I Screwed Up, and I Knew Better !!!

There was indeed bullet failure.. The TTSX is designed to expand with four glorious pedals as it penetrates... Penetrate it did, but expand it did not. The bullet only did half what it was designed o do, that is a huge FAIL.. It worked no better than a FMJ which is illegal to use for obvious reasons...

A buck I shot a few years back with a 308 and 150 gr. TTSX went about 20 yards after a quartering frontal pass through, 325 yds. or so, great performance. I've used TTSX in the "slow" calibers and TSX on the fast ones and have nothing but good things to say about them. I never have to worry about a failure to penetrate. Any tracking and follow up shots have been due to me missing the mark.

Surely you documented this failure with a picture? I'd be interested to see what the bullets look like as I rarely recover TSX or TTSX.
 
There was indeed bullet failure.. The TTSX is designed to expand with four glorious pedals as it penetrates... Penetrate it did, but expand it did not. The bullet only did half what it was designed o do, that is a huge FAIL.. It worked no better than a FMJ which is illegal to use for obvious reasons...

That's assuming that there was nothing other than a .264" hole the whole way through the neck. If the hole was larger than that, it's likely the bullet expanded. Measure a fully expanded .264 TTSX and you will find it's not exceptionally wide, less than a dime in diameter. A TTSX will not turn to shrapnel so it relies on it's expansion and penetration only, therefore it must hit vitals (and/or bone ) to work. Hitting a fleshy part of meat won't work.

A fleshy piece of meat is the wrong place to put a mono metal bullet, simple as that.
 
Centre of the neck isn't a good place to put a shot. Hard to hit the carotid artery or spine. Neither is very big on Bambi.
Use a 110 or 150 FMJ out of an '06. Assuming commercial FMJ's are legal in B.C.

^This is really BAD Advice. About the worst sunray has ever posted here on CGN.
And yes, sunray is telling him to use FMJs on a deer!

I used 55 gr FMJs for jackrabbits once in Southern Saskatchewan using a 222.

Note I said once.

Never, ever again!
 
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Imo you don't need a barnes for animals that weight less than 750 lb

Hence my thread title TJW............this was my fault for loading TTSX in the 260 in the first place and his for shooting it in the neck instead of low in the shoulder as he was instructed. Poor bullet performance is irrelevant of where the animal is hit, regardless that the shot was poorly made I still do not like the tiny wound channel of the TTSX, and I seriously doubt that a lung shot would have been instantly or even quickly fatal. A shoulder shot probably would have been fatal very quickly, and this is what he was instructed to do however he is 14 and it was his first deer and a very big one at that, so let's face it, he got excited and did not make the shot we all would have liked to have seen. If he did not get excited I think I would have to make an appointment with a shrink for him...........and none of you guys have ever got excited and made a poor shot or even missed? Good God if I didn't get excited I'd hang it up, I have learned to control the excitement until after the shot but it took many years and many animals to get there, I'm not faulting the kid for it, he beat himself up for quite badly during the 3 hr search and refused to put the finisher in him for fear of screwing up again.........I had to do the finish. But this is not the point of this thread, poor bullet performance is. I have shot 3 animals in the neck, 2 because it was the only shot I had and one because I must have pulled the shot a touch, all 3 died quickly and the 2 that were intentional hit the ground where they stood, the third only moved about 40 mtrs and could walk no further nor run or even hold up his head. These bullets performed and would have performed just as well on a body shot, so what I'm saying is good performance is good performance and bad performance is bad performance regardless of where the bullet strikes.

RF458, I have no idea where you are coming from, people make mistakes and this was one, my experience does not genetically trickle down to my sons, that is just silly. To expect perfection and calm detached shooting from a 14 year old, with a total of 3 animals under his belt is absolutely ludicrous...........much easier to criticize than to find the good in a situation I guess, we did recover the deer and all is well with the world. All I'm saying is that a different bullet may have made recovery much quicker and less gut wrenching for him. As I said earlier in this thread, more range and trigger time for him in the near future, that's a given............
 
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No one's trying to take anything away from the young hunter and of course everyone screws up, that's a moot point.
Perhaps a better idea would've been to focus the original post on his achievement in what is undoubtedly something that isn't unusual in hunting and bound to happen again.

There's nothing wrong with learning that animals don't fall over dead every time they get hit.
 
I just had some moose steak that was taken via a 264" monometal. Guess it was a fluke kill

PS to get a 160gr AB to 3500 fps, takes about 100,000 PSI :dancingbanana:
 
Here's some photos of his deer anyway......................and a happy hunter regardless that he didn't make a perfect shot................


Freaky buck. Glad it worked out in the end. I agree with you that a bullet more likely to expand would have worked better. Your bullet thinking must still be stuck in giant moose mode.
 
I just had some moose steak that was taken via a 264" monometal. Guess it was a fluke kill

PS to get a 160gr AB to 3500 fps, takes about 100,000 PSI :dancingbanana:

What does it take to get a .221 Fireball to 4000 fps... and what bullet would you use on moose with that Fireball?
 
Here's some photos of his deer anyway......................and a happy hunter regardless that he didn't make a perfect shot................





No one here is advocating neck shooting as a properly placed shot, but the reality is that is where his shot went.............I however am a dedicated front shoulder shooter and it works flawlessly, when all goes as planned..........which this shot didn't. I wasn't looking for a lecture on correct bullet placement, which I believe I am well aware of, I was just distraught at the significant lack of damage from the TTSX at close range with a solid muscle hit............it should have done more damage in my opinion.

at the end the deer is recovered, a young happy hunter and an happy father ... what else ...
 
He's going to make a fine wall mount.
Dang timber is trying hard to be a muley.
Whom you getting to taxidermie it there Douglas?[/QUOTE]

I am using a guy in St. Paul Alta for these mounts 'Looky..........his name is Gary Padlesky, don't know what his company name is or if he even has one, I assume he does but I don't know it.

TB.........you really need to check your pressure program, this load in the 7 RUM doesn't even flatten the primers in the R-P brass and the bolt lifts without the slightest tension and no brass movement into the ejector or scuffing of the headstamp. This just isn't possible with R-P brass at 100,000 psi...........my chronograph is the Oehler 35P and I trust it implicitly, unlike your theoretical pressure estimates. I live in the real world, with real loads, real guns and real bullets over real chronographs, not in a computer generated, theoretical model which obviously lies to you or doesn't have all the pertinent info necessary to make an accurate prediction..........
 
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