Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Barnes bullets in fast twist barrels

I have read a number of times that some barnes bullets create wound channels abnormally large when used in conjunction with fast twist rates. Particularly so the 6.5 130 tsx.

Have any of you "in the know" personally experienced this?


Trystan

That's just another internet myth...

Whether a fully-stabilized Barnes TSX rotates 1.7 or 2.1 times during its travel through the chest of a deer will not make any notable or significant difference in terminal performance.

It has nothing to do with rotations completed per foot, and everything to do with rotational forces expanding the bullet more aggressively, and launching secondary projectiles with greater velocity.

Incorrect. To a point. Increasing RPM's (by increasing twist) helps lots of bullets open up better and/or more. With bullets on the frangible side, they can come apart much more violently than with a slower twist.

We're not talking about a Hornady SX, in which excessive velocity or twist rate will rip one apart before reaching the target. The question was not in general about a frangible bullet but about the Barnes Triple Shock.

I have fired that exact brand & diameter of bullet he's asking about in twists from 1:7/7.5 (considered on the fast side) to the more conventional 1:9, and given virtually equal 200 yard impact velocities, there were NO differences in depth of penetration, expanded diameter, wound channel, retained weight, etc.

Trystan;
Good evening to you sir, I hope this finds you well.

We've had some direct experience with the combination you've asked about.

Here's a link to a thread dealing with the subject.
http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/9248055/2

I will note that since the above thread I've had the rifle I mentioned barreled with a military barrel - so it's the deep grooved, fast twist I was looking for.

I'm using 120gr TTSX bullets in it loaded to 3000fps. With that combination I've killed two mulie bucks. The first in the 2015 season was one of few that I've witnessed flip over onto it's back with 4 feet in the air after being hit.

This year's dropped so fast that our daughter who was spotting for me said his chin bounced when it hit the ground.

We don't shoot the number of animals some of the folks here do, but having said that we've seen enough die to form reasonably educated opinions on the subject.

Hopefully that was useful information for you or someone out there sir. If I can be of any help please let me know and I'll try my best to help.

Good luck whichever way you decide and all the best to you this year.

Dwayne

I am disabled and move slowly most of the time, but give me a few days, and I'll dig out the bullets/pictures/stats from back then. From the 1:7.5 through the 1:8 and 1:9, the Barnes bullets appeared virtually identical. DItto for a 1:14 to 1:10 .30 cal comparison.

But again, we're not talking about thin-jacketed varmint bullets being ripped about by twist rate and speed, either.

I do believe I posted all of this on SP back then, but many of the old threads have been purged, and I am not certain it's still around. But if so, that will be even easier.

A number of years back I shot 5 deer with as many shots with the 130 gr TSX from my 1 in 8 twist 264 Win Mag. I didn't see any huge holes or pencilling through just good wound channels and deer that dropped pretty quick.

I have never seen any of that.

Yep

The questions wasn't about ANY bullet. It was about a Barnes TSX in particular. And actual testing has shown that there is no measurable effect.

Nosler concluded the same thing regarding some of their own bullets by testing rifled and unrifled barrels.

No shiet? I stand pat on my Yep reply, and that was based on Barnes bullets.

I'll continue to base my thoughts on what I've done and seen...

Well, seems two folks are both correct here... and yet it continues.

Thanks for that Dwayne, I got a chuckle.

Someone needs to coin a phrase for that.

I was hunting with Bart one time and he watched me launch a 62gr TSX into an 8 point's shoulder. He was watching though the binoculars and at the shot he said, 'Were did it go?'

This one time at band camp...............

W

I can tell you that a 120 grain Hornady GMX out of a 6.5 Creedmoor with a 1 in 8 twist expands violently and seems to kill out of proportion to the mild recoil of the cartridge.

So I think fast twists are a good idea with monolithic bullets,they are not going to come apart like varmit bullets,and the rapid spin can't hurt expansion.

Dwayne,

Thank you for sharing the link and your own personal experience.

I was doing some reading under a web page called "Terminal Ballistics Research" I found it interesting that durring there studies they found the 6.5 swede useing barnes bullets to produce abnormally large wound channels compared to other calibers. The study however did not mention what rifle was used but I have to wonder if it wasn't perhaps a military rifle with the 7.5 twist barrel.



Trystan

More RCH sshhiitt. It's a puny deer.