# shot a deer with barns tsx?



## georgiaboy2109 (Nov 27, 2011)

Just wondering how yall like them? Anyone had any bad experience with them?


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## NCHillbilly (Nov 27, 2011)

Haven't shot a deer with one yet, but I bought a box a while back and ran a few through my .300 winmag, and was getting close to 1/2" groups at 100 yds. I've heard lots of good and no bad about them. The only thing I don't like so far is the price tag.


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## godogs57 (Nov 27, 2011)

Yes and Yes to your questions. I have shot deer with em and had bad experiences with Barnes bullets. My main problem with them is their tendency to "ice pick" on deer...virtually zero expansion on occasions. My tracking jobs tend to be longer with the TSX's than other brands. On the plus side, many of my rifles that are so so in the accuracy department often love the TSX...really love em. That being said, I go with the bullets that provide the best terminal performance over accuracy every time...Nosler.

Your question will more than likely spark a nice debate...as there are lots of folks that think the Barnes is the bomb. I can effectively debate them all day long if need be...I have on my asbestos underwear, so they can flame away if they wish!


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## 01Foreman400 (Nov 27, 2011)

I've used them exclusively for the last 7 years.  Nothing bad to say about them.


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## tree cutter 08 (Nov 27, 2011)

some love them some hate them. as for me the 80 gr tsx out of a 257 weatherby at 3800fps does a fair job on yotes. shot a doe last year with the 45gr tsx in a 220 swift and complete pass through and watched her fall. i still am not sold on them yet. need to try them a little more


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## Hyper Sniper (Nov 27, 2011)

godogs57 said:


> Yes and Yes to your questions. I have shot deer with em and had bad experiences with Barnes bullets. My main problem with them is their tendency to "ice pick" on deer...virtually zero expansion on occasions. My tracking jobs tend to be longer with the TSX's than other brands. On the plus side, many of my rifles that are so so in the accuracy department often love the TSX...really love em. That being said, I go with the bullets that provide the best terminal performance over accuracy every time...Nosler.
> 
> I feel no reason to flame away, it's your choice and your beliefs. I have been using the Barnes X and XXX and now TTSX for over 30 years. I have always done my own handloading with them and yes they are the bomb.
> 
> ...


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## godogs57 (Nov 28, 2011)

Preach on Hyper...you are right...everyone's got a choice. You have a high degree of confidence in them because they work for you. Good deal.


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## Guerin (Nov 28, 2011)

Been shooting the tsx for years with great results - very accurate out of my 308.  

Every deer shot went down quickly.  Massive tissue damage on broadside, double lung shots (organ soup).  Shot a buck this year a little forward and bullet broke both shoulders and exited other side.


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## treemutt (Nov 28, 2011)

180 gr hand loads for me from my .308 work great never had more than a short tracking job.No problems so far.


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## Redleaf (Nov 29, 2011)

I'd imagine I have shot at least 50 or 60 deer with x bullets and they all did what a bullet should do.  Expand, disrupt tissue, and penetrate.  Never seen one fail to do that.


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## miles58 (Nov 29, 2011)

I have used barnes bullets for a very long time.  Since they were lead cores swaged in copper tubing.  I have yet to have one not open well.  I have had accuracy issues with the early Barnes bullets, but never with the all copper versions.  Between what I have killed personally and what the people I load for have killed, it's close on 50 deer now with the current versions, TSXs and TTSXs.  Zero failures in that lot and every deer was examined internally.  

I have seen caliber sized holes in the hide coming and going.  I have also seen massive damage in between caliber sized holes in the hide.  My opinion of claims of "ice picking or failure to open with TSX/TTSX bullets are that one of three things accoung for most of the claims.

First, just plain bad shooting covered by a claim of a good hit and no damage from the bullet to explain lost deer due to bad hits.

Second, Bad loading practices and hitting deer with them at low velocity.

Third, TSX and TTSX bullets have a remarkable tendency to fly backwards after hitting objects insufficiently juicy to open them up more than just a little bit.  It looks to me like the bullet starts to open and then tumbles.  The partially open tip acts like a drag and presents more resistance than the base.  The bullet still has sufficient rotational speed to partially stabilize butt first so it proceeds butt first until it hits something, destabilizes or hits the ground.  Small brush can do this and I think large grasses may also be capable of doing it.  I suspect that plastic signs used as target backing can do it.

With well more than a hundred perfect uses accounted for here in this one thread it leaves little doubt that a person claiming a tendency to failure is either talking out his backside and not from direct personal experience or his experience is based on one of the three possibilities put forth above which would seem to be a personal problem no matter how you slice it since the tendency is not present for the vast majority of users.

Dave


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## GA DAWG (Nov 29, 2011)

I'll not use them for deer anymore. Elk maybe. Sorriest blood trails I ever saw on deer in my life.


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## rem 300 (Nov 29, 2011)

GA DAWG said:


> I'll not use them for deer anymore. Elk maybe. Sorriest blood trails I ever saw on deer in my life.



Thats what I was wondering about was what kind of blood trail they would leave...


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## Larry Rooks (Nov 29, 2011)

want use anything else


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## Ruger Theory (Nov 29, 2011)

I have been using TTSX and TSX for the past two years on my last six deer. Four where with a 270 and a 130 gr TTSX and two where with a 300 Wby 168 gr TSX. Four out on the six where DRT and only two ran, one 10 yards one 50 yards both leaving fantastic blood trails. I hand load so I buy a box of 50 bullets and it last me several years since I only check zero before season and then shoot critters with them. In the off season I shoot cheap bullets to keep in practice. They are hard hitting quick opening bullets that will almost always leave an exit and rarely leave any part of the bullet in the deer to break a tooth on later.


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## GA DAWG (Nov 29, 2011)

rem 300 said:


> Thats what I was wondering about was what kind of blood trail they would leave...


They left decent blood trails. If you like your blood trail to start 50 yards away from where you shot the deer. Both did the exact same thing with me.  Almost lost the one cause of it. He ran a 100 yard loop and I had no clue where he entered the thick stuff. Dont even compare to the accubonds I use now. Im sure others like the barnes better than accubond though. Best thing to do is try em for yourself I guess.


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## antique41 (Nov 29, 2011)

Have used Barnes for years now on deer and antelope.  Almost all one shot kills which is good since I use a single shot rifle.  Most of the time they drop within 10 yds. Longest most difficult track was this year. Shot an 8pt in some thick brush.  He ran past me leaving no blood trail. Searched for 1 1/2 hours before I found him. Couldn't see any wound until I field dressed him.  The bullet hit a rib at the end of the chest cavity. Shredded the lungs and angled back through the liver and broke a hip.  He still ran about 100 yds.  Sometimes it not the bullet, but the deer's spirit that keeps them going.


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## miles58 (Nov 29, 2011)

rem 300 said:


> Thats what I was wondering about was what kind of blood trail they would leave...



Out of almost fifty deer we have had to track only three that I can think of.  One made it fifty yards and left a decent blood trail.  One made it thirty yards and left a blood trail Ray Charles could follow from the grave.  One I shot this last Saturday that had a hole through it's chest the size of a golf ball and a completely destroyed heart.  It bled for maybe 30-40 feet, and not too much.  The deer was laying dead 20 feet from the last blood.

I have seen one deer make it about fifty yards with virtually no blood on the outside, but that one had everything in the chest destroyed.  I can't fault any bullet for not leaving a blood trail when the blood pressure goes to zero instantly.  It's kind of hard to bleed on the outside with no pressure on the inside until the chest fills up to the level of the holes.

Mostly, they just go down where they are shot or within a few feet.

Oops!  I forgot one, a fawn shot in the knee.  That one made it aout 200-250 yards total but was no problem to track.

Dave


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## JustUs4All (Nov 29, 2011)

Some folks love them. Some folks hate them.  The old Barns X were very accurate in my rifle.  I have not tried the newer Barns bullets.  Here is a cut and paste from my post in another Barns thread.

I tried Barns X for a time in 30 cal. 150 gr out of a .308. They were killing deer, but did not seem to be opening well. They left small entry and exit wounds on the deer that I shot and I had failed to recover a deer shot broadside at 75 yards with one for lack of a blood trail. I had not recovered a spent round until - I shot one quartering away at 150 yards. The round ended up just under the skin in the off side shoulder area. 

It entered breaking a rib, traversed the chest cavity, broke a rib on the way out then broke the off side leg just below the shoulder. The result was a very dead deer, but the bullet had not opened properly. The nose of the round had begun to peel back so as to make the nose a little smaller than the base of the bullet and there was some small amount of deformation from contact with bone. 

This one recovered round confirmed, at least in my mind, my suspicion that the rounds were not opening up as significantly as Barnes had advertised. I may have gotten a batch that were made out of stuff that was too hard, but they were not working as advertised for me on deer. 

From the pictures, the Barns bullet that you used did not have a problem.


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## Buzz (Nov 29, 2011)

I've used them on a fair number of hunts, these are bullets /chamberings I've used and the number of kills I recall with them:




.243 Winchester - 80g TTSX (1) and 85g TSX (2)  


.250 Savage - 100g TSX (4)


.257 Wby Mag - 100g TTSX (1)


7mm Rem Mag - 140g TSX (2)


.308 Win - 130g TSX (1)


.300 Win Mag - 150g TTSX (1) and 168g TSX (2)


.50 Caliber ML - 250g T-EZ (2)

As far as blood trails go, I couldn't tell you.   Every single one of them were bam flops.   Most were double shoulder shots or strong quartering shots.   Never recovered one even after penetrating deer nearly lengthwise.

I think they are awesome in higher velocity rounds, and especially effective when you are using a higher velocity round and you have the chance of a close shot or one that could be 300 yards.  They make smaller rounds like the .243 Win and .250 Savage come alive.   It's amazing the amount of internal damage those little rounds do with Barnes Bullets.

Often mentioned as a con is the price.  Seriously though, how many of them do you shoot at deer?     My truck burns more than a box of Barnes Bullets costs each weekend!


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## forced2work (Nov 29, 2011)

I am shooting for the first time this year, I am not real happ with them.  I have shot 2 deer with them and have not had a blood trail to follow but both deer died within 50 yards of the shot. I am shooting a 300 win mag in 130 gr.  I think I will go up toa 150 gr to see how that works.


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## Seth carter (Nov 29, 2011)

i shoot them out of my 243 and my 30-30 never have had one run far unless it was because of me making a bad shot


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## Larry Rooks (Nov 29, 2011)

My use with the X and TSX has been going on for 15 yrs or so.  I have had very few take a step after the hit, and those that did were easy to follow.  My key is to go with a lighter bullet than normal.  To ME, a 150 in 308, 06 etc are tooooo heavy for deer size game, I use the 130.  In 7mm I use the 120 and in 25;s I use the 100 gr and they work perfectly 100% of the time.  Never had one fail to penetrate and never had oen fail to perform


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## miles58 (Nov 29, 2011)

Seth carter said:


> i shoot them out of my 243 and my 30-30 never have had one run far unless it was because of me making a bad shot



What are you loading the Barnes in the 30-30 with?

Dave


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## RipperIII (Nov 29, 2011)

I've not shot the TSX, I have shot the Hornady GMX, I think they are both solids right?
Anyway, killed 3 deer with the GMX, 2 drt, the third I missed and hit her in the armpit, she went about 20 yrds and pilled up in a thicket,...the blood trail was adequate for me, and I'm a rookie...there were drops of blood and bits of lung strung out along the way.
Entry and exit holes were small, but internal damage was massive.
Very accurate round for my .270


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## CowtownHunter (Nov 29, 2011)

I use 180gr TSX on my Browning A-Bolt 300WM.  It always exits with a quarter sized hole.  Depending on the shot placement, the deer/hogs either drop on the spot or run a bit but no more than 30yds.


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## Cottontail (Nov 29, 2011)

Ammo choices are 99.9% preferences you can get the same answers on any ammo brand or caliber, some like them and some hate them try them for yourself and then decide.


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## godogs57 (Nov 29, 2011)

> With well more than a hundred perfect uses accounted for here in this one thread it leaves little doubt that a person claiming a tendency to failure is either talking out his backside and not from direct personal experience



Miles58 you are referencing me almost verbatim in your reply regarding icepicking and failure to expand. I can assure you I am not talking out of my backside and I do have direct personal experience dealing with Barnes TSX, Tipped TSX and MRX loads in a number of different rifles and hunting scenarios. I won't get into specifics on this forum but my experiences, both positive and negative, with them are more numerous than you mention.

My experiences with them pretty much dovetail with what GA DAWG details in reply #12 an 16. 

Happy hunting and best of luck with em.


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## miles58 (Nov 29, 2011)

godogs57 said:


> Miles58 you are referencing me almost verbatim in your reply regarding icepicking and failure to expand. I can assure you I am not talking out of my backside and I do have direct personal experience dealing with Barnes TSX, Tipped TSX and MRX loads in a number of different rifles and hunting scenarios. I won't get into specifics on this forum but my experiences, both positive and negative, with them are more numerous than you mention.
> 
> My experiences with them pretty much dovetail with what GA DAWG details in reply #12 an 16.
> 
> Happy hunting and best of luck with em.



Saturday I shot a deer with a Barnes 250 grain T-EZ out of a muzzle loader at about 1700 FPS.  I put a golf ball sized hole through both shoulders.  The heart was completely shredded.  The bottom of one lung was all that was left of the lungs.  I had no blood for maybe 30 feet.  I had only adequate blood for maybe 30 feet and then I lost that.  The deer made it another 20 feet or so.  Not a whole lot different than GA DAWG.  It's what happens when you disconnect the pump a little high in the chest.  The chest has to fill up before it can leak out.  And, it has to leak, since disconnecting the pump means no pressure on the inside.  I have had that happen a number of times where I got no blood or just a little for a ways and then a decent blood trail.  Hardly what I'd consider a failure or even questionable bullet performance.  Likewise, a deer hit that makes it fifty yards with no blood trail and expires, something characteristic of heart disconnection/destruction.

But... the fact remains in this one thread you have a lot of people who have shot a lot of deer without a single problem.  A randomly selected sample in a variety of calibers.  Statistically that's a significant sample and a couple of failures is an aberration unlikely to be representative of the lot.  

You haven't stood up and said you examined the wound channel on your claimed "ice pick" deer yet.

I grew up loading in a time when bullet performance often left a lot to be desired.  Even a small number like 6-8 per cent of hits resulting in poor to no blood trail would have been an improvement, and a very welcome one at that.  Here, we are talking about a much smaller number, and that with evidence of good bullet performance in a significant number of them.    That's the most consistent, controlled bulled expansion  (performance) I know of.  It's a fact that as you go to more violently expanding bullets you get more irregular performance, particularly with lead core bullets which have weaknesses mono-metal bullets do not.  Something well beyond what we are talking about here.  It's why we don't shoot deer with high speed varmint bullets.  Sometimes they work spectacularly, and sometimes they fail miserably.

Dave


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## duckbkr (Nov 29, 2011)

BAD BAD BAD I bought a box at first of season I shot a buck 3 times to put it down first shot 150 yards thought i missed second shot 80 yards facing me in chest once again thought I missed. droped down to iron sights for third shot at 35 yards still ran another 100 yards.  I hit him first shot above shoulder pass through enter and exit hole same size.  number 2 in chest found in back leg did not expand.  Third shot a little back same as first.  I had to shot a hog twice as well I went back to old bullets.  30/06  180 grain


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## Hyper Sniper (Nov 29, 2011)

duckbkr said:


> BAD BAD BAD I bought a box at first of season I shot a buck 3 times to put it down first shot 150 yards thought i missed second shot 80 yards facing me in chest once again thought I missed. droped down to iron sights for third shot at 35 yards still ran another 100 yards.  I hit him first shot above shoulder pass through enter and exit hole same size.  number 2 in chest found in back leg did not expand.  Third shot a little back same as first.  I had to shot a hog twice as well I went back to old bullets.  30/06  180 grain



I find this to be amazing to me. I just don't know how they could perform for me going on 30 years, and have never had this happen.
I will say this though, I have tracked a ton of deer shot perfectly through the shoulder, and tracked some for a mile. Only to find out that perfect shot, was anything close to perfect. Some going in mid shoulder and exiting thru the guts and exit in the flank, and so on.


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## santeerangerman (Nov 29, 2011)

I've used various Barnes in multiple calibers for more than 20 years. Along with hunting, I shoot deperadation tags on the farm here in SC. I would guess that I've easily killed 150+ deer with a Barnes bullet. In that span, I've managed to recover only one bullet. That was from a doe shot at roughly 175 yrds, that was facing me with a .260 Rem loaded with a 120 grn TSX. The bullet entered the front chest between the legs, and exited the stomach, and was lodged in the rear leg joint.





Out of the 150+ deer I've killed with a Barnes, every single one was a one shot kill. EVERY SINGLE deer was recovered. 
The avg distance travelled was 35 yrds, with the longest being aprox 100 yrds. Roughly 45% dropped in their tracks. 
One thing that has always impressed me about the Barnes WAS the blood trails! Only a small percentage had a spotty blood trail. Those that were spotty were usually a lower shoulder hit. But even these had enough of a blood trail to quickly recover the deer.
I've NEVER personally encountered a hit where the bullet "penciled thru", although I don't doubt that it COULD happen. ANYTHING man made, can, and WILL fail at some point.
This is very typical of the exits we usually see from the Barnes...





One thing's for sure. There is NO magical bullet. Anything man made, will fail at some point.
Personally, I've had, and seen far more failures with the Nosler Ballistic tips, than any other bullet out there. Not a single person in our group will use them, but I know there's quite a few folks that rave about them.
I've had such great luck with the Barnes, I'll never hunt with anything else.


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## miles58 (Nov 30, 2011)

Hyper Sniper said:


> *I find this to be amazing to me. I just don't know how they could perform for me going on 30 years, and have never had this happen.*
> I will say this though, I have tracked a ton of deer shot perfectly through the shoulder, and tracked some for a mile. Only to find out that perfect shot, was anything close to perfect. Some going in mid shoulder and exiting thru the guts and exit in the flank, and so on.



This right here is the whole reason I participate in these threads.  I keep hoping to find someone or something to shed light on the claimed failures.  If there is something about the bullets that makes them susceptible to this kind of failure I want to know and do what I can to prevent it from happening to me.

Like you, I have tracked deer with claimed "right behind the shoulder" shots to find something very different at the end of the trail.  The fawn I mentioned that was shot in the knee I am quite certain would not be described as being shot in the knee by the shooter.  He thought it might have been hit a little low in the chest.  After tracking for more than an hour in the dark I told him I was pretty sure it was a leg hit and we'd come back in the morning to get it.

Like you, I see an absolutely typical quarter sized entrance and exit hole with the occasional small entrance or small exit.  The smallest entrance and exit hole pair I have seen was caliber sized from a .270 with a 110 grain TTSX that made a fist sized hole in the onside shoulder blade, then proceeded through a whole lot of bone before exiting.  That was really startling how the hole in the hide could be so small and the damage so massive inside.

I am here listening and looking for an explanation that excludes what I put forth as possibilities because I want to make sure I don't run into that problem.

Dave


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## Hyper Sniper (Nov 30, 2011)

Not going to find a good one! Just speculation and so on.

I have been tracking deer for 47 years now and have found a pile of them when people give up. Almost always the reason is from a bad shot from the biginning. Even though the shooter always says it was a perfect hit!

Like someone else mentioned, I have seen a good number of deer shot with the ballistic tip and be DRT. But if there is a noshion of a bad hit, one of the worst jobs finding it that I know of. They work really well on Yote size game, but deer, I will never use them, nor anyone that I hunt with will either. Some have and found out the hard way, and they have never seen it from my bullet, I can assure you.

As I stated what anyone wants to use is fine with me, because it will never affect a loss of a deer for me period.

Please shoot what you want, but I have been handloading for more than 30 years and have tried them all.

The accubond is a great bullet, based on the barnes design. My thought is stay with the originater not the follower.


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## Buzz (Nov 30, 2011)

I was with you up to the point you said an Accubond is based on the Barnes design.    The Accubond is a lead core bonded to a copper jacket.  I suppose you could say it's a bonded Ballistic Tip.    I don't see it having any similarities to the TSX or a TTSX.   Now a Nosler E-Tip is rather similar to a TTSX sans the pressure grooves.


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## JimLandt (Nov 30, 2011)

I can see from this thread, and all the different opinions that these bullets perform differently in different loads, calibers and applications.  Like most any bullet, there are pros and cons.  

When I bought my .300 Win. Mag., I just wanted one gun to do everything in N.America.  I mostly bow hunt, so I don't need or want a huge arsenal.  But I do like my gun to hunt with sometimes.  I'm looking for a bullet for my .300 Win. Mag. that causes less damage on deer.  What does a deer's skinned body look like after a perfect heart/double lung shot, not hitting anything but ribs, in my caliber or similar (like 7mm Mag., .300 WSM and the like)?  Is the meat still fine?  I know better than to shoot a shoulder; I'd just like to have the option to take shots other than neck shots, without having to buy a different gun.  Would this Barnes bullet solve this problem or make it worse?  If so, what weight bullet?


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## JimLandt (Nov 30, 2011)

I can see from this thread, and all the different opinions that these bullets perform differently in different loads, calibers and applications.  Like most any bullet, there are pros and cons.  

When I bought my .300 Win. Mag., I just wanted one gun to do everything in N.America.  I mostly bow hunt, so I don't need or want a huge arsenal.  But I do like my gun to hunt with sometimes.  I'm looking for a bullet for my .300 Win. Mag. that causes less damage on deer.  What does a deer's skinned body look like after a perfect heart/double lung shot, not hitting anything but ribs, in my caliber or similar (like 7mm Mag., .300 WSM and the like)?  Is the meat still fine?  I know better than to shoot a shoulder; I'd just like to have the option to take shots other than neck shots, without having to buy a different gun.  Would this Barnes bullet solve this problem or make it worse?  If so, what weight bullet?


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## Hyper Sniper (Nov 30, 2011)

Buzz said:


> I was with you up to the point you said an Accubond is based on the Barnes design.    The Accubond is a lead core bonded to a copper jacket.  I suppose you could say it's a bonded Ballistic Tip.    I don't see it having any similarities to the TSX or a TTSX.   Now a Nosler E-Tip is rather similar to a TTSX sans the pressure grooves.



You are correct sir: My bad
What I was trying to say is the accubond is a great bullet and I have used them at times as a back up. If I didn't have my handloads available and such.

What is going to happen in the ammo industry, is they are going to have to build ammo faily close to the barnes design. Because of the new PC lead free front of the new era. Like the Winchester 95/5 different yes, but not that much. You will start to see more and more of this type of design in the near future, I assure you.


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## Hyper Sniper (Nov 30, 2011)

JimLandt said:


> I can see from this thread, and all the different opinions that these bullets perform differently in different loads, calibers and applications.  Like most any bullet, there are pros and cons.
> 
> When I bought my .300 Win. Mag., I just wanted one gun to do everything in N.America.  I mostly bow hunt, so I don't need or want a huge arsenal.  But I do like my gun to hunt with sometimes.  I'm looking for a bullet for my .300 Win. Mag. that causes less damage on deer.  What does a deer's skinned body look like after a perfect heart/double lung shot, not hitting anything but ribs, in my caliber or similar (like 7mm Mag., .300 WSM and the like)?  Is the meat still fine?  I know better than to shoot a shoulder; I'd just like to have the option to take shots other than neck shots, without having to buy a different gun.  Would this Barnes bullet solve this problem or make it worse?  If so, what weight bullet?



What I will say is, in my case I shoot the high behind the shoulder shot and drops them in there tracks. The shoulder meat is missed and has minimal damage to the good stuff.

Unless you are shooting long distance, I have always prefered the 180 gr bullet, kinda what the 30 cal was disigned around. But the 150 gr shoots very very well in your caliber.

The very fact that the barnes is a solid copper disign, you get massive tissue damage, while retaining over 99% percent of its original weight. Not separating and causing a bunch of meat damage. just my .02


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## ppelaez (Nov 30, 2011)

I've only recently begun to use the Barnes TTSX 130 gr. bullets out of my .270 WIN (the past two seasons) but I LOVE 'em.  Three deer (so far) have all been DRT.  Aside from the obvious fact that they get the job done, I like the minimal amount of bloodshot/jellied meat that they produce.  Hit a deer directly in the shoulder with a lead core bullet and most of that shoulder is minced meat.  Not so (in my experience anyway) with the Barnes TTSX.  My unprofessional explanation for this is that when a lead core bullet begins to expand, fragments of lead begin to penetrate radially from the projectile and thus destroying lots of meat.  Since the Barnes all copper bullet retains100% (practically) of it's mass, there's minimal muscle damage.  But, when those four razor sharp "petals" pass thru less dense organ tissue (lungs, liver, etc.) with it's rotational spin, it pratically liquifies those organs.  Again, that's just my un-professional theory/explanation.  I'd love to hear others opinions in that regard.


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## godogs57 (Nov 30, 2011)

> You haven't stood up and said you examined the wound channel on your claimed "ice pick" deer yet.



Oh Good Lord yes...I've examined plenty of ice picked wound channels in deer...Barnes and others. What do you wish to know? little hole in, little hole out....everything in between basically intact with very little tissue destruction. The original poster was soliciting opinions...I gave mine based upon a statistically significant sample as well. However, that does not make my observations any more relevant than the previous posters...everybody has their opinion, I gave mine, and I am happy as a dead pig in the sun that Barnes products work for the other guys!

When I have used Barnes products, I have had the best results using light for caliber bullets (example: 120 grain in the 7mm as opposed to 140 gr). I also had the best results on deer with MRX's for some reason, over the X, TSX and Tipped TSX. 

Your last comment regarding not shooting deer with high speed varmint bullets is dead on. We do indeed have a lot of folks who wish to try that and I am quite opinionated about that....nothing more than a "stunt".

Happy Hunting.


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## miles58 (Nov 30, 2011)

JimLandt said:


> What does a deer's skinned body look like after a perfect heart/double lung shot, not hitting anything but ribs, in my caliber or similar (like 7mm Mag., .300 WSM and the like)?  Is the meat still fine?  I know better than to shoot a shoulder; I'd just like to have the option to take shots other than neck shots, without having to buy a different gun.  Would this Barnes bullet solve this problem or make it worse?  If so, what weight bullet?



The first picture is what a 300 WM will look like as you asked.  This was actually a 62 grin TSX in .224 caliber, but it looks identical to what I've done with a 300 WM.  It also is identical to what I've done with a 30-06 and a .270.  The second two pictures are from a 50 caliber M/L Barnes at ~1700 FPS.

They all look more or less the same.

Dave


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## Magowah (Nov 30, 2011)

I think they are by far the best bullets I have ever used. The 85 gr TXS and the new TTXS 80 gr in 243. All One shot kills with no tracking. The 120 gr TTXS in my CDL 7 08 has been amazing! After several kills, I was determined to recover a bullet. I waited for a large doe facing me with her head down feeding. I shot her in the neck and the bullet went all the way through the deer including the hind quarter and was just under the skin. It looked just like the photo above and weighed 119.6 grains, all there but the tip. Last year I shot it 8 times and killed 9 deer, all DRT. I can not comment on blood trails because I have yet to have one. Just my rather limited experience but I think the ARE the bomb.I started using them after watching a friend recover a 200 grain TXS from a large eight point shot "stem to stern" with his 35 Whelon. It weighed 200 grains after the trip.


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## SpinrB8 (Nov 30, 2011)

I've had great success with Barnes. Using the Vor-TX 150gr. Tipped TSX BT in the Marlin 30-06 this year. Kills have either been dropped on the spot or a tremendous blood trail that's typically no farther than 60 yds.


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## Seth carter (Dec 1, 2011)

miles58 said:


> What are you loading the Barnes in the 30-30 with?
> 
> Dave



my dad loads them idk what he uses exactly ile have too look next time im at his house


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## miles58 (Dec 1, 2011)

Seth carter said:


> my dad loads them idk what he uses exactly ile have too look next time im at his house



If you would please.

Dave


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## BamaBart (Dec 2, 2011)

I'm shooting Barnes 150gr Vore-Tex in my BAR ShortTrack 308 this year. I've only shot paper so far but plan to use the BAR during the rut here in Alabama.


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## gahunter70 (Dec 2, 2011)

Go with the lighter barnes,they require high velocity to expand and with their weight retention you dont need a heavy bullet. I believe thats why some see icepick holes,too heavy and slow of a bullet on thin skinned whitetails. The heavier bullets just poke through unless they hit bone. Im shooting the federal premiums 130gr barnes in my 300mag,3500fps and super flat way out there.


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## crasm1 (Dec 2, 2011)

I have killed two deer with the barnes.  The doe was crushed, dropped where she was.  The buck mule kicked my shot was a little back but caught the lungs still and after letting it sit for 2 hours, I never found any blood and finally found deer after 2 hours of searching.  He ran 100 yards and probably die pretty quick cuz he was pretty stiff when we found him.


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## Hit-n-Miss (Dec 2, 2011)

Shot a 10pt with an 85gr TSX from my .243 thurs morn. Shot in neck and had a .75" exit on other side 8" later.


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