Between me, my son, and my two hunting partners the barnes tsx, ttsx, and lrx have accounted for well over 100 animals, probably closer to 150... from feral goats in new zealand, to assorted african game, to pretty much all the north american critters except grizz. These have been taken with everything from .243 to .375 at ranges from 5 yds to 540 yds, not a single failure...animals usually dead within 20-40yds. Longest tracking job was a large rutted up bull elk that made it a little over 100yds....chest cavity was soup...certainly not a problem with bullet performance.
to illustrate both ends of the speed range...my son shot a bear at 20 yds with a 257 wby doing somewhere around 3400fps....bear went 20yds and died. I shot a moose with a 200grn lrx out of my 30-06 at 465 yds....velocity at the target would have been in the 1800 fps range....moose went 20 yds and died.
Barnes make small entry wounds and small exit wounds...I suspect much of the assorted internet "barnes pencil through" stories comes from poor shots that require tracking jobs and when the animal is found there is a small exit wound so its easier to blame the bullet than admit to a poor shot. people have gotten so used to the baseball sized exit wounds from bullets of the past that a nickel sized exit hole must have "penciled through".
Will the barnes produce the dramatic bang/flop kills?....generally no...but of all the animals we've taken with them except the one mentioned above...i could throw a baseball to where they died.
will the barnes ever "splash" on the surface or break up and fail to penetrate....never seen, heard, or read of that ever happening
will a double shoulder shot require the front half of your deer to be scrap? nope...much less bloodshot meat with the barnes. I have butchered hundreds of critters for family and friends and have seen some real horror stories with bone hits using cup and core bullets.
The barnes do however have limitations.....i generally chrony and figure out at what distance the barnes will still be doing 2000fps and that is my max range for that particular load. If you want a bullet that will open reliably at 1500fps....barnes isn't it. the trade off for using bullets that will perform at low velocity is generally that the results are less than desirable to some when used at close range/high velocity.
At the end of the day, given that most hunting shots are well under 300 yards, I will take the certain penetration the barnes provides when used at speeds it was intended for over the risk of poor penetration and possibly massive bloodshot that could result from the alternative.
Just my opinion and observation after extensive use with the barnes!
Chris
to illustrate both ends of the speed range...my son shot a bear at 20 yds with a 257 wby doing somewhere around 3400fps....bear went 20yds and died. I shot a moose with a 200grn lrx out of my 30-06 at 465 yds....velocity at the target would have been in the 1800 fps range....moose went 20 yds and died.
Barnes make small entry wounds and small exit wounds...I suspect much of the assorted internet "barnes pencil through" stories comes from poor shots that require tracking jobs and when the animal is found there is a small exit wound so its easier to blame the bullet than admit to a poor shot. people have gotten so used to the baseball sized exit wounds from bullets of the past that a nickel sized exit hole must have "penciled through".
Will the barnes produce the dramatic bang/flop kills?....generally no...but of all the animals we've taken with them except the one mentioned above...i could throw a baseball to where they died.
will the barnes ever "splash" on the surface or break up and fail to penetrate....never seen, heard, or read of that ever happening
will a double shoulder shot require the front half of your deer to be scrap? nope...much less bloodshot meat with the barnes. I have butchered hundreds of critters for family and friends and have seen some real horror stories with bone hits using cup and core bullets.
The barnes do however have limitations.....i generally chrony and figure out at what distance the barnes will still be doing 2000fps and that is my max range for that particular load. If you want a bullet that will open reliably at 1500fps....barnes isn't it. the trade off for using bullets that will perform at low velocity is generally that the results are less than desirable to some when used at close range/high velocity.
At the end of the day, given that most hunting shots are well under 300 yards, I will take the certain penetration the barnes provides when used at speeds it was intended for over the risk of poor penetration and possibly massive bloodshot that could result from the alternative.
Just my opinion and observation after extensive use with the barnes!
Chris
