Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Ask John Barsness Questions About "BONDED BULLETS"

I have no basis for comparison other than anecdotal... African animals have a "well deserved reputation" for being tougher than North American game

African animals have a deserved reputation for being tougher than North American game. Go on safari and judge for yourself.

John,

I agree that a meeting place somewhat less congested than Las Vegas, NV would be far preferable.I particularly like your "preventative" from disease. Now I know why I never get sick! And Rick, I didn't catch anything in Vegas, and John just explained why.

To the saga of bonded core bullets and my experience with them. I first became acquainted with them in about 1974 or so. I was in Alaska at the time, with the military. A friend that I met there introduced me to Bill Steigers Bitterroot bullets. Mountain View Sports Center, a sporting goods store I frequented often, had a small stock of them for sale. As I recall now, twenty bullets cost around ten bucks. I bought a few and tried them. I found them to be superior in every way to the bullets that I had been using, mainly cup and core bullets. Until I found the Bitteroot, the Nosler Partition was the best bullet on the market that I had found. I've been using mostly bonded core bullets ever since then for my hunting. When the Barns X bullets came out, I tried them. Their performance in most rifles was very good, but not as spectacularly deadly as bonded core bullets. That changed a bit when Barnes came out with the TSX bullets. In my experience, TSX bullets performed considerably better than the original X bullets. I've used quite a few of them on game and they kill well. I've experienced very few "bang-flops" with them though. Still, I've not lost an animal that was shot with a TSX, nor have I had much of a tracking job. I've used several Swift A-Frame bullets with complete satisfaction. I have not tried any Scirocco or Scirocco II bullets on game. I've found them very accurate in my rifles at the range. I shot one animal with a Nosler Accubond, and didn't like them at all. I was using a 140 grain 7mm bullet in a 7mm Dakota rifle. That bullet performed about like a hand grenade. I shot a B&C pronghorn with it and the results were devastating. I even had to get another cape to get it mounted (from a frontal chest shot).

In fairness, it was from a very early lot of bullets, and I was driving it pretty fast out of the 7 Dakota chambering. It is my understanding that the bullet has been improved since it first came out, but I've not tried it again on game. Most likely, had I used it in a 7x57, or even 280, it would have done well. However, with all the excellent bullets available, I've not gone back and tried them again.

I've used Hornady Interbond bullets on a few game animals, mostly Coues deer and pronghorns, and they have performed very well. I used Norma Oryx bullets (180 grain 30-06) on a trip to Namibia, and they performed very much like a Bitterroot, that is to say exceedingly well. On a trip to Tanzania, I chose to use Barnes TSX bullets (165 grain 30-06) on a EA impala, Grant's gazelle, and a zebra. They did the job very nicely.

All in all, I find nothing to argue about in your piece. I agree that simply bonding the core to the jacket will not turn a poor bullet into a super one. I do think that it will turn a poor bullet into a better one though. As someone has already written, it will keep the core from separating from the jacket, at a minimum.

I have accumulated pretty much a lifetime supply of the original Bitterroot bullets, although I don't use them very often anymore. There are so many good bullets available to us today, I don't have to dig into my stash. I'll probably leave them to my kids.

TT