Unlocking Superior Hunting Performance: Federal Premium Vital-Shok .280 Rem 140 gr Trophy Bonded Tip Ammunition

For the discerning hunter who demands nothing less than perfection in the field, the choice of ammunition is paramount. Whether you're pursuing a trophy buck, a challenging elk, or a formidable bear, confidence in your shot is non-negotiable. This is where Federal Premium Vital-Shok .280 Remington 140 grain Trophy Bonded Tip ammunition (UPC: 029465060442) enters the scene, redefining what it means to achieve surgical accuracy and devastating terminal results on big game.

This isn't just another box of cartridges; it's a meticulously engineered solution designed to solve the critical problems faced by hunters: inconsistent bullet performance, inadequate penetration on large animals, and the moral imperative for a swift, humane harvest. By combining cutting-edge bullet design with Federal's legendary manufacturing precision, the Vital-Shok Trophy Bonded Tip ensures every pull of the trigger is met with predictable, powerful performance.

The Heart of the Hunt: Why Choose Federal Vital-Shok .280 Remington 140 gr Trophy Bonded Tip?

Hunters often ask, "What is the best ammunition for my .280 Remington rifle when hunting large animals?" The answer lies in a bullet designed from the ground up to excel in vital areas: accuracy, penetration, and controlled expansion. The Federal Premium Vital-Shok line, featuring the innovative Trophy Bonded Tip, offers a unique blend of these qualities, making it a premier choice for serious hunters. It’s engineered to perform across the full spectrum of medium and big game, delivering critical energy and deep penetration at any practical range. This particular load, the Federal P280TT2, is optimized for consistency and effectiveness, shot after shot.

Diving Deep into the .280 Remington Cartridge: Power & Versatility

The .280 Remington, introduced by Remington Arms in 1957, is a beloved and highly capable cartridge known for its flat trajectory and impressive power without excessive recoil. Based on the .30-06 Springfield case necked down to accept a .284-inch bullet, it offers an excellent balance of speed and bullet weight, making it incredibly versatile for a wide array of North American game.

• Exceptional Ballistics: The .280 Remington is celebrated for its inherently accurate nature and its ability to deliver bullets with high muzzle velocities and excellent retained energy downrange. This makes it a fantastic choice for open-country hunting where shots might extend beyond typical brush ranges.
• Optimal for Medium to Large Game: Its power profile makes it ideal for deer, black bear, caribou, and especially elk. Many experienced hunters consider it a top-tier elk cartridge due to its blend of power and shootability. The 140-grain bullet weight in this Federal load strikes a perfect balance, offering both high velocity and sufficient mass for deep penetration.
• Manageable Recoil: Compared to heavier recoiling magnum cartridges, the .280 Rem offers a more comfortable shooting experience, allowing hunters to maintain better control for follow-up shots and extended practice sessions, which directly translates to improved accuracy in the field.

The Pinnacle of Bullet Engineering: Federal's Trophy Bonded Tip Technology

At the core of the Federal Premium Vital-Shok's superior performance is the Trophy Bonded Tip bullet. This isn't merely a jacketed lead-core bullet; it represents a significant leap forward in hunting bullet design, meticulously crafted to ensure terminal performance that is both reliable and devastating.

Core Design Philosophy: Surgical Accuracy Meets Devastating Terminal Performance

Federal's philosophy with the Trophy Bonded Tip was to create a bullet that could be relied upon for critical, one-shot incapacitations. This meant addressing common bullet failures like jacket separation, insufficient penetration, and inconsistent expansion. The result is a bullet that holds together, delivers energy precisely, and expands reliably.

Key Innovations of the Trophy Bonded Tip

• Robust Bonding Maximizes Weight Retention: One of the most critical aspects of terminal performance is a bullet's ability to retain its weight upon impact. The Trophy Bonded Tip features a robustly bonded core to its copper jacket. This metallurgical bond virtually eliminates core-jacket separation, a common failure point in conventional bullets.
  • Benefit for Hunters: High weight retention (often exceeding 90-95%) means the bullet maintains its mass and momentum, driving deeper into vital organs, even after encountering bone. This translates to a more effective wound channel and significantly increased likelihood of a clean, ethical kill, minimizing tracking time and animal suffering.
• High-Performance Polymer Tip: The vibrant red polymer tip isn't just for aesthetics; it serves multiple crucial functions:
  • Flat Trajectory & Better Accuracy: The aerodynamic polymer tip dramatically improves the bullet's ballistic coefficient, reducing drag and allowing for a flatter trajectory over longer distances. This helps mitigate bullet drop and wind deflection, making long-range shots more precise.
  • Reliable Expansion Initiation: Unlike soft-point bullets that can deform in the magazine or get plugged with material on impact, the polymer tip resists deformation and forces rapid, consistent expansion upon striking soft tissue.
  • More Energy Transfer: By initiating expansion immediately, the bullet rapidly transfers its kinetic energy into the target, creating a devastating hydrostatic shock and maximizing tissue damage.
• Exterior Skiving for Optimum Expansion: The bullet features precisely engineered skives (small cuts or grooves) on the exterior of the jacket near the tip. These pre-programmed weakening points ensure controlled, mushroom-style expansion.
  • Benefit for Hunters: This guarantees a wide, consistent wound channel, crucial for quickly incapacitating game. The expansion is aggressive enough to cause significant trauma but controlled enough to prevent fragmentation, ensuring maximum energy delivery within the animal.
• Solid Copper Shank for Bone-Crushing Penetration: Behind the expanding front section, the Trophy Bonded Tip boasts a robust, non-fragmenting solid copper shank.
  • Benefit for Hunters: This solid section acts as a "backbone" for the bullet, maintaining its integrity and driving deep through tough obstacles like bone, gristle, or thick muscle without deforming or deviating from its path. This ensures that the bullet reliably reaches vital organs, even on quartering shots or when encountering a shoulder blade.
• Boat-Tail Design: The tapered base of the bullet, known as a boat-tail, further enhances its aerodynamic efficiency.
  • Benefit for Hunters: This design reduces drag and improves the bullet's ballistic coefficient, contributing to flatter trajectories, higher retained velocities, and improved accuracy, especially at extended ranges.
• The Federal Gold Medal Primer: The Spark of Precision: Every Federal Premium cartridge is ignited by a legendary Gold Medal primer. These primers are renowned for their consistent, hot, and reliable ignition.
  • Benefit for Hunters: Consistent ignition is paramount for uniform propellant burn, which directly translates to minimal velocity variations (low standard deviation) and superior shot-to-shot accuracy. This level of consistency is a hallmark of premium ammunition.
• Nickel Plated Brass: Reliability in All Conditions: The cartridge cases are nickel-plated, a feature that offers significant advantages in the field.
  • Benefit for Hunters: Nickel plating provides excellent corrosion protection, ensuring the ammunition remains pristine even in damp or humid conditions. It also enhances the smoothness of feeding and extraction from your rifle's chamber, minimizing the risk of malfunctions when a rapid follow-up shot might be critical.
• Specially Formulated Propellant with Copper-Reducing Additives: The propellant powder used in Federal Premium Vital-Shok loads is carefully selected and formulated for optimal burn rates and consistency across varying temperatures. Additionally, it often includes copper-reducing additives to minimize copper fouling in the barrel.
  • Benefit for Hunters: Less copper fouling means your rifle maintains its accuracy for longer periods between cleanings, and it contributes to consistent velocities, ensuring predictable bullet placement.

Real-World Application: What Can You Expect in the Field?

When you load your .280 Remington rifle with Federal Premium Vital-Shok 140 gr Trophy Bonded Tip ammunition, you're not just carrying cartridges; you're carrying confidence.

• Confidence for Critical Shots: The meticulous engineering behind this ammunition reduces variables, allowing you to focus on shot placement. Knowing your bullet will perform exactly as designed, whether it's a close-range deer or a distant elk, instills the peace of mind necessary for success.
• Ethical Hunting: Ensuring Humane Harvests: For every responsible hunter, a quick and humane harvest is the ultimate goal. The Trophy Bonded Tip's combination of deep penetration, controlled expansion, and high energy transfer ensures rapid incapacitation, minimizing tracking and animal suffering.
• Versatility Across Medium and Big Game:
  • Deer: For whitetail, mule deer, and blacktail, the 140-grain Trophy Bonded Tip provides excellent energy delivery without excessive meat damage, ensuring a quick, clean takedown.
  • Elk/Moose: The bullet's bone-crushing penetration and high weight retention are absolutely critical for reaching the vitals of large, tough animals like elk and moose, even through heavy bone and muscle.
  • Bear: Whether black bear or grizzly, the reliability and deep-penetrating qualities of this bullet provide the necessary stopping power and assurance in challenging situations.
• Performance at Any Practical Range: With a muzzle velocity of 2950 feet per second and muzzle energy of 2705 ft lbs, this load provides a flat-shooting trajectory that maintains significant energy downrange. The high ballistic coefficient of the Trophy Bonded Tip ensures that this energy isn't just present at the muzzle but is retained effectively, providing lethal performance at distances where other bullets might falter.

Addressing Hunter's Questions: Why This Ammunition?

• "What's the best ammunition for my .280 Remington hunting rifle?"
  For premium performance on medium to large game, the Federal Premium Vital-Shok 140 gr Trophy Bonded Tip is consistently ranked among the top choices by experienced hunters. Its blend of accuracy, deep penetration, and reliable expansion sets it apart.
• "How does bullet construction impact terminal performance?"
  Bullet construction is everything. The bonded core, solid copper shank, and engineered expansion points of the Trophy Bonded Tip are precisely what allow it to hold together, penetrate deeply, and expand reliably, ensuring maximum energy transfer and tissue destruction. This is fundamentally superior to traditional cup-and-core designs for demanding big game.
• "Can I rely on this ammunition for long-range shots?"
  Absolutely. The combination of the .280 Remington's inherent ballistic efficiency, the Trophy Bonded Tip's polymer tip and boat-tail design, and Federal's quality control results in a flat-shooting, accurate round that maintains its energy and integrity at extended hunting distances, provided the shooter practices and knows their rifle's capabilities.
• "What makes Federal Premium ammunition 'premium'?"
  "Premium" signifies Federal's commitment to using the highest quality components (like Gold Medal primers and specially formulated powders), precision manufacturing processes, and rigorous testing standards. This translates directly to superior consistency, accuracy, and terminal performance that hunters can trust when it matters most.
• "How does bullet weight affect performance in .280 Rem?"
  The 140-grain weight for the .280 Remington is often considered a "sweet spot" by many. It provides an excellent balance of high velocity for a flat trajectory and sufficient bullet mass for deep penetration and energy transfer on big game, making it a highly versatile and effective choice.

Technical Specifications and Ballistic Data

Understanding the numbers behind the Federal Premium Vital-Shok .280 Rem 140 gr Trophy Bonded Tip (UPC: 029465060442) helps illustrate its impressive capabilities. The muzzle velocity of 2950 feet per second (fps) means the bullet exits the barrel with significant speed, contributing to a flatter trajectory and reduced flight time to target. The muzzle energy of 2705 foot-pounds (ft lbs) indicates the tremendous power delivered upon impact, essential for transferring sufficient energy to quickly incapacitate large game. The 140-grain bullet weight provides the necessary mass for deep penetration while maintaining excellent velocity. Each box contains 20 rounds, with 10 boxes per case, making it convenient for stocking up for hunting season or extended range sessions.

The Federal Ammunition Legacy: A Name You Can Trust

For generations, Federal Ammunition has been a cornerstone of the shooting sports and hunting communities. Their unwavering commitment to innovation, quality, and performance has made them a trusted name among hunters worldwide. When you choose Federal Premium Vital-Shok, you're not just buying ammunition; you're investing in decades of ballistic expertise and a legacy of helping hunters achieve success in the field. This commitment to excellence is precisely why so many seasoned hunters rely on Federal for their most important hunts.

Your Trusted Source for Premium Ammunition

When you're ready to experience the unmatched performance of Federal Premium Vital-Shok .280 Remington 140 gr Trophy Bonded Tip ammunition (P280TT2), you'll find it available from trusted retailers who specialize in providing high-quality shooting supplies. For a reliable source, consider checking availability at DEGuns.com, a reputable provider known for their extensive selection of premium ammunition and hunting gear.

Product Overview & Specifications

Feature	Detail
Brand	Federal
Series	Vital-Shok
Model	Premium
Caliber	.280 Rem
Bullet Type	Trophy Bonded Tip
Bullet Weight	140 gr
Muzzle Velocity	2950 fps
Muzzle Energy	2705 ft lbs
Application	Big Game
Rounds Per Box	20
Boxes Per Case	10
SKU	59170
MPN	P280TT2
UPC	029465060442