How did you determine those two loads were your "go-to"?
Post up some pics of the groups if you can
Barnes TTSX / LRX Grouping Issue
- Thread starter AlbertaGrizzly
- Start date
How did you determine those two loads were your "go-to"?
Post up some pics of the groups if you can
AlbertaGrizzly
New member
- Location
- Calgary, AB
I can seat them longer but limited by the length of the magazine. Tikka magazine is limited to 3.34"
troutseeker
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Prince George, BC
another vote for imr4350 in the 30-06, works well for me with barnes 168gr ttsx.
Overwatch3985
Regular
- Location
- Utah, United States of America
I used to work for Barnes, they tested those projectiles every 3500 rounds. It could just be your rifle. 1.0" was a pass at the indoor 100 yard bu groups could also get up to about 3.0". They would stop the presses and check the dies. Sometimes however some guys just let them run, wasnt the greatest place to work and at one point no one in the Press Department spoke English OR Spanish. Barnes isnt the same company since they were sold to Remington and then Sierra.
Also Fun fact, about 10 or so years ago Barnes did a run of 100,000ish projectiles for a company specifically for 8mm Mauser. The loads they were using resulted in most groups being 0.2" and the largest was 0.4". They tested these every 1000.
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Jess_misko
Member
- Location
- Kamloops BC canada
Ive been shooting barnes for over 20 years. Start load dev at factory recommend coal. Due to a 1-11 twist rate your gun is optimized for lighter weight bullets. Try out the 130-150gr weight class with mono bullets. Also try changing your powder type i always try 2-3 different powders when doing load dev. They definitely make a big impact on accuracy
I've found that switching from cup-and-core to copper bullets sometimes affects group size, similar to how cleaning a barrel can impact accuracy until you've fired about 20 or so rounds. I'm not sure if anyone else has experienced this, and I can't quite explain why it happens.
I used to avoid mixing monometals and lead core bullets as I had read that accuracy with the copper bullets will be erratic if your bore is fouled with the harder jacket material of a Sierra / Berger / Nosler etc
I was doing load development for a friend's 22 Creedmoor, with 80gr Amax and 77gr Barnes LRX. He certainly wasn't going to be cleaning between bullet types, so I decided to alternate loads during the testing process.
First group with 80 Amax gave a .35moa 3 shot @ 309 yards, then 77 LRX did 1.4moa. Switching back to 80gr Amax next range trip, .57moa group. 77 LRX did .64moa. Final range trip, 80gr Amax did .41moa @ 411 yards, 77 LRX did .58moa. It sure didn't seem to mind mix and matching bullet types!
I then tried a 127gr LRX in my 6.5 PRC, bore was fouled up with 143 ELDx. First group with the Barnes 127 gave a nice 0.6moa group.
I no longer fret about cleaning a bore before shooting a monometal bullet
This right here!
The amount of jump I have used on many different Barnes bullets in different cartridges is incredible .
This was a typical day for
Two shots from 200 all the way out to 500 meters .
At 500 meters I was still well under 1MOA ( closer to 1/2 to 3/4 MOA)with my Ruger #1 in 280. These were seated to top of the first driving band from the tip
Cat
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Hey OP,
Barnes load data, readily available here
https://www.barnesbullets.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/30-06Springfield.pdf
Shows you are WAY long (1/10th) on your 150gr load as well as four hundredths long on your 175gr load. Barnes need that space.
As boring as it sounds, whenever i am dealing with a new loading for Barnes bullets, I start with whatever they say here.
Honestly, i rarely have to adjust anything. I can get sub MOA with everything I have tried straight off this page.
Barnes load data, readily available here
https://www.barnesbullets.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/30-06Springfield.pdf
Shows you are WAY long (1/10th) on your 150gr load as well as four hundredths long on your 175gr load. Barnes need that space.
As boring as it sounds, whenever i am dealing with a new loading for Barnes bullets, I start with whatever they say here.
Honestly, i rarely have to adjust anything. I can get sub MOA with everything I have tried straight off this page.
Granted, I'm shooting a .308 and not .30-06, but I've had great luck with the TTSX. I'm loading mine long mind you, 2.840 COL whereas Barnes shows 2.735 COL in their load data. My sweet spot load after many ladder loads (powder charge followed by seating depth) is a 130gr TTSX over 49.7gn of Varget.
5 shot group at 200 meters out of a 16" barrel Sig Cross:
Cold barrel 3 shot group at 100 meters from the same rifle:
5 shot group at 200 meters out of a 16" barrel Sig Cross:
Cold barrel 3 shot group at 100 meters from the same rifle:
That's cool. I will have to try my experiment again
I have done considerable comparisons between the Hornady Interlock bullets and TTSXs, and found the TTSX is generally not as accurate, on average, as the Interlocks, but close. For example, the interlocks gave me much more chances of getting 1". The TTSXs gave me 1"-1.5". They are plenty accurate for hunting, though. I played with different seating depth with the TTSXs. Now, i simply seat them as deep as the case room allows, as far as the last cannelure.
That could just be an anomaly of your particular rifle.
I have a 280 Remington chambered in an off the shelf 700 Remington and it does the same as your rifle. That being said, I have another 700 chambered for the same round but with a DM configuration and just like todbartell, it would be impossible to tell when the switch was done.
I'm not getting the accuracy out of these off the shelf rifles as they are, slightly over 1moa right out to 300 yds. I'm going to try seating the bullets deeper and whichever rifle shoots the best, I will keep and sell the other in Chilliwack March 15/25
Update
Last night I took the box of 50 280rem cartridges I had loaded with 59.0grn of H100V, over CCI250, under 120grn Barnes TTSX bullets, giving 3250+ fps, with an extreme velocity spread of 13fps and and average 3254fps over 30 shots, measured by my Garmin Xero C1.
Elevation 1425 feet
Temperature +7 C.
I seated the bullets deeper as suggested on this thread appx .075 in deeper into the case mouth, or appx halfway up the top groove.
I have two off the shelf, Stainless Rem 700 rifles.
One is the Classic with a "standard weight" barrel, in a laminated stock, with detachable mag, and a very consistent Trigger Tech upgrade.
The other other is the Mountain Rifle model, with a very slender barrel, in a laminated stock, with a hinged floorplate, and a stock factory trigger, set at it's lowest release weight.
My intention was to find out which rifle shot best, with the new seating depth, and sell whichever shot worst.
To my surprise, both rifles shot to the same point of impact, with close to identical velocities, but----into nicely clustered 3/4" groups at 100yds.
If I hadn't "patched the original 15 shot cluster, it would have been almost impossible to tell which rifle shot the group.
There were 30 rounds into a ragged hole just under 3/4"
Now, for some, this wouldn't be spectacular, but with off the shelf, factory rifles over 20 years old, with unknown round count and my 74 year old eyes, it is "spectacular"
The Classic was put together in 1997 and the Remington Mtn Rifle chambered in 280 Remington manufacture date around 1991
Both have laminated stocks but I will admit the "Trigger Tech" upgrade is very nice.
Soooooo, I've decided to keep both of them, for now. I don't need the cash and there's room in the safe.
The chambers are so closely matched I can't tell which rifle fired which cartridge when the fired cases are placed beside each other.
This doesn't happen very often with off the shelf rifles in my experience.
Thanx very much for posting the info about seating depths and monolithic bullets.
The Tikka T3 I have chambered in 6.5x55 has always shot monolithic bullets well, likely because of it's excessive freebore.
Last night I took the box of 50 280rem cartridges I had loaded with 59.0grn of H100V, over CCI250, under 120grn Barnes TTSX bullets, giving 3250+ fps, with an extreme velocity spread of 13fps and and average 3254fps over 30 shots, measured by my Garmin Xero C1.
Elevation 1425 feet
Temperature +7 C.
I seated the bullets deeper as suggested on this thread appx .075 in deeper into the case mouth, or appx halfway up the top groove.
I have two off the shelf, Stainless Rem 700 rifles.
One is the Classic with a "standard weight" barrel, in a laminated stock, with detachable mag, and a very consistent Trigger Tech upgrade.
The other other is the Mountain Rifle model, with a very slender barrel, in a laminated stock, with a hinged floorplate, and a stock factory trigger, set at it's lowest release weight.
My intention was to find out which rifle shot best, with the new seating depth, and sell whichever shot worst.
To my surprise, both rifles shot to the same point of impact, with close to identical velocities, but----into nicely clustered 3/4" groups at 100yds.
If I hadn't "patched the original 15 shot cluster, it would have been almost impossible to tell which rifle shot the group.
There were 30 rounds into a ragged hole just under 3/4"
Now, for some, this wouldn't be spectacular, but with off the shelf, factory rifles over 20 years old, with unknown round count and my 74 year old eyes, it is "spectacular"
The Classic was put together in 1997 and the Remington Mtn Rifle chambered in 280 Remington manufacture date around 1991
Both have laminated stocks but I will admit the "Trigger Tech" upgrade is very nice.
Soooooo, I've decided to keep both of them, for now. I don't need the cash and there's room in the safe.
The chambers are so closely matched I can't tell which rifle fired which cartridge when the fired cases are placed beside each other.
This doesn't happen very often with off the shelf rifles in my experience.
Thanx very much for posting the info about seating depths and monolithic bullets.
The Tikka T3 I have chambered in 6.5x55 has always shot monolithic bullets well, likely because of it's excessive freebore.
As others say, I expect the answer is jump - I have tried several combinations in a 30-06 Steyr Pro-Hunter.
First load 150gr over H4895, one ragged hole.
2nd load 180gr over SuperP - looked like buckshot (interestingly Barnes factory 180s gave me a clover leaf)
3rd load 165 over SuperP fooled around with jump until 90 thou - boom suddenly everything tightened up - cloverleaf
First load 150gr over H4895, one ragged hole.
2nd load 180gr over SuperP - looked like buckshot (interestingly Barnes factory 180s gave me a clover leaf)
3rd load 165 over SuperP fooled around with jump until 90 thou - boom suddenly everything tightened up - cloverleaf
sundog, what you're describing with monolithic bullets is not the norm with most cup and core type bullets.
Yes, there are some which like some jump before they engage the leade but they're usually very long bullets.
For those of us unfamiliar with monolithic bullets, it can be quite frustrating, not to mention expensive finding out the hard way.
I've mostly shied away from monolithic bullets because I've never had much success with them, other than in my Tikka T3, chambered for the 6.5x55.
If I had been more on the ball, I would have twigged onto the "freebore" condition these rifles have from the factory.
Maybe I missed it because this rifle is one of those jewels which shoots everything well, as long as the loads are consistent?
Yes, there are some which like some jump before they engage the leade but they're usually very long bullets.
For those of us unfamiliar with monolithic bullets, it can be quite frustrating, not to mention expensive finding out the hard way.
I've mostly shied away from monolithic bullets because I've never had much success with them, other than in my Tikka T3, chambered for the 6.5x55.
If I had been more on the ball, I would have twigged onto the "freebore" condition these rifles have from the factory.
Maybe I missed it because this rifle is one of those jewels which shoots everything well, as long as the loads are consistent?
