Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Barnes 250 gr. TTSX in .375

I've been waiting for this bullet, and it's finally on the street (supposedly).

Pushing a 270 TSX at 2650 fps nets me superb accuracy in my Mark V. I used this combo for a PG hunt last year and took eight head of game DRT -- including a 250 yard shot on a nice Springbok. While enamored, the whole time I was thinking, "if they just made this TSX in a 250 gr. tipped version, it may just be the perfect all-around African round." For those that chase elk, moose, and the big bears with the .375, I'd think that this bullet is going to get a lot of attention.

I'm guessing that 2800-2900 fps will be achievable with the new Tipped TSX, though I haven't seen load data. What are your thoughts on this bullet? Would any of you feel comfortable using it on Buffalo? IMHO, it's going to be the premier PG bullet in the .375, though that may be the answer to a question that wasn't asked.

What are your thoughts on its upper-end usefulness? Could you load it up and take it to Africa for everything on your list short of elephant?

Not having used it, obviously, I would still happily point it at a Cape Buff or anything else short of Ele just as you surmised. Remeber that even a 300gr bullet of conventional make is going to lose 30-40% of its weight and thus momentum upon connecting with something alive, large and hard sinned/boned/muscled. This makes our 300gr projectile actually then a 200gr projectile +/- a few grains. These 200gr after impact bullets have been killing really big stuff for a century now, a bullet that hits at a higher speed and is going to still wiegh 250grs even AFTER expansion (or at the least VERY close to that wieght, might lose a petal or two) is going to be a superior bullet. Most certainly very adequate. Yes, this will probably be a very popular and versatile bullet. Truly 30/06 speeds and trajectory with a much bigger and deeper hole at the business end.

they ought to be a barrel of fun in the .375 Ultra...

I'm really excited about it. You're right safariman...this is like having a 250 grain .30-06. I can't wait to run the numbers, but I don't think Barnes has published a BC as of yet.

local hunters use monolithic in the 375H&H with that(250grn) weight or less, though not necessarily Barnes but local products like GS custom bullets or Impala and Frontier bullets. they even use it in the 9.3's . making the 375 and the 9.3 suburb plains game calibers for long distances shots.

this is currently the "thing" with this "old" cartridges locally in SA, with much success.

Where did you find out about this new bullet?

The Barnes site I looked at has nothing.

I've always thought such a bullet might just be the optimum one (if one likes counting angels on pinheads) for North American use with a 375.

Will be all over the bullet soon as I can get my paws on them. The 235 TSX shoots well, the old 250 X shoots well and the 270 TSX shoots well in my 375 Bee. Thinking this will be a total rock star of a bullet!

Thx 4 the update.

Dober

Hi,

A question for all: What`s the difference in performance on big game (elk, moose) you have seen between Barnes X traditional bullets, the last ones, before the TSX series ? I have used in big Red Deer only these first ones, in 235, 250 and 270 grs. My rifle, a Pre-64 (1954)M70 Win doesn`t like the 235 grs. With the 250 and 270 grs the accuracy is very good: 1 to 1,5" / 100 meters and 2" at 200 m. And the performance on Red Deer is very good, indeed! The 250 grs reach 2850 f/s with 78 grs R15 (old lot from 1992). I never recovered a single bullet from a R Deer, but I fired a few into snow and recovered nice picture perfect Barnes X!

Thank you very much!

PH

I've been quite pleased with the .366 250gr. TSX in my 9.3x62mm near 2600fps.

The tipped version in the .375 H&H, and with an additional 200+fps should be a devastating hammer on game.

LINKY

Been shooting 250 gr 375 bullets since the 80's;the Sierra for practice and the Bitterroot on game.The BBC will blow through both shoulders of a brown bear and exit;no reason the Barnes should do less.

Used to use 4064, but today I load 78-R15 for 2940 in my 24" Krieger barrel.Zeroed 3" high at 100 yards this load is down 4-5" at 300 and 13-14" at 400. This is as flat as a 270 Winchester with 150 gr.bullet.

I'm telling ya Bob, you need a 6x36 with dotz on your 375

Dober

Wow Bob that is really moving for an ol' timer like the 375 H&H!!
But I once knew a fella who got over 3,000 fps with 250s in 375...honest...

Most everyone with a 24" barrel will get 2800fps easy with a 270 grain bullet. I never was able to see much advantage dropping further. The 270's at 2800 shoot flatter then the 180's from a 30/06

Dropping to the 250's my trajectory was only equal not any better. The 270's arrive with an additional 20 grains of weight. I fooled with the 250's for about a year on and off and never saw the real advantage to them. If you load them to max velocity of almost 2900 the recoil is significant, I think more harsh then the 300grain bullets. That high velocity with a 250 grain bullet was noticeable!

The 270 was the happy medium for range, impact, penetration, and recoil in my opinion.

Absolutely agree. The 270 gr TSX or variant has just a bit more penetration to make it a really effective dual purpose bullet for the DG/PG single rifle hunt. For PG only the 250 would be fine, but in that case, why not a .30 or .33.

I have to think that a 250 grain bullet from a 375 with greater bullet mass has more killing power than any 33 or 30...from the Barnes #1..BobinNH figures are pretty darn close to Barnes figures and very comparable to 338-378 Weatherby with 250s...if I had a choice I would pick the 375 with 250s over any 33 with 250s for NA bears.....

If I am going to shoot a 250 grain slug it'll be from a 338, not a 375. In the 375 I'll go with 270 grain TSX

[quote=JJHACK]

To me,the 300 gr kicks a good deal harder....the 250's are pussycats, even at over 2900.This is of course subjective and can vary rifle to rifle.

In a bygone era(not really THAT long ago, although it may seem it to the younger folks here there were few 375 bullets of high quality available.

Nosler had gone from the screw machine design to the impact extrusion method of manufacture, but the 375 bullets were not among the newer offerings.I recall coming upon a stash of about 700 of the older bullets, and with a friend, bought them all at $1 each. These were 270 and 300 gr bullets.

You bought what you could get,and the only other premies around were Bill Steigers BBC's;but they were made by hand, had to be ordered,and production runs were small; a guy had to wait for them,sometimes a year or two in any given caliber.

Along with the BBC bullets came recommendations for minimum velocity and twist rate.A bullet that retained in excess of 95% of it's weight after impact may seem common today, but back then it was a rare bird, the concept strange to many of us.(Not that retained weight is a meausurment of killing power;but it does tell us something of the bullets integrity, and what to expect of it).

The BBC was the first bullet to change "The Rules";they could be driven very fast, would not lose weight nor disintegrate,expanded widely and penetrated as far as as required,and killed "well".

250 gr 375's were offered up first with no dates certain for the 275's and 300gr,so that is what I wound up with.In the meantime my first Brown Bear hunt was undertaken with 270 Partitions.These worked well,penetrated fully on one shot,and the remains of the second are here somewhere in my bullet collection,looking like a typical Partition pulled from game,ie nose blown,about 60% of the bullet remaining.

Second hunt in Alaska for the brown bear I had the 250 BBC's started at 2900+ and killed a 9'2";3 shots taken and anchored him on the narrow beach..two shoulder are shots and one back through the lungs.Yw oexited and I recovee the 3rd.It is expanded to app.70 caliber,weighs 249 gr after smashing through heavy shoulder bone and muscle. Exits were larger than what I observed from the 270 Partitions a few years earlier.

There are those who believe that with Barnes bullets we can go lighter than standard and get excellent results,and many today use 165 gr/168 Barnes X in the 30/06 where we might have used 180 gr bullets of more conventional design years back,and with sometimes much better results. It is frequently said that the faster you drive a Barnes, the better,and the same is true of the old BBC's because these bullets do no behave the same as bullets of more conventional design.I think a guy can very safely take step down from 270's to 250's in the 375,much the same as we have taken a step down from 180's to 165's in the 30/06,and get excellent results either way,at least for plains game.

I've not used Barnes bullets,mostly because I have had BBC's these many years which are in some respects similar ;nor have I been to Africa, but suspect if something will handle brown bears nicely, and elk, I suspect it is in the ballpark for a wide range of African stuff as well.

For these reasons,I may be wrong,but I see no reason why a 250 gr Barnes would not be an excellent choice for about anything over there in the way of plains game...This is anectdotal, but a friend last year killed both eland and kudu and bunches of other stuff with the 235 TSX from his 375 over in SA with excellent results.Nothing got away.

Based on what I have seen and heard from experienced guys on here who use Barnes bullets a lot, I would have complete confidence in the 250 Barnes.

To each his own and it's nice to have all these choices today in contrast to what we had to go through to get good 375 bullets a couple of decades ago.

I think BobinNH has covered it all regarding the 375 bullets and the 250s...Bob's field experience and use of the 250s is more than mine....as I have never used the 250s in the field...my favorite 375 bullet for NA is the 275 BBC...as I posted on Big Bore favorite 375 bullets but this May I intend to try the 250 BBC on a SE Alaska Brown Bear hunt...loaded to 2968 fps
I am anixous to see if the performance will duplicate that of Bob's on Brown Bear...

Like Bob I have never been to Africa or used the Barnes X bullets in the field with my 375...but if I ever went to Africa..which I hope to someday...I think I would carry the Barnes X in 250 for the lighter stuff and 350s for the big fellas in my 378 Weatherby...just my opinions..

Just remember that bears both brown and black are very soft and easily damaged. They have no where near the structure of large ungulates, and now where near the heavy solid body mass. I guided in SE alaska for more then a decade we killed well in excess of 400 bears (brown and black) during this time. No big bears have the kind of penetration issues that an equal size ungulate has.

This is not to say that they are easy to kill or easy and comforting to follow up!

What I'm saying is that any 30 cal magnum 338 or 375 with a factory load will penetrate plenty and do the deed. Blood trails are the biggest concern in the rainy conditions, for a really dangerous aggressive and rather quick moving large animal. Shooting a Big Blue wildebeest bull, or big elk, Zebra, etc. will absorb and stop bullets with far greater frequency then a Brown bear will. I would much prefer to go search for the other species when hit, but the bears are simply a very soft bodied animal.