.358 200gr TSX experiences

[WhelanLad]

hi guys im referring to the Older TSX models, 200gr .358 projectile particularly.

may of you used these in the past and what was the general gist of them for say DEER, small ones, and up to Elks?

do you remember how 'fast' you run them and did you run them mildly?


ive them loaded for the 35 whelen but its a min load or there abouts of Varget, im wondering if its going to be a more of a 'solid' than much else?

would you Lung the critters or be sure to smack the shoulders ?

i understand a .358 solid makes a hole as big as a 270 expanded in some instances... have heard these TSX are tuff

 

[4fifty8]

Current 358 Win BLR takedown hunting load 225gr TSX@2375 fps mv (good results with 35 Whelen/long discontinued 250gr X@2200 fps impact on Elk, not much different). 200gr TSX maybe 100 fps faster mv.

https://i.imgur.com/yl6Jzod.jpg / https://i.imgur.com/dVwA8Uq.jpg / https://i.imgur.com/X7EpCtW.jpg

 

[Bare]

My load for the 200ttsx is with rl15 in a 22” cooper was trucking along at 2822fps. With all bullets I’m a shoulder shooter. I find the ttsx bullets do save lots of meat compared to lead bullets.
I sold that rifle recently and just got a kimber Montana rechambered in 35 Whelen with a 23” barrel. Hopefully my load above shoots in this rifle as well but I’m never that lucky.

 

[WhelanLad]

Current 358 Win BLR takedown hunting load 225gr TSX@2375 fps mv (good results with 35 Whelen/long discontinued 250gr X@2200 fps impact on Elk, not much different). 200gr TSX maybe 100 fps faster mv.

]

Gday mate, Thanks for this! They are sort of on the slower side of life for the mono but th 358 makes sense now i re read it!

My load for the 200ttsx is with rl15 in a 22” cooper was trucking along at 2822fps. With all bullets I’m a shoulder shooter. I find the ttsx bullets do save lots of meat compared to lead bullets.
I sold that rifle recently and just got a kimber Montana rechambered in 35 Whelen with a 23” barrel. Hopefully my load above shoots in this rifle as well but I’m never that lucky.

OUCH bro!!!! ha ha! legendary rifle an cartridge combo though!!!

side note- i got onto 150 speers and 100 hornady in 250 grain, so im looking forward to using them after these 20 remaining TSX!

With your rounds Bare, do you find expansion has done enough or is it fairly similiar out the other side

 

[WhelanLad]

In saying that fellas, my load is below min, 51gr of varget for less than 2500........ i couldnt get it to group until i wrapped a few tape on the barrel an it shot about an inch... but if your 258 is doin ok with those velocities i should be ok..i wont be standing infront to test it though

 

[Andy]

Although light for caliber, since it's made of copper, its length is comparable to most 250 gr lead bullets, so its ballistics are also comparable.

 

[BlackRam]

Sorry, haven't tried it (.358 X Bullet) on game myself.
I have used the X Bullet in 6.5 on deer and moose in a 6.5x55 and they worked fairly well, but I preferred the Nosler Partition and other cup and core bullets to the X bullet on game in that caliber.

A friend had a BLR in 258 Win that would shoot the 200 gr TSX bullet with his handloads into 1/3" groups.
Was with him when he shot a black bear at about 120 yards. Good blood trail (for a bear) for about 400 yards, where it petered out and we could find no more blood, and we never did recover that bear. He returned to the area for several days, continuing his search.
We finally concluded that the hit wasn't as good as originally thought (slightly quartering away). It had appeared to strike the bear in the upper chest. Might not have caught the lungs...
This is just a one time experience, so cannot really express this as a bullet failure, as it could have been more of a placement issue...we will never know for certain.

 

[WhelanLad]

thats ok blackram, an that is a similiar experience ive heard a dozen times!

i had a nice solid but small antlered animal in front of me yesterday after noon, it would of been the first animal to cop the TSX however he needs to grow and i did not need meat!

im cerainly not goin to be refreshing the empty box of projectiles

 

[Bare]

Gday mate, Thanks for this! They are sort of on the slower side of life for the mono but th 358 makes sense now i re read it!

OUCH bro!!!! ha ha! legendary rifle an cartridge combo though!!!

side note- i got onto 150 speers and 100 hornady in 250 grain, so im looking forward to using them after these 20 remaining TSX!

With your rounds Bare, do you find expansion has done enough or is it fairly similiar out the other side

Expansion has always been great. The 200ttsx definitely expands better then the 225 tsx. Easily 1.5 inch or 3.5cm exits.

It’s hard to tell what the best bullet is for the Whelen because they all work and in my experience all instant drops on deer to elk in my experience

 

[WhelanLad]

Expansion has always been great. The 200ttsx definitely expands better then the 225 tsx. Easily 1.5 inch or 3.5cm exits.

It’s hard to tell what the best bullet is for the Whelen because they all work and in my experience all instant drops on deer to elk in my experience

yeah thanks mate.
yeah the TTSX should always expand better than the TSX, of any weight. 1.5 is plenty of expansion though!

Yeah i agree with the Whelen, most of my experience is with 220 round nose, or 250 sp, i would say for the medium sized game i shoot (sambar/ similiar to elk sized) that the 225s dumped energy best, but the 250s were great insurance.

my projectiles 2nd hand per say have arrived... except i in lockdown an cant purchase primers!! i have some .243 rounds i just pulled for the powder....... i dont have Dies to slip the primers out though! tryin to come up with some alternative... the only think i really have is 708 dies an neck die... so might just run them thru the 708 fls and see if i can gra ba few primers out...
i do have Magnum primers Rem 9.5......... hmm

 

[Rick]

Although light for caliber, since it's made of copper, its length is comparable to most 250 gr lead bullets, so its ballistics are also comparable.

Yep. And the GENERAL rule that you see since the release of the first X-bullet (30,40 years ago; mid '80s?), is that you get about the same terminal performance stepping down one weight class in caliber.

i.e. if you were using 180 grain bullets in your 30/06, substituting 165 grain X-bullets, or replacing 165 grain bullets with 150 grain bullets, give you the same terminal ballistics performance. In a 35 Whelen, using a 225 grain Barnes instead of a 250 grain conventional, a 200 grain Barnes instead of a 225 grain conventional, etc.

I moved from Bill Steigers' BBCs to the original X-bullets shortly after they came out, and after seeing how well 225 grain Barnes performed in my 358 Norma Magnum in comparison to the performance standard BBCs (which were always a bit hard to get and always a bit spendy), I did the same in other calibers and have never looked back. Bill Steigers pretty much hand built every bullet he sold, so the price and availability was understandable; the X-bullets delivering pretty much the same terminal performance for less money straight off the store shelf was a great substitute. Bill Steigers could really run up your phone bill if you called him long distance back then; it was almost cheaper to drive down to Lewiston to buy the bullets...

I have no idea if that general rule of thumb holds true for other bullets of monolithic construction from other manufacturers. My guess would be that, bullets like the Barnes which don't lose weight on impact with game perform the same as the next weight up because bullets like Partitions shed weight/fragment and lose weight as they penetrate. The less weight lost during penetration through game means a slower rate of losing energy/momentum.