Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Two Tipped TSX's recovered in a row

elkcountry,

Yes, we switched over to TTSX's or E-Tips a few years ago when shooting monos, since we've never had any failures to expand with either, unlike the original TSX's. I've also been happy with my limited experience with Hornady GMX's and Curtting Edge Raptors.

As Klikitarik pointed out in his post, the biggest problem you're going to run into with the monolithic bullets is failure to expand. The plastic tipped versions seem to have solved that problem.

Catching the tsx/ttsx is a notable event as shown here in this thread. Some have caught two, some six, and me? I've shot several game and never caught one. It's quite a testament to the bullet when it's news that one has been caught. This ole guy sure likes them. Moose to whitetail. Oh, and a crow with a 180TSX 300WSM. Didn't catch that one either.

Jim

It seems the TTSX defines bullet performance these days. I'm really surprised that a moose shot through the lungs caught a 300gr 375! They must be real tough sumbiches!

Not necessariy tough -- just big!

A 200 gr TTSX from a 358 Win after running the diagonal length of a warthog. The only one recovered from a fair load of critters up to gemsbuck and blue wildebeest.

The learning curve with barnes is actually very short. You realize you can take about any shot, if you have the horsepower, and the bullet will work.

It doesn't get any shorter than that IMHO.

Myself and the two or three guys I hunt with have recovered many TSX/TTSX's.

C'mon, the most important aspect of a successful hunt is showing off the perfectly mushroomed or, in this case, clovered X bullet

Indeed it is. Having killed 20 or so head of game with them I have recovered a grand total of ONE. Almost all of mine have been 165s in a 300 Wby.

I have some 458s that I would like to try but not sure what to use them on!

I'll play!

.375 (moose) on the left, the three on the right = dirt berm



.375 (elk)



.375 (another elk)



7mm (yet another elk) this one was a bit disconcerting.....

Not sure why disconcerting... had a cup and core hit like that, it likely would have seperated...
A bit of bend, and opened petals.. from a dead animal.

examining the wound channel (cow elk), it very clearly tumbled after hitting the onside rib and didn't make it through the second lung

Nothing is infallible. Nice thing about an X under those circumstances is there's enough bullet left to inflict a serious wound.....one of those "it still kills when everything did not turn out right" kind of situations.

I'm not totally sold on TSX's (or monolithics in general) as THE only bullet to use on big game. Yeah, they penetrate great, but have seen some fail to open, which as Klik said is their biggest problem.

It also beats the hell out of not penetrating enough, but have also spent considerable time looking for animals (not all mine) that wouldn't have gone nearly as far if they'd hit with certain other bullets. Also, I haven't found monolithics to kill as quickly as lead-cored bullets with typical lung-shots, unless driven really fast, or of pretty big caliber.

I also haven't found them to penetrate any deeper than some load-cored bullets. As an example, have seen similar penetration to the 100 TSX from various .25's with both the 6mm and .25 caliber Nosler Partitions, not just once or twice but a number of times. And have yet to notice any practical difference in penetration between the 250 and 286 TSX in the 9.3x62 and the 286 Partition, and the Partition has, overall, killed quicker. And no bullet I've used has killed any quicker than the Berger VLD hunting bullets, which in my experience shoot up even less meat than monolithics if placed correctly.

But I do like the Tipped TSX's very much for specific applications.

Spot on JB, they are a great bullet and have their uses and do certain jobs extremely well but they are not the end all be all of bullets or performance and in many cases are not the best choice.

As with most things they have their good and not so good attributes and people should take those into consideration when choosing which bullet to use for a specific hunt/task.

A cup and core would have likely expanded properly and not tumbled as that example did... It would probaly also have killed quicker.

I agree with your comments, John. I use Monos outta my 25-06 when I may encounter game bigger than deer. Also have used them in 30 cal magnums.
I have had good luck with the 30 cals, but the 100gr TSX outta the 25-06 has a mixed track record. They either work very well, or the animals run off much farther than I would like. I havent w=switched over to the TTSX version in 25 cal yet, because I bought a stash of them, that I haven't burnt up yet. Maybe the 100gr TTSX is a better bullet?

I have used various Barnes X bullets since 1999. Last critter I shot was a decent sized boar black bear with my 300 Win Mag and the 200 LRX. Range was about 50 yards. Bear was mostly facing me (I called it in). The bullet entered where the neck joins the body but on the side then penetrated through the chest, broke the offside front leg bone, exited and then entered the rear leg. I dug it out and cleaned off the perfectly mushroomed 199 grain bullet. I am a big fan.

Yes, moose make good bullet catchers. All my recovered Barnes (3 of them) came from moose. 160gr TSX from a 7mm Rem Mag, 225gr TSX from a .35 Whelen and a 175gr LRX from a .300 WSM. This year small bull took a 250gr TTSX from my .375 Ruger in the neck and it blew right through.

I've recovered one TSX to date - 130 gr out of a 270 Wby that went diagonally through an elk from the back of the ribcage to just under the hide in front of the off shoulder.