Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles An interesting 'trick' to get Barnes TSX and TTSX's to shoot well early on.

There has been a lot written here and elswhere about how to best to get the Excellent on game Barnes TSX and TTSX bullets to shoot well without expending enough powder and all to wear out a barrel and a credit card. I have been busy loading ammo for a good number of my non rifle looney freinds and relatives with various sizes and weights of Barnes bullets from 224 up to 338 and in each case to start out the loading process I have been loading them REALLY short - using the uppermost band or groove like I would a cannelure in a bullet so equipped and in each case so far these rifles have shot REALLY well! No need after that to mess around with more load development! I load them up with differing amounts of the most likely powder at these really minimal lengths and shoot over a Chrony until we get book max speed or superior accuracy with near top speed with the idea that after we determine a good powder charge we would then play around with the seating depth but so far these shorty rounds shoot so well that all load work is done in one range session! Yesterday I loaded some 120gr TTSX's for my Brother in Law's 7mm RemMag Browning and the first load (70gr of R-22) shot into 1/2 of an inch! Only 3300 fps instead of the possibility of 3400 at max loads but wow, my work here is done. No elk or deer OR my B.I.L. is gonna notice the 'missing' 100fps but a load that shoots into 1/2 inch...... We will take that one. This is not, in my experience, an anomaly as this has been happening over and over this whole summer so maybe those of you wanting to give these bullets a try should start out loading this way (case neck level with the middle of the top groove) and see how it works for you as a starting place. Good luck! MARK