Nothing can ruin a camping trip or hike faster than unplanned visitors—and no, I’m not talking about that annoying guy you met on the trail a few miles back. Chance encounters with wild animals could end in catastrophe, particularly during springtime. This time of year is the unofficial “baby season,” and there are few more dangerous situations than getting between a mother and her kin. Typical self-defense ammunition is made for defense against humans; it isn’t built with the penetrating qualities required to handle Mother Nature’s toughest creatures, like black bears. For wilderness settings, Federal Premium has introduced the Solid Core line-up, available for four popular self-defense handgun cartridges.
To increase penetration, ammo makers need to use heavier projectiles and load them to faster speeds; however, both of these criteria have limitations. For bullets, as their diameter or caliber is set by the bore, they can only get longer. The stopping point here is that if they get too long, they won’t spin properly and will therefore lose accuracy. For speed, you can only go so high before cases start to rupture, creating an extremely dangerous scenario. The solution to both problems lies in the company’s Syntech material.
Bullets are typically made of a soft lead-alloy core wrapped in a copper jacket. This jacket is needed to keep the lead from smearing down the inside of the barrel, causing accuracy loss and potentially dangerous overpressure issues. Given that the outside diameter needs to remain the same, to make room for the copper, a good portion of the lead needs to be traded away. Federal’s Syntech jacket is made of temperature-stable polymer, giving it the same protective properties as the copper jacket, at a fraction of the thickness. The application process also fully encapsulates the bullet, making it cleaner to fire and depositing less residue inside of your barrel and action.
Using this instead of copper allows Federal to put more lead into the bullets, making them heavier without making them longer. The lead alloy they chose for this projectile is also harder and denser than conventional self-defense fodder, helping it to poke through to where it needs to be to stop a violently charging animal, faster.
The rest of the cartridge is also very self-defense-minded, starting with the case. Federal uses its nickel-plated option for Solid Core, as it resists the corrosion that outdoor use basically invites. It’s also easier to see to help make sure the gun is loaded when intended, and unloaded when not. The primers used are easy to ignite and are sealed into place to ensure that your powder starts dry.
Speaking of powder, special blends were chosen to get top velocities out of compact firearms, without the associated fireball in front of the muzzle. Should you have to engage a furry campsite raider in the dead of night, it’s nice not to be blinded, should you need a second shot.
I decided to test these through pistols that represented something that most people would carry every day, as not every camper has a dedicated woods gun. For the 9mm, I chose Taurus’s GX4, which is my current personal carry pistol. It is rated for +P ammunition, so I didn’t expect any trouble with the corresponding Solid Core load.
The .45 ACP offering is also built to +P pressure, so I selected one of TISAS’s all-steel, commander-length 1911s to put that one through its paces. Finally, for the .40 S&W and the 10mm loads, I went with FK’s new BRNO Compact. This interesting pistol comes with a conversion for 10mm Auto and explicitly states that it’s safe to fire both it and the .40 S&W through the same barrel. Although this is common practice for many 10mm Auto shooters, it’s not recommended in most pistols as there is the potential for safety issues.
Testing went extraordinarily well, as all cartridges functioned without a hiccup through a variety of shooting positions. I even tested them with just my weak hand to represent the worst possible self-defense scenario. Accuracy was generally good, except with the .40 S&W being fired through the 10mm Auto barrel, which is typical in that case. Nonetheless, it was still well within the standards needed to hit a critter looking to do you harm within our test distance (or maybe even further).
The recoil was stout, as these are designed to be heavy hitters, which is to be expected. Combined with the MSRP of $40.99-$46.99 per 20-round box, they aren’t suitable for long practice sessions. However, Federal makes plenty of Syntech training products to help meet those needs, and they cost substantially less.
I ended my day by shooting a few more boxes of each load through their respective firearms. One of my favorite aspects of Syntech is that the coating produces less friction than copper, so your barrel doesn’t heat up as fast. Not that I plan on doing this every day, but it’s a nice feature to have for any load that you plan to use with a degree of regularity. My carry gun is an important piece of kit, and I want to stretch its lifespan as long as possible. The same goes for my own, and luckily, if I get between a mama bear and her cubs, Federal’s Solid Core can help with that, too. For more information, visit federalpremium.com.
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