Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Federal Trophy Bonded Tip?

Good,bad,or neutral....whats to say about this bullet? Don't see much in print about it or more importantly not much to read here...thanks in advance...bearit...

I've killed one 6x6 bull elk with the 180 (.30-06 factory load). It worked fine. The bull was quartering away at about 250 yards so I aimed to angle it into the opposite shoulder. He didn't go down, but he also didn't move--until some other elk ran by him. At that point he walked very slowly about 20 feet, trying to follow them, then stopped broadside, whereupon I shot again and he dropped. The first bullet ended up somewhere inside, but we couldn't find it while butchering. The second went on through.

I also watched companion shoot a big mule deer buck with the same load as the buck faced him at about 200 yards. The buck went right down, and the bullet ended up inside the guts, where we couldn't find it.

The bullet seems to shoot pretty well in most rifles too.

As I recall this is the bullet that BigFinn has been running amuck with in his 300 and 308. Seems to be doing just fine for him as well.

Dober

Isn't that bullet simular to the Bear Claw ?

It's a good bullet. The grooved shank and nickle plating solved the fouling and accuracy problems that sometimes occurred with the original Trophy Bonded, and the tip improved BC too.

I also prefer the way the Federal bullet opens over the original bullet. It tended to open in a round ball, which didn't do as much damage as a flatter mushroom, at least in anything less than .375 caliber. The Federal version ends up in a flat mushroom, and seems to kill quicker.

Here's Photo from Federal.

in and out on a b-bear, 3006, went deeper in dirt behind than i could dig.

Wonder if they will offer these as reloading components in 2013?

I have been shooting them exclusively for the last three years in my .308 Win and .300 Win Mag. mostly on elk and deer. They perform very well on larger animals.

Excellent accuracy, as expected with a polymer tip. Great penetration, and weight retention. Every recovered bullet looks like the one MacLorry posted in his pic.

Like most of my equipment, they perform far better than I do, which given my limited talent, is not much of an endorsement.

All told, we killed four elk with those bullets this year. Most often are broad side shots. Lung shots, as expected, were all a pass through. Shoulder shots, or quartering shots almost always get hung up just under the hide on the far shoulder. One was a high shot on a bull quartering away sharply. Hit right above the left shoulder, taking out four vertebrae and hanging up on the thick leather of the neck. The bullet fared far better than the vertebrae.

I shoot three to four hundred rounds of these each summer. It is amazingly accurate. Below is a group from one of my .308s. This is normal results, no matter the rifle I have used. This pic was from a Kimber 84M. I have two Howa 1500 .308s and they have shot even tighter groups than this with that bullet.

Nice group, just good shooting on your part with good ammo.

Randy, thanks for your input.

Thanks everyone for the info....I'm trying to find the one do-all load for my 270WSM....it shoots Fed. 150gr. Fusion under an inch @ 3000fps on my chrony and Doubletaps 160gr. Partition loading at about 2800fps.[seems a little slow to me]. I've ordered a few boxes of the 150gr. TBT to try out....if they can go under an inch @ 100yds. @ 3000fps or so I believe i'll call that rifle done...all set for my long range rifle for deer,black bear and up....regards...bearit..

I few years ago bought a several boxes of factory ammunition in .300 Win mag for T&E, A few shots from the bench to fine tune the zero and then on the sticks, where I worked the bolt hard, as though I were hunting. The bolt (rifle was an absolutely reliable custom M70) began to get sluggish and finally "jammed". I field stripped the rifle and found the plastic tips from the bullets in the bolt raceway, the locking lug recess area and lodged between the elevator and the side of the magazine box. The plastic tips consistently fell of during the feeding cycle.

A friend also had the tips fall off on an elk hunt. We both bought them at the same store, though at different times.

Maybe just a bad lot of ammo, but because of my experience with this loading, I will not ever take that configuration hunting. I just wish Federal would resurrect the original Jack Carter design with no modifications, or load Woodleighs and/or Northforks.

I've run both a box plus through my .308, a newer M70 w/ controled round feed, and a custom mauser in 30'06. None of them ever gave any hint of not feeding and ejecting. I've run whole boxes of both through both rifles to make sure the rifles worked as they should. None of those rounds ever lost a plastic tip or gave any hint of a feeding problem.
I hunted the '06 with that ammo for almost three weeks this year. That involved the same round getting fed and ejected from the gun every day I went out. No problems there either.
I think you got a bad lot of ammo.
These things can happen. Which is why I like to run my hunting ammo through the gun before I go hunting. E

Probably did get a bad lot. Still, my experience makes me a bit gun shy of using this load in the field. Glad it worked well for you on your hunts, though.

Any more field reports since 2012?

I saw a medium sized hog that was shot with a 130gr .270win TBT at a couple hundred yards. The shot was square through the shoulders and the hog dropped on the spot and never moved. The hog laid there for several HOURS and when I was sent to retrieve said hog, he was still very much alive!

I dug the bullet out of the off side shoulder and it looked picture perfect.

I'm not convinced that these extra though, premium, bonded bullets kill any better than the old tried and true lead core/copper jacket. Had that hog been shot in the exact same place with a bullet that expanded more and shed more fragments, he wouldn't have lasted a minute IMO.

John Nosler solved the problem of needing more penetration a long time ago. No need to reinvent the wheel.

I wouldn't draw any conclusions about bonded bullets based on one hog,and a freak set of circumstances. That's not what I'd call "experience". It's one animal and we can likely come up with some sort of situation where some more fragile bullet failed to do its job....seen that plenty of times.

All it proves really is that the shooter hit some bone, failed to hit any vital tissue from your description (you did not mention that),and the hog was still alive,although you don't say to what degree he was still alive.

Consequently its an example of one proving nothing.

OTOH I could cite you example after example of using bonded bullets that killed pretty instantaneously,and these bullets don't shed a single bit of tin foil, yet are among the fastest killing bullets I've ever used.

It isn't unusual though for people to jump to conclusions about bullet terminal performance based on one kill....they do it on here all the time.

True, a sample of one proves nothing but it is all the experience I personally have with that bullet so I answered the question as honestly as I could.

I do think bullet manufacturers spend a little to much time ensuring the recovered bullet is still picture perfect, when often an ugly, mangled lump of lead kills faster. Who do they think their impressing with that little stamped "T" on the bottom? It ain't the deer.

Not sure I could ever hunt with factory ammo, but the 200gr .338 Trophy Bonded Tip is the one I'd use if I go that route.

I used the original Jack Carter bullets for years. Just sold the last ones I had in the classified section. Bear Claw bullets never failed.