Barnes TSX and TTSX questions
- Thread starter icehunter121
- Start date
From all the research I've done, the Swift Scirocco II is a leading candidate for best bullet. If I don't stick with the GMX I just loaded for it that'll be the next bullet I buy for my 7mm08
dgradinaru
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- British Columbia
Good to know. I don't have an issue with lead/non lead bullets, i'm just interested in seeing how other bullets preform and see it improve trajectory. I bought a pound of CFE 223 to use. One European hunter i got in contact with mentioned he got them to about 3000 fps. Id be okay with 2900 and focus on accuracy.
I agree, Phil... I don't find too many of them... I found two under the offside hide on a 430 yard goat, and one under the offside hide on a 470 yard whitetail, and another under the hide of a 350 yard 400+ pound black bear... All were perfect mushrooms... The others I have seen were from hard quartering shots by hunting partners... I tend to not take those types of shots myself, if at all possible and with a little patience.
I've got a 260gr NAB from my 375 Ruger that looks like your middle bullet. It went end to end on a good sized bear. Likely one of the first, if not the actual first animals killed by a BC resident hunter with the 375 Ruger, although I'm sure Ruger and Hornady reps preceded me.
Probably still have the bullet around here somewhere. NAB is probably my second most used bullet for hunting these days, after the Barnes.
Love shooting Barnes for hunting. Last 2 elk and moose have been Barnes 225s and 200s out of my 35 Whelen and 35 Sambar. Yet to recover one. Last Fall’s elk was taken with a 200gr TTSX out of my Sambar with a front on shot. Bullet penetrated the anterior chest through the left ventricle, deflected along the way and exited out the side of the animal. Bull never went 10 yards.
I love these bullets in the medium bores as the diameter is already pretty good being .358. I also know that they will NEVER explode on heavy bone if I miss my shot placement.
That said I usually take my deer with my 257 Wetherby and use ballistic tips through the boiler room. Never recovered these bullets either but there is so much energy transferred that the animals drop like stones.
Love Barnes for bigger critters, for sure, and I find I can work up accurate loads a bit better than with accubonds (sample size of me, lol).
Either way you go, any of the premium Bullets mentioned in the 11 pages will do the job if you do.
I love these bullets in the medium bores as the diameter is already pretty good being .358. I also know that they will NEVER explode on heavy bone if I miss my shot placement.
That said I usually take my deer with my 257 Wetherby and use ballistic tips through the boiler room. Never recovered these bullets either but there is so much energy transferred that the animals drop like stones.
Love Barnes for bigger critters, for sure, and I find I can work up accurate loads a bit better than with accubonds (sample size of me, lol).
Either way you go, any of the premium Bullets mentioned in the 11 pages will do the job if you do.
and i remember the story as you came back from a wedding ...
Hell, I only see 2 pages.
And the second page is just getting started!
Shoot enough bullets into enough animals and you will see some strange stuff.
I have recovered a handfull of TSX/TTSX, and a couple of them were failures to expand. Had one 168 TSX from a 300 Ultra at maybe 60
yards get stopped by 14” or so of backstrap on an elk on a straight away shot as it ran down a very steep hill towards the river after taking the first TSX square through both shoulders at 30 yards. I FULLY expected the second one to wnter in front of the hips and exit the brisket. No bone encountered, just meat. I have also recovered quite a few perfectly expanded ones under the hide on rear hips after frontal quartering shots.
This years bull moose was shot with a 280AI and 150 TTSX and was about 150 yards and quartering away and the bullet hit on the point of the near shoulder and exited in front of the offside shoulder. The exit hole was smaller than the diameter of a pencil. Zero blood trail, but the bull only made it maybe 15 metres and he was already trotting when the bullet hit him as he entered the bush. The hole in the shoulder when I lifted the front quarter off was at least 1.5” in diameter, and I could see through it. Fairly safe to
say it expanded, regardless of what the exit hole in the hide looked like....
I have recovered a handfull of TSX/TTSX, and a couple of them were failures to expand. Had one 168 TSX from a 300 Ultra at maybe 60
yards get stopped by 14” or so of backstrap on an elk on a straight away shot as it ran down a very steep hill towards the river after taking the first TSX square through both shoulders at 30 yards. I FULLY expected the second one to wnter in front of the hips and exit the brisket. No bone encountered, just meat. I have also recovered quite a few perfectly expanded ones under the hide on rear hips after frontal quartering shots.
This years bull moose was shot with a 280AI and 150 TTSX and was about 150 yards and quartering away and the bullet hit on the point of the near shoulder and exited in front of the offside shoulder. The exit hole was smaller than the diameter of a pencil. Zero blood trail, but the bull only made it maybe 15 metres and he was already trotting when the bullet hit him as he entered the bush. The hole in the shoulder when I lifted the front quarter off was at least 1.5” in diameter, and I could see through it. Fairly safe to
say it expanded, regardless of what the exit hole in the hide looked like....
Guys talk about a bullet expanding like they just won the lottery.
If you want to kill something fast use a fast bullet that fragments somewhere between 1/2 and completely and blow a wound channel the size and shape of a foot- ball. You might be able to look through the entrance hole and see the sky, but it likely won’t matter much. Bang flops are the norm.
A little more range, a little lower velocity, and/or a harder bullet and you get a wound channel the size of your wrist. Thats quite a bit better than nothing, but you are going to learn how to track. Thats pretty much the best a mono is going to do. It has a very real use on thick skinned game that solids are at least arguably in the running.
Next step is a bullet that expands and makes a hole more or less the size of the expanded bullet. Seriously the guy who talks about
his bullet expanding should finish his sentence with “ and I guess thats better than nothing but I’ll strive to do better than that in the future.” Either that or repeat “Definitely expanded, sure it expanded “ over and over like Rain Man. If the best thing you can say is the bullet expanded, the show has been over for awhile.
If you want to kill something fast use a fast bullet that fragments somewhere between 1/2 and completely and blow a wound channel the size and shape of a foot- ball. You might be able to look through the entrance hole and see the sky, but it likely won’t matter much. Bang flops are the norm.
A little more range, a little lower velocity, and/or a harder bullet and you get a wound channel the size of your wrist. Thats quite a bit better than nothing, but you are going to learn how to track. Thats pretty much the best a mono is going to do. It has a very real use on thick skinned game that solids are at least arguably in the running.
Next step is a bullet that expands and makes a hole more or less the size of the expanded bullet. Seriously the guy who talks about
his bullet expanding should finish his sentence with “ and I guess thats better than nothing but I’ll strive to do better than that in the future.” Either that or repeat “Definitely expanded, sure it expanded “ over and over like Rain Man. If the best thing you can say is the bullet expanded, the show has been over for awhile.
- Location
- Prince Albert, Sk
Wound channels, not exit wounds
When we speak of leaving energy in the animal that's what it is.
Wound channels, not exit wounds
When we speak of leaving energy in the animal that's what it is.
Just like every Barnes through ballistic gel photos I’ve seen. But I’ll admit that I can’t see the sky through the entrance hole.
