It may come as a surprise to some that there are varying levels of ammunition quality. Even among the mainline ammunition manufacturers, there are different degrees to how good their various brands of ammo actually are.
While their main goal is to produce ammo that works in your gun, they all use different types of powders that burn at different rates with varying degrees of cleanliness.
Some of them are dirtier than others, and sometimes the ammo makers do produce bad ammunition that malfunctions in your gun.
This time around, we’re going to cover Federal Premium’s American Eagle line of ammunition.
Is Federal American Eagle ammo good?
The American Eagle ammunition is made to the exacting standards put forth by Federal Premium. Federal American Eagle ammo is known as an extremely reliable brand that is also accurate and burns cleaner than most others. As an added benefit, they do so at a cheaper price than the premium brands.
I have fired hundreds of thousands of rounds at this point in my life as a gun-content creator (and former active duty Marine and law enforcement officer) having worked for several publications and owning a few as well.
I can say that American Eagle is some of my favorite ammo, and that it offers excellent quality and value.
It is a favorite of hand loaders because the company uses high-quality, reloadable brass cases that tend to stand up well to the rigors of being shot and reloaded again.
American Eagle Ammo is reliable:
In terms of reliability, American Eagle Ammunition is good to go. Just about every time I’ve ever had the pleasure of yanking the trigger when loaded up with it, the gun has gone bang. Federal Premium makes good stuff, and I can’t remember any malfunctions off the top of my head.
I’m not saying it hasn’t malfunctioned because I’d probably be lying if I did. I just can’t remember any, which means it hasn’t happened recently.
The caliber of the firearm in question doesn’t matter. Each time I’ve shot the stuff it has worked as intended.
Reliability Example:
As a point of reference, I recently conducted a review on a 40 S&W chambered AR-15 pistol. I had acquired a couple of different kinds of ammunition to shoot through it, but we were right smack dab in the middle of the ammo shortage.
I couldn’t find any ammo locally, and the internet stores weren’t much better off, but I was able to source some at the inflated prices.
I bought some Federal American Eagle, and another popular brand called PMC Bronze. It was literally all I could find at the time in 40 S&W.
The PMC did not work correctly, and in fact sheared the brass cases in half. The primer half ejected properly, while leaving the front half in the gun. It was terrible and I thought I had a broken gun on my hands, at least at first.
Once I started to shoot American Eagle, which worked flawlessly, I realized that the gun itself was good to go, and that the ammo was the main issue. After switching it went bang each and every time like it was supposed to.
You can find American Eagle Ammunition at your local gun store, or you can buy direct from their website. When you spend over 150 smackaroos, you get free shipping and it goes right to your door.
They may or may not ship to your state, so you should check on that.
Is Federal American Eagle Accurate?
From the standpoint of, will I hit my target if all of my fundamentals are correct and my gun is loaded up with Federal American Eagle ammo, the answer is yes, it is accurate.
However, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that accuracy will vary from one shooter to the next, and what I consider as accurate may not be up to your standards. I’ve been criticized by some keyboard warriors in the past because all of my shots weren’t landing inside the same hole on the target, even though I was all center mass.
That said, if you do your part and your gun shoots straight, this ammo should work well for you, too.
Does Federal American Eagle Malfunction:
Any ammo can malfunction in a gun. Usually, the dirtier munitions are worse for your guns than the cleaner stuff is. The reason why is because dirty ammo leaves some of the grime inside the parts of the gun. As it builds up, the chances of a malfunction increase.
Some guns handle dirty ammunition better than others, and I tend to not purchase one unless it is able to shoot any kind of ammo.
Because Federal American Eagle is relatively clean when compared to others, it tends to not malfunction even with the guns that don’t shoot well when dirty.
Conclusion:
There are a lot of different types of ammunition out there, and Federal American Eagle is good to go. I can’t recall many malfunctions while using it, and it burns pretty clean.
Visit their website for more info.