Two very different reviews of the Trophy Bonded new production bullets from Speer/Federal came across my desk this week. At Gunsite last weekend they handed out copies of an August '05 Field & Stream article by David Petzal ("Magic Bullets"); and amazon delivered my copy of Gun Digest 2006.

Mr. Petzal says he tested bullets in his "Ballistic Buffalo", i.e. test media. In particular he tested the New Bear Claw, and gives it good marks as a premium bullet. He notes that Federal changed the pure copper jacket to gilding metal "...which is stronger".

In Gun Digest Tom Turpin and Terry Wieland have a two part article "Putting Bullets Through Their Paces: Premium Bullet Performance". Tom reviews the smaller bores, and Terry does the bigger bores. They offer anecdotes on performance in animals, and data in expansion boxes. In particular Terry has several TB softs from Africa that did not exactly fail, but they did not distinguish themselves either -- including a 500 grain TBBC soft from a .470 Nitro that was "mangled" and recovered from a leopard. Terry wrote: "The new Trophy Bondeds, however, were disappointing". He discusses Federal's change of jacket material to facilitate production. He notes the gilding metal jacket is more brittle. His assessment: "...reduces the Bear Claw from excellent to average".

So two problems present.
1. Federal has an opportunity to excel with their implementation of Jack Carter's design; and
2. Mr. Petzal should perhaps review his test protocol.

Any additional data on the new Trophy Bonded bullets out there? (I don't use them myself).

I hear Speer is laying folks off.

jim

I see from the lack of replys that this is a non-issue with most. Am I correct to assume any Federal ammo purchased recently is the new version of the Bear Claw?

For myself, no Africa experience - but that'll change in a month, I like the Federal Premium offerings of 300gr. Bear Claw softs and Sledgehammer solids. I don't reload, so this seems like a good one two punch for my 375 H&H.

One question along the lines of the 416 solids vs. softs thread, assuming one soft and solids beneath, how many of each would you bring? I'll be using the 375 for buffalo and up to 5 species of plains game. Zambia is the destination. My thought is, on a given opportunity at buffalo, I place one soft in "perfect shot" fashion, and let the 4 solids fly. 1 soft to 4 solids. Should I bring more solids than softs? Also, are solids only appropriate for the very small plains game?

btglfer, I have also selected the exact combination that you suggested for my Zambian hunt next month, Federal premium TBBC and TB Sledgehammers. FYI, they do shoot almost the same point of aim at the range. Where are you headed in Zambia?

I would figure a box of each for a week long buffalo hunt would do it though I usually take three of whatever. . If you are stretching it to 14 maybe two boxes of softs and one of solids.

btgler,
Have not purchased any new TB lately, did use them last year. Took 3 boxes of TB300 grain 375 softpoints, 2 boxes TB Sledgehammer solids. This was for Buff and plains game. It was more than enough (18 day hunt). Did not want to run out.
Bobga

In their print ads, Federal still says the TBBC shank is made of solid copper.

I've had superb results with Trophy Bonded bullets out of the 300 Win. Mag. and 375 H&H in the past, but this test report bothers me.

"Ballistic buffalo" bullet tests mean nothing to me. Sierra produces lovely photos of perfectly mushroomed 'Game King' bullets fired in "ballistic buffalo", but results on game often aren't so splendid. But if you took the photos seriously, you'd swear that a 'Game King' is all you'd ever need for anything you'd ever hunt.

AD

I usually try a different type of ammunition on each hunt. When going after Cape buff in Zim in '02 I tried five different kinds in a pair of .375 H&H rifles, a Kimber M89 BGR and a BRNO M602. Interesting both rifles showed the same results.

I was going to use the Winchester FailSafe 300 grain loads as a combination solid an soft, but it didn't shoot well in either rifle. My fall back was the Trophy Bonded softs and solids. The solids shot well, the soft did not (I did take the TB Sledgehammer solids). Nosler Partition and Swift shot well in both rifles, while the X-Bullets did not (actually these were PMCs built under license). I decided to take the 300 gr Swifts.

5 Kg of ammunition is just about 100 rounds of .375 H&H, so I usually take 20 solids and the rest softs. I usually leave ammo behind as a "ballistic wampum" tip.

jim