Federal Fusion

N

Nunya53

New member
Not sure if this is the right place for this...but.....Do any of you seem to have terrible luck with Federal Fusion ammo, or is it just me. I haven't found any of my rifles that like it. Unfortunately, I bought several boxes in 6.5x55 when the local Gander Mountain was in it's last days and it won't shoot in a custom rifle built off a commercial FN Mauser action or my Winchester M70 classic featherweight.

Don't get me wrong, it still shoots a minute of deer, but at 100 yards I was expecting better. It was sporadic at best.....and don't get me started on my 22-250 that just loved the bottom end Remington 55 grains.....

Jerry
 
Fusion MSR shoots .4" 5 shot groups out of my Sons Savage Axis compact. It shoots about .8" out of my heavy Barrel AR varmint rifle. Fusion 150 shoots .75" at 100 out out my match Armalite Ar-10. The same Fusions shoot .5" out of my Ruger American .308. All groups referenced at 100 yards.

I have a 6.5X55 CZ550. It, like the last two 6.5X55s that I had are peculiar as the dickens about what they shoot. I had to develop loads for all of them. If I recall correctly one of them would shoot a 160 or 170 Oryx in one ragged hole. I never found anything else it would shoot under 2". So far, I have not found but one load the CZ likes. It shoots a 140 Partition in a nickel sized group. I have not found another bullet it shoots under 1.5". The only powder I have found it likes is IMR 4350. I got so mad at one of the 6.5x55s that I took the barrel off, threw it away, and rebarreled it with a $45 7x57 barrel I found about 20 years ago and had sitting around. It shoots about everything you feed it, sub moa.
 
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I have had good luck with it in 223. What kind of groups are you getting out of your Swedes and how do those compare to other commercial loads?
 
Just use it up for practice, shooting off-hand at water-filled milk-jugs placed at random distances. Save the brass to reload with other bullets. I like Nosler, Sierra, and Speer bullets. I also use some Hornady's.
 
My 8x57mm shot it really well, but the cases had short headspace (by 0.080"!). (Dangerous)

My ".243 Win" (a similar wildcat) shoots the factory stuff fairly well. But... opposite problem: some of the cartridges had the shoulder too far forward -- by as much as 0.093". (Can't be chambered.)

And the list of problems continues through every other cartridge where I've tried it.

The only exception: .30 WCF (.30-30). Runs fine. Shoots well. Case sizing issues don't really matter, since it's a rimmed cartridge and I haven't found a 'long' case so far.
 
When I got my daughter's .243, I bought a box of everything. It shot the Fusion's quite well, and decided to use them for deer.
I was unimpressed with the performance. 6mm hole in, 6mm hole out. Deer was 60 yards. It did pass straight through between ribs with no bone contact and trough the lungs. Deer went about 75 yards, but did not have any blood trail for about 40 yards.
I will burn up the rest of the box on paper.
 
Federal Fusions are supposed to be the newer "semi" bonded bullets sitting between the old cup-n-core and bonded bullets. As usual you hear good and bad. I like core-lokt myself.
 
It shot about .75" out of a Remington XCR I just sold. Stoned a nice 8pt with it on a frontal heart shot at about 110yds opening weekend.
 
Fusion 165's shot well in my 300wsm model 70. They were an inch and a half at 100 yards. Nothing special but not bad either. Killed two deer, one at 7 yards. The performance of the 165 was impressive, no blow up, entry and exit that looked a lot like a Nosler partition.
 
The 140 grains were shooting about 1.5" at 100 out of both guns....not terrible, but not like my hand loads either.....

Jerry
 
Like most ammo, it seems to depend on the gun.

I've had pretty good luck with them, but it seems to just be the luck of the gun. I've shot them in 3 rifles, 2 like them, one doesn't. The .223 NON MSR round runs great in my AR... <1" at 100 yds, which to me is all you could ask of an AR. The .300 BO MSR was grouping 4" at 100 yds. :-[ But I'm also 1" or less at 100 yds with the 7mm08. I would say they're pretty decent, especially given the lower price point.
 
Fed Fusions were not as accurate as Vortex or Black hills in my savage (260Rem ), but the brass is good quality.
It was good enough to kill deer at -200 yards, but I bought the 260 as an antelope stopper and the target zone is a bit smaller.
 
As an aside, I took my 300 WM out last weekend and got better groups out of the Federal blue box than the Federal Fusions....I reload anyway and agree it is good brass....Just like to have a good standby in case I have to stop by the store in a pinch....not that I'll find 6.5x55 in any Walmart or other big box store....at least with the Federal blue box, I was getting MOA accuracy.

Jerry
 
Federal Fusions are supposed to be the newer "semi" bonded bullets sitting between the old cup-n-core and bonded bullets. As usual you hear good and bad. I like core-lokt myself.
Click to expand...
Not really bonded or semibonded. More like a hard cast with copper plated on it for lubrication.
 
I don't consider Federal Fusion bullets target grade. I purchased a boat load of pulled 130 grain bullets in 277" and have shot them out to 300 yards in two 270 Win rifles. The rifles are not target rifles either. However, 2 MOA at 300 yards is good enough for me. Of course this is beneath contempt for those Keyboard Commando who claim half MOA groups with their lever action at all distances. These guys don't produce anything but three and five shot groups, so I think a my eight round 2 MOA group at 300 yards is doing OK.

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