Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only Barnes-250 XFB thoughts (.375)

Guyz/Galz-any of you done much work with the 250 XFB for the 375?

Been thinking about giving them a go in my 375 Wby with some R17 (or one of my old mainstay powders).

If so, how'd they shoot and work on game ect...

Gracias

Dober

(reason why I ask is I have found enough of them to take on a small army and still some left over for the next army-so I really don't need the try the TSX comments but you can make em if you wish...grin)

I have shot them in my .375 and they shot well..I talked to a client that used them on a plainsgame hunt and he was really satisfied...

I don't think I would want to hunt with a bullet that light in my .375, I would rather go to a lighter caliber...I am a big believer in SD and short for caliber bullets drop off velocity pretty fast...but it is a monolithic so it probably is as good as a 270 gr. conventional bullet..

Let me know if you shoot anything with it and how it worked..

Dober, the only way to find out is to try them. I found them inconsistent in the cartridges I used them in when they first came out. I tried to load them in a friends 270 and my 338. Pressures spiked quickly and accuracy ran from very good to so-so.

Since you've come into a mother-load of them, give them a try but be careful near maximum loads. I cannot comment on performance on game as I never worked up a load I was satisfied with. But you know the usual stories - great performance or near "solid" performance.

Not so good with IMR 4064 past 100 yards. Accurate with 250-grain Sierra's but peters out by 300 yards. Rifle likes heavier bullets better overall and despises 235-grain X's (also 300-grain Sierras. ????)

Bought some, tried them in my .375 H&H. They didn't shoot nearly as well as the 260-grain AccuBonds, so those are what I've been shooting for the last five years. FWIW...

The locals around here shoot elk with 250 gr. Sierras at about 2800 plus FPS and they all have lots of recovered perfectly expanded bullets to show. They obviously work..Craig Boddinton swears by the 250 and 300 gr. Sierras for plainsgame. I have seen them used with complete success...I used them on deer once and they worked perfect..Maybe lacked expansion since I got the bullet back..

If the Sierra will work, then surely a monolithic would work as well and probably better if your a monolithic fan.

Got a bullet back from a deer...odd must have been 3 of 'em standing shoulder to shoulder!

I've never tried that weight, but I have tried the 235gr TSX in my 375 H&H. I've never seen 1 grain of powder make such a difference in a caliber/bullet combination before. I'm working off memory, but I started with something like 75.0gr of RL15. That group measured 3.5" at 100 yards. 76.0gr measured 3/4" with two holes touching. 77.0gr opened up to 2". Granted, this is a sample of one, but I was really squeezing off some good shots that day and I'm confident that the 2 and 3" groups were just that. And I've squeezed off 3/4" groups with that rifle before with other loads.

The data I received from Barnes had a big spread in powder charges from min. to max. I only had the one box of bullets and didn't want to use them all up in testing loads, so I just decided to start somewhere in the middle of the listed charges. If I would have started lower or higher, I might have missed that sweet spot. Since you have a bunch, my only suggestion would be to keep moving up a grain at a time and hopefully you'll get lucky.

As an fyi, that 3/4" load chronied at 2,925fps out of the 24" barrel of my Ruger #1. I'll call that test complete!

Could be that you found just the right sweet spot, but in all honesty I'd not trust a sample of one group of each. I'd want to see if it was duplicatable.

The 235 TSX was very accurate in my 375 Wby as well. Seems to be a lot of reports of the 375 TSX slugs being quite accurate.

Dober

Dober: I've used the 250 Bitterroot...does that count?

Anectdotal,but a friend came up from NY with two recovered Barnes 375-235 TSX;one from a big eland bull shot at 325 yards.Took both shoulders and was expanded like the advertisements,pretty as a picture,recovered against the off-hide.DRT.

The other was from a kudu in the brush at 60-70 yards;petals blown off, but the back section had actually expanded somewhat to a larger frontal area. He said it was a train wreck.

His load started the 235 over 2900.From your Weatherby,I'd expect 3000 from a 250.Can't imagine it would not work great.

BTW,do they make the 250 FB anymore?