Thanks for all of the replies.
To sum:
Barnes says 1800, but experience says 2,000.
Shoulder shots are better than low behind the shoulder.
Barnes X had problems with expansion and fouling.
TSX and TTSX solved those problems.
P
I'd say that's a fair summation. To be truthful about it, as much as I like them, I wouldn't be real thrilled with using them past 400. I've never needed to shoot a deer that far away in fifty odd years, so, it's probably moot anyway. I have set up a couple times to do one at longer, but wouldn't you know it a tasty looking deer offered itself up for the table much, much closer.
The only rifle I have seen fouling issues with was a Parker-Hale 30-06 that had a nice smooth shiny looking bore. It did not foul with guilding metal. Three shots with a TSX or TTSX and accuracy would already be headed south. Dyna Bore Coat solved that rifle. Never had an issue with original Xs fouling or expanding in .243, .257 or .308 calibers.
Unlike MD, I don't measure off how far each deer went after it was hit. My suspicions are that it wouldn't come out much different for me. Of the three deer I killed last November, two, made it about 100 feet. Both with their heart loose in the chest and well shredded lungs (but not red soup). Both killed with a .223 and 53 grain TSXs. The third was killed with a .270 and 110 grain TTSX. That deer's heart was just shredded and the lungs were well shredded. That one made it about 70 yards. Sometimes a deer hit like that drops into it's shadow. Sometimes, they run a little. Never saw one make it past about 80 yards. When you drop blood pressure to zero instantly without destroying running gear, it seems to me the variable in how far the deer runs is the deer, not the bullet. I have seen deer with lungs made into red soup and the heart either destroyed or loose in the chest manage that last fifty yards or so and give no indication whatsoever of being hit until they just pile up. I have seen a deer shot with a 30-30 and the ubiquitous Core-Lokt where it made a comparatively smallish hole through the heart die so fast I thought it was hit in the head. When you can have such diametrically different responses to being shot with more or less comparably fatal bullet placement and equivalent physical damage ie: instant zero BP, I can see no way to argue that the deer is not a bigger variable than the bullet.
