lightweight X bullets and moose

LD, the results of your test doesn't surprise me. The Partition sheds weight, as its designed to, thereby creating a large wound channel in tissue, but the rear core penetrates well because it hasn't expanded from the original shank diameter, which in this case is .277" where as the now heavier X had to penetrate with a much larger frontal area resisting that penetration. I agree with BUM, with respect to the penetration of the X. As range increases, and velocity decays, the rate of expansion decreases, and as a result penetration increases.
 
sheephunter said:
Hardly, the X bullet was brought to market way too hastily and did not receive sufficient testing. The damage it's done to the reputation of mono-metals is enormous even though as you say, most of the issues have now been addressed. Barnes definitely lead the way with a commercial version of a mono-metal but I'd say other manufacturers have now brought even further innovations to the mono-metal and Barnes is playing a bit of catch up.
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I'd whole-heartedly agree with Boomer that the criticism of the original X bullet is harsh, along with the above comment as well. I guess we should say the same thing then about the Nosler Partition? One was doing well to keep the original ones on a pie plate at 100 yards - but they got better - WAY better.

Randy Brooks did the hunting world a great service with the introduction of the X bullet, and we all owe him a great debt of gratitude - he and Barnes Bullets forced all the competition to play catch-up. I've been using them since they first came out, and have had nothing but spectacular performance with them. Yeah, the original one's fouled some barrels, and didn't shoot all that well in some rifles, but then one can say exactly the same for any rifle and bullet combo, past or present. I have some rifles that don't shoot certain brands or weights of bullets that great - well guess what, I try a different combination.

I continue to use some original Barnes X's that I still have, along with TSX's/TTSX's, Nosler Partition/Accubond/BT, Sierra GameKing, Norma Oryx, etc, etc, etc. They're all good, and saying that Barnes damaged the reputation of mono-metals is a little over-the-top.
 
I admit I have little experience with the tsx. What I do know is I won't use them. I tried the 100 gr in my 25/06. Shooting water jugs lined up at 25 yards all petals broke off. At 300 yards they barely expanded. I shot sand. Mud. Water. Wet paper never found the perfect expansion. Always had broken off petals and bent shafts. The remainder of the shafts often penetrated quite deep but fmj would be better.
I've seen 2 recovered from black bears. 180 gr tsx find from a 300wm at 125 yards. Petals were broke off and the bullet never touched bone. It was shear luck we found that bear. The other bear was shot in the spine. That's were the bullet remained

I'll stick with A frames and partitions. Heavy for caliber bullets work

This is my experience and my opinion
 
sheephunter said:
I'm not certain that I agree that making your consumers paying guinea pigs is the best course here. If they had it to do all over again I'm sure Barnes would have done far more testing with the X bullet. I'm not certain the race to get your product mass marketed first so you can make more money is a viable excuse for sloppy product testing. Regardless, the new generations are good bullets.
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How many original barnes X bullets have you shot game with?
 
brybenn said:
I admit I have little experience with the tsx. What I do know is I won't use them. I tried the 100 gr in my 25/06. Shooting water jugs lined up at 25 yards all petals broke off. At 300 yards they barely expanded. I shot sand. Mud. Water. Wet paper never found the perfect expansion. Always had broken off petals and bent shafts. The remainder of the shafts often penetrated quite deep but fmj would be better.
I've seen 2 recovered from black bears. 180 gr tsx find from a 300wm at 125 yards. Petals were broke off and the bullet never touched bone. It was shear luck we found that bear. The other bear was shot in the spine. That's were the bullet remained

I'll stick with A frames and partitions. Heavy for caliber bullets work

This is my experience and my opinion
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And here I have brought home truckload, after truckload, after truckload of animals with TSX's and guess what, they were all dead LOL. Elk, whitetails, mule deer, bighorn sheep, bears, coyotes and even a couple of horses and cows that needed to be put down quick. Have been killing animals with them for almost ten years now and will continue to do so. They work very well for me. If it is not TSX's then my go to is a Partition.

I don't have any water jugs or news paper or mud under my belt though.

JMO of course...
 
I don't have truckloads, but I have had good experiences with the tsx and the ttsx.

Currently switching my big game rifles to ttsx and have loads that are fantastic...
 
I've shot the very literal truckloads with the TSX as well, have culled with them to fill trucks which when it gets busy is literally a shot every few minutes. Also seen them work on Cape Buffalo, Grizzly, Moose, Impala, Warthog, Whitetail, Wildebeest, Lynx blah blah blah. I enjoyed Davey's take.

They are good bullets, not the be all and end all but no bullet is, certainly hard to fault them.
 
Ardent, as you know, in Alberta we can hold a wide variety of tags every fall and a pretty good stack of them. With predator control on top of that, it is fairly easy to get a good idea how a bullet works in one season alone. Plus watching friends fill tags with the same bullet helps as well.

Is the TSX the best bullet on the market? Not a chance (IMO they can all fail), but I see now reason to stop using it now. The number of animals I have seen the TSX put down is a fairly good indicator of what it can do if the shooter puts it where it needs to be.
 
blargon said:
Currently switching my big game rifles to ttsx and have loads that are fantastic...
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And another reason why I enjoy the TSX/TTSX. I have been reloading a little over 20 years and have never had a bullet that was so easy to find a very accurate load for and usually very quickly.
 
If they are going to shoot it doesn't take long to find a load. In a few cases I've got picky rifles that didn't really like much of anything to print tiny little groups with the TSX. My newly rebarrelled .375 Weatherby was being a little tempermental with A-Frames so I stuck 270 TSXs in it. The entire workup series didn't produce a group over 7/8".

For all the game that I killed with them they still aren't my favorite bullet. Where they excel is for shooting large game with small rifles, small game with large rifles and the largest game that should be tackled with softs with large rifles. For more normal use I get quicker kills with softer slugs, and for the biggest I still can't beat A-Frames. Not being my favorite is a long ways from being useless.
 
Whenever I've done side by side tests in media the lightweight Barnes do the same job as heavier Partitions or other lead/copper bullets. The 130TTSX will expand immediately and penetrate as far as a 180gr Partition.

180 TSX, 180 FS, 130TTSX, 180 NP, 180 Interlock

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The 180 TSX and 180 FS penetrated the furthest by a bit. 130TTSX and 180 NP about the same. 180 HI the least.

140gr TSX form a 7-08 will do the same as a 180gr Lead/copper bullet from a 30-06

etc etc

The original X was a great bullet if it shot well in your rifle. Fouled a bit too much but it would smash bone and penetrate like nothing I had seen before
 
Here's a couple of original Xs. The bigger one, a .510/570 was plucked from my buffalo after 32" of penetration, the range was about 50 yards, and the impact velocity would have been well over 2000 fps. The smaller one, an XLC was the result of a bullet test where I tried to destroy the bullets with close range high velocity impacts, typical of an emergency. This bullet, a .375/270 gr also penetrated 32" but drill mud instead of buffalo, with an impact velocity in excess of 2900 fps. I don't think either leaves anything to be desired.

 
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After using Hornady Interlocks for many years, while listening to and watching friends raving about them/having success with TSXs... I switched and have been using TSXs for the last few years, so have nowhere near the background with them as many of you. A few deer and a few elk make up my experiences with them. Everything has died quickly and I've yet to catch a bullet in even a big animal.

They shoot extremely well in my main hunting 30-06, both the 150TSX and 168TSX. Much better than is needed in a hunting rifle.

The elk died from the 150TSX out of said 30-06 at almost exactly 300 yards, 298 and 301, IIRC. I wouldn't hesitate on a moose with them, or a lighter TSX for that matter...
 
chuck nelson said:
How many original barnes X bullets have you shot game with?
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Despite the marketing hype, I stayed out of the mono metal game early on as I saw enough disasters with the X bullet to convince me it wasn't for me. When the TSX came along I jumped on the band wagon so to speak and have been a huge fan of mono metals since.
 

Impressive picture thanks for sharing.

I thought a 130GR .308 compared more closely to a 150GR-168GR conventional bullet. I had idea it was barking at the heals of a 180GR. That's an eye opener for sure!
 
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