I must admit I have not been a fan of Barnes bullets but I have not shot them in over a decade.
This year I drew a general season Utah Zion deer tag, I was shocked when I got a letter from the Utah Fish&Game along with a coupon saying they would pay up to $50 for bullets or loaded ammo if I would shoot non lead to save the poor California Condor.
I thought that I would take them up on it and try Barnes again, I had a crazy idea and decided to load for one of my AR's. I bought way over the $50 limit that the State would pay for so I could give them a good test. The only bullet they make that I thought would work well is the 62gr TSX anything heavier would be way too long to fit in the magazine. First trip out I took 3 of my AR's one a 16" one a 20" and the other a 22" barrel. I did not find a great load on my first trip but I did find out that my 16" shot a consistent 300fps slower than my other two so I took that one out, I have a great load already for my 22"barrel with another bullet so I decided to concentrate my efforts with my 20" barrel.
Second trip out I tried loads with 5 different powders plus 1 load of factory ammo, Remington makes a factory load with this exact bullet. results were not good the factory load on the box claimed 3100fps and through my Oehler35 they shot 2825fps with 3"groups. My hand loads shot better but not by much as the 5 other powders I tried would not shoot under 2" groups.
Third testing trip I tried another 5 different powders, 4 of the 5 were the same as the last trip around 2" groups but one powder stood out with 3 different loads that all shot 3/4" groups IMR8208XBR. I made one final testing trip using nothing but the XBR powder to confirm and tweak a bit and shot a couple 1/2" groups. I was surprised that this was the powder that was the ONE as I have not had that great of luck with it in other rifles. My final load shoots 2935fps with a SD of 5fps into a consistent 1/2" group can't wait to try them out on a deer !!!!!!
To finish up the Barnes TSX shot better than I thought it would but is VERY finicky, they also shoot slower than similar weight bullets this same rifle will shoot the Sierra 65grBT at more than 100fps faster. Would like to see what rifle Remington was using to claim 3100fps in my 24" bolt rifle they only shot 2910fps.
