I only use Federal Fusion 165 grain in my .308 and have been for 10 years. That's both in my Savage 99C's and my Remington 700
Attached is an image of 4 slugs I've retrieved. Far left is the one I recovered from a cow elk in 2012. I hit rib going in and coming out (300 yards on the nose, got both lungs) and it stuck in the hide on the offside. It mushroomed perfectly. She went about 30 yards and dropped dead.
Second from the left actually came out of a whitey doe. It was about a 180 yard shot, hit shoulder and got both lungs. She went 30 yards and dropped dead. This one can't sit flat on the bottom of the slug as it deformed quite exotically. I suspect that's because it hit a major bone. You can see the one piece sticking off to the side. This bullet did a lot of damage to the lungs and was stuck in the hide on the offside
The last two are from the bull moose I shot last year. The one on the far right is majorly deformed from hitting the ball at the top of the front right leg bone. Ball portion of bone was shattered (dang it....cost me some meat) The second from the right actually went through the left shoulder blade breaking it into 3 pieces. As you can see, it mushroomed perfectly just like the one from the elk. The first shot was right shoulder, it ran off a few yards and turned facing the other way so I gave it another in the other shoulder. Then it still ran 15 or 20 yards (I know.......tough eh!) and laid down in water :|
I've shot a lot of deer, several elk and a couple moose with these bullets and they perform beautifully..........as long as I do.
I can, and do, consistently shoot under 1/2 MOA at 500 yards with these. My best group was a 1" grouping but I was using my led sled though for that one
My best shot in the field, with my Swarovski Z5 3,5-18x44 (Ballistic Turret) mounted on my Savage 99C was 495 yards. My second best was with the scope mounted on my Remington 700 and that was a cow elk at 450 yards. That elk incidentally was quartered towards me. This was the waning minutes of legal and I thought she was more broadside than she was. Bullet hit rib going in the right side, nicked the paunch (no real mess inside though, thank God....the entry/exit in the stomach were about 2" apart) and destroyed the liver. Momma was unhappy because there was no part of the liver that was recoverable. I like liver a lot and was disappointed too. I was also very surprised at the damage this bullet caused to the elks liver, it literally exploded!
Anyhow, I like this ammo a lot and am very impressed by the performance. I got Federal to make me up a ballistic chart (there's always a partial chart on the back of the box itself) for my zero at 250 yards. I ran the ballistic calculator on Swarovski's site and it matched almost exactly.
It's worth noting, I've never seen these make a big exit hole.......ever! I wouldn't use ammo that made big holes as that ruins meat!