Federal Fusion vs. Hornady Interlock

[RedRaider13]

The Federal Fusions shoot great out of my Rem 7Mag. 150gr putts a hurting on the dear. What has been y'all's experience using Fusions for Elk?

 

[NVDesertHunter]

The Fusion is a bonded bullet so there is less chance of jacket separation. The Interlock is a straight forward cup and core bullet. In my personal experience the interlocks lose roughly 40-50% of its mass and the fusions lose approx. 10-20%.


Happy Hunting

 

[7horse]

Hornady interlocks work fine for elk from a 30-06. 180 gr flat base shoots great in mine and another rifle. Almost all are found under the hide on the far side, the bullet is a perfect mushroom. I have used them on over 20 elk. This bullet preforms much better than sierra gamekings that separate jacket from core in almost every instance.

 

[mtmuley]

Topgun is in this thread. mtmuley

 

[Fullquiver]

I've used both in several different rifles and calibers and have to give a slight edge to the Fusion rounds.. I've seen Interlocks come apart on close range shoulder hits. (A difficult circumstance for anything but a monolithic bullet construct.) Animals died quickly and the amount of damage was spectacular.. So I wouldn't hold it against the Interlocks..

Fusion's don't necessarily come apart. But will shed quite a bit of the core as they expand especially when hitting large bone.. However I have never seen them fail to maintain less than 60% of their initial weight. No matter what was hit or how fast they were moving..

YMMV. Just my personal experience.

 

[Lonster]

My wife shoots the Fusions in her .308, it’s Sub moa and kills deer like it’s going out of style.

 

[Don Fischer]

The Fusion is a bonded bullet so there is less chance of jacket separation. The Interlock is a straight forward cup and core bullet. In my personal experience the interlocks lose roughly 40-50% of its mass and the fusions lose approx. 10-20%.


Happy Hunting

That's interesting. Interlocks loose 40-50% of their mass. Not that I doubt it but I shot them into bundled newspaper years ago just to see what happened to them. Never had one stay in a animal. Well at 100yds the 154gr Hornady SP, called spire point back then, out of my 7mm Rem mag, retained 84% of it's weight and that was average of several different bullet's. The cores were loose in the jackets, Fusions and interbonds which would I use? The one that shot best in the rifle! Shot placement is still the key to any bullet's ability to kill. A 500gr bullet from a 50 BAR that hit's a deer in the lower leg meerly breaks a leg!

 

[RaiderRich]

When it comes to factory ammo neither have been great for me. I get better accuracy from Federal Power-Shok than I do from Fusion ammo. Only Interlock that would group decent for me was Hornady Whitetail in 6.5 manbun.

Reloading I would not use either, I prefer going with stuff from Hammer/Barnes/Nosler for that.

 

[OntarioHunter]

My related experience is limited to one shot. Hornady Interlock in 165 gr 30-06 dropped this fall's muley buck on the spot at about 200 yards. He was slightly uphill and I hit him a bit high in the boiler room (offhand shot). Bullet hit some backbone on exit and made a fair sized hole. My brother skinned it and said damage was actually minimal. Meat damage is probably more important to me than bang flop.

 

[buffybr]

With today's bullets, I would say that accuracy and bullet placement is more important than bullet brand.

Use the one that is most accurate in your rifle.

 

[BigMonk96]

I shoot Hornady Superformance SST in most all calipers -- I am a neck shooter and have never had a problem, knocking em' down -- I don't reload and only hunt with 100 / 125 yds. max shot,so may be different for you long range guys** __ another old reliable is the Nosler Parttion __ most are DNT or within seeing distance** -- recently got some Norma ammo that shoots good on paper,but have not taken a whitetail with it ""YET""

 

[DamascusSteel]

I personally have never killed game with the fusion but my dad did for a decade in a 300WM with great experience I have killed deer with the interlock in 270 win,worked great, the interlock happens to be a favorite in my hunting crowd mostly in 308 win.

 

[Brian in Montana]

Nice job resurecting a zombie thread. I was a little surprised to see that I started this one back in 2017.

But anyway, for my part I've used several different bullets since then. Continued to load Interlocks in my wife's .270 and shoot the American Whitetail in my daughters .243. Im surprised to see posts here saying that Interlocks loose 40-50% of their mass; I've literally never recovered one. All have been pass throughs with good expansion evidenced by the exit wounds and no fragmentation. I still have a lot of faith in what they do. I haven't seen Fusions in .308 or something I use much for a while, but I did get to messing around with some 130gn Fusions in my wife's .270 recently and was impressed with a couple of the groups I got (H4831). I haven't chronoed them but I anticipate it's approaching 3100fps. I'm probably going to go with that for next year and see what they do on the receiving end.

 

[ClearCreek]

Nice job resurecting a zombie thread. I was a little surprised to see that I started this one back in 2017.

But anyway, for my part I've used several different bullets since then. Continued to load Interlocks in my wife's .270 and shoot the American Whitetail in my daughters .243. Im surprised to see posts here saying that Interlocks loose 40-50% of their mass; I've literally never recovered one. All have been pass throughs with good expansion evidenced by the exit wounds and no fragmentation. I still have a lot of faith in what they do. I haven't seen Fusions in .308 or something I use much for a while, but I did get to messing around with some 130gn Fusions in my wife's .270 recently and was impressed with a couple of the groups I got (H4831). I haven't chronoed them but I anticipate it's approaching 3100fps. I'm probably going to go with that for next year and see what they do on the receiving end.

Brian:
You indicate you have never recovered an Interlock; I have recovered a handful, but this indicates the animal was dead!

The most memorable Interlock was a 225 gr. Interlock out of my 338WM into a moose I shot in Wyoming. The bullet was just under the hide on the far side of the entrance hole and was found by a guy at the game processing business I took the moose to. He saved it and gave the bullet to me when I went to the processing business the next day to field check animals.

I have never have weighed that recovered bullet to determine how much weight it retained. Again, it did it's job extremely well as the moose, hit through both lungs, went about 10-15 yards before dying.

I have been reloading Hornady Interlocks for almost 50 years and with the supply I have, will continue to reload and shoot them the rest of my hunting life.

ClearCreek

 

[DamascusSteel]

Nice job resurecting a zombie thread. I was a little surprised to see that I started this one back in 2017.

But anyway, for my part I've used several different bullets since then. Continued to load Interlocks in my wife's .270 and shoot the American Whitetail in my daughters .243. Im surprised to see posts here saying that Interlocks loose 40-50% of their mass; I've literally never recovered one. All have been pass throughs with good expansion evidenced by the exit wounds and no fragmentation. I still have a lot of faith in what they do. I haven't seen Fusions in .308 or something I use much for a while, but I did get to messing around with some 130gn Fusions in my wife's .270 recently and was impressed with a couple of the groups I got (H4831). I haven't chronoed them but I anticipate it's approaching 3100fps. I'm probably going to go with that for next year and see what they do on the receiving end.

We have recovered one interlock 150gr out of a 308win.. it had jacket and core separation, the jacket was the only thing found

 

[nhenry]

My wife shoots the Fusions in her .308, it’s Sub moa and kills deer like it’s going out of style.

I thought your wife never wanted to see that rifle again at least that's what I recall from that thread you made about it. I never forget a pretty rifle

 

[cwitherow]

Prior to making the decision to go non-toxic for all my hunting, I used Fusions on my first two deer. Grouped well and worked.

 

[Lonster]

I thought your wife never wanted to see that rifle again at least that's what I recall from that thread you made about it. I never forget a pretty rifle

You are correct, I should have said “my wife used to kill deer with a .308”

She now has a Model Seven 7mm-08. The one on the right.

 

[DamascusSteel]

You are correct, I should have said “my wife used to kill deer with a .308”

She now has a Model Seven 7mm-08. The one on the right.

Both are fine looking rifles

 

[Kneetopia]

I've been shooting Fusion 180 gr out of my Weatherby Vanguard 30-06 since 2005 and have taken 12 antelope, 8 elk and 6 deer. That bullet performs very well and is sub moa.