Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 30-06 and 130gr Tipped TSX Performance

Gentlemen,

I picked up a box of 130gr Tipped TSX bullets the other day while i was out after hearing such rave reviews of the bullets. I realize that the 130 gr weight is pretty light for normal bullet use on whitetails however i understand that you can get by with using a lighter bullet in the TSX bullets due to their near 100% weight retention. My question is, how have these .308 TSX or tipped TSX bullets performed for you? Overall penetration and damage? I just want to make sure they are suitable for deer before giving it a shot. Also, what aproximate velocity are you shooting them at?

Thanks for all of your input!

Ruck

I load them in my Cooper'06 at around 3200fps IIRC, have only taken one animal, a large boar hog which I shot through the shields (tough gristle area just behind shoulder)on purpose at about 150 yards. The bullet completely penetrated about 2 feet of hog (225 lbs or so) where most bullets I use do not exit. Mr. piggy ran about 40 yards and did a forward flip in the air and was drt. I will try to kill a deer with one before season end.

If one likes a monolithic bullet ( Personally,I don't particularly like them) then I suspect the 130 gr. 308 should perform as well as a conventional/premium 150 gr. bullet as they are long for their weight..I know a lot of folks that swear by monolithics...I have had several bad experiences with them.

The only monolithic that has performed for me as advertised is the GS Customs bullets from So. Africa. they do work exceptionally well, and never has one of them failed me.

I have shot 7 deer with the 130 TSX from my 30-06 at around 3000fps. I have never recovered a bullet, all exits with some penetration as much as 2 or more feet while hitting some bones.

They leave a straight path of destruction, certainly not as big of a hole as some others, but all the way through. 'Let the air in and the blood out' from any angle, and don't wreck a lot of meat, which is what I'm really killing things for anyway. They do not kill quite as quickly as a bullet that blows up more. Most of mine have been plain lung shots--the deer usually runs about 50 yards and keels over with a great blood trail if necessary.

One thing I've noticed about the TSX on deer is that you can almost instantly tell that you've hit them. They just start acting 'sick' even though they still run away. They did not seem to respond that same way when I used CoreLokts or Fusions.

6 deer killed this year with 130 TTSXs. 1 with 150 TTSX. 1 with a XLC-150. 100% one shot kills. None went more than a few feet. Five dropped in their tracks. Uniformly thorough damage to the chest contents. No recovered bullets. No lack of penetration.

Guys,

These are things i'm wanting to hear. Thanks for the input!

Used 'em for the first time this year in my 300 WM, supposed to be about 3600 ft/sec.

One shot through the shoulder on a 6x6 bull elk about 80 yds, he went about 30 yds and dropped dead. Took out both lungs.

I think you can trust 'em to get the job done. Definitely will flatten out that '06 of yours beyond 300 yds.

If "flat" is what you're after, Barnes introduced a 110 TSX this year on .308.

Running the numbers, it does shoot even flatter than the 130, but loses the velocity and energy battle by 375 yards or so from an -06. Sure has some interesting possibilities though.

I realize that the 130 gr weight is pretty light for normal bullet use on whitetails...

???

130 gr. is tons of kill power for any deer!

I've flattened at at least a dozen or more with 117 gr. from my 25.06, most of 'em one shot kills out to 300 yds and more.

And lots more deer are dispatched handily with less from 243s and the like.

130 gr. in a 30.06 is, IMHO, great medicine for deer hunting.

sir_springer:

My thoughts exactly! How many folks say the 243 is the greatest deer slaying machine ever? Lots. What is the average "deer" bullet weight? About 85gr or so. How about for the 25-06, 260, 270, 7mm-08, 280? prolly 110 to 120 or so. Why not a .308 dia 130 gr? Especially with the Barnes type mono bullets which are longer per a given weight. Nothing wrong with the heavier bullets mind you, just another solution to an equation... If they shoot in your gun, let 'em fly!

Be safe
Patty

Patty...

Very true.

Here's the flip side, happened to me years ago before I got edumacated about proper bullets for the game you're after.

Using a 30.06, I opted for Federal Premium with 200 gr. BTSP Sierra Gamekings. Great ballistic coefficient, tons of wallop left at 300 yds, just seemed like the awesome choice.

Long story short, I whacked an average size whitetail broadside where you're supposed to at about 150 yds. Down he went! Then he got up and started down the hill again. Getting late in the day, so whacked him again, same place. Down he went. Couple seconds later, up he got again and started down the ridge.

??????

Hell with that, I whacked him again, broadside, same place.

He hit the dirt and actually tumbled down the hill a couple times.

A few seconds later he got up and beat it over the ridge like he was shot out of a cannon!

That's the only deer I ever lost, spotty blood trail that petered out right away, and a million tracks to sort through. Even went back the next morning. I'm sure he died, but only God knows where.

Lesson learned: Too heavy a bullet for the game I was hunting. I figure I pin-holed him each time, possibly a tad high. Lighter, more appropriate bullets from then on, never happened again. 200 gr. would be great for elk or moose, but not deer.

PS: I did check my gun for sight in, it was dead on.

A 130 TTSX will still weigh 130 grs AFTER it opens up during the first inch or two of penetration. Even very good cup and core bullets will weigh only 70% of what they started out at only a few inches in. Do the math. A 180gr Nosler partition (considered by many among the best cup and core types) will really only weigh in at 128 grains give or take a few during most of its journey through your animal AND, because it will arrive at a slower speed, not being able to be pushed as fast from the same caliber of weapon, it will have LESS inertia or momentum to help it penetrate. Soooo... if a 30/06 with a good quality 180 grain bullet is adequate for deer then a 130gr TTSX would be MORE so, not less so. My experiences, and those of mu big game huinting clients with these bullets in Africa, Alaska and the Western US bear this out. I am loading the 130gr TTSX in my .308 and my 30 Belted Newton this year. Load them up, point em at Bambi, and get out your skinning knife.

Sir_Springer and all:

Howdy again. I got to thinking about the whole weight/caliber conundrum not so long ago. I used to just call it good (and it still is) with 150's or 165's for my 30-06's since I was 12 when I started reloading many, many, moons ago. The part of the equation that should be considered is just what you say, bullet construction. The pin hole effect as you so aptly put it...

In the past, I have resisted buying premium bullets because I am cheap by nature in many things and luckly because of this trait I have always ended up with bullets, mostly Sierra, Speer & Hornady, that vigorously expand and drop stuff pretty much right now. 165gr standard bullets at a moderate speed of about 2700-2800fps seemed fine and are fine depending on the bullet construction, game construction and area hit by the bullet.

The idea of using the lighter for caliber bullets seems valid to me as they will likely be travelling 10 - 15% faster (3000-3100 for the 30-06) encouraging a higher degree of expansion in the Barnes type bullets but in cup and core types possibly preclude the shoulder shot due to the damage to the cut of meat but more importantly to me is the fragmented lead bits that will be ingested from the cup and core type bullets. A nice side benefit of the lighter bullets is the flatter trajectory of the loads when the lighter weight projectiles are ran to decently high speeds.

Somewhere online there is a flouroscope investigation of the wound channels of the various type bullets in actual game animals and I REALLY sat up and paid attention to the results. The spray of particles in the meat quite far from the wound tract was most impressive and troubling. Never really thought of it like that before. It looked like a shotgun blast of near powder like particles spread out much farther than I suspected was possible.

Obvious to many if not most here, many cup and core bullets suffer from the +'s and -'s of explosive expansion at he expense of slinging miniscule particules of lead everywhere in the beast hunted. Good for varmints bad for edible critters.

The Barnes types, to me, have the benefit, when properly sized for the game sought and driven at speeds that assure expansion, stay if not more intact then they are in maybe 5 or so larger pieces of copper with the heaviest part often passing through.

I recently bought alot of 130's (for a great price) in .308 to share between my 30-06's and a 30-30. The bullets are Speer FN 130's and HP's and Hornady 130 PSP pistol bullets. I am going to try the PSP and FN 130's in the 30-30's and as a moderate to reduced load for the 30-06 to limit expansion. The 30-30 has a 16" barrel so that will keep the velocities down with heavier bullets and I am curious if there will be decent performance and accuracy with the 130's as compared to the 150/170's. I really want to try some Barnes 130 TSX and TTSX (I think they make them in .308) when I can part with the additional coin. If the 130's don't perform well or aren't too accurate I will just use them for plinking and varmints.

I reread my last post here and noted I left a bit out that adequately spoke to my thoughts above. I guess my thought train overtook my typing ability and it got left out. I am a doofus for this and apologize for my incomplete post. Sorry about that...

Be safe

Patty