Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Barnes or Accubond **Update**

Well, I hope not to offend anyone who are die hard Accubond fans...but I gonna have to stick w/ the TTSX's out of my 300 wsm.

A while back I was wondering what to expect using a 165gr Accubond on moose. In some areas that I hunt, the terrain can get very thick. I wanted a bullet that would leave a good blood trail, so I thought I would try the Accubond.

On Sept 19th my hunting partner shot a 51" bull from across the slough we were hunting. The shot was about 270ish yds away. We saw the bull fall in chest high weeds. We got in the boat and headed our way to him. Once there, he was gone. Suddnenly we heard him next to the tree line about 100 yds away. One shot to the neck and he was done. Since it was nearing the end of the day and we had a boat ride back to camp, we just rolled the guts out, flipped him on his back and let him stay until the next morning.

The next morning we rode back to him and started cleaning, sawing, breaking bones....another bull heard these sounds and came in to fight. He was across the slough from where my friend had shot the previous evening. I grabbed my rifle, went to the edge of the water and shot him at about 200yds. He lifted his front leg and started to walk directly away from me. I shot once more and thought I had misssed. Found out I just skinned him.

We got in the boat and found that he bedded about 60 yds away.. A shot to the back of the head and he was dispatched.

When I started skinning him, I noticed that the front shoulder was very deep, purple, blue, and red...Upon further inspection, I did not see where the bullet made it past that shoulder at all.I did not find the bullet, but it was not a pass through. I would not believe that one small bullet made such a mess out of the shoulder. If you have been around a moose, you know they have huge shoulders. Almost the entire shoulder was wasted.

I think I may have used too light of an Accubond and if maybe i had used a 180 or 200 gr bullet, it would have penetrated and behaved better.

So I think that in the Bigger Game area, I will stick to the 168gr TTSX's

I have a picture of the moose before skinning if somene would like to see it.

Send me your addy and I will send it to you.

Steve

Your experience mirrors my very limited Accubomb experience...

I have taken 14 big game animals with 180 gr. Accubonds, therefore being a true believer. I am not a spokes person for Nosler, but they work for me. I have yet to try Barnes in my 300WSM. I am interested to try them in my 260AI for african plains game animals. Will see next April when we travel to RSA for our 3rd trip to the "Dark Continent". MTG

It is quite possible that if I had used a 180 gr, I may have gotten a better experience. I have a friend of mine that uses 300 gr AB's and he said he does not have the issue I wrote about at all.

I have had excellent luck with the accubonds both 150 grain and 165 grain. However, my rifle is a 308 Win and muzzle velocity is 2700 fps at best. Not a lot of stress on the bullet compared to the velocity out of magnum

Those TTSX's open pretty wide compared to most hunting bullets. They don't penetrate as much as you might think.

200 Partitions would have been my choice.

I've shot several elk and several deer with 180 gr AB's out of a 300 WSM. My experience has been that they destroy way too much meat. Every time the near side will be hashed, even before the bullet hits bone. I hunt to fill the freezer, not feed the coyotes.

I couldn't tell much difference in accubonfs and BT's , I shoot TTSX's in several guns . 168's in a 308 don't penetrate as much as you think ?? That's funny

Yeah, it is funny isn't it.

Yep the TTSX's get through. My experience with them on elk is an example of two, a cow at 272yds with a 140gr from a 280rem-in at the base of the neck, recovered at the tip of the rear loin and a bull at 476yds with a 210gr from a .338wm-in high behind the left shoulder and out the center of the right ham.

I've shot a fair number of both deer and antelope with 180 AB's and 180 TTSX's from the same rifle (.300 wm) and my take on it is the AB's do a great job but open quickly and the wound channel tends to be larger. Thant being said I've yet to recover a 180 AB, but I've never recovered a 180 TTSX either. Both great bullets, both very accurate but for me on large game and where the shot angle may not be the best, Barnes get the nod.

The big difference is the BT's are more accurate, and over 3k the accubonds hold together better.

My experience of killing animals is two bears and 12 deer.

I killed both bears with a 30-06. One with a 150 TTSX and one with a 168 TSX. Both shots were within 75 yards. One broadside and one head on on all fours. The broadside was a total passthrough. The head on shot stopped the bullet after penetrating nearly 5 1/2 feet of bear. I found the bullet right next to the anus as i was gutting him. 100% weight retention. No meat loss with either animal.

The deer have been a mixed bag of bullets from the 150 Nosler Accubond and Ballistic Tip, Hornady SPI in 150 grain, one with a 180 Hornady SPI, and one with 158 Hornady XTPs out of my .357.

The meat loss with all the above bullets save the XTP was substantial considering the 100 pound deer we have around here. I switched to the Barnes TSX and TTSX in 168 grain and found the accuracy to be the same and the teminal performance to be better and more importantly, the meat loss is a LOT less. Small ring of bad meat on entry and exit, and thats it. Internals totally demolished, but i dont eat the guts.

FWIW.

And lots of broken bones!

Yeah, there is that too....

I think it is more of a case of using light for caliber bullets for larger game. Call me Elmer but a 180 or 200 grain projectile of almost any make I think would have worked out differently.

With Mono's light is fine but does not carry over to even bonded cup and core bullets. I would call the 165 Accubond a deer bullet or Deer/Elk bullet. I sort of look at the length of the bullet when comparing a Mono to a more conventional bullet.

A 165 mono is very roughly equivalent to a 180 jacket & core type bullet IMHO.

But congrats even if you ended up with a three legged Moose.

But congrats even if you ended up with a three legged Moose.

^^^ Now that's Funny!

Thank you.

Steve, Congrat's on your moose!

From a puny 338-06 with 210 ttsx, at about 125 yards, mine broke a 50 inch bulls neck, through the opposite shoulder on the way out, and caught by the skin.

Not bad penetration on something over 1000 pounds and from that small of a round.

TTSX do fine for us and I've actually yet to have an issue with an Barnes bullet.

I can't say the same for the others. All of the others. I'm sure the Barnes day will come though sooner or later.

I'll take a barnes over a partition any day if I have the choice.

RE 165 non mono for a 300 mag... thats just a bad choice really. Even a 180 partition would not hold togetehr like a ligher barnes.

I've used a lot of X varieties on a lot of critters and only watched a small handful of Accubombs used. I have yet to see a pass-through with an Accu-bomb and that includes 300gr 375s shot broadside at bears.

I have personally put quite a few 270gr Xs lengthwise through big bears without catching a single one.

To this day the only X bullets that I have seen fail to fully penetrate were 80gr TTSX in the 25-06 in moose and a deer, lengthwise. I have seen the little things go through a LOT of bone and still get away...

Moose are often considered easy to kill and I won't argue that that isn't generally true. However some people seem to think they are easy targets as far as penetration goes and in that they're mistaken. While I have driven Interlocks, NBTs, Corelokts, and Gamekings through various moose - as well as Partitions and copper slugs, I have also caught various Barnes bullets in several moose as well as Grand Slams, A-Frames, Partitions, Gamekings, Interlocks, Ballistic tips, and Corelokts in others.

Plenty of projectiles can kill moose - pretty much anything 30 caliber can. Bullet selection for big tough animals should favor what will kill well versus what can (but may include a rodeo).

BTW, the two messiest moose kills I've been involved with included a Corelokt on one and a Barnes X on another. (If you don't get the heart shut down quickly, there will be lots of blood in the bullet path).