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

Just returned from a hunt in SA, in Eastern Cape and Orange Free State.
This is the only bullet recovered, and is from a high shoulder shot on a Sable bull, at 200 yd. MV from my .375 Ruger is 2880 fps. Sable dropped like a stone, as did most everything else I pointed it at, including Black Wildebeest and Springbok.
Expansion is quite good, and rapid- it certainly kills springbok, but leaves 2" exit holes. Don't shoulder shoot them, if you intend to use them for food!
Sub-MOA accurate, this bullet, from limited experience, is a great choice for African larger plains game. I would probably hesitate to use it on Cape Buff- the TSX 270 or 300 grainers would get the nod for me, with better penetration and a little less sudden expansion.

Looks like a winner. Haven't finalized my load yet for the H&H. Tried RL15 and it was OK but not stellar. Loaded some 4320 and H4895 but am waiting for deer season to end to try those out.

Thanks for the report! When I get back over there someday I will again use my proven load of a 340 with 225gr TTSX's for most game, and my 416 Rigby with 400gr monolithic, FN banded solids and 350gr TTSX's for anything larger than an Eland.

The bullet picture looks almost textbook perfect.

Interesting your comments on the expansion nature of the 250 gr TTSX, could you expand on that a touch?

I went with RL-17 for both the 300 gr TSX ad 300 gr Barnes RN solid. The main reason was to equate my soft bullet weight with the solid weight and POI. The solids were intended to take some small critters and minimize hide damage to the little fellers, while the TSX were for the bigger guys like the zebra. I ended up taking an oribi, bushpig, zebra and an ostrich with the above bullets. Also, performed a mercy kill on an injured blesbok.

imgoofy,

My PH also hunts buffalo- he told me this season he had a hunter use the 250 gr. TTSX on Buff. Two hits failed to anchor the buffalo, and a very long tracking job ensued. Finished off with a .470, post mortem showed the bullets did not adequately penetrate.

Barnes' own literature says the TTSX is designed for rapid expansion- I believe the hollow point cavity is larger than on the TSX. From my experience with the TSX on deer and elk-sized game, they almost always pass thru, but with minimal damage to meat tissue if hit. If shots on Springbok, a relatively small antelope, are any indication, expansion is quick and exit wounds are large.

Anyway- my reasons for using the bullet were more for accuracy from my rifle, and flat trajectory out to ranges of 300 yards or so. Properly sighted in, I had shots on critters from 200 yards, out to 275 yards, which required no guesswork- hold on vitals and squeeze.

That's exactly what I'm using on my second Alaskan brown bear hunt, which starts in 8 days. I use the factory CorBon load that leaves my Accumark's barrel at a tight average of 3,160 fps. If the published B.C. (0.514) is correct for that bullet, it is still moving faster than 2,500 fps at 350 yds. That's only relevant for me because I also will be hunting for moose and wolf.

This is what the ballistic chart looks like:

340 WEATHERBY � COR-BON 225 GRAIN BARNES TTSX � BC-0.514:

Rng / Vel. / Impact / KE / 10mph Drift
000 / 3160 / -1.75 / 4989 / 0.00
050 / 3057 / 0.79 / 4669 / 0.57
100 / 2962 / 2.39 / 4383 / 0.97
150 / 2869 / 3.00 / 4113 / 1.65
200 / 2778 / 2.55 / 3856 / 2.61
250 / 2688 / 0.97 / 3610 / 3.88
300 / 2601 / -1.82 / 3380 / 5.45
350 / 2515 / -5.9 / 3160 / 7.35
400 / 2432 / -11.36 / 2955 / 9.6
450 / 2350 / -18.29 / 2759 / 12.2
500 / 2270 / -26.8 / 2575 / 15.17

My 378 does 3200 fps with that 250 TTSX. Now if I can find and accurate load!

FWIW, 225gr TTSX that went through both front quarters of a huge 71" AK Moose on Monday. It hit and destroyed several bones and ended up under the hide over the left quarter. The other two shots I hit him with within two seconds both exited.



Big moose:

That looks really good. If I did not have a lifetime supply of the 250 BBC's, this is the bullet I'd grab for that type game.Would not hesitate to use them on anything this side of the pond, brown bear included.

Nice moose MarineHawk!! A big Congrats!!!!!

Here's a smaller TTSX, 160 gr fired by a 7mm Rem Mag, recovered from a Warthog. It was a quartering shot. I lost a petal and the shaft bent slightly, but otherwise GTG. The shot on my Nyala was a pass through. I'm a big fan of TTSX bullets.

Eric

Gentleman,
What is your experience regarding how quickly the Barnes fouls your barrel?

There are ZERO fouling issues with the T/TTSXs, Marius and in fact, much less than with other bullets as in the case with Swifts. Without a doubt (at least for me) the TSX is arguably the best bullet out there by every measure, penetration, retention and accuracy. j

Same here in my 375.

The original Barnes X did copper foul my barrels faster than others, however the T/TSSX's much less, to the point where it is no more of an issue than a classic cup and core jacketed bullet. A good copper solvent swabbed down the bore took care of it in any case.

Good info chaps. Thanks.

My rifle barrels are all treated with Dyna Bore Coat. Usually a single shot of Wipe Out, followed by a couple of patches with Hoppes 9, and they are good to go. Sometimes, if a lot of bullets have gone down the tube, two shots of Wipe Out are needed.

Bighorn, why would you hesitate to use them on Cape Buffalo? Those 250's will work beautifully. Will pack a bigger punch than the 200gr'ers coming out of my .375H&H

KMG,

I would hesitate based upon the experience of my PH in Africa, this past year- a client used the 250 gr. TTSX on a Cape Buffalo. Hit twice, the buff took off, and was finished off after a long tracking job with a .470. Post mortem showed inadequate penetration. Just repeating the story, I wasn't there, but that's good enough for me!

I've used the 270 gr. TSX on Asian Water Buffalo, not a Cape, but body size, a bigger animal, with excellent results.

Not to start something here, but I have heard this before, and it was also with Barnes TSX. I might be seeing a trend here. But without knowing the shot angle it is hard to judge.

One of our rental rifles in camp is a CZ 550 in .375H&H launching 200gr GS Customs HV's at around 3200 fps. The GS Custom HV is practically the same design as a TSX, except that its a 100% copper bullet and not as hard as Barnes. Last 4 Cape Buffaloes with that rifle, 6 shots, 5 pass throughs.
But yeah, get what you are saying. Have been thinking of loading heavier bullets, just to spare the funny looks from the hunters when they hear its only 200gr after the job's done.

Here is a recovered bullet of the GS Custom from the .375



Here is a tree that got in the way on a follow up shot by the hunter.



After hitting the tree the bullet looked like this:






The bullet tumbling after hitting the tree, made this entry wound.



End result: Tumbling bullets hit harder. Always aim for a tree.





Sorry for hijacking the thread. Got overly excited when I remembered this story! Back to the topic!

Thanks Eric. Nice on your end too. I don't reload and found a nice, hot load (by CorBon) that pushes a 160gr TSX out of my 7mm Wby over my chrono at an average of 3,238 fps and with good groups. I wish they had the TTSXs, but when those came back on sale after being unavailable for months, I bough a lot of them for future use. Hopefully, they will do well. They slow down faster and drop more than the TTSXs, but this one starts out pretty fast to make up for it.