hometheaterman

I've been shooting Federal 150 Grain soft points out of my 30-06. They don't shoot as well as the Fusions but I've been getting them for $18 a box at gun shows vs the Fusions are $30 a box. These shoot good enough for hunting with them and target shooting. Anyway, Wal-Mart has them for $14 a box but I've been paying $18 at gun shows and it's similar to online prices without shipping. I've been looking at Wal-Mart for 6-8 months if not more and not found any instock so I figured $18 wasn't too bad.

Well, I stopped by Wal-Mart tonight to see what they had and they had 6 of these boxes in for $14. I picked up 3 but I'm kind of wishing I had gotten all 6. I didn't want to hog it but I will be lucky if 3 even lasts me until hunting season the way I go through it target shooting.

Anyway, I noticed the ends are different than the other boxes I've gotten from a gun show. I've never seen them like this before. They are of course a different lot number too.

Here are pictures.

Old is on the left and the new is on the right.

From the tops as you can see they look the same


Now the ends are where you can see the difference.




Now as you see they are both Federal Power Shok 150 grain soft points but the boxes are slightly different. This is one reason I only bought 3 instead of all 6. I wanted to make sure they were the same thing. Are these the same thing and did they just change the box or is it a cheaper version for Wal-Mart or what? I can't even find them online for $14 without shipping much less by the time you add in shipping so this seems super cheap.

Just wanted to know if anyone knew if the box was all that had changed.

thndrchiken

Same thing different box.

Wingbone

If both are the same, the differenceis probablythat one box is older and they changed the graphics on the newer one.

eldeguello

You could pull the bullets on one of each and section the bullets to see if they are indeed made the same. Otherwise, I would assume the bullets are identical, or nearly so. But the powder charges may differ from lot to lot. That's why it is wise to buy a few boxes of whatever lot proves the best in your gun, so you'll have enough for several years.

nchawkeye

I believe they are the same and Federal uses the Speer HotCore in that loading...I'd buy the rest, they'll kill deer...

hometheaterman

At the gun show I bought all they had left at the first one. I wanted to make sure they shot accurately since I have such a problem finding bullets that my rifle likes to shoot accurately. They aren't as good of groups as the Federal Fusions but are good enough for deer hunting and they are a lot cheaper. I bought one box to test. A buddy went back the next day and I had him get what was left. Well, they only had one box.

The next show I went to I got one box. They had 2 or 3 but not many and I didn't want to take it all.

Well, I've shot up a fair amount of those target shooting so I wanted some more.

hometheaterman

To be honest I'm wishing now I had gotten all 6 boxes instead of just 3. I don't want to drive that way just for ammo as it's several towns over so quite a drive for ammo alone. If they have it next time I go back I may get the rest who knows. The one thing kind of keeping me from it is while these things are accurate enough to kill deer or something like that they aren't as accurate as the Federal Fusions. They are under half price at $14 a box though so it's hard to pay the extra when these are good enough. I get about a 3" group with these and get about a 2" group with the Fusions maybe sometimes a hair smaller. With these I had 2 shots touching for the first two then the second two jumped about 2" away. I let the barrel cool down. That's about how it seems to do. I can get 2 close sometimes but that's about it.

I kind of want to get some more of the Fusions though and have both to use for hunting to just have both however, I hate paying that so I figured I minus well just get more of these.

eldeguello

At the Post Exchange at Ft Wainwright, Alaska, I once got their last 12 boxes of Win. 375 H&H Magnum 300 grain Silvertip ammo for $1.00 per box. 240 rounds for $12.00!! They had discontinued the caliber in the rifles they sold, and were dumping the ammo!