With Barnes being the unofficial king of the copper solid bullets, how do the Hornady GMX's compare, with their gilding metal construction (which I understand to be 95% copper and 5% zinc).
Looking for some real life experiences (good or bad) with these bullets.
Thinking about using on Whitetails and wondering if they might be "to tough"
Any acuracy issues?
Thanks for any and all real life experience info.

I have used the 277 caliber 130gr GMX on a few deer. They work, my impressions is they are a touch softer than Barnes.

Want to try the 185gr .338 in my 338Federal but most everybody uses the 185TTSX so there's not much to go on. powdr

I've used the 185gmx in my .338wm and .340roy and they seemed from my experience to be quite tougher than ttsx. Shooting into jugs and pigs I had more penetration. I know the 185ttsx will open up at least down to 2k but I'm skeptical on the gmx below 2400 or so. I'd like to get some other opinions on them myself.

I've only seen a few of them used, mostly on game bigger than deer. 150's work fine from the .300 Winchester Magnum out to 400 yards or so, but they're still zipping right along even at 400.

However, my experience with bullets like the TSX, E-Tip and GMX in general is they kill better when really zipping along. Don't see many advantages in them at muzzle velocities much under 3000 fps--except, of course, where non-lead bullets are mandated by law.

Aren't E-Tips gilding metal?

If the GMX is like the E-Tip, it should work OK.

Barnes 250 TSX's in my .45-70 BPCR (primitive weapon) at 2,550 fps do a real job on hogs and WT's. I don't use Barnes in the smaller calibers, prefer to go with 100 gr. Partitions in my .240. In the .223, I like 60 gr. Partitions and 65 gr. Power Points. In the .22-204, I like 75 gr Scirocco's.

DF

They work. Here's a post from a bullet I recovered.

Textbook performance.

Everything I've shot with monometals, the bullets have blown thru, haven't recovered one.

But, I'm pushing them pretty fast for caliber.

DF

I have used the 30 cal 165 gr GMX effectively on antelope, mule deer, and many elk.

I have never been able to recover the bullets from any antelope or deer. They just punch right through the animal.

On elk I have experienced both total bullet pass through but more often find the bullet just underneath the hide on the opposite side. Mushroomed perfectly and retained 95% of the bullet weight.

The bullets perform well enough for me, however I kill most animals closer than 250 yards, with occasional pokes out to 350 yards. The only disadvantage/ detriment of the gmx is that at distances under 100-150 yards the bullets blow through every animal I've shot. This has resulted in some of the animals running off to be recovered sometimes as far as several hundred yards before they expire.

This can be mentally difficult to handle when you're not sure if you missed the animal or your shot was perfect. Then you're left with wondering if the animal is dead/wounded/ missed and all of the possibilities that result from those thoughts.

I can say however that I've learned with using GMX bullets that if you had a decent rest, gun was functioning properly, and the shot is within your range- then you hit the animal. It won't always show signs of the hit but more often than not the animal is hit.

Plus side is that there is usually little bloodshot meat, and I never find pieces of lead in my processed meat.

Because of these experiences I am currently evaluating different bullets. I want something that has a higher chance of dropping the animal in its tracks. Looking into berger vlds, nosler partitions, accubonds, accubonds long range, or barnes lrx.

I've shot two deer this season with 243 Win. 80 grain hornady gmx, a 130 lb doe and a 290 lb buck. Both deer were about 30-40 yards away, both shot just behind the shoulder and both ran about 50 yards with great blood trails. I can't complain.

These were factory Hornady Superformance, so they were pretty hot.

I zapped one whitetail with the 150gr Superformance .308 Win. Buck dropped nicely.

That's about all the experience I have with them.

I can only compare a 160 TTSX to a 185 TTSX, but faster does make a difference with these. You definitely trade a bit of penetration by going light and fast, and thus opening wider. The internal damage is greater with speed though.

It seems to me there is a market for making them open wider and/or at slower impact velocities. That's just an impression though and not really based on much fact. In fairness the Barnes rep told me the .338 185 while listed as a minimum of 1800, actually went lower than that. I don't know how they define "opening" though. Although look at the Nosler site and compare the E-Tip pictures to the Partition (or Accubond) pictures at ~2000FPS. I have not seen any pictures of the GMX. I would try them if I thought they opened a bit wider at slower velocities than a TTSX. This would make them a better fit for slower cartridges and longer ranges. I may have to try and come up with a test this summer to see how the TTSX, GMX and E-Tip open at ~1800 fps.

Hope more with GMX experience chime in as I would be interested.

I'd love to see some mono y mono tests between Barnes, Hornady, and Nosler.

Yep.

And at two or three velocity ranges.

That would be a lot of work, for sure.

DF

All of the below is using MidwayUSA blem .257/90 gr over Hunter in my .257 AI @ approx 3350 fps:



Accuracy (before weight sorting) is GREAT!!

2013 dinkathon; shot from maybe 50 yds from above quartering away on a path meant to cause maximum damage. One shot kill, ran maybe 15 steps with a blood trail Stevie Wonder could follow




This past week 2 one-shot kills on hogs.

The first a medium-sized oinker (190 lbs) 100-ish yds to brain stem bang-flop pass thru



Second hog small shot in head coming straight at me at a range of about 125 yds



With the base of the bullet recovered from the ham



which I have yet to weigh, but given it impacted the skull, penetrated the full length of the pig and came to rest in the ham its "petal-less-ness" and lack of beauty can be excused.

What we need around here is an experienced writer with a 270 to sling 130gr pills at 3,000 across the board, then report the results. It'd be a good start.


"Mule Deer, you have a call on line one"

You think anyone with a .270 here on the Fire, would actually admit it..??

Hmmm...

DF

I was thinking a 308 but.....

I have a 27 Fruitcake and a 27 Fat Fruitcake, so I'm a little biased. Any would be fine.

I'll try and compare 185gmx and tsx next week into some jugs. We shall see.

Pretty good test between the Barnes and the GMX here:

http://www.soarraptors.org/Documents/CopperBulletStudy.pdf

Not much difference between them...according to this test.

The only thing I have shot with them is one antelope buck. It was a headshot so not much of a test of the bullet (165 grain .308 from a 30-06). In my rifle they are not as accurate as the Interlocks, but shoot around an inch and a quarter, at least in Superformance guise. Haven't played with them handloading yet, but hope to soon.

In my very limited experience I would certainly agree with this statement. 168 grain (moly) Barnes seemed to hammer AK game to include moose.

Dirtfarmer;
Good evening to you sir, hopefully this final Monday of January was an acceptable one for you.

So I think that I can now admit that I "once" had a .270 - at "one time" and have since had it rebarreled.

Anyway without looking at my hunting log, I know I shot at least 3 bucks with the 130 GMX and switched to the 130gr TTSX after a bit - partially because they shot a wee bit better and partially to see what difference there was - if any.

There was not much difference as far as I was able to ascertain from tissue damage or the one sample of each that was recovered.



I believe that the TTSX is on the right and the GMX is on the left. They both weigh very close to the same weight, again sorry I'd have to dig up the notes to get the exact weight but I don't think either one lost a grain.

The particular .270 barrel I had happened to be a slower than usual twist - 1:11 � as close as I can measure - and didn't give typical .270 velocities, so that might have some bearing on the bullet performance.

That said, if I traded into another .270 tomorrow, I'd have no hesitation whatsoever using either GMX or TTSX bullet.

Hopefully that was useful information for the OP or someone out there tonight - not that any of us would admit to using a .270.....

All the best to you this week Dirtfarmer.

Dwayne

At the risk of nitpicking, I think that's reversed based on outward appearances.

I shoot the 80 GMX from my .243 Win over 45gr imr-4350. Accuracy is 3/4" or less as long as I pull my booger hook correctly and the small sample of whitetails I've killed with them have been impressed. Complete penetration and blood trails that are heavy and short.

I shoot the blems from Midwayusa.

Thanks, Dwayne, for that heart felt .270 confession...

I know it made you feel better...

To me, monometals do best blasted at max vel. I don't like small caliber mono's as well as mid and large bore ones. I use Scirocco's, NPT's and similar in .224-6mm guns for WT's and hogs. I do like E-Tip 120's in my 26 Nosler, as I've posted already and the 250 TSX in my .45-70.

IF I was so disposed to work with a .270 (in the closet, of course), I'd consider 130 monometals at max vel. I think those would work pretty well.

BTW, the TTSX has driving bands like the bullet on the left...

DF

I'd even try the 110 TSX BT at 3,400-3,500 fps, just to see what it would do. The 130 version could be pushed around 3,100-3,200 fps. I'd want to see how they grouped.

DF

Whttail in MT;
Good evening to you sir, hopefully your day was an acceptable one.

Thanks for the gentle correction, you know I knew which was which but so help me my fingers typed it wrong anyway....

It wasn't nitpicking at all and I appreciate your taking the time to help me get it straight.

All the best to you in the remainder of the week.

Dwayne

I thought maybe you were looking at the picture from the other side.

Dirtfarmer;
Thanks for the reply and the nice manner in which you conveyed my backwards post as well.

So far we had good success with 80gr TTSX in our daughter's .250AI which are the smallest monometal we've run and they've killed deer extremely well.

I'd add that in addition to velocity we've seen really fine results with monometals twisted fast in more moderate velocities such as our eldest daughter's 6.5x55.

Thanks again for the kind response and all the best to you.

Dwayne

Whttail;
Well I can see how you'd think that seeing as I'm on the other side of the medicine line and all.

Really I believe I'll need to stop posting later on in the evening when I'm that sleepy.

Thanks for the chuckle and all the best to you sir.

Dwayne

I did some primitive testing with .30 cal 150 grain GMX bullets

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/7039270/2

Good accuracy (note those groups are at 200 yards. I will see if I can find a link to a video of young bison I executed. I think they work very well.

You bet!

I have three hunting loads always at the ready for any new 270's that might find a way to my house.

130gr TSX, TTSX, & GMX all over 60gr H4831sc. I can always find one load that will shoot around an inch and sometimes two or all three.

I have no qualms using any for hunting.

I have also used the 85gr TSX and 110gr TTSX/TSX succesfully out my 270's.

I see on Barnes' web site, you can run their 85 TSX at 3,800 fps, their 95 TTSX at 3,700 fps, and their 110 TSX at 3,500 fps.

Those loads should be real bombs on WT sized targets. I don't know how accurate the lighter ones would be, but these are some interesting combos.

How did the lighter bullets perform?

DF

I can tell you the 110 TTSX at 3400fps from a vanilla .270 does very well on pigs and a couple of blacktail. I can also tell you the Hornady 110Vmax takes the same loads, hit the same point of impact to 500 yards and are a heck of a lot cheaper to practice with.

Dead critters when we did our job. The 110's have taken numerous deer, hogs, antelope, a blackbuck and Axis.

The 85 was used in a reduced load for my son. 1900fps, 100 & 106 yard shot, complete pass through and two dead deer. I never pushed them hard, but should try it sometime.

What was the load? Where did you get the starting data? I tried to get some reduced load data from Barnes but was unsuccessful.

I used H4895 per Hodgdon website.

That's what gun writers are for. That's why they get paid the big bucks.

Shot two Mulies out west[Eastern Sierra's] with 165 GMX's from my Ruger MkII .30-'06. Pretty much dead right after the shot, about 200-225 yards. One didn't move, other than tipping over, the other staggered maybe 10-15 yards, plop. I don't recall MV, as my notes are packed for moving, but thinking 2850-2875fps might be about right. Powder was/is Ramshot Hunter: 59.5gr.
Hope this helps.

A friend just shot a bull Nilgai at 375 yards with a 139 grain GMX out of a 7mm Rem Mag. Bullet went through both shoulders and exited.


The combination would not have been my first choice but that impressed me to say the least knowing how tough blue bulls are.

150 grain, 155 yards, 30-06



into this tidal wash mud flat, the mud being sticky black muck liberally laced with sugar sand and the fiber of grass roots





l to r: GMX, TSX, TTSX, E-Tip, Accubond

Dang, I'm liking the looks of that E-Tip Klik!

The mono-metal bullets are excellent for penetration, that's for sure. Nice to see some good expansion too.

Guy

Interesting that the petals came off the TTSX.

Interesting to me that the X bullet has finally come around to where it works in many respects, like a much older dual core design that has proven itself for decades.

I lost some nipples this year so I'll be back old skool. Barnes need to be FTF, end of story.

Here's some GMX info. With the 26 Nosler, the 120 GMX was the most accurate bullet in an extensive review of that round by Steve Gash in the 2015 Hodgdon Annual Manual of Reloading.

See comments on the New 26 Nosler thread.

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/9607758#Post9607758

DF

Up from the way back. You guys see Midway has 224 50gr GMXs now?

On intro sale at $52/250!


Thank me later.


Hornady GMX Bullets 22 Caliber (224 Diameter) 50 Grain GMX Hollow Point


https://www.midwayusa.com/product/102291900?pid=270816

180 grain 8MM GMX from an 8X57 carbine. Muzzle velocity at about 2525 FPS. Shot was at about 130 yards and it seems to work quite well, but one round is not a definitive test.

Rag-horn bull hit mid chest from down hill, shooting up. Bullet exited through the shoulder blade on the other side. Elk ran steeply downhill and piled up about 40 yards from where it was hit Exit was about 1-3/4" in diameter. My rifle and my ammo, but I was only along for the hunt to pack meat. Young man (16) on his first elk hunt and wanted something larger then his 243, so I loaned him my 8X57. We were both pleased with the results. So that is my ONLY experience with actually seeing one work, but it was a very good hit and good kill.

I expect similar actions with about any GMX that impacts at 2000 FPS or more. Larger and heavier ones will go deeper and do more damage than lighter smaller ones of course, but if I were to guess, I would say 95% weight retention or more is likely normal, and like about all solid expanding bullets, I would not expect great results if impacts are below 2000 FPS.

But I bet for the fast rifles (MVs of 2750 FPS and faster) it will be a very good line of bullets. Probably be excellent from those with MVs of 3100 and faster.

Let’s not talk about it and say we did. Five year old thread....

GFY

These 50s I'd think would zapp like lightning at 3000+. And at 21 cents a piece, some of the good folks that have been around, might give it a try. Others, might have it with their cheese.

Thanks for tip!

For those of you shooting cartridges like the 30-30 (single shots or bolt rifles) and .300 B/O, the .30 cal. 110 grain GMX is quite the performer and will fully expand down to around 1600 fps. The one below was launched at 2805 fps from a 24" 30-30 barrel and directed into a 219 pound boar with rather thick shields. The range was app. 202 yards.

Bullet performance was perfect. If you look at the photo, you can see where the 110 grain GMX entered on the shoulder. It severed the plumbing above the heart, wrecked the lungs, broke a rib on the way out and stopped in the hide on the far side. With a bit of "pig" still attached, it weighed 109.4 grains and measured 0.59" at its widest point.

Too bad Hornady doesn't offer this same type of design -- i.e. softer monometal bullet -- in 6.5 and 7mm 120 grain. Those who shoot moderate-velocity cartridges or some of the specialty pistols would surely benefit. For the most part, I don't care for monometals, but this particular GMX along with the 120 grain Tac-TX Blackout offering from Barnes have performed splendidly for me on a number of animals.






As mentioned, the 120 grain Barnes in .30 cal works similarly to the 110 grain GMX. This one was recovered from another bruiser boar with a thick shield and very nearly exited as well. The MV from the 30-30 barrel was 2630 fps, and if memory serves, the range was around 165 yards.

Great stuff Tommy! Thanks for posting. That Tac-TX is sexy!

277/130 GMX, a blacktail jumped from his bed at a few feet, shot at 40 yards, Texas heart shot. He ded.

You look so young in that picture Roy!

Same to you. GFY

I was! Musta been about 47.

Nice deer! What is that 99 chambered in? Happy Trails

Three posts on the thread from the whiny bitch who don't wanna talk about. Fuggin Dicwad.

My daughter will be using the 120gr GMX out of a 6.5 Creedmoor for antelope this weekend. Hopefully I can give a report on how they work when we return.

Don't want to hijack the thread (which remains useful and becomes more so with additional posts, despite being 5 years-old), BUT...
How about some more pics and information about that beautiful Savage 99?

Thanks,
Rex

Good luck and enjoy your time afield with your daughter.

Mine is joinng me on a casual (local) Antelope adventure this weekend albeit using ABLR or ELD-M or NBT. She's brought good luck with the deer, hope the trend continues.

The cartridge is the 270/300 Savage, or 270 Titus. It's a pencil weight barrel carbine, very light and fast rifle. Fine checkering, nice blonde streaked wood. I haven't hunted it in years, but have loads for the 110 Barnes now. Longest shot on game was right at 600 yards on a blacktail shooting the Nosler 115 Custom Competition. Not enough time, too many guns....

A .277" round out of a Sav 99? Is it just a .308 necked down to .277 or something?

Disregard. 2 minutes too late.

With the bear huntin dog LOL

Cool. Great grain flow!

Anymore I enjoy putting my kids on game than I do shooting them myself.
And incidentally mine went hunting for the first time last antelope season. This season she's decided she wants to go to elk camp too!

Awesome dad! Post up a hunt report if you get a chance.

Most of my rifles don’t like them. My one ‘06 likes the 165’s but only when seated at least .100 off the lands.

I will add that after shooting them side by side with Barnes, the Barnes typically shoot better.
There are two exceptions:
1. My 222 prefers the 55gr GMX over any Barnes from 50-62gr.
2. I have standard loads of 60gr H4831sc under 130gr GMX, T/TSX always ready for any 270 that might find it's way home. Out of the nine 270's that we own, only one shoots the GMX's better.
I .did use that rifle about 10 years ago on a mule deer, it died. Recovered one bullet out of two that were shot. Nothing earth shattering, it worked.
For the rest of the rifles, it is about an even split on TSX vs TTSX preference.

That is with 222, 22-250, 6.5 Creed, 270's, 300 H&H, 338-06, 375 H&H.

Has the 55GMX been out for a while? Guess I was thinking it was a new release.

Great looking rifle, I'm jealous.

I

I worked up the load in June of 2019. Do not know when they were released.

Using a 165 GMX in 300WM has been a great combination for us and I haven't seen any down sides.

Thanks for the follow up.

My daughter took muley in the Montana youth hunt this past Friday. 120gr GMX out of a 6.5 Creed going 2750fps. The deer was facing us at a slight angle 35 yards away at the shot. Bullet entered just in front of the near side leg and just below the spine. Destroyed one lung and continued on the length of the animal exiting the ham, but not hitting any bone besides the ribs at the entrance. Deer dropped in its tracks at the shot but managed to regain its feet and stagger 20 feet or so before it gave up the ghost. Entrance and exit holes where small and there was no blood leaking from the wounds.
Seems to perform identical to the Barnes TTSX.

So did you also use the same seating depth (as in off-the-lands) with the GMX as you did the Barnes? Noted that you used the same powder charge.

Monolithic bullets are not all the same. Have found accuracy can vary somewhat with the type of bullet, including ogive, the exact metal/alloy they're made of, etc. Barnes TSXs are made of pure copper. GMXs (along with Nosler E-Tips) are made of gilding metal, the slightly hard copper alloy used for most (but not all) lead-core bullet jackets.

Consequently they all differ slightly in what powder charge and seating depth results in the finest accuracy.