BULLET BULLETIN: IN PRAISE OF THE BEAR CLAW’S SON

BULLET BULLETIN

The Federal Trophy Bonded Tip is an overlooked choice in a market flooded with good designs.

IN PRAISE OF THE BEAR CLAW’S SON

Federal’s Trophy Bonded Tip ‘overlooked by much of the hunting community, and that’s a real shame.’

STORY BY PHIL MASSARO • PHOTOS BY MASSARO MEDIA GROUP

Lying prone on an enormous slab of granite and using my jacket for a rest, I quickly identified the zebra stallion that professional hunter Jamy Traut was indicating. We established the range at 280 yards; I gave the proper amount of holdover, let my breath halfway out and broke the trigger of the vintage .300 Holland & Holland Magnum, sending a 180-grain Trophy Bonded Tip bullet on its way.

We heard the bullet strike flesh, and while the stallion did his best to follow his herd, he stopped just a few paces further and a second projectile put him down for good. The Hartmann’s mountain zebra is a very tough animal that lives in an equally tough environment, but that .300 H&H with a premium bullet like the Federal Trophy Bonded Tip handled him perfectly.

Federal has a well-deserved reputation for offering the best projectiles available to the discriminating shooter and hunter, fully embracing a multitude of other companies’ bullets, yet one of the best in their lineup is their own Trophy Bonded Tip. It is a unique projectile, in that it blends the traits of many different designs, and is one of the sons of Jack Carter’s Trophy Bonded Bear Claw. It is also one of my favorite choices as an allaround bullet in an all-around rifle, and we’ll get into why in just a bit.

LOOKING AT THE construction of the Trophy Bonded Tip, you’ll definitely see the family traits; it is the eldest child of

The 180-grain Trophy Bonded Tip handloaded in the classic .300 H&H Magnum performed wonderfully on game species of all shapes and sizes on a recent Namibian safari.

A polymer tip, a thick copper jacket bonded to a lead core – which is located in the forward part of the bullet – and a copper shank at the rear all add up to a strong bullet capable of being an all-around choice.

the Trophy Bonded Bear Claw, itself a great bullet. While the original Carter design has been modified since Federal adopted it as its own, the basic principle remains the same. It has a thick copper jacket bonded to a short lead core that is located at the front end of the bullet, while the base of the bullet is just that copper alloy. This keeps the center of gravity forward, greatly aiding in straight-line penetration.

The 165-grain .30-caliber Federal Trophy Bonded Tip; stuff this in a .308 Winchester or .30-06 Springfield and just go hunting.

You see, many modern bullet designs that have a center of gravity located more rearward have a tendency to kick sideways once they meet resistance. There have been numerous stories about the 55-grain FMJ bullets from the 5.56mm being designed to tumble; I don’t think that’s necessarily the case, it’s just that the majority of the little spitzer bullet’s weight is located at the base of the bullet and the bullet tends to turn 180 degrees and exit with the rear of the bullet facing forward. These military bullets act much like a rearwheel-drive vehicle in a snowstorm: when resistance is met, the rear of the vehicle will invariably kick to one side or the other. Move the bullet’s weight forward, more like a front-wheel-drive vehicle, and the bullet tends to stay nose-forward and maintain its course.

Take some time and look at the cartridges that earned good reputations among dangerous game hunters over the last century, and you’ll see a common thread: long, roundnosed bullets that

Author Phil Massaro brought a .300 Holland & Holland on a Namibian safari, using the 180-grain Trophy Bonded Tip to take a Hartmann’s mountain zebra stallion on the Namib Escarpment.

Massaro took this Namibian red hartebeest bull at almost 300 yards with a single 180-grain Trophy Bonded Tip.

Massaro handloads the 160-grain Trophy Bonded Tip in his .280 Ackley Improved, with excellent results. were heavy-for-caliber. Among the cupand-core softpoints and steel-jacketed solids of the day, these bullets gave deep, straight-line penetration, even if the ballistic coefficient values were less than impressive. But those bullets kept their weight forward, and that made a difference in comparison to the lighter spitzer designs.

Carter’s Trophy Bonded Bear Claw was a flat-based spitzer bullet, which made for a better choice at longer ranges than the roundnosed designs. The smaller lead core and copper alloy base caused the bullet to be slightly longer than one of its cup-and-core counterparts, but the bonded core and homogenous base resulted in a tough bullet that reached the vitals consistently.

Federal modified that design slightly, and the Trophy Bonded Bear Claw remains a sound choice for short- and medium-range hunting. But the benefits of the higher-BC bullets weren’t lost on the Federal engineers, so they decided to modify the Bear

This exceptional Namibian springbok fell to a 300-yard frontal shot from a .280 AI, loaded with a 160-grain 7mm Trophy Bonded Tip.

An expanded Trophy Bonded Tip recovered from ballistic gelatin; if you can recover one from a game animal, it will look much like this.

Short of the thick-skinned dangerous game species, there isn’t much a .300 Winchester Magnum loaded with a 180-grain Trophy Bonded Tip can’t handle. Claw and give it a sleeker profile to improve trajectories and retained energy, while keeping the penetrative qualities and high retained weight of the original Bear Claw design.

Now sporting a boattail, a skived jacket, an orange polymer tip and nickel plating, the Trophy Bonded Tip is a fantastic design. The shank of the bullet has a series of grooves in order to reduce the bearing surface, which will also aid in reducing fouling. That translucent orange polymer tip – like that of so many other designs – initiates expansion by acting like a wedge upon impact, being pushed rearward and

e Xtreme Defender is based on the popular Xtreme Penetrator product line. e XD ammunition has an optimized nose ute, total weight, and velocity to achieve a penetration depth up to 18 inches* with a permanent wound cavity (PWC) that is just simply enormous; no other expanding hollowpoint comes close to achieving anywhere near this diameter and volume. Not only is the PWC over 100% larger than any other expanding bullet, expansion is achieved despite being shot through barriers. e solid copper body ensures that wallboard, sheet metal, and automotive glass will have no e ect on the PWC.

*Falling within FBI guidelines

is round o ers: A permanent Wound Cavity (PWC) that is 2 times greater than any expanding bullet reduced recoil. CNC machined from solid copper to overcome barriers to penetration Radial utes that force the hydraulic energy inward to build pressure Minimal surface area to increase the force at the point of contact and sharp cutting edges that defeat barriers.

opening the nose of the bullet, as well as maintaining a uniform BC value. The boattail has long been employed for long-range bullets, and while the Trophy Bonded Tip doesn’t have the most severe boattail on the market, it does help flatten the trajectory.

Is it accurate? I have experienced sub-MOA groups in a good number of cartridges when loading the Trophy Bonded Tip in component form, and Federal’s factory loads that feature this bullet have always been excellent performers.

For the .223 crowd – whether the AR platform or a good old bolt gun – the Federal Trophy Bonded Tip load is a game-changer, in that it gives premium bullet performance in a .22-caliber centerfire. The .280 Remington and the 160-grain Trophy Bonded Tip make a strong choice for a North American all-around combination.

THE FIELD PERFORMANCE of the Trophy Bonded Tip leaves nothing to be desired, and it was on the Namibian safari with Jamy Traut that really opened my eyes to its potential. I had brought two rifles, a Colt Coltsman in .300 Holland & Holland Magnum and a Savage Long Range Hunter in .280 Ackley Improved, loaded with

The African eland is easily the size of our North American moose; this bull was put in the salt with a single Trophy Bonded Tip from a vintage .300 H&H Magnum.

180- and 160-grain Trophy Bonded Tip bullets, respectively. Namibia was in the midst of one of its worst droughts in recorded history, and shots were on the long side. I had experience with the Trophy Bonded Tip at whitetail-woods distances, but was curious about the longer shots.

Surprisingly, I couldn’t keep a bullet inside an animal, whether I was hunting the diminutive springbok, the aforementioned zebra or the massive eland. Shots ranged between 125 yards out to 350 yards, and the Trophy Bonded Tip just flattened whatever it hit. Because some gear failed to show up for the hunt, I loaned my .280 AI to Federal’s Jake Edson and he used it to take a great red hartebeest – I would take my own a couple days later – and his own Hartmann’s mountain zebra using the 160-grain Trophy Bonded Tip. I would use that same rifle for a 16-inch springbok at 300 yards later in the week. An eland bull with a great head would fall to a 180-grain Trophy Bonded Tip from that classic Colt rifle; in spite of the 350 yards that the premium bullet had to travel, it passed through the big bull, quickly destroying the vital organs.

Federal offers the Trophy Bonded Tip in component form in .277-, .284-, .308- and .338-inch diameters, in common bullet weights, making it a great choice for general hunting. Factory loads are available for the common cartridges in the above calibers, as well as a 62-grain load for the .223 Remington, which makes a wonderful choice for deer hunters who insist on using that cartridge.

Looking at the lineup of species our group took in Namibia with the Trophy Bonded Tip, you can easily draw parallels to North American game species. The springbok is very similar to the pronghorn antelope, the wildebeest and kudu are the African equivalents of our elk, and I’ve heard more than one African professional hunter refer to an eland as a desert moose. Being completely honest, I would take the Trophy Bonded Tip in an all-around caliber for a North American hunt for any species shy of coastal brown bear or bison.

The bullet seems to be overlooked – or at least underappreciated – by much of the hunting community, and that’s a real shame. It is a strong, dependable bullet fully capable of superb accuracy. Looking at the 180-grain .30-caliber bullet – with its G1 BC of .500 – it will offer a trajectory advantage over the flat-based spitzers, and structurally it is certainly stronger than the cupand-core designs, while being strong enough to handle close impact shots at high velocities.

There are a number of great premium bullets on the market, but I rank the Federal Trophy Bonded Tip high up on the list. 