Shooting a Tikka T3 SL
All shot impacts were at 100 yds into stacked hard cover books.

Sierra 120 Pro Hunter...mv 3,300 mv...penetrated 6" completely shattered bullet fragmented into nothing.

Nosler 120 Ballistic Tip...3,350 mv ..penetrated 7" completely
shattered bulled fragmented, nothing but tiny shards.

Barnes 120 TTSX...3,500 mv, two shots, both penetrated 8.5"
119 grains for both bullets .55 for the first bullet.
.34 for the second bullet.

The second bullet on its way in shed its claws in the form of a circular ring at 6.5" and continued on to 8.5".
Never seen this happen before.

Bullet pathways were both bowed by a couple of inches, not straight.

Pretty impressed with the TTSX. I don't think it would be my first or second choice for elk but have no doubts it would do the job.

I can't say that for the Nosler BT.

Sierra advertises its 120 Pro hunter for medium velocities at deer size game and calls it a varmint bullet for the 7 mag. It is.

Bob, I know it just hurts you to load a bullet that light in your 7mm ...

No surprises here but push the other two bullets to the same speed as the TTSX and let's see what penetration they get.

I've put the old TSX thru several elk, all at less than 40 yds, at nearly the same velocity as you posted and have never recovered one. It's a tough bullet that does the job of bullet much larger. The TSX BC isn't impressive so lobing them accross a canyon might not be the best choice. But they get it done.

Thanks again for the info!

So the 120 TTSX penetrated with the 175's? I'm not surprised. The 140 and 150 TSX in my experience leave the 120 in the dust.

Some more random weight bullet test I just completed.

Barnes 145 LRX 3,275 mv...penetrated 9 3/4" weighed 98.0 grains.
.43 width Lost its petals going in at 8.5"
This bullet impresses me, big time.

Nosler 150 BT 3,200 mv....penetrated 7 1/2" weighed 72.0 grains.
.66 width. A tough CC bullet for a BT.

Berger 168 Hunting VLD 3,120 mv...penetrated 9.0" weighed 47.0 grains. And one bullet went 10.5"

Something interesting here for the Berger. Using Redding dies I loaded one with the regular seater and then loaded one with a VLD seater.

Of the bullets I've tested I shoot two and for the most part all have penetrated the same and behave the same except for the Bergers.

The VLD seated bullet penetrated less.

Nothing conclusive but something to look further into.

This is great info. Thanks for doing this.

I assume the 7mm rem mag.

What was your load for the 145 Barnes lrx? I'm going to start work up with these soon.

Your tests confirm what I am seeing with the 180 Scenar and the 168 Berger. My 168s are the Hybrid Hunters. Once I run out of the Bergers, I'll switch to nothing but the 180 scenars in our 7mm Remingtons just to make it easier.

There is nothing better than the 180 Bergers in the 7mags.

145LRX @ 500 = 36.8" drop, 15.5" drift 10mph, 2312 FPS
168VLD @ 500 = 38.1" drop, 12.2" drift 10 mph, 2388 FPS

Pretty impressive.....

I'd personally pick a 160 Accubond or Partition.

OK, that works too. The 180 Bergers are just the ticket for long range killing of medium to bigger stuff; they are very accurate, penetrate deeply and kill well.

I have used the Barnes 120's on Roosevelt Elk and a few African plains game animals. At moderate ranges they are a terrific 7mm bullet. My brother in law used my 120 Barnes 7mm loads to take a black bear and made his longest shot on a big game animal, taking a good Mule Deer buck at a lazered 608 yards. The bullet did as good as any could have out at that range, penetrating fully and breaking a shoulder on the far side of the deer.

This year I am shooting 120gr Barnes TTSX's at deer, but out of a 264 WinMag. Pretty decent BC of, IIRC, .468 or so. I drew a cow elk tag for near here so may use this load on the cow as well.

Their website says .412. Which means most likely, it's lower.

Hmmm... I will have to look at that, the Midway site listed higher than that.

This says .443 so we were both off a little. You may have been looking at the 7mm version when I was speaking of my new to me deerblaster in .264WM.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/85...lead-free-box-of-50?cm_vc=ProductFinding

High enough BC to be a 500 yard bullet for me. I think I got my .468 number from the 127gr LRX 6.5 pill.

Sorry to have moved the thread away from the 7mm discussions, did not mean to hijack. The Barnes 7mm 120's have done well for me and my family as I reported and are a pretty decent choice as I see it.

Barnes website says .412 for the 120gr 6.5mm

http://www.barnesbullets.com/bullets/ttsx/

Like the 160 gr Nosler Partition. Although am using a 160 gr Sierra GK in a 7x57 and a 140 gr NBT in a 7mm Dakota. Do use the 160 gr NP in my other 7x57.

You've never been "sorry" for anything you've done a day in your life.

You'd have to really try to keep a 120NBT in an elk, dry paper/books doesn't tell any real story....though it's interesting and I appreciate you taking time to do the test

Brett

How do you know paper/books don't tell any real story?? Couple folks have said phones books probably one of the best ways too test a bullet... If you have a better method offer it up..

Shooting them into elk.

IIRC, Steve Timm has whacked a few with the 120 Ballistic Tip, and did not find the bullet wanting.

There's about a 50+ page thread on Accurate Reloading about penetration testing of you've got the time.

I remember reading what MD wrote about Nosler beefing up the jacket of 120s because silhouette shooters wanted a bullet stout enough to consistently knock them over.

General comment: I wouldn't be surprised to see some of these bullets behave differently in game than in the phone books but that doesn't mean the phone book tests are invalid.

When we bring someone else's experience on animals into the equation we have introduced a whole new series of variables....impact velocity (distance) starting velocities(cartridges, different twists (rpm's),heavy bone,light bone, ribs, shoulders,angle of shot....on and on it goes. Every shot at animals is different and no two are exactly the same.

The value in the phone books ( or other media) is that conditions are somewhat more controlled. The bullet is traveling through a (relatively) consistent,but tough, media instead of (say) hitting a shoulder joint and then encountering soft, gooey stuff for the remainder of its travels.

So the value of the testing is in telling us what we might expect under the worst of circumstances and how various bullets compare to each other under pretty controlled conditions.

No doubt some of this is going to carry over into performance on game and I think if a few dozen animals are killed under varying conditions with the same bullet,same MV, twist etc., etc we will really get a handle on what to expect.

I'd bet that nobody would stand in line for a bullet that only went 2" in. Except maybe Jeff O.

We've never hunted books, but have indeed killed elk with the 120 B-Tip. 3 shots - 3 dead elk.