Art,
My hunting notes go back to the 1970's, so the first Barnes X's were the originals of the late 80's, and include the original, blue XLC, TSX and TTSX. The bullet sizes run from .224 to .375, with most calibers in between--6mm, .25, 6.5, .270, 7mm,. 30, 338, 9.3mm. The animals ranged from "deer-sized," say 100-300 pounds, through "elk-sized" (400-800) and a number of larger animals including bison, Alaskan moose and Cape buffalo. The hunts took place in North America from Old Mexico to Alaska, across Canada to Quebec, and on several hunts in Africa, including one month-long cull that took 185 animals, where I was either the shooter or alongside the shooter when 39% of those animals were taken.
The recovery rate of all X's listed in my notes is slightly more than 15%--close to the recovery rate for other bullets that work similarly, including the Fail Safe (which I started using in the early 1990's as soon as they appeared) and Nosler E-Tip. Haven't seen any Hornady GMX's recovered yet, but the sample has been much smaller. Have also recovered one Cutting Edge Raptor, an even newer monolithic.
Of course, most bullets recovered have been on angling shots, including some with the animals facing either directly toward or directly away from the hunter. But they've included a wide range of calibers and weights, on a wide variety of animals.
