I've been lurking here for a while and virtually every bullet thread that runs for a while has some of you guys mentioning the TTSX bullet. As a life long deer hunter I have always been searching for a better bullet. I suspect that that TTSX Delrin tip opens it up faster, but I need to say that I have been really disappointed with the regular Barnes TSX out of my 7mm-08 on deer. An 80 yard run with no blood on the snow for too far and a quarter size hole through the lungs is not what I wanted to see. Then losing the only buck that I'd ever shot with a rifle in the past 50 years when he dropped 5 drops of blood for two days of looking really soured me on Barnes bullets for deer. Nosler Partitions make soup out of a deer's lungs, but the front half peels back and the exit wound is so small that the blood trails are sparse. The Interlocks or Core-Lokts batter in the magazine. The Accubond blew a bigger entrance wound than the exit. The Ballistic Tips got a bad rap early by being too destructive. My last buck took a 139 grain Hornady Superformance SST and went straight down, but the bullet didn't exit. A friend of mine really likes the drt effect of the Winchester Ballistic Silvertip from his .280. Am I missing a better bullet by not trying that Barnes TTSX? What has been your experience with that or any other deer bullets that you like?
I use the lighter mono's in a 223 with a 1-7 twist, to me it seems every bit as effective as a 150 in a 308 when placed into the shoulder. I would not shoot a heavy tsx or ttsx 7-08 speeds, you might try the lightest one they make for that caliber and shoot it as fast as fast as possible. You seem to have a lot of dead deer for all of the performance issues you are concerned about. In 48 years of hunting I have lost a deer due to a bad shot.
Shoot a decent cup and core bullet like an hornady interlock and shoot them in the shoulder. Throw the shoulders away and enjoy deer meat. Its that simple to me.
