Federal's Fusion 158-grain is a bonded soft point marketed for hunting, loaded to 1,240 fps and 539 ft-lbs for a power factor of 196, well over the 165 USPSA major floor. It holds its speed downrange: 1,141 fps and 457 ft-lbs at 50 yards, 1,065 fps and 398 ft-lbs at 100, where it has kept 74 percent of its muzzle energy. From a 25-yard zero it drops 1.0 inch at 50 yards and 8.3 inches at 100.

Muzzle velocity puts it in the slower half of the 158-grain expanding set. Ammo Inc Signature 158 JHP and Hornady Custom 158 XTP are 10 fps faster, Sellier & Bellot 158 Soft Point is 23 fps faster, and in the same revolver the Fusion produces about 1 percent less recoil energy than the first two and about 3 percent less than the Soft Point. Blazer Brass 158 JHP is the soft load of the set, 90 fps slower with about 12 percent less recoil energy than the Fusion. Sellier & Bellot 158 SJHP is the hot one, 89 fps ahead at the muzzle with about 13 percent more recoil energy; by 100 yards the Fusion has closed that velocity gap to 37 fps, while giving up an inch more drop there.

Buy this if you hunt with a .357 Magnum and want a bonded soft point at the 158-grain weight without the recoil of the hottest loads; Sellier & Bellot 158 SJHP gives more speed but kicks about 13 percent harder. For practice that matches it, Remington Performance WheelGun 158 LSWC is 5 fps and 4 ft-lbs off at the muzzle and equal in recoil energy within 1 percent, in a plain lead bullet that some indoor ranges turn away. If recoil is the deciding factor, Winchester 110-grain JHP cuts recoil energy by about 48 percent in the same revolver, at 410 ft-lbs against 539.