Federal Trophy Bonded Tip Review 300 Win Mag
March 07, 2018
Federal's Trophy Bonded Tip (TBT) bullet is perhaps my all-time favorite projectile for hunting large game. In 2014 the 180-grain .30 caliber version provided a dozen i-shot kills for me in Namibia, including a superb kudu bull, and in 2015 I used the aforementioned bullet to drop a huge public-land bull elk in Utah—a tag that took me 17 years to describe. I trust the TBT, and with expert reason: It's never let me down.
However, until now the TBT has never been available equally a component. Before diving into techniques that will help you become the most out of the TBT, let'due south take a look at the bones of the bullet. Its roots lie with the legendary Bays Bonded Conduct Claw, which is a flat-based bullet designed primarily for reliable expansion and deep, deep penetration. It earned its stripes on unsafe game.
The TBT is a streamlined, tipped and boattailed version engineered to offer better downrange velocity and energy retentivity coupled with last operation optimized for deer- to moose-size game. The TBT pairs a solid copper rear shank with a lead front cadre that is robustly bonded to the jacket. Nickel plating provides a lubricious coating that also protects the bullet from corrosion.
Just aft of the tip, the jacket mouth is skived to enable fast, predictable upset. The fast upset is initiated by the TBT's heat-resistant composite tip, which besides serves to protect bullets in the magazine from getting battered during recoil and significantly aids aerodynamics.
The jacket tapers aggressively from the tip to tedious expansion and stabilize information technology in the classic mushroom shape. Bonding between lead and copper — plus that solid copper rear shank — makes for outstanding weight retention, which translates into deep, bone-breaking penetration.
I've recovered only a few of the TBT bullets I've taken big game with because they near always achieve full penetration. The ones I have recovered almost e'er brandish perfect mushrooms — even those that struck heavy bone. One last blueprint element is worth mentioning; The TBT'due south tangent ogive takes rifling forgivingly and consistently, enabling the bullet to shoot accurately in a broad selection of unlike sleeping accommodation throats and rifling types.
To research how to get the all-time performance when handloading TBT bullets, I spoke with Paul Furrier, Federal's principal engineer in the propellants segmentation.
Co-ordinate to Furrier, the TBT is a dense bullet with compression characteristics like to the Barnes TSX, Swift A-Frame, Nosler AccuBond and other extra-tough large game projectiles, and it takes the rifling leade in like fashion. In other words, seating firmly against the rifling leade may cause pressure spikes, and Federal recommends against it.
Thankfully, the TBT "jumps" a bit of freebore comfortably while still providing splendid accuracy. "Being primarily a factory-ammunition company, Federal leans toward designing bullets to perform best at standard SAAMI overall length seating depths," Furrer said. "Every bit a result, we haven't experimented with various seating depths as extensively as the handloading user base no incertitude volition. However, we have experienced groovy results in seating between .050 and .080 inch off the rifling. I think users will find this is a very jump-tolerant bullet."
Load information are already available in PDF class on Federal'south website (search "bays bonded tip reloading data"). The information include many popular cartridges and a few vintage rounds. If your favorite isn't included, it doesn't hurt to call Federal's customer service line at (800) 379-1732 and enquire for guidance.
"Nosotros often go asked for additional data," Furrier said. "Within reason, we frontward those requests through client service and practice our all-time to provide relevant data. There's no end to the combinations that can be tried, only we exercise our best."
Furrier pointed out that because of their construction, TBT bullets are larger than similar-weight traditional loving cup-and-pb-cadre bullets. "Case volume gets constrained a bit as a effect," he said. "We can't get quite the velocity with the TBT as we can with traditional cup-and-core bullets by Speer, Sierra, Hornady or what have you lot. At that place's too much intrusion into the case and too much bearing surface."
In short, within SAAMI pressure constraints—even with the newest propellants available—traditional bullets can be pushed faster because of the construction, the bearing surface and the relative density. However, losing a few anxiety per second is well worth the trade-off for the TBT'south on-impact concluding operation. Plus, it's a fairly aerodynamic bullet and will maintain downrange velocity more than efficiently than traditional flat-base bullets.
Loading to longer-than-spec in chambers cutting with long throats reduces the intrusion inside the case and enables cautious handloaders to boost velocities, closing the performance gap. Still, exist sure to seat TBT bullets a minimum of .020 off the leade.
On the subject of downrange performance, I asked Furrier about the TBT's velocity expansion window. "Our engineers have probed the low end more intensively than the loftier end," he said. "They found good expansion reliable downwards to i,700 fps. We haven't rigorously tested the upper stop—the TBT just isn't a blow-upwardly type of bullet only because of its construction. It performs reliably even at velocities in excess of iii,400 fps in cartridges such every bit the .300 Ultra Mag."
I can attest to the TBT'south toughness and power to withstand high-velocity impacts. On the bull elk I mentioned at the offset of the commodity, the shot was but 70 yards, then the 180-grain TBT—fired out of a Kimber .300 Win. Mag.—was still moving in backlog of 3,000 fps when it hit. It punched through the shoulder bone and spine and nevertheless mushroomed perfectly.
When compared to like-weight traditional bullets, TBT projectiles are longer. Very long bullets tin be hard to stabilize, and many bullet manufacturers of extreme-BC, VLD-type bullets now print minimum rifling twist rates on component-bullet boxes. However, TBT bullets aren't then long they are twist-charge per unit sensitive.
"We've had no reports of whatever destabilization issues in our factory ammunition, and when using standard-for-cartridge twist rates, handloaders won't either," Furrier said.
Boiled down to its basics, the Bays Bonded Tip bullet is an extremely tough, reliable bullet, and it couples easy-accuracy forgiveness with improve-than-adequate ballistic coefficients. You can't ask for more than that.
Source: https://www.rifleshootermag.com/editorial/federals-trophy-bonded-tip-bullet/83628
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