Hello again, well I had this whole thing written and then had to start over. One I accidentally erased it before posting and two (and more importantly) some significant changes needed to be made to my review of this ammo after a few weeks went by and I observed a lot more of it going downrange. I want to discuss Federal Champion 9mm. It’s cheap, it’s plentiful and it’s accurate and seemed like a really good buy until.

So first I will tell you about my personal experience with the stuff with me shooting it, then what happened 2 weeks later when handing the same weapons over to other people. I read quite a number posts on various websites saying the stuff was under powered, weak, jamo-matic, ejected cartridges barely make it over the slide and often times don’t. In a nutshell it needed a stronger powder charge. Coming from Federal I wanted to see this stuff fail for myself. So I bought a case of 1000 rds off gunbroker for $206 delivered.

So off to shoot I went. I took half the case and a pile of 9mm’s. From micro pistols like the DB-9 all the way through an Uzi and an HK MP-5. My personal firing went off without a hitch. I was very happy with the groups and had zero malfunctions of any kind. I had 3-6 feet of ejection and I was convinced that the stuff I read was untrue. Maybe they had a bad batch?? I didn’t know what was up but there were no signs of the stuff being weak or prone to failures to eject due to not enough “umpff” to kick the case out. I gave a box or 3 each to a DB-9, XD subcompact, XDM, Sig290, XD service model, IMI UZI and 3 mags of 30 through the MP-5. Like I said, flawless. Now that’s where my old article pretty much ended.

So now it’s 2 weeks later and I had accidentally erased the review already. So Ang and I were out getting her ready for the Concealed pistol license course and I took several of the same 9mm’s as she is not sure yet which is her favorite. So that’s when the troubles began. She is very fit and not limp wristing the guns. It was “normal people” muzzle flip. It’s certainly not the first time she has fired these guns either. I’ve never seen her have a malfunction in the past. So right away I noticed the spent cases were in fact just rolling over the side of the slide out the ejection port, then they were jam- jam- jam, failure every 4-5 rounds. Nothing she was shooting would eject reliably. Just not enough powder in those things to work the action and slides wouldn’t lock open on an empty mag. Federal needs to add a grain or 3 of powder. I couldn’t figure out why?? I didn’t have those problems and she’s never had them before. Then it occurred to me, I don’t move much, barely at all. I weight train daily and am considered a big strong dude. I have large hands and tend to try to muscle everything, it’s just how I operate. I didn’t have the problems I think because very little of the energy needed to cycle the action was being used up in muzzle flip with me. In the hands of a smaller, weaker person I think just enough energy is being used up to make the functioning of the weapons suffer. So that’s that. I didn’t personally have a problem. I don’t know if a lot of people will or won’t have this issue??

My parting thoughts on this ammo: I bought 2 cases since then. I can shoot it for practice, it is accurate stuff. I think there could be some training value here for running some immediate action clearing drills. It’s cheap! Don’t forget cheap, we all like that! I don’t recommend it for the combat style matches as you want a good time/score and not screwing around clearing a stovepipe.  I sure as heck wouldn’t load it up for any kind of real world use. For cheap practice though it doesn’t hurt to maybe have to clear a malfunction here and there (which is good training) and don’t forget Wolff Gun Springs. They have a reduced power recoil spring for a lot of different guns, usually for under $10. I’d wager that with a reduced power recoil spring these issues would disappear for just about everybody. All in all I’m happy with it for what it is and hopefully Federal will add some more powder here soon.

As always thanks for reading and happy shooting.

By: Cary Kieffer

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Cary Kieffer

USMC Infantry/Combat Veteran/MUESOC/Sniper School - Med Retired LEO w/ 8yrs on job before Iraq wounds caught up with me.

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