First of all, let me say that I in no way intend this very specific report to be a general review of Fusion Bullet Performance.

They are advertised and sold as the ultimate whitetail bullet and, based on this very limited experience, may well be BUT I would be very hesitant to use them on heavier game, such as elk, based on worst case bullet placement, say the point of the shoulder.

The bullets have an electrolized (maybe, pardon the word choice, I'm not a chemist nor a metallurgist) exterior jacket that is physically grown onto the lead core by a patented process, making jacket/core separation much more difficult, according to Fusion/Federal.

I picked some up in .300 Win Mag in a new local Gander Mt. store the other day since I was running out of my Dallas Reloading Company 150 gr Ballistic Tips......which performed wonderfully on whitetail deer and hogs for me, in spite of the many people who say they aren't fit for shooting prairie dogs.

The 150 BTs were sighted in 4 inches high at 100 yards, I shot the Fusion 165s without changing the settings and they printed dead on and 3 inches high, which theoretically should put them about dead on at 200 and about 7 inches low at 300. I fired only 2 shots for sight in/checking purposes, the gun is very accurate and they grouped (if you can call 2 shots a group) about 1/8 inch apart which was good enough for me.

At any rate, it has been EXTREMELY dry and relatively warm here and the deer/hog hunting has been very tough. But today it started to rain, so I grabbed the .300 and went out to see what I could find. Rode a 4 wheeler a couple of miles in a medium sprinkle to one of my favorite stands overlooking a couple of food plots and a corn feeder. As often happens, I got there later than I should have and ran a spike off. Lucky for him, unlucky for me. To make a long story shorter, two medium sized pigs came out a few minutes before dark, one about 150 to 160 and the other about 20 pounds lighter. They first appeared at about 250 yards, but I had no time for a shot, then, after a couple of minutes, the came back out, crossed a lane and I figured they were coming to the feeder. They did, and I waited to line them up, hoping for a 2 for oner. After a minute or two, they lined up, I shot behind the front shoulder of the bigger pig, fully expecting the other one to go down as well. He ran off. Hmmmmmmm.
Unfortunately for him, he came back to check on his buddy, who was lying there dead, and then turned directly facing me. Range on all of this was about 85 yards. I figured he was going to bolt any second, so put the crosshairs just above his snout and squeezed one off. Wham, down he went.

We just finished cleaning them about an hour ago. First pig was shot thru rib cage and bullet STOPPED in off shoulder, not even going thru to the skin layer. A hunting buddy was helping me (the telephone is a nice invention, one of these days I may even get one of those cell thingies) and we were in a rush and in the rain so I'll recover that bullet tomorrow, but penetration was POOR IMO. However, pig died instantly, the bullet would have penetrated both sides of all but the largest of whitetails so I consider the performance to be adequate and, since the bullet is specifically designed for whitetails, probably superior.

The second bullet was recovered, and is more interesting. Since I was 3 inches high, more or less, at that range, and the pigs head was slightly down, instead of braining him as I intended, it hit just behind the cranial cavity in the neck, did SERIOUS tissue damage AND, kind of amazingly, penetrated the whole backstrap the length of the pig in a straight line. I recovered the bullet about 3 inches in front of his tail at the very bottom of the back strap. Bullet penetrated, no bone, well over 2 1/2 feet of tissue. I haven't weighed it yet, but it is about .80 caliber and retained the bottom roughly 1/4 of the bullet, with nearly perfect mushroom formation and ALL the petals. Pretty amazing and much better than the other one, but then the first one hit rib bone on the way in.

Bottom line, FOR WHITETAILS, in this .300 Win Mag, they are a superb performer. Highly recommended.

FLASH!!! I HAVE SHOT 2 WHITETAILS WITH THIS BULLET THIS MORNING, ONE LOST. I NOW BELIEVE THE BULLET IS TOO FRAGILE. I AM CHANGING MY RECOMMENDATION TO "NOT RECOMMENDED." SOME OF THE BULLETS PERFORM WELL, SOME SEEM NOT TO. DETAILS TO FOLLOW.

I repeat, this is just an opinion, but it is based on real life performance.

Hey Gatogordo, Excellent On-Game report. Always like to hear how Bullets work and especially a new one.

Hopefully you will also get a chance to try them a bit further out. When you do, let us know how they work then too.

quote:

Originally posted by Gatogordo:
I got there later than I should have and ran a spike off. Lucky for him, unlucky for me.

Gato: I thought deer season in Texas started everywhere on Nov 5th?

quote:

Originally posted by Stonecreek:

quote:

Originally posted by Gatogordo:
I got there later than I should have and ran a spike off. Lucky for him, unlucky for me.

Gato: I thought deer season in Texas started everywhere on Nov 5th?

Wrong. I am a Tx Parks and Wildlife level 3 game managment ranch, low fenced BTW. My gun season started Oct 1 and runs until Feb 28. Its hard work, but someone has to do it. This year I have 15 buck and 40 doe permits. These deer do not even count on a regular Tx hunting license. I, my kid(s), and a couple of friends use most of the buck permits on spike or other cull antler types, saving 3 or so for trophies if we run onto any. So far, I have not shot a deer, I could have shot a few does (in spite of game biologists opinions, I think motherless fawns this time of they year usually don't make it, so I only shoot dry does until at least the end of November), but the extreme dry conditions and the moon have made hunting very tough in the first few weeks of Oct. I missed a head shot (body was behind a big tree) on a spike with a Smith .44 at about 75 yards on Sunday, thorougly pissed me off. I yanked the trigger at the last moment.

In spite of that miss, my family manages to eat a lot of deer all year around.

Okay, now I understand. Thanks for 'splanin.

do you have weight and measurements on the recovered bullets yet? Pictures would be nice also, Im very curious as I plan on using this new bullet on deer in .243 win this fall.