I thought this thread was on the federal tlr ammo and bullets, not the Sierra gamechanger bullets--- the tlr are a copper shank, but bonded lead core nose design to help expansion at like speeds and retain weight at high speeds---- the gamechanger bullets are a "tipped match king/game king cup core bullet" ..
I have been trying to find anyone who's shot the tlr ammo and I've not yet heard of anyone--- there is only the 30-06 factory loaded ammo in stock on midway but the bullets are either out of stock or commin g soon
I guess what threw me off was the mention it was manf by Sierra. My bad as now seeing them they are clearly very different bullets.
What made me think it was the game changer and possibly they made changes was the idea they were both Sierra bullets and they both used the new polymer tips. The TBBC was Speer and what Fed now makes inhouse IIRC. So its a Federal bullet and based off the tipped bonded bear claw which was a redesign from the standard TBBC that added a tip and solid copper bottom half with boattail
"Unlike other so-called long-range projectiles that can fail to perform at lower velocities, the Federal Premium Edge TLR uses an exclusive
Slipstream polymer tip to trigger expansion at long range. On closer targets, the copper shank and bonded lead core retain weight for consistent, lethal penetration."
The tipped part confused me. I was having a serious brain fart confusing the two. Sorry to add to the confusion.
The issue with Federal who used other bullet manf for their loadings but also their own in-house bullets which are not sold as components for quite some time if ever sometimes. After doing some more digging I think I have the entire story.
I gave a friend a call that is an editor for the NRA mag publications. He gave me the info he knew about it. He also as the editor has info on articles written for most the major gun rags and big online sites. He pointed me to an article run on this bullet by Rifle Shooter Magazine which is also online
here Which is about the original Polymer Tipped, Bonded Lead Core, Solid Copper Base Channeled Boat Tail which is know as the Trophy Bonded Tip (TBT).
He also gave me a link to an article that was run in one of the publications he oversees American Hunter on the TLR Edge bullet and ammo
here
He stated the bullet in the TLR ammo is a LR version of that bullet with same design construction as the TBT. It just has a sleek higher BC design and possibly a modified hollow point to make intital expansion easier. His analogy was
"The Trophy Bonded Tipped (TBT) bullet is to the Accubond as the Trophy Bonded Tipped Long Range (TBTLR) is to the AccubondLR." That makes perfect sense to me. In terms of the bullet construction he said they are like a TSX/TTSX bottom half meets a AB/ABLR top half bullet. A partition bullet but with the channels of the barnes TSX reducing bearing surface.
He stated, as was mentioned in this thread already, that both bullet designs, the TBT and TBTLR know as the Edge TLR, are available as bullet components. Going directly to Federal's Online Shop Bullet Section ........
HERE
As for the BC I think Federal has access to Doppler Radar now as does Hornady. IIRC it was when HRDY started using Doppler they found the weird BC anomalies with poly tipped bullets which lead to them redesigning their tipped with a new polymer that would not heat deform during flight. I seem to recall reading a tech paper by them on it. It seems now all the manf of poly tip bullets are using new tips. Based on them using Doppler I would think their BC should be quite accurate but there will also be some difference from vel twist rates atmosphere even when normalized for standard base conditions.
I got to say at least on paper the combo or partition design combining a TSX bottom with AB top sounds ideal from terminal performance end. When you consider what a great rep the partition bullets have for terminal perf there only real lacking was low BC. If this bullet can give use both plus the decreased bearing surface using the barnes TSX channels at least on paper sure does sound like a perfect combo especially if the BC hold close. With expansion down to 1375 FPS, for the 155gr 7mm, that is EXCELLENT. With the solid core even if the front half frag'd at close range high vel you still have a solid core that would tumble thru equal to I guess about half the bullet weight as its solid copper.
