PROGRESS WRIT IN LEAD AND COPPER

Ihadn’t been sitting over the bait very long, just about an hour, when the bear came to the barrel. We’d run the pack of treeing Walker hounds – belonging to Scott Denny, owner of Table Mountain Outfitters – for the morning, with no bears put up a tree, but our afternoons were to be spent over bait. The heaviest of the snowpack had come later in the winter and had stayed until mid-May, and there was still considerable coverage on Idaho’s mountaintops, so the season seemed behind by a couple weeks. But bears are bears, and they are ravenous once they come out of hibernation.

This black bear was a boar. He wasn’t a really big boar, nor was he black, yet the Savage Impulse Driven Hunter came to shoulder because of the color of his coat. A deep chocolate head and paws faded to almost blond on his back, and I have a weakness for color-phase black bears. A single 175-grain Federal Terminal Ascent housed in a .308 Winchester case put the bear down quickly and cleanly. When one considers the possible choices for a proper bullet for black bear – which do have tough shoulder bones, yet are not normally taken at long distances – a polymer-tipped boattail with a very high ballistic coefficient might not seem the most logical, but then again, it might. Federal’s family of projectiles, based upon the concept of the original Jack Carter Trophy Bonded Bear Claw, all have some common characteristics that deserve consideration, so let’s check out the family tree.

JACK CARTER WAS a corporate executive who wanted the best projectile available, even if it meant he had to design and produce it himself. Taking inspiration, to put it mildly, from Bill Steiger’s Bitterroot Bonded Core Bullets, Carter’s design saw a pure lead core extending from the nose about half the length of the bullet, chemically bonded to the pure copper jacket and rear shank. His bullet was among the earliest successful bondedcore designs, and while it was costly, the performance warranted the cost to many hunters, especially those who regularly pursued dangerous game. Eventually, Carter sold the design to the parent company of Federal Premium, which eventually needed to change the formula a bit to best cooperate with the high-speed machines used to produce bullets in their Anoka, Minnesota, factory (the bullets were marketed under the Speer brand name in the original configuration). Adding a bit of zinc to the copper jacket and shank gave the needed resistance to the manufacturing machines, and also hardened up the bullet a bit. Where

Carter’s bullet’s exterior was copper in construction and color, the Federal variant has nickel plating, but it does maintain the same lead-forward core that Carter found so satisfactory. It is a spitzer bullet, often with a flat (or flatter) meplat, and a flat base as well. Today, Federal Premium offers this bullet in the larger cartridges and calibers most often associated with

African safaris and used in pursuing the biggest and most dangerous animals, like Cape buffalo, lion, brown and grizzly bear, and the like. It is offered in loaded ammunition in the .375 Holland & Holland Magnum, .416 Rigby and .416 Remington Magnum, .458 Winchester Magnum and .458 Lott, and the .470 Nitro Express, as well as in component form in .375, .416 and .474 (.470) calibers. High weight retention, good expansion and straight-line penetration are all characteristic of the Trophy Bonded Bear Claw.

IN THE LIGHTER calibers, the Trophy Bonded Bear Claw was, until recently, loaded in Federal’s factory ammunition, but seems to be discontinued these days. Instead, Federal offers the second member of the Trophy Bonded family, the Trophy Bonded Tip. Equipped with a boattail base and a signature orange polymer tip at the meplat, as well as a sleeker profile, the Trophy Bonded Tip makes a much better choice for longer shots, in more open terrain. The BC of the Trophy Bonded Tip is greatly improved for a flatter trajectory and less wind deflection, yet the terminal phase is different from the majority of polymertipped bullets on the market.

Like the Bear Claw, keeping the lead core at the nose of the Trophy Bonded Tip also keeps the weight forward, even when the bullet expands. When the weight stays forward, the bullet tends to penetrate in a straight line, unlike a bullet with its weight rearward (i.e. most cup-and-core designs, and the majority of monometal hollowpoints), which tends to have the rear end kick to one side or another during the terminal phase. Also reminiscent of the Bear Claw, the Trophy Bonded Tip’s bonded-core construction sees it resist breakup, even at close distances where impact velocities are highest. But at longer distances, when the bullet has had some opportunity to slow down, the polymer tip acts like a wedge to guarantee some level of expansion, even at long distances.

I have spent more than a bit of time with the Trophy Bonded Tip bullet,

The Trophy Bonded Tip will have no problem dealing with the high velocity of the 7mm Remington Magnum, even at short distances.

(FEDERAL PREMIUM) taking it in my .280 Ackley Improved and .300 Holland & Holland for a plains game safari in Namibia. And from the diminutive springbok up through the red hartebeest, Hartmann’s mountain zebra and the massive eland, I had no luck in keeping any of the Trophy Bonded Tip projectiles in any of the animals. In fact, I got nothing but passthroughs out to 350 yards that trip; the bullet is tough, but expands reliably, and in my rifles it has been one of the more accurate designs.

The Trophy Bonded Tip is available as a component bullet in .277-inch caliber at 130 and 140 grains, 7mm caliber at 140 and 160 grains, .308 caliber at 165 and 180 grains, and .338 caliber at 200 grains. In loaded ammunition, it is offered in the .270 Winchester, 7mm-08 Remington, .280 Remington, 7mm Remington Magnum, .308 Winchester, .3006 Springfield, .300 WSM, .300 Winchester Magnum, .338 Federal and .338 Winchester Magnum.

BUT FEDERAL WASN’T done, seeing an opportunity to use the Trophy Bonded family formula to take things even further. First it was the Edge TLR – similar to the Trophy Bonded Tip in that it was a polymer-tipped boattail, but with an even higher BC value due to a steeper boattail and sleeker ogive – but that design soon morphed into the Terminal Ascent bullet. The differences between the two bullets are miniscule; the Edge TLR had a dark nickel finish, while the Terminal Ascent has a brighter nickel finish. However, both feature the proprietary blue polymer Slipstream Tip, which resists the effects of atmospheric drag, and the AccuChannel grooves in the shank, which are also engineered for the best aerodynamic performance.

Compared to the Trophy Bonded Tip, the Terminal Ascent’s boattail is more severe, again to increase the longrange performance by reducing drag.

Terminal Ascent has proved to be wonderfully accurate, and is a great choice for those who pursue game species that are routinely hunted at truly long ranges, like the Coues deer and the various sheep species that inhabit the treeless mountains. You might not see the advantages of the Terminal Ascent over the Trophy

The Terminal Ascent shown in cross section and upset; note the core depth common to the family and the blue Slipstream polymer tip, which initiates expansion and maintains a consistent ballistic coefficient. (FEDERAL PREMIUM)

Bonded Tip inside of the 350- or 400yard mark, but outside of that distance you surely will.

Federal tends to make them in weights on the heavier side of normal, again in an effort to keep the BC high.

Federal offers the Terminal Ascent as a component bullet in 6.5mm at 130 grains, .277 caliber at 136 grains, 7mm caliber at 155 grains, and in .308 caliber at 175 and 200 grains. In their loaded ammunition, Federal is loading the 6.5 Creedmoor and 6.5 PRC at 130 grains; the .270 Winchester and .270 WSM at 136 grains; the .280 Ackley Improved, .28 Nosler and 7mm Remington Magnum at 155 grains; the .308 Winchester and .30-06 Springfield at 175 grains; and the .300 WSM and .300 Winchester Magnum at 200 grains. As an example, the 155-grain 7mm bullet comes in with a G1 BC of .586 and the 200-grain .308-caliber Terminal Ascent sports a G1 BC figure of .608; for the two most popular all-around bore diameters, these are great long-range choices.

Although the Terminal Ascent certainly seems to be designed for the reach-out-and-touch-’em crowd – and it does this very well, and will open at lower velocities – it also does very well at closer ranges. I took that Idaho color-phase bear at just over 30 paces, and it was killed quickly and humanely. In fact, among our hunting group in Idaho, all of us were using the same 175-grain Terminal Ascent .308 Winchester load and only one bullet was recovered. That was a straight-on shot on a larger black bear. I didn’t have the opportunity to weigh the recovered bullet, but I’d estimate its weight at 90 percent of its original weight.

So, depending on your hunting style, terrain and quarry, there is a bullet in this family for you. I have no issue taking the Trophy Bonded Bear Claw when getting off the truck to follow a set of fresh Cape buffalo tracks, nor would I be the least hesitant reaching for either a Trophy Bonded Tip or Terminal Ascent when standing in the quakies, listening to the music of an amorous bull elk. If you haven’t had the opportunity to hunt with these bullets, I’d advise you to rectify that problem as soon as possible; they really are fantastic. 