Federal Ammunition is one of the most trusted brands in the industry, and Alexander and Chris sat down on this podcast episode with the company's long-time ammo expert, J.J. Reich, to talk shop.The Minnesota-based company was founded in 1922, ran the Twin Cities Ammo Plant for the military for generations, and recently marked a century in business – now better than ever. J.J. (nobody knows his actual name) has been with Federal for 15 years and has been a buddy of ours for most of that. 

Timestamps, should you want to skip ahead if you like: 

01:10 Federal's background.
02:16 We get the camera focus dialed in. (Our regular girl was out)
02:58 Twin Cities connection. 
04:02 On introducing new calibers (.327 Federal, .224 Valkyrie, etc.) 
05:35 "The box is not Federal."
06:22 Of 7mm Backcountry 
08:40 The thirst for subsonic and suppressor-optimized ammo is real. 
10:10 On hunting with a suppressor.
11:50 What's that?
13:25 Afraid of that crack. 
16:01 Fresh new loads for 2026.
18:30 Remington's 7mm Backcountry offerings. 
19:40 So, can we get a Backcountry Garand?
23:04 Meet the Terminal Ascent (now in handgun loads).
25:50 Federal makes more than just ammo. 
30:17 Hitting J.J. about his high school permanent record. 
37:40 Caliber requests that will probably never happen. 
41:00 They just start rambling about the Spanish-American War and spitzer bullets and stuff.