I have no experience with the TSX either. It was with the original with no relief grooves that I had problems with.
Here is an article I wrote some years back that explains a lot of the transitions in Barnes X bullets. Maybe it will help demonstrate which some people are not fans and others are? The fact is that bullets change faster and more often that opinions. I like them but do not use them exclusively as I try to be bias towards nothing and open minded to everything. Incidently, I have probably killed mroe animals with X's than most people, but have never experienced nor even heard of the non opening factor until I read it on this web site so one man's experience is not universal fact, even mine.
JW
Barnes X Triple Shock Bullets
By
John Woods
The bull was huge, at least a ton on the hoof and we were on his turf. These wild scrub cattle are born wild and range over much of the outback cattle country and can be very dangerous as they do not fear man and confront humans without fear, every time the cattle are rounded up.
The scenario goes like this:
The cattle are rounded up each year so that the surplus can be sold to market and the yearlings can be branded to establish ownership and add to the stock count. It is during these round ups that the wild scrub bulls become dangerous as they come out of the heavy timber and attempt to break up the herds and steal the cattle. They see these ladies as their own and will not let a mere human take them away. The scrub bull is lord up here and will fight with all the aggression of the bovine family.
We are talking remote country here. I was hunting in untamed land 27 miles from the homestead, which was located 44 miles from the front gate. The property was so large that the owner had never seen his back fence. He just knew it was drawn on a survey map he kept somewhere in the house.
This bull was everything I was after. He had the good color and face markings I liked, big bulky body and long horns that looked close to 2 feet in length each side. This was my bull.
He was angling towards us at a bout 500 yards when first spotted. I slipped out of the car and grabbed the .460. After slipping in a couple of 500 grain Hornady loads, I topped it off with a 400 grain Barnes X bullet loaded to 2900 fps. I figured my �light load� creating 7500 foot pounds of muzzle energy would be adequate.
By using the trees and only moving when he was feeding or obscured by large �blow downs� I managed to close the distance to 30 yards with him grazing and angled towards my left.
I raised the Weatherby and let the unbreakable Tasco Titan rest on his shoulder, which would allow the bullet to penetrate towards the rump on the off side. At the shot, the bull slumped to the ground. The Weatherby slams big game so hard that getting up was a useless endeavor on the bull�s part. As I approached, he tried to raise his head so I hit him again on the shoulder with the 500 grain Hornady which was next in the magazine.
It wasn�t necessary as the bull died as the shot rang.
During the skining process, I recovered the Hornady under the shoulder between the ribs and the shoulder. The bullet has spent most of it�s weight and never even penetrated the ribs. This bullet would not have killed the bull and had it been the first shot, I may have had to track a dangerous and wounded animal, which would have made for a very interesting hunt indeed.
Where was the Barnes X? We looked all through the shoulder, checked over the rib cage for signs of penetration and then gave up and went back to the caping as the sun was beginning to lower in the sky line.
During a skinning break, I leaned against the rump of the huge bovine and rested my hands back on the rump for balance. Just then I noticed a small bump in the skin on the rear of the animal some 6 feet from the point of impact. I cut the Barnes X bullet out and stood there admiring the greatest technological advancement in ballistic history.
I was holding a bullet that was both, a solid and a soft point, in fact the best way to describe a Barnes X bullet, is to call it an expanding solid, the perfect dangerous game bullet. Now that makes it easy to prove and colorful to try and disprove, doesn�t it?
My first experience with Barnes bullets came in 1990 when I built my first .416 Weatherby magnum rifle and needed bullets in that scarce caliber, for that time at least.
The 350 grain X bullets back then, were very rough compared to today�s version. The openings were very large with thick petals and the brass was very scratched and pitted, nothing like the smooth shiny examples we see today. On game, they hit like a hammer and penetrated very well but the copper in its original versions, was not soft and malleable and the petals almost always broke off. Probably a stupid statement on my part, as you had to have the animals dead on the ground to determine this.
Over the next dozen years, Barnes continually refined these bullets and a variety of subtle changes were made without fanfare on the part of Barnes, who were actively trying to make the best soft point bullet of the day, into the best soft point bullet in history.
From 1990 up until last year, I shot literally hundreds of animals from small game like foxes and pigs through to animals approaching a ton or more in live weight. I killed game at brush hunting range out to distances requiring 4 feet hold over and always, I got kills that required no tracking which is the way it should be.(
edited to say that I cannot recall a single animal ever requiring tracking which is different to many statements made by other users.)I have always had the opinion that a rifle, any rifle for that mater, is just a launching pad for a bullet. A horrible cartridge, if there is such a thing, loaded with a good bullet will still get the game down efficiently.
Look at the reverse of this argument. The most famous gun writers ever published, continually condemned cartridges based on the way the bullets of the day performed. Likewise, the rifle manufacturers lived in constant fear that these same guru�s, may not look with favor on their months and years or research and hard work.
The research efforts of the whole gun trade could be trashed by a gun writer who, unfortunately for the consumer, didn�t understand the fundamentals of ballistic performance. The bullet does the killing, not the rifle, not the cartridge.
Having said that, I did notice the evolutionary changes in Barnes bullets over the years, having used them in every popular caliber from .224 through to .458. It was however, during the middle 1990�s, that I noticed the most changes.
The bullets went from sharp edged bases to boat tails, then the heal�s changed angles and became concave then flat again. The exterior changed considerably as the ogives were altered, longer, sleeker, rounder, secant, you name it, Barnes tried it.
The holow point noses were also made smaller, making the bullets more streamlined thereby increasing the ballistic co-efficient. The petals became thinner at the tips. The surface of the bullets was constantly under review until Barnes reached the mirror smooth versions we have today.
Even the metallurgy was altered as complaints came in of barrel fouling with Barnes X bullets. Never once did Brooks sit on his laurels and say that was it. He constantly tested his own product and never gave up on the concept of continual improvement.
I have been supplied with many Barnes X bullets over the years for testing and review and have also purchased my own over the same period. I have been fortunate enough to have tested these bullets on wild free ranging game and still to this day have never seen imitation flesh and bone called �ballistic gelatin�. I sincerely hope I can make that claim in another 10 years.
The value of this to my reader�s, is that I am incapable of basing comments on theory. I can only report factual performance in the field.
The latest versions of the X bullet available from Barnes, are called �Triple Shock� and are the result of research performed during the days of barrel fouling claims. (I never had the fouling issues others claimed, though it is very possible that some barrels will foul more than others.)
Initially, Brooks experimented with the addition of grooves around the bearing surface of the bullets in an effort to reduce the drag and friction during the engraving process as the bullet enters the rifling.
The �Triple Shock� brand name has been marketed further as providing �3� rings and having �3� impact advantages but I don�t want to regurgitate the marketing of these bullets but instead, offer my own observations. For a start, not all bullets have �3� rings as generally reported. Included in my test samples were 115 grain .257 bullets that have �4� rings around them.
My latest information from Barnes, indicates that Barnes may in time supply some bullets with less or more than �3� rings depending on their research as to the best combination for each particular bullet. The additional listings for 2004 include 6 bullets from .257 to .338 caliber that incorporate 4 grooves in their design.
This R&D includes the size of the rings, the depth and the position of these rings. The bottom line is, that these bullets offer less friction during the engraving process so that initial pressures are reduced considerably.
What this means to the hand-loader is that your usual powder charges with Barnes X bullets will yield higher velocities with the new Triple Shock Bullets.
The samples originally supplied for review included 100 grain Boat Tail and 115 grain flat base .257 caliber, 140 grain B.T. in 7mm and 168 and 180 grain boat tails in .308 caliber. All of these bullets are both legal and capable of taking any game found here in Colorado, so were ideal choices for review.
In my custom barreled .25/06, I got the most amazing performance with my usual load of 55 grains of Winchester 760 generating 3504 fps, which is about 200 fps over factory specs. Admittedly, My barrel is a custom 26 inch match grade, stainless, fluted, barrel made to my specifications and is faster than normal .25/06 barrels, but this is a sizzling load for open country or big game.
With the 115 grainers, I loaded 51 grains of 760 and got ragged hole grouping with an average velocity of 3173 fps. I didn�t push this bullet further because I was impressed with the extreme accuracy of the load.
My 7mm is a genuine Rigby .275, which is a classic and legendary hunting rifle capable of almost anything as you have read many times in the printed media. I have not killed any tigers or elephant lately with mine, but with the standard version of the 140 grain XBT bullets, I have killed a lot of game including goats, foxes, pigs and deer up to red stag in size and larger game like feral horses. In most cases, complete penetration and instant one shot kills resulted.
With the new Triple Shock bullets, the Rigby was loaded as usual with 52.5 grains of 760 (This is much hotter that most reloading Manuals but completely safe in my rifle) and the Oehler 35P chronograph recorded velocities averaging 2914 fps and all bullet holes touching.
The .30/06 was also a surprise result when I loaded the 168 grain Triple Shock bullets over 62 grain of 760, where the average velocity reached 3016 fps. I do not usually use this bullet weight in this cartridge but the accuracy I achieved with this bullet was exemplary also, with all bullets touching on the targets during chronographing.
When I moved up to the 180 grain bullets, my usual load of 60 grains of H4350 produced velocities of 2842 fps so in all cases, I got improvements in velocity except for the Rigby which duplicated pervious X bullet performance.
What I did get from all rifles was an improvement in accuracy and without any detrimental effects or handloading difficulties, which I did kinda expect, from the seating of the bullets.(
edited to qualify that all review loads were shot at 7000 feet elevation)Just recently, Barnes issued an addition to the range for 2004. You can buy .224 caliber Triple Shock bullets in 53 grain, 85 grain TSXBT for the .243, 130 grain TSX FB for the 6.5mm, a very practical 200 grainer TSXFB in .30 caliber and 2 excellent and useful bullet weights in .338 caliber, being the 185 grain TSXBT and the 225 grain flat base.
These last 2 bullets arrived too late for the chronographing sessions, but I will load and use them this year in my hunts and will report on their successes.
I also hear that Barnes will be releasing a 450 grain .458 Triple Shock bullet around mid year so I will look forward to trying that one out in my .460 Weatherby.
I can happily endorse these bullets as the latest technology and also as stated at the begining of this article, the best technological advancement in ballistic history. By the way, the advertised claims by Barnes that these bullets increase penetration over conventional lead core bullets by 22% in my experience is a false claim.
My use of these bullets on game has determined 500% and more increase in penetration on game, compared to conventional lead core bullets. I guess there is no crime in outperforming your claim, which is good news for the consumer.
One word of warning, my loads are exactly that, my loads and developed in my rifles. They bear no relation to what is recommended in reloading manuals and the reader is requested to reduce all charges by 10% and work up slowly to determine the best loads in your own firearms.
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) but for their love of hunting and bits of a loon themselves.