got a about 8 boxes of 50 of these bullets free in the past anyone deer hunting with this bullet in 30 caliber ? i plan on using / trying them in my new to me Winchester model 70 30-06 this fall if this bullet will shoot well for me ,loading books also claim Reloading 15 is a very good powder too. any thoughts on bullets - powder ? my main reason for using this rifle is i am taking it to Africa with me next May 2023 hopefully but then i well use 180 gr. Nosler Partitions for that trip ? thanks Pete53

They'll work on deer for sure--but that's the bullet Eileen uses for elk in her custom .308 Winchester. It works very well on wapiti--and if she ever decided to go back to Africa would be her choice.

The load uses IMR4895, which while not billed as temperature-resistant, in my experience is far better than RL-15.

They flatten pigs out of a 300 Savage. I use H-4895 also

thank you ,i have so many bullets i might as well use them. Pete53

I used them with h4895 from my 30-06. They were very effective.

I load them in my Model 70 in 308.....using TAC am getting 3165fps and will flatten whitetails. Only drops like 1.6" at 300 yards. That is 270 speed with a 130 grain bullet

I have been shooting the 130 TTSX in my 308 over Varget powder. In the last 2 years I have taken a black bear, 4 whitetails, a pronghorn, several hog and a big bobcat with them. Nothing has taken more than one bullet and with the exception of the pronghorn they have all dropped straight down. Pronghorn went on a death run of about 100 yards and piled up.

My son shoots the 130 TTSX in his 308, easily gets 3200 fps. He has got a couple deer and hogs with that load, no problem, one shot drops. I will say they have been within 150 yards.

Glad to read this. I have a .308 that I was going to work up an elk load for and a pile of the 130 TTSX. Was debating on finding something heavier but would much rather use what I have.

this 130 gr. Barnes 30-06 bullet sure does shoot well out of my rifle too so Barnes TTSX BT will be the bullet i will use except when grandson Alex is with that is when he does all the shooting in our stand with his Ruger #1 257 Roberts no matter how big of horns the buck has.thanks for all the posts too ! Pete53

The factory Barnes 130s in both .270 and .308 seem so similar on paper. Do you think there's any difference in terms of effectiveness on game of the 130 .308 loads compared to the .270 one out to 300 yards? What if you had to push it with the .308 to 350 or max 400 yards? I know many guys would say the 130 .270 could take game at 500 yards, and I know the .308 does start losing a bit of steam at some point. Do you think you can harvest deer at a max 400 yards with these 130 .308 loads?

Ten or more years ago, I worked up a .308 load with the 130 TTSX for the wife and nephews. Turns out it is as effective as it is pleasant to shoot. Now I use it as my main hunting bullet. Our deer average 225 on the scales and a few will push 245+ every year. Pigs go up to about the same size. The 130 TTSX works well even when the kids shoot the pigs in the shoulder. Varget works well, but the .308 is not picky. 0.010” off the lands is my default for TTSX’s, which works well.

Here are a few examples with the 130 TTSX:

enjoyed those videos and i am convinced now to use the 130 Barnes bullet for deer season. thank you,Pete53

I'm told that those TTSX's are a whole nuther thing from the TSX 140 grain 7mm-08 load that I tried. I thought that my deer deserved to be shot with the best bullet that I could buy. That 10 point took one behind the shoulder and ran away and hid. Two days of looking and five drops of blood convinced me never use that Barnes bullet ever again. Only deer I've lost in 60 plus years hunting them. BT's drop them like your videos.

I’ve been using them for 10 years on whitetail out of a 300 Win Mag. 3500 - 3600 fps. It shoots like a 22-250 with not much recoil. Absolutely devastating on deer. Federal Premium loaded them years ago in factory form. I’m just about out so I may have to hand load now. I will try them in my 308 as well after reading this.

WF,

my experience with TSX’s also was bad and caused me to quit the mono’s very quickly after almost losing a mature Saskatchewan buck.

Around 2011-12, I was looking for a smaller and lighter bullet that would reliably penetrate on our large pigs and large bucks for the then young nephews to use.

Some on here encouraged me to give the TTSX a try saying it performed better and more reliably than the TSX. So I gave them a try with the 100 grain TTSX in a .260 and the 130 TTSX in .308 Win.

The results have been quite different and uniformly good. The TTSX opens up on the entrance side and penetrates very reliably. If pigs are included, I am now well into the hundreds of animals taken with the TTSX. It has become my first choice go to bullet.

So the TSX vs the TTSX have proven to be quite different bullets in terminal performance in my use of them.

Fwiw - Ballistic Tips are a bullet I have seen fail to penetrate too many times. SST’s are another. One hunter I was helping wounded a couple of deer and a few pigs. He was using a .25-06 with Ballistic Tip handloads. I finally lent him my .308 and he started dropping every animal where they stood. So guess our experiences differ.

Sounds very interesting. I’ll work up a load for that combination and take it for a test drive.



You’re welcome Pete, good luck hunting. 👍

'It is a great bullet; I have taken two cow elk with it. They will lose petals at a high impact velocity.

In a 308 Win, it's basically a short action 270 Win. for 'normal' hunting ranges,

well i will try the ttsx 130 gr. in my 30-06 , my1st time using a copper bullet was last year on a nice buck that dressed 193 lbs. and that was with a Hammer Hunter 103 gr. out of my 257 Weatherby mag. at muzzle velocity 3680 FPS. and i knocked that buck down or DRT . but like i said grandson Alexander shoots 1st using a 75 gr. Hammer Hunter bullet out of his 257 Roberts no matter what deer comes out. Pete53

My buddy’s son killed a kudu and a black wildebeest in Namibia with the Barnes factory .308 130 TTSX load a couple of months ago.

Leatherneck, sorry I have not replied to your post on the 130 Barnes. My load using TAC and running 3165 fps, according to JBM Ballistics chart at 400 yards it still has 2113 velocity and 1288 foot lbs of energy....enough velocity to and energy to kill any whitetail at 400 yards. Have killed them over 300 yards with complete pass thru. I got the same bullet in 150 grains loaded up for elk hunt, and it running 2093 velocity and 1458 energy at 400 yards. Would think it would work on bull elk. Have not used it for whitetail, just the 130's. I would not shoot that bullet beyond 400 yards, as you stated, losing velocity and energy. When you getting over 400 yards that a long poke for me and I would pass on that shot....takes a steady hand and good rest, no wind, when it gets that far.

Easily.

Then you hit him waaaaaaaaay behind the shoulder.

@Winnie70 and tzone, Thanks for replies!

I use 150 gr. TTSX in my 30-06. They work great and shoot well in my rifle. I would love to try the 130 gr., but they are not offered in factory ammo and I do not currently handload.

I’ve used the 180 TTSX out of a .300Wby on a cow and the 100’s out of a .257 on two javelina. They worked great.

I've shot these as a factory load out of my 16" kimber montana. With the Thunderbeast ultra 7 i'm still getting 3000fps. I've shot one deer at about 200 yards and it looked like someone threw a two inch pipe through both shoulders. No meat damage, just a giant hole carved through the body. I wouldn't hesitate to kill an elk or moose with them at general hunting ranges.

IME, You have to run X bullets at high velocities. Most act like solids below 1800fps at impact distance. My largest KY WT a heavy 13pt shot at 150yds was hard to track down because of zero blood trail from a short barreled Ruger RSI .308win. 168gr TSX loading. My chrono was broke at the time and shame on me for not knowing the expansion threshold.

My buddy has had success with the 130gr TTSX in a stout .300 Savage load he worked up. It would be my choice if I still had my RSI.

I’ve shot countless head of game with Barnes bullets since starting with the 125 grain X out of a .30-06. No issues with “penciling” etc.

I’ve used or loaded for family and friends from the .222 Rem up to the .300 Win. Used on everything from Antelope to Elk plus the occasional varmint. They’re great bullets that work as advertised and the 130 out of an ‘06 will drop any deer that walks, at any sane distance.