Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Nosler E-tips vs. TTSX's

I've never shot a E-tip, that said, I have shot a lot of the Barnes stuff. Here's my take. I don't like TSX or X bullets smaller than 30 caliber. I have personally seen several 25 caliber and 270 caliber TSX bullet fail to expand on elk shot a fairly close range. I haven't seen a 30 or bigger fail yet.

I think the mono bullets have their place (if you hunt in CA). I was in Namibia for 2 weeks in July. My two buddies and I shot 50 head of game. All of us using 300 H&H or 300 Win mags. One buddy loaded LRXs, the other TTSXs and I loaded mostly 150 Partition Golds. I did take one box of 150 TSXs for comparison.

We recovered a few bullets. Without exception, all the Barnes shed their petals. I culled a few hartbeests with the TSX and the PG side-by-side.

There is no doubt that a Partition kills much better (read quicker) than the Barnes. All of the PG shot animals dropped within 20 yard- even a very nice blue wildebeest. The stuff shot with Barnes (except for high shoulder shots) ran quite a ways on average. I shot a kudu with one that ran 130 yards. Shot 3 warthogs from one stand using both bullets. The one shot with the TSX just stood there for like 10 seconds. Bullet was double lung but missed most of the heart. The other two were shot with the PG. They both folded with the exact same shot.

I saw 30+ animals run off with Barnes poked through them including one kudu we never did find and I saw the impact on his hide when my buddy hit it.

I won't be using monolithic bullets unless required by law or unless they are big dangerous game bullets. I did take my 458 and shot my Eland with it. I had both 450 grain TSX and 450 grain A-frames. Both are awesome bullets.

I have had really good luck with Bergers on everything I have shot and seen shot with them. Hard not to like them for any instances where you are possibly going long range. I also really like the new ELD-X bullets. They are the real deal.