Tipped and Bonded

Hunting bullets just get better and better. Hunters are partially responsible, because awareness of the criticality of bullet performance has increased exponentially. We have demanded more, and competitive manufacturers have given us more. The bullet wars continue, with we, the bullet shooters, beneficiaries. The most recent wave has been to combine a bonded-core bullet with a polymer tip.

Such bullets tend to expand considerably but also retain their weight and perform much more consistently than a tipped bullet without a bonded core. And, of course, they have the same advantages of all tipped bullets: no battering in the magazine, improved aerodynamics and good looks.

There is one more advantage, although as with all bullets, not all rifles will agree: Tipped bullets tend toward accuracy!

Nosler's AccuBond was the first of these, followed by the Hornady InterBond and Swift Scirocco. These are all really excellent bullets. They expand very considerably, and all lose a bit of weight in the expansion process. Even so, weight retention ranges from good to superb--depending on velocity, a low of perhaps 75 percent to a high well into the 90s. The Scirocco is generally the best in weight retention and also the most costly. All offer an excellent compromise between expansion and weight retention.

Barnes' latest is also a tipped bullet, the TSX. This is a different concept than "tipped and bonded," since it adds a polymer tip to the homogenous copper alloy Triple Shock bullet. My experience with the TSX is limited so far, but it does tend to expand to a greater diameter than the Triple Shock and it still retains nearly full weight. In fact, since it's made of a single piece of metal, it actually cannot lose any weight, unless (as occasionally happens) one of the petals shears off during penetration.

The newest tipped-and-bonded bullet, however, is from Federal. Clearly, the company has watched the other designs come along, and with Jack Carter's Trophy Bonded Bear Claw, Federal has twenty years of experience with bonded-core bullets. So it would be appropriate to expect the new Trophy Tip bullet to be awfully good. It is. It's a cool-looking nickel-plated bullet with an amber tip, but looks have little to do with performance. The Trophy Tip has a relatively small lead core set well forward, with a thick jacket ending with longitudinal cuts (skiving) at the jacket nose to essentially direct expansion.

The initial offerings are all in the Federal Premium Vital Shok line: 130-grain .270 (.270 Winchester and .270 WSM), 160-grain 7mm (.280, 7mm Rem. Mag. and 7mm WSM) and 180-grain .30 caliber (.308, .30-06, .300 Win. Mag. and .300 WSM). At this writing, my only experience with this bullet has been in .30-06, 180-grain at the traditional 2,700 feet per second.

All tipped-and-bonded bullets attempt to address two of the most important concepts in hunting bullets: expansion and weight retention. These are almost opposite and are often conflicting. A bullet that expands transfers more energy and creates a larger wound channel. Unfortunately, expansion also limits penetration, because as a bullet expands it encounters more resistance and must ultimately slow down. Or, absent device or design to keep it together, if the striking velocity is high enough, the bullet may not penetrate much at all, instead shedding most of its weight and splattering.

Weight retention is important because it allows the bullet to penetrate deeper and hold its course. The ultimate in weight retention is a full metal jacket, which will reliably retain 100 percent of its weight but will not expand. Such a bullet is essential for elephant but a poor choice (and, in the U.S., generally illegal) for big game because it passes through without doing much damage.

Expanding hunting bullets strive to achieve a compromise between the two concepts: expansion, because an expanding bullet does more damage and results in a quicker and more humane death, and weight retention, because some degree of penetration is required. Clearly, some bullets expand more and penetrate less. Others hold together better and penetrate deeper but expand less. Depending on the size of game, you may want more of one property and less of another.