Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Federal Fusion Performance and the Federal Fusion vs. Hornady Interlock

I would like hear about how Federal Fusions perform on deer? I have heard of people saying that they are to fragile and blow up on deer, but I find this hard to believe since they are a bonded bullet? And do you prefer the Federal Fusion or the Hornady Interlock?

I put a couple of guys at my deer camp onto the Fusions and they had good results. IIRC these were 270 Win. and 30-06 users. The Fusion is a bonded bullet, but it isn't a hard bullet. Their original design was centered around deer hunting.

I've handloaded several cartridges with Interlocks for deer/pigs with good results all around. 30-06, 270 Win., 260 Rem., 308 Win., 300 Savage, 257 and 7mm Weatherby, 243 Win., 250 Savage and maybe others I've forgotten.

If you need factory ammo for deer, grab a box of Fusions and a box of Hornady American Whitetail loaded with Interlocks. Stick with the one your rifle shoots best.

I don't think there is a bullet made by anyone, that if you asked about it in a forum like this one, you wouldn't get some replies that it "blew up" and other replies that it "pencilled thru".

Say it ain't so! I don't remember any disagreement on bullet performance at the 'Fire

I've killed a couple of deer with 7mm-08 120gr. they worked really well 25 yards and 60 yards both hits in the lungs and both exited. Looking to use them in a 7mm mag this year.

My mistake. What was I thinking??

I've been using fusions in.308 (165 gr) and 30/30 (170 gr) on whitetails for at least six or eight years. Good stuff, reasonably accurate, mostly one shot kills, good penetration, no problems or complaints.

I cant speak for the fusion but ive shot 3 whitetails (not a lot to go by) w/ interlocks out of a 243, no problems,3 bullets, three dead deer.

With the exception of one deer in the last 6 years I've used the federal fusion on all of them. It's performed great. I have recovered one from a 162 pound dressed weight buck. I hit him in the high shoulder, quartering away, at 7 yards. He dropped instantly. The bullet went in on the top of the shoulder, traveled about 10-12" of neck and was just pushing out the hide on the far side.

The rest have been pass throughs and I can remember on the went more than a few yards.

We've used 95gr in .243, 140gr in 7mm-08 & 165gr in .308, over the last 4 seasons = 20 dead deer & 2 dead moose.

Try them in your rig/s & if accurate, & I would expect so, go & confidently kill deer.

I only hunt with factory ammo and while I don't consider myself a bullet expert, I have noticed that the federal fusions group quite well in my .308s and 30-06s. The fusion is the only bullet I shoot through my 300 wsm primarily because I've found it's the most affordable (have only less than two boxes thru the rifle). Haven't hunted a lot with the 300 wsm and the only deer I taken with it was using 180 grain fusion, a 30 yd shot placed squarely on the shoulder of a mature 9 point probably 170 lbs plus, dead-right-there. By the protruding dimple on the far side I figure the round passed thru both shoulders. We cut the round out and it was nicely mushroomed, completely intact. One of the club members who's quite knowledgible about bullets commented it performed exactly as one would hope in that situation.

I'll continue to use the fusions.

I don't buy into the blow up on deer concerns. I shot a large mature Canadian whitetail at extremely close range with 150 Fusion from a 7 RM and it dropped at the shot and died before I could shoot it again.
I also use 165 Fusions from a 300 WSM, but my .270 prefers Federal blue box 130's.

I have not tried the loaded Hornady American whitetail series but when I used to hand load I liked Hornady SP.

For deer the Speer Hotcor flat base, Federal Fusion, Federal blue box, and Hornady SP all seem to me to be closely equal and very good, just whichever your rifle likes the best.

They work just fine. My teenage nephew uses them on critters bigger than deer and last season drew an moose tag.

I have shot many-a-deer with them and they have been great. In my experience they left better blood trails than the yellow and green box. Never had one go more than 40 to 50 yards.

Good ammo at a good price!!

I've had great luck with the Fusion in .243. Yotes, pigs and deer.

My brother had very good performance with the Fusion in .30-06.

cant speak for the factory loaded ammo, but have been loading interlocks for years ,in several different calibers with excellent results.

Ive taken several deer with 150gr fusions from a 270win. shots ranged from 35yards to 200 yards. All pass threws and those that didnt drop right there all had great bloodtrails and didnt travil far.


My experience with the american whitetails is limited. I sighted my 7mm08 Encore in with them last season, i watched a friend of mine use it to take a mature doe at 125yards. It was a bang flop. A Few weeks later i used it to take another big mature doe at 175 yards. This one ran about 35 yards and fell dead. Bullet passed threw, and there was a good blood trail leading up to her.

Id recomend either, from what ive seen firsthand on whitetail either will perform well.