I noticed Federal's offering of a 170 grain soft point bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2,000 fps and an energy of 1,500 ft lbs. Would this round be more fur friendly to a treed cougar than a more potent TSX or bonded type bullet or would it not make a difference?

Close inspection would indicate that this Federal offering would be a dead ringer for the veneralable .30-30 Winchester, and most probably uses their .30-30 bullet. That said I would not expect anything but a good clean kill with a properly placed shot.

I use the Remington one for training young shooters, it is 30 30 ballistics on the nose.

Aleko