Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Barnes bullets

I bought a older box of barnes bullets for my 270 today at a gunshow and wondering if they was consider a premium bullet.It came in a box of 50 and the box is marked 270 cal. .277 dia. 130 gr. .032" jacket. I was looking for a bullet for deep penetration.thank you

They were considered a premium of sorts and marketed accordingly back in the day. Whether you will think they are or not may depend on what else you know. Barnes' present line of monos are generally considered better penetrators.

Patrick those older Barnes X bullets were yes, a premium bullet, however Barnes has made changes in their product line and these are not offfered anymore.

Most folks who purchased them had a real hard time in getting them to shoot well out of their rifles and those that did sooner or later discovered they don't always open up or mushroom out like conventional bullets are supposed to etc.

I have several boxes of those newer TSX bullets with the rings around the shank but I am finding out some of these do not open up in a test we did with our rifles. I am not a grant fan of those Barnes bullets, they still seem to be lacking in what a premium bullet must do on game animals. Nosler Partition & Accubond bullets, Swift A Frame, Trophy Bonded Bear Claws are great premium bullets for hunting big game.

Tonk, Those early Barnes jacketed bullets were not X bullets.

Yea, not sure what the hell he's talking about.

Steelhead, where have you been. Those old Barnes were pure lead cores and pure copper jackets made from copper tubing. They were ulgy, but seemed to hold together O.K. The .032" jacket were the tougher ones.

Their 300 grain .338 out penetrated anything else back in the day. Call me crazy, but I used to push them to 2,800 from a .340 Weatherby! Stem to stern on an elk. The old 195 grain 7MM were a hoot. They also offered an 80 grain .224.

I bet those 130 grain .277 will work fine in the orignal .270.

I know about the old Barnes/Colorado Custom Bullets. Read like the other guy was discussing X bullets.

What about the xlc bullets Just wondering how they performed as far as exsp.&penatration They shoot real well thanks marty

Hit this Crown Royal box at 700 yards with the 6th shot ever from that 257 Roy and 100gr XLC's. Killed a bear at 200 yards with the 7th shot, bear dropped at the shot, screwed up the insides, and exited.

if the box said barnes on the side... its premium.
i can afford em but im one of those guys that finds a load and pumps out 2-3 ammo cans full. so hornady does just fine for me.

Thanks i just bought some from hunter on this site they group .5 in my 257 bob been shooting the 117 horn. with good drt Im going 2 try them on yotes &deer next yr thanks again marty

hard to beat the 117 RN on whitetail.

Steelhead, I'll try to put you on track about what my post stated! In the mid-90's Barnes was making the X-Bullet and most folks I knew, could NOT get them to shoot worth a hoot out of their rifles. Those that did, had a hell of a time recovering the game animal they shot later, as those Barnes bullets would simply pass through said animal like being stuck with an ice-pick.

Then Banres fix things with their X-Bullet and along came the velocity wonder by Barnes (giving the hunter 200fps more velocity) making your 30-06 a close match to the 300 Win mag in velocity because those coated BLUE BULLETS, were said to travel close to 200 feet per second faster, than conventional lead core bullets on the market.

Now I never got 200fps more velocity, out of the half dozen different calibers I tried shooting through my rifles. A gain of around 100fps was more like the true facts.

Even so, one still had to get those Blue Barnes bullets to group at the range and this was not as easy as falling off a log either for many who bought and tried the Barnes Blue XLC wonder bullets.

I did one time get a 3 shot one hole group with a model 70 338 mag rifle but my velocity was down to that of a 30-06 you might say at 2500fps and I wanted more velocity in a .338 magnum bullet weighing 200 grains.

I realize that the "Original Barnes" bullets were a very good bullet but you could NOT give me a shoebox full of those Barnes X bullets or Barnes Blue XLC bullets to load up for my rifles. Many of them just would NOT open up in water tank tests we ran at the house. I am not in the habit of shooting solids at elk, moose or mule deer. We have also shot some of the Barnes TSX bullets in water and they didn't open up either.

So Steelhead, I hope this lets you understand, what I was posting prior. I still use Nosler partitions, Swift A Frames and TBBC bullets for my big game hunting needs. They mushroom out and don't leave me wondering if they are going to do their job on the animal I choose to shoot.