Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles How does the federal fusion bullets perform?

I'm thinking about trying some of the federal fusion for my .270 and my .308 Kimber when she arrives. Since they are bonded I would expect they are deep penatrating bullets and hold together very well. I have the assumption since they are bonded they should not come apart as easy as a regular Soft Point. For those who have tried them, how do they perform??

THEY HAVE PERFORMED VERY GOOD ON THE DEER AND HOGS WE'VE SHOT WITH THEM.3 OF US HAVE 7-08S AND THEY ARE VERY ACCURATE IN OUR RIFLES ALSO.

I shot a big doe with a 180 30-06 Fusion a couple of years ago. I hit her in shoulder and she bounced 3 times. It worked well the one time I used it.

I've shot three deer with them, and every one dropped like a rock.

I have found them to be exceptionaly accurate in all three of my rifles in which I've tried them. They are great bullets, especially for the price.

I've shot tons of game with a wide variety of bullets, but I haven't actually shot any game with Fusion ammo yet. The fact that you are considering this ammo for your Kimber 308 caught my attention. I purchased a used Kimber Montana not too long ago and initially thought I may have lost at playing "Kimber roulette." Turns out the rifle is just extremely finicky. After testing nine different factory loads in the rifle, most which simply would not turn in decent groups, I discovered that the little rifle purely loves 165 grain Federal Fusion. It consistently shoots sub-MOA, with best groups measuring .69 inch. Fusion turned a so-so rifle into a keeper -- and a cheap date.

Been using them since they first came out, in my 300 WM and 25.06.

Excellent bullets, and very accurate. Process they use provides consistent jacket thickness that would compare to Sierra Matchkings.

And they're darn reasonable on the wallet, too!

Recent 25.06 target, 6 consecutive rounds...

about like a mix between a grandslam and a core-loct.

You get what you pay for.. They shed plenty of weight and I've seen them not exit on Sitka Blacktails, launched from a 300 Win Mag.. If I remember correctly, they retained about 60% on the two 180's we recovered. Never did find a black bear a pard shot with a 165 Fusion.

My 270 win loves the 150 gr. version. The whitetail buck hit with it dropped right on the spot. Hit it in the boiler room, bullet entered on a rib and then liquified the lungs. DRT.
Found a couple jacket fragments but that was all.

Good Luck!

I shot three deer with them--150 grain in 30-06. They performed very well. Had full penetration on all of them. One was shot poorly to start with, and was shot numerous times to kill it, and every shot went straight through with nice wound channels.

If I were using factory ammo for deer hunting, they'd be my first pick.

Same here with my .270. We were 7 for 7 including a large pig, one of the best tests. I had a pass through on two pigs with one shot! Accurate and deadly on the deer we took last year.

stumpy

Shot six deer last year with them in .308 150 grain. Recovered two bullets, classic mushrooms. Rest exited. I'm happy.

I keep hoping they will offer it as a component bullet, pretty pleased with what I have seen on both deer and pigs.

Here's how they shoot in the boys 7 Mag. My old man bought it new in 80, or 81, Remington 700 classic that he tortured for 28 years. I would hate to guess how many rounds have been down the snout. Bought the Rem SPS take off and Nikon glass off Fosteolgy, tightened the screws, heres the result with Fusion 150's.

Heres a buck he killed over in Idaho last year with it, never found the boolit @ 400 yards. 13 years old, 1st Muley...


Also killed a blacktail buck, through both shoulders, never recovered that boolit either. I'd use em again...

Haven't killt anything with Fusion, yet, but they are the most accurate of the four factory loads available for the 338 Fed in either of my guns. Also the only one that goes faster than Federal claims.
Some gentleman has posted pics and story of an elk kill on here a few months back, killed with 200 Fusion/338 Fed. Recovered bullet looked good and elk looked dead.
As someone responded, between grandslam and core-lokt? Not a bad place. 60% weight retention? Many report that recovered NosParts keep about that much tonnage.

Buddy of mine uses the 130 grainers in his .270 and absolutely loves them. And the 60% weight retention is about the same as the Nosler Accubond.

as far as reloading with them the i found the speer hot-core to perfom very similar on game.

I've found them to be plenty good on whitetails and hogs for the last few years.

I've killed deer with them out of 7-08, 270, 25-06, 243 and 300 WSM IIRC - I have had exits with all cartridges, with the only one to give a non exit to be a south Texas doe shot by a hunter I was guiding with my 25-06 - doe was quartering away and the bullet entered behind the near shoulder and was under the skin on the off shoulder. Doe didn't go 75 yards, but she was hard to find - no blood trail.

The bullet shed its jacket and weighed around 70 of its original 120 grains. The doe was in the edge of some brush and tall grass, and I suspect it may have clipped something and tumbled a bit, but it was hot and I gutted her in record time and got her in the cooler pronto since it had taken me a good while to find her.

In every other instance, I have had exits with good expansion - usually when drilling both shoulders. I've killed several good bucks with my 7-08 with Fusion 140's since the Montana likes them better than anything I've fed it. The Fusions have been extremely accurate in every rifle I've run them - very impressive combination of accuracy and performance on the Texas whitetails and hogs where I've used it. It probably has failed to exit on a couple of really big hogs - seems I remember one where I shot him through the shoulders - dropped him in his tracks and the off shoulder was broken, but I didn't find an exit.

For whitetails and such, I'm pretty impressed with them. Here are a few of the bucks I've shot - broke both shoulders on all but one, and he was quartering hard toward me - broke the near shoulder and it exited behind the off shoulder. He's the first one...Hope this helps.

7-08 Kills...









270 Kill with a 130 Fusion...



DJ

Nice bucks there. Do you get the opportunity for more than one buck tag each year?

Nice mule deer and whitails fellas. The first round I'm going to try in my Kimber is the Fusion. I've heard nothing, but great things about the fusion ammo being very accurate in many rifles. I guess they are doing something right. I'm just fixing to order me a box, hopefully my .308 Montana will like them!!!! Thanks for the info.

Shane