Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Switching from Barnes to other monos

Anyone switched from Barnes to any other brand of mono metal Hornady GMX or Nosler E-tip? Have you been able to get similar performance? Any issues with load development on conversion?

Thanks.

JR I sold my three thirty eight ought six to a guy from Oregon that has switched to the 200gr E-tips and is having great luck on blacktails w/them. He says they open widely and uniformly.powdr

The 80gr GMX has worked great in my .243 Win.

Do either the E-Tip or the GMX open faster or wider than the TTSX at moderate speeds?

Not that I've been able to tell. Their on-game performance has seemed very similar, and all three sometimes take some experimentation with seating depth to shoot their best--usually deeper.

Why do you want to switch? Are you having issues with Barnes?

jr,

I tried Nosler's Etip, 130 gr., in my .270 WSM last year, as I wasn't happy with the accuracy I was getting with TSXes.
Nosler's load data warns to start low when working up loads for the Etip, and that should be heeded. I ended up with an accurate, fast load using RL22, which was a full two grains less than what was shown as a maximum load using Partitions or Accubonds.
The only game I have taken with it was a whitetail last fall, at over 300 yards- instant kill.

Why do you want to switch? Are you having issues with Barnes? [/quote]

No direct issues, but interested in starting to experiment. It seems that Barnes has the biggest non-lead market share, so I'm curious if the others are just as good, but because of Barnes' popularity we don't hear as much about them.

Given any future shortages it'd be nice to know that I can fall back on the others.

Not married to any brand, but I've had awfully good performance from the TTSX in several calibers.

I can't speak to switching per se, but I have had similar experiences with GMXs & ETips as with T/TSXs.

My 257 AI LOVES 90 gr GMXs seated deep, the Vangard 257 Roy I had LOVED (genuine one holer) 100 gr ETips seated DEEP, my 280 AI likes 140 gr TSXs seated deep, and my 06 likes 130 TSXs seated deep.

The only issue I think is worth mentioning is that the "others" are harder and therefore have higher min velocities to reliably expand than the pure copper T/TSXs so if distance or mild cartridges are on your list that may come into play.

How deep is DEEP? .075"? .100?

I've got several bags of E-Tip seconds I'm going to try for this fall. The ones I loaded so far I set them .075" off the lands to find pressure. Haven't had a chance to shoot any of them for a group though.