Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Federal Fusion ammunition

I needed some brass for the .243 so bought some Federal Non-typical and some Federal Fusion.

took both to the range today and fire 4 shots from each

The federal Non-typical 4 shot group measured 1.5 inches - certainly acceptable.

The Fusion ammunition measured 4 shot for 1 inch - WITH 3 SHOTS TOUCHING.


WOW, I have never ever seen accuracy like this from Factory ammunition.


I will be curious to see how it performs on game.

Anyone used this load on deer, etc? Any caliber

I've used the 7mm/08 version on half a dozen deer ranging from about 120-170#. It worked as well as any other bullet I've used.

I've used it in 416 Rigby though not anything bigger than deer. It killed them pretty dead too. I bought it as it was the least expensive ammo I could find.

I've tried fusion in 22-250, 243, 260, 308, 7mag 338 and 35 whelen, all shot sub moa... Federal brass sucks though..

How so?

DF

I’ve shot several Roosevelt elk now with the 6.5CM and the 140gr Fusion.
All broadside hits have passed through. Never had to shoot more than once.
Can’t imagine that they wouldn’t be fine for deer anywhere.....

It shoots about 3/4" out of my 30-06. I haven't had any issues with it on deer size game. Only one didn't exit. It was right under the skin on the offside shoulder.

I've used the .223 MSR Fusion ammo in a Montana and a couple AR's. It has shot very well in all of them and has performed well on fox, coyote, groundhogs, and deer.

I tried the 150 gr 30-06 ammo in a 30-06 Fieldcraft and it shot acceptable, probably 1 1/4" but I didn't measure the groups....need to get back to that rifle and see what it will do.

From what I’ve seen, they work about like Interlocks, which is not a bad thing. They have been great on deer/hogs in 7mm and .30cal. My personal preference in .24/.25 calibers is to use a tougher bullet for more reliable exits, but a Fusion should be a fine killer.

Thanks for all the input Gentlemen.

I've always loved interlocks as well Jpro - I am thinking the bonding may give a bit of peace of mind in this small caliber.

Well, I only intend to load the brass 5 times and then discard, so I am sure it will be fine

Used some of it years ago in my 25-06. Accuracy was around 1" or slightly better. I saved the brass as well. It will reload ok but if you push the pressure the primer pockets enlarge too quick. Only made 3 reloads before starting to toss it.

I’ve never fired Fusion ammo but have shot a wheelbarrow full of nickel plated Federal .35 Whelen brass from factory loads reloaded and fired multiple times without issues. So all Fed brass is not sucky.

I re-barreled a HOWA 223 to 6.8 SPC for a friend Steven L. He bought some Fusion ammo in the 115 grain weight, and shot a few "Micky Mouse Heads" with them at 100 yards.
Last year he killed 3 white tails with that ammo. Worked wonderfully. 2 bullet recovered. One weighed 113 and one weighed 112 grains.

I have to say, they did them right.

I shoot that same load the 243 95 gr fusion load through a Tikka t3. It shoots extremely accurately for me as well consistently 0.5 to 0.75 MOA at 100 yards. It is almost tempting not to bother to load for that rifle since it shoots so well. But now that I've run a few more boxes of that load but different lots I've noticed that it runs painfully slow in my Tikka, as low as 2760 fps in some lots, and the ES is pretty bad at over 110 fps. It strings vertically noticeably at 300m. So I'm back to loading the Sierra 85 gr btsp over H4350.

I picked up a thousand Fusion 62 gr. .224 bullets from Rocky mtn reloading. They had gotten them in bulk and the price was good.

I've been loading them in the .223 and am impressed with how well they group..

I had tried the Bonded Solid Base Noslers, but 1 1/2" groups were about the norm. These Fusion bullets shoot inch or better our of an AR, not a target version, just a std carbine length, Colt lower, Olympic Arms upper.

From what I've heard the 62 Fusion has terminal performance equivalent to the 64 BSB and I've observed accuracy to be much better, around half the group size.

DF

Oregonmuley has killed a bunch of animals with the Fusion 243 load, think it’s a 95 grain?

Yup, several truck loads of antelope over the past years and a few mule deer thrown in also. My Kampfeld built .243 loves them. I don't take pics of all my targets but here are a few. And FYI the "flyer" isn't a flyer on the targets, I read a post once stating you needed to shoot a shot to punch a hole showing the actual size of said hole so you could get an accurate measurement once you shoot a group if that makes sense.

5 shots in that group to make it count:)


5 shots


3


Dead antelope




You get the idea:)

My daughter has killed 3 elk with the federal fusion 150 .308 ammo. One never moved, one moved 40 feet, and one managed to stumble 50 yards maybe.

Biggest problem I've had wth Federal brass was a case-head separation. My 7mm RM leaves a light scratch on the brass when it is ejected from the chamber, providing an accurate count of the number of time the case has been chambered, which is generally close to if not the same as the number of times fired.

When I got the separation, the count was 17. That means 16 full-length resize operations. I always check the cases for incipient separation but toss the brass as 12 scratches on principle.

The accuracy possible with Federal brass sucks, though. My best my .22-250 could do is four shots into 0.5" at 200 yards and the best my 7mm RM has been able to do is three shots into .262" at 100. I'm sure "good" brass would chop those group sizes by to at least half. (laughing)