I hunt whitetail deer in Missouri and used Federal Fusion bullets for the first time this year and thought I'd report my experiences.

I was using a Kimber 84M Montana .308 and Federal Fusion 180 grain rounds.  I ended up shooting 6 deer with this set-up.

The first was a large doe at very close range of 48 yards.  Bullet hit her in the shoulder and exited.  Dropped dead.  No kicking.  No nothing.  Internal damage was massive.  Exit wound was fist sized.

Deer two was a button buck at 70 yards.  Shot in shoulder and bullet exited other shoulder.  Like the previous doe massive internal damage and the shoulders were shattered.  Oddly enough the deer walked/stumbled a couple of yards and fell over into a small creek.   I'm not sure how he did it with two obliterated shoulder and no heart or lungs but he did.

Deer three was a doe at 229 yards.  Again a shot in the shoulder with same massive internal damage and a very large exit wound in the side.  Dropped in place.

Deer four was another button buck at under 50 yards.  I didn't check it with a laser or note the exact range in my book.  Two shots fired.  First went through and through behind the front shoulders.  Deer just stood there and I thought I had missed.  Second round went into shoulder and out the other side.  He actually ran about 25 yards and piled into a creek. (same creek as deer two actually and nearly in the same spot)  Massive, massive blood loss and it was an obvious blood/tissue trail.

Deer five was a doe at 287 yards.  Shot was high in the back which removed a large section of spine and tissue.  Dropped without moving an inch.

Deer six was a very large doe at 114 yards.  Bullet impacted just behind shoulder and exited through other shoulder leaving a fist sized hole.  Deer jumped and dropped in place.

The Federal Fusion bullets seem to do really massive internal damage.  Just makes a mess of the internal organs.  While you lose some meat due to the large exit wounds you don't have to chase wounded deer all over.  Other family members were shooting 7mm Remington Magnums with Remington Core Lokt bullets and Winchester Ballistic Silver Tips.  The Remington rounds killed deer but they ran a good distance and the blood trails were pretty hard to see at times.  Recovered one bullet which was mushroomed really nice though.  The Winchesters were disappointing.  They evidently weren't expanding or something.  Deer would jump and sometimes fall but then get back up and run all over creation.  Close range or further out the Winchesters just didn't perform for some reason.

The accuracy on the Federal Fusions are pretty good in my Kimber.  The 180s seemed to be a little more consistent than the lighter 150 grains that I also tried at the range so I went with the heavier bullets.

I've got some Winchester XPs and and Hornaday ammo I'd like to try out on game but the Fusions were working so well I didn't try them this year.

I have to say I'm sold on those Fusion bullets.  They perform better on deer than any other bullet I've ever used.  Accurate and a consistent performer so far.

PR

Being a landowner I get free archery, firearms and muzzleloader tags.  For firearms deer season I get 1 any deer and 3 doe tags.  After I use those up I can go and get as many doe tags as I wish for a nominal fee.  $5 or 10$ something.  All together we probably took 18 or 20 deer off of my place this year.  3 shooter bucks and the rest were does or button bucks.

I didn't get the particular buck I was looking for but he made it through the season so hopefully next year.  Saw tons and tons of does and some shooter bucks but I had me heart set on a huge buck I'd been tracking for three years now.  Smart old deer.  Hope he lives long enough for me to get him on my wall.  I got plenty of meat which should keep me in steaks, roasts, burger, jerky and sausage until next season.  In fact, I just finished a venison meatloaf sandwich a few minutes ago.

The Federal Fusion rounds really impressed me.  The internal damage was just so massive.  If you got a shot into the chest you were hard pressed to identify hearts and lungs.  Just turned them to pulp and they ended up spilling out when you lifted the beast onto the trailer.  I can live with a fist sized chuck of meat damage if I don't have to chase them all over.  The meat is the better for it.

Oh and by the way, on the Winchester XPs you really have to watch the plastic tips on the bullets.  They seem to be a fairly hard plastic and they break off if handled too roughly.  It gets worse when it is cold.  I've got 3 that I broke the tips off of simply from loading and unloading them from my rifle every day during the season. 

I've got a couple of boxes of the standard Winchester Supreme ballistic tips that I'll use for target practice but I'll never shoot them at deer again.  I seen too many deer get up and run away after being struck by them.  I seen a doe shot with them from a 7mm rem mag at under 100 yards get up and run nearly a mile.  Hit her back behind the shoulder and a nice clean 7mm hole out the other side.  Seen much the same happen with the same bullets fired from a .243 which hit at around 300 yards.  I seen the bullets impact the side of the deer and it simply strolled away.  I don't think they're expanding like they should.

Heck of a bullet.  Best I've used so far.  I don't know what is so special about it but I can't argue with the results.

The Winchester stuff we were having trouble with was the stuff in the black boxes with "supreme" written in gold.  The only thing I can figure is that they weren't expanding.

Oddly enough I was using some of their black box .223 varmint loads in my AR for shooting coyotes and they were expanding fine.  Accuracy was even pretty good.

I'd also add that I used Winchester soft points that came in a gray box in my AK for deer for a couple of years and they were a fine bullet.  Expanded nicely and dropped deer pretty solid.  AKs make a dandy brush gun.  Topped with a red dot sight it was just the ticket for whitetails in heavy cover.