at this time we do not sell shotshell hulls.

No. Placing ammunition in a tumbler can be very dangerous. The risks are detonation inside the tumbler or changed powder characteristics that can result in serious injury during firing.