Federal's Fusion 140-grain is a hunting load built on a bonded soft point, a lead-core bullet with its copper jacket bonded to the core. It is rated at a G1 BC of .439 and leaves the muzzle at 2,725 fps, the fastest start among the 140- to 143-grain hunting loads it is compared with. At 300 yards it still carries 1,427 ft-lbs of energy.

Compared with Sellier & Bellot's 140-grain soft point, Fusion starts 67 fps faster and keeps that lead all the way out. At 500 yards, a steady 10 mph wind blowing across the range pushes Fusion about 23 inches sideways and the Sellier & Bellot 140 about 25. Zeroed at 100 yards, Fusion drops about 59 inches at 500 and the Sellier & Bellot about 64. Fusion kicks about 3 percent harder in the same rifle. Compared with Hornady's Precision Hunter 143, Fusion starts slightly faster but falls well behind with distance. The same wind pushes the Precision Hunter about 15 inches at 500 yards, and from the same zero it drops about 54 inches there.

Buy Fusion if you want a bonded soft point and most of your shots fall inside 300 yards, where it runs ahead of the plain soft points in speed and wind. Pick the Sellier & Bellot 140 if you are happy with a plain soft point at close range; at 200 yards the two drop within half an inch of each other. Pick the Precision Hunter 143 if you expect longer shots, where its polymer-tipped ELD-X drifts and drops much less. For practice at the same bullet weight, Aguila's 140-grain FMJBT is a full metal jacket target load that kicks about 5 percent less in the same rifle.