Originally Posted by Mule Deer
Always interesting how many rifle loonies arrive at a firm conclusion after limited experience.

Within less than a decade after introducing X-Bullets even the original design started working very well, both in accuracy and expansion. That doesn't mean the grooved shank of the TSXs wasn't another improvement, but it also doesn't mean the original design couldn't work very well. It did, once tweaked a little.


Unfortunately Barnes let us do the field testing for the original bullets and I had great problems when they didn't expand. Especially because at the time they were just about the most expensive bullets out there. I used them in a 338 and a 270 for one pretty full season in Wyoming, Texas and Oklahoma getting very spotty results to say the least and the longest tracking/game recovery issues I have ever experienced. I also put more bullets per animal through various animals than at any other time of my life. The Speer Horcor was a far better bullet than the early Barnes X bullets. Unlike others I had no trouble finding accurate loads with them. This soured me on Barnes for a long time though I have used some of the TTSX and Match Burners with good results lately.

Dog I rescued in January

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