Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles TSX failure or???

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.

Had a similar result in .308...

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/11447432/Re:_Barnes_TTSX_concerns_for_N#Post11447432

After thinking about this for a while, I realized that if I hit a branch before hitting the deer, it was way closer to me than the deer.

That would mean the bullet tumbled for a while through the air before hitting the deer. Not impossible, but pretty unlikely.

I am pretty sure that JB is right...the bullet hit the deer while stabilized, and started to expand as it should. Then, due to bone, maybe hitting the base due to angle, it tumbled inside the animal, ceasing expansion but causing the bullet to bend.

Am I totally off base here? I fully intend to give them another go...

You are probably right. If the bullet hit something closer to the muzzle, odds are it would have missed the animal.
As I've stated before I have not experienced anything with Barnes going clear back to the X bullets in over 100 head of game that would be considered bullet failure BUT the vast majority of my experience has been with 308 and larger calibers.
If available for any application the tipped TSX seems to be the way to go.

Sounds reasonable on the tumbling. This is the only TSX I've recovered and it is a 62gr from my 223AI. 80-90yd hard-angle, quartering-to shot on a big pig. Recovered under the hide, well expanded and twisted. 3,300fps MV.