Custom Rifle Ammo
Make precision personal with our wide selection of custom rifle loads.
30 Super Carry
Hits like a 9mm Luger. Carries like a 380 Auto. Designed exclusively for defense.
High Over All
More reloads and better patterns for the most elite trap, skeet and sporting clays shooters.
Varmint & Predator
Get the most of rimfire with loads that offer both accuracy and violent expansion on impact.
FireStick
There’s never been a muzzleloading system like this. See all the benefits that set FireStick apart to provide the most convenient, safe and consistent performance ever.
Hydra-Shok® Component Bullets
The bullet that’s defined self-defense for a generation is now available as a component.
Federal X Stone Glacier
Two great brands have finally come together. Don't miss your chance to own exclusive Federal-branded Stone Glacier apparel.
Model 2020 Waypoint Special Edition
We worked with engineers from Springfield Armory to create Custom Shop loads specifically designed for the utmost performance from the new Model 2020 Waypoint rifle.
“Premium centerfire ammunition is a result of Federal’s desire to provide hunters with the finest rifle cartridges available.” So stated a 1976 Federal press release announcing the new Premium line. Federal intended to search out and use the best components available, combining them with its own state-of-the-art products. Elite projectiles and propellants were to be sources from any manufacturer creating the best of the best.
This unique approach required both foresight and humility. Most companies of the time aggressively marketed their own products, made in-house. Bullet designs might be 40 years old. Bringing in boutique components to increase versatility and achieve ultimate quality—and especially stating it proudly—was a bold move.
Foundationally, Federal used the finest cases the company could produce, ultimately settling on the most precise nickel-plated brass. These cases weren’t just pretty. They resisted corrosion, and the natural lubricity of the nickel surface enabled them to flow into and out of chambers as if greased.
Primers were—and are—manufactured to the tightest tolerances and the greatest consistency standards in the world. Propellants for the Premium line have always been the best powder makers can provide, rigorously wrung out in each specific cartridge. Each bullet and weight combination is tested and re-tested and scrutinized until there is no doubt what works best.
Federal Premium Ammunition, from the very beginning, was positioned to be a champion. And Federal’s no-apologies willingness to step outside the comfort zone and find the best cutting-edge components gave the Premium line a legitimate edge.
It paid off. Initially launched with Sierra’s superbly accurate, boat-tailed GameKing hunting bullets, the Premium line burgeoned. It immediately expanded to include top-shelf hunting shotshells that boasted extra-hard, copper-plated shot cupped inside best-available wads and hulls.
Sierra’s boat-tail soft-point was one of the original choices for Premium rifle ammo. It was a radical move for Federal to use and promote other brands’ bullets, but it worked.
Federal has used the Premium brand for pistols and shotguns, too, with the same goal of providing the performance for which shooters and hunters would once have had to handload.
When Federal’s Premium Gold Medal match ammo hit, it set a standard so high it wouldn’t be challenged for decades, let alone equaled.
Within just a few years, Nosler’s Partition bullet was added to the centerfire rifle line. At the time, the Partition was the only deep-penetrating, controlled-expansion big-game bullet available, and it was so good that to this day, it remains the yardstick by which all others are measured.
A match bullet was also added to the Premium line, and not just any match bullet: Federal chose Sierra’s MatchKing, which had been winning most of the national matches at Camp Perry for decades. Gold Medal match ammowas born.
One load, the 168-grain MatchKing projectile in Premium’s super-consistent 308 Win. brass, went on to become the ultimate benchmark against which all sniper and competition-grade factory ammunition is judged.
By the early ’90s, Premium was entrenched as the best factory-loaded hunting and match ammo in the world and was continuing to expand into new realms. Federal’s new Premium Gold Medal UltraMatch 22 ammo turned in a medal-winning performance at the Barcelona Olympics. Jack Carter’s incredibly good Trophy Bonded Bear Claw dangerous-game bullet joined the fold, and the Premium Safari line was created. Premium Pistol was launched with high-performance hollow-point bullets.
Often, really good ideas outlive their creators and are eventually left to wither and fade. Not Federal Premium. Engineers continued researching and testing varmint bullets, predator bullets, rimfire projectiles, and nontoxic shot for waterfowl, and better, deeper-penetrating pistol bullets that expand more reliably.
As always, the fundamental roots of the Premium line deepened and expanded, as big game hunting bullets evolved. Best-in-class projectiles were always brought into the Premium fold. Eventually, the Premium line grew to include Nosler’s Ballistic Tip and AccuBond, Barnes’s TSX, and Swift’s Scirocco II and A-Frame.
Federal bought the rights to the Trophy Bonded Bear Claw, and manufacture was brought in-house. This was a critical step, though it’s doubtful that anybody at Federal knew how vital it would become in the future. Owning the rights to the Bear Claw’s unique technology and construction—a hybrid bullet with a solid rear half and a bonded lead frontal core—made it possible for Federal’s design team to engineer an evolving family of high-performance hunting bullets using that technology.
This eventually resulted in the Terminal Ascent: a bullet that many consider the finest all-purpose hunting projectile ever made.
As savvy companies do, Federal Premium reads trends and drives trends. Current popularity of long-range hunting made many companies hesitate. Not Federal. If hunters were shooting farther, they should have the best possible tools to help them achieve clean, ethical harvests. New loads featuring Berger’s ultra-accurate long-range bullets cater to far-shooting target shooters and hunters alike.
Discerning hunters and shooters tend to buy the best, and for many, Federal Premium is the only choice. Such sportsmen often also appreciate the unusual and unique, and wisely, Federal has always spread the Premium wings wide.
Rooted in the Trophy Bonded Bear Claw design, Federal’s Terminal Ascent projectile is arguably the best big-game hunting bullet ever made.
Premium shotshells boasted hardened, copper-plated shot in best-available hulls nestled in high-performance wads and buffers.
Just a few years after its launch, the Premium line brought Nosler’s deep-penetrating, controlled-expansion Partition bullet on board.
Like oddball cartridges? Most likely, you can find your favorite among the ranks of Premium ammo. From 7mm STW to the 35 Whelen; from the 22 Hornet to the 500 Nitro Express, Federal’s Premium line has you covered.
And yes, cutting-edge, long-range Gold Medal match cartridges from the 6mm Creedmoor to the 338 Lapua Magnum are ruling the range, loaded with Berger and Sierra bullets.
On the handgun front, Premium offers hunters Swift A-Frames, Trophy Bonded Bear Claws, Barnes Expanders, and non-expanding solids for ultimate penetration. Premium offers law enforcement and home-defenders multiple loads that pass the rigorous FBI penetration and expansion protocols.
Shotgunners can select Black Cloud or Black Cloud TSS waterfowl loads, plus Premium Upland, Turkey, buckshot and slugs, and more.
Competition skeet, trap, and sporting clays gunners have High Over Allshotshells and, to the eyes of purists, the coolest Federal Premium shotshell of them all: Gold Medal Paper.
Most ammunition companies now offer an upper-crust line of ammunition, featuring cutting-edge technology and top-tier components. And most of these lines are very good. But Federal Premium was the first, and to this day, its unique “source and use the very best” approach to crafting elite ammunition sets it apart.