It's official: April 27, 2022 marks Federal Ammunition's 100th birthday. The company's centennial celebration, which it's dubbed "A Century of Authority," is as much a look into the future as it is an homage to the past. That's only to be expected from a manufacturer whose reputation has been burnished by 10 decades of dedication to providing the best in ballistics. But there's much more to Federal than just high-quality ammunition ... here are some fun facts we bet you didn't know about your favorite Fed.
#1: Firstly (and, obviously, most importantly): Right now, you can enter to win 54,000 rounds of Federal Premium ammunition, including 12-gauge, .223 Rem., 9mm Luger and .22 LR. The page is here; scroll down about halfway to enter the giveaway.
#2: Back in 1922, when Federal founder Charles Horn opened its doors, the only ammunition product that Federal made was shotshells. You had your choice of three Hi-Power shotshell loads: a short-brass Dixie load with black powder, Standard ammo with medium brass and Ranger long brass.
#3: During the 1920s, if you wanted to buy Federal shotshells, your best bet wasn't a sporting-goods store. Federal was mostly sold in barbershops, gas stations and grocery stores. Horn's philosophy was that his competition could force their customers to go to a specialty store ... he would market his shotshells where the customers already were.
#4: In addition to being a savvy businessman, Horn was also a bit of a ham. Company lore has it that Charles Horn himself posed in a red sweater and flat cap for the art that graced Federal target ammo into the 1950s.
#5: A dedicated conservationist, Horn had Federal Cartridge lobby congress to pass the Pittman–Robertson Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act. Among other sweeping reformations, the act created a self-imposed excise tax on ammunition and firearms, which has, in time, raised billions of dollars to help preserve the environment.
#6: The Federal Ammunition factory began at a mere 9,000 square feet. Its latest iteration, in Anoka, Minnesota, is now a 700,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility where 1,400 employees work in three shifts, 24/7, to produce millions of rounds of centerfire, rimfire and shotshell ammo per day.
#7: Federal Premium Ammunition builds everything on site, using almost exclusively recycled lead, plus literal tons of plastic beads, lead, brass strips, copper and steel.
Happy 100th Birthday, Federal! We can't wait to see what you come up with in the next century.
