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Hunting With Federal Custom Shop's Made-To-Order Cartridges

Handloaded with care and precision, Federal's Custom Shop builds ammunition for dreams.

Hunting With Federal Custom Shop's Made-To-Order Cartridges
(Photo by Mark Fingar)

One tragedy of life is when children make promises they never fulfill as adults. We’re all guilty. As a youngster in the late 1990s, my aspirations were simple. In order of difficulty, I vowed to win over actress Julia Roberts, become a billionaire by 30, and kill all 29 species of North American big game. You could say that I was a dreamer.

In the fall of ’98, I was living that dream, hunting British Columbia moose with my family. There, I saw my first grizzly. I didn’t know when or where, but I made a promise to hunt a great bear of my own. Even at 13, I was a ballistic geek, and I knew exactly what I’d use: .338 Winchester Magnum, North America’s premier dangerous-game cartridge.

“Pretty Woman” never panned out, and the funds earmarked for Dall sheep went towards diapers for two kids, but in the fall of 2023, in a remote bay in Southeast Alaska, I fulfilled a childhood promise. My 13th North American big-­game animal was a brown bear felled by a 200-­grain Trophy Bonded Tip loaded by the experts in Federal’s Custom Shop.

Federal's Finest

Federal has been in the ammunition biz for 102 years. First shotshell, then rimfire. Centerfire rifle loads joined the portfolio in 1963, a time when factory fodder was nothing special. Manufacturers loaded standard cases with vanilla projectiles and gave them riveting names like “pointed soft-­point.” In 1977, that changed with the introduction of Federal Premium, the first high-­grade factory ammo.

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Federal Custom Shop ammunition is packaged in a manner that feels more akin to a nice watch. Each load is signed off by the employee responsible for handloading, and the box is marked for the customer who provided the specifications. Each component is inspected and marked for approval. (Photo by Mark Fingar)

Pairing the best powders, primers, and cases with Sierra’s boat-­tail spitzer soft-­points and hollow­points — the best bullets of the day — Federal Premium was groundbreaking. “Premium” not only inspired the name, but it also delivered unbeatable accuracy and performance in factory ammo. The only way to beat Federal Premium was through judicious handloading.

Not everyone has the time, desire or expertise to reload, though. Luckily, hunters and shooters who demand the finest ammunition tailored to their needs have another option: The Federal Custom Shop. According to Federal Ammunition President Jason Vanderbrink, the Custom Shop is a turnkey solution for custom-­loaded ammunition.

“The Federal Custom Shop is a new way to deliver your preference of the perfect centerfire rifle or shotgun load built by our ammunition experts,” said Vanderbrink. “If it’s not in Federal’s vast catalog as factory ­loaded ammo, we may have it listed on our website as a load we will custom handload for you. We now have a specific selection of rifle and TSS shotshell loads that we will build on-­demand.”

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R1 magazines hold three rounds of .338 Win. Mag. One comes with each gun. Spares are sold at shopbenelli.com. MSRP $85 (Photo by Mark Fingar)

Inside the Custom Shop

Federal’s factory in Anoka, Minnesota, is a 700,000-­ square-­foot facility where 1,400 employees produce millions of rounds of centerfire, rimfire, and shotshell ammunition per day. The Custom Shop has its own room inside the plant, a reloading Mecca staffed by an elite group of Federal’s most experienced employees who use the best components available to handcraft unique ammunition for each order.

Custom Shop orders are placed online at federalpremium.com. For centerfire rifles, customers choose from a variety of cartridges and then select a specific bullet and weight. A comment section enables notes for handloading technicians.

All components are hand-­selected for each order. If Federal produces the brass, they use it. If not, the Custom Shop sources brass from Lapua, Norma, Nosler, Weatherby, and others, so headstamps can vary. The primers used are Federal’s Gold Medal Match (GMM). Powders are chosen to optimize pressure, velocity, and accuracy for the application.

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The R1 received an updated gas piston design in 2015. The cylinder and collector assemblies are an upgrade. (Photo by Mark Fingar)

Technicians check multiple specifications to maximize this ammo, beginning with a case/hull inspection to weed out defects. Next, they examine bullet-­to-­case concentricity, along with overall length, and base-­to-­bore dimensions. Quality checks at every stage of the loading process produce consistent velocity, accuracy and safety for each round. If there’s any doubt about the pride that goes into Federal Custom Shop ammo, check out the box. It’s signed by the employee who handloaded it.

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(Photo by Mark Fingar)

Lead time on orders is 3 to 4 weeks. Price is $100 per 20 rounds of centerfire rifle, but there’s no need to order a lifetime supply of your preferred load. If you create an account when ordering, the exact load data is saved for future hunts.

Recommended


Speaking of hunts, my first experience with Custom Shop ammo was on desert mule deer in West Texas. High West Outfitters exclusively runs Custom Shop 6.5 PRC ammo through its Mesa Precision rifles. It’s not cheap, but to ensure clients have a successful hunt, the $5 cost per round is insignificant.

I assumed that mulie would be my one and only Custom Shop kill. Then, Guns & Ammo Editor Eric Poole sent an invite to join Federal’s Brian Anderson in southeast Alaska for a September hunt. The target animal was brown bear.

Gunning for Brown Bear

Anderson and I  hunted with Parker Guide Service. We stayed aboard Bruce Parker’s 80-­foot luxury yacht, the “Alaskan Harvest.” It was incredible. After losing the first half of the 10-­day hunt due to ferocious rainstorms, the skies parted. We hit the beach in Parker’s skiff before light.

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The R1 features a continuous top-rail for mounting optics to accommodate any eye relief or maintube. (Photo by Mark Fingar)

Anderson brought a Gunwerks Skuhl in .375 H&H, which he used to clobber his mature bruin at 115 yards. One down, one to go. 

True to my promise, I went with a Benelli R1 in .338 Winchester Magnum, topping it with a Trijicon AccuPoint 3-­9x40mm in Seekins Precision rings. It was the most bulletproof autoloading setup I envisioned.

The Benelli R1 is a unique design with dual-­piston operation, and a takedown process like a shotgun. In preparation for this dream hunt, I fired 60 rounds of Custom Shop 200-­grain Trophy Bonded Tips to confirm function and zero. The R1 never sputtered. As for accuracy, how well it shoots depends on barrel heat. With a cold bore, it grouped well for three shots. After additional magnum powder charges scorch it, the skinny barrel quickly heated up. Five-­shot groups grew to 3 inches.

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The author used a Trijicon AccuPoint riflescope to take an Alaskan brown bear in 2023. The green triangle-post reticle provided pinpoint accuracy. MSRP $1,055

Before departing for Alaska, I disassembled the R1 and stuffed it into my Pelican luggage. Once on the Alaskan Harvest, I reassembled the R1 and hit the beach to confirm zero. Resting over a driftwood log, I fired three rounds at 100 yards using the tip of Trjicon’s tritium and fiber-optic green triangle/post reticle. The group was 1½ inches.

One and Done

My opportunity occurred on the same day as Anderson’s. After processing his bear that morning, we spent the evening atop a rocky perch overlooking a small salmon stream and watched multiple bears gorge on sockeye. It was incredible. Eventually, a dark spot emerged on the beach of a horseshoe bay. “That’s your bear,” said Parker. “Let’s cut across and intercept him.”

Hiding the skiff in a narrow cut, we scampered through a ribbon of trees and emerged on the beach. The bear was chest-­deep in saltwater, so we hustled to a driftwood log 50 yards ahead that would offer a rest.

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As the Benelli’s forend touched the log, the bear stopped, swung his large head, and stared at us. The last thing I recall was pasting the green chevron on his vitals. After that, nothing. No safety removal. No trigger squeeze. No recoil or noise from the Custom Shop cartridge. In the heat of the moment, human brains do funny things. Time slows. Memories evaporate — or become etched in stone. My guide said the 200-­grain Trophy Bonded Tip collapsed the bear without a step, but I have no recollection of that either.

On that remote beach in southeast Alaska during the summer of 2023, I likely just went on autopilot. Then again, maybe it wasn’t me pulling the trigger but a 13-­year-­old kid fulfilling a 25-­year promise. If so, that young man finally has a great bear of his own.

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