Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Barns?

I haven't tried any Barns bullets since the original "X" bullets. Then is was recommended that the barrel be cleaned of all gilding metal fouling before using the Barns. Does the same apply now? How about with Hornady's GMX, or Nosler's E-tip?

Whose barn are they made in?

I like the Noselers. They got a big pointy beak. And that Joyce Horn-a-day was an ugly broad, but she knew how to keep the doctor away.

Joe,

The TSXs (and all the other "banded" bullets from Barnes) don't have the same fouling problems as the original X's. I shoot them a lot with some gilding-metal fouling in rifle bores, due to shooting a bunch of different handloads in a single rifle for articles, and can't recall any problems.

Hornady and Nosler monolithics are made out of the same gilding metal as most rifle bullet jackets, instead of pure copper like Barnes, so there's normally no problem there either. (Gilding metal is a mild brass, mostly copper with a little zinc.)

Oops, dropped the E. Sorry!
Thanks John.

I think they used to spell it that way, cause you couldn't hit a barn with them...but since they went TSX and TTSX banded, they are incomparable. Try Barnes now, you won't be sorry.

No offense, meant, Joe. I couldn't resist the opportunity to throw some humor into the thread. These other gentlemen did a fine job of actually answering your question.

No offense taken. And to ingwe's response, that was the primary reason I quit using them and the copper fouling.

In my experience, the Barnes TSX bullets are very accurate and drop game quickly. I've also taken 2 cow elk with the old, non-banded X bullets and they worked well too. But they did produce more copper fouling. I haven't tried the polymer tipped TSXs.

If I was testing for accuracy I would clean the bore to bare metal but this is more out of habit than need.

They had a hell of a bad reputation when they first came out. Fouling barrels and "penciling through" critters without expanding. I tried them then and was disgusted on how they fouled the heck out of my barrel. I wouldn't touch anything barnes with a 10 foot pole until this year when I tried the LRX and also loaded up some TSX in my buddies short mag. They sure are accurate and don't foul the barrel like they used to. I'm glad the engineers worked through that problem. Now I think I'll start trying more of them.

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.

I bought my 1st box of 20 Barnes bullets as loaded ammo (think it was PMC brand) at gas station in Eastern MT while on a hunting trip must have been the mid 1980’s. While my reloads with 130 gr Nosler BT would routinely group MOA those .277 X bullets shot patterns. I couldn’t believe how badly they shot in my usually reliable tanger M_77 when I shot them out of curiosity @ the local range.

The TTSX are a huge improvement, getting nice tight groups in that same Ruger but now with a fresh barrel.

41

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.

I have only taken three deer with Barnes bullets. I was using TTSX in my 30-06 150 grain bullet. They grouped very well in my rifle, and the deer all fell over dead.
I think, they are what they are, a good hunting bullet.
I have loaded other grain weights and different calibers. They did a good job punching holes in paper, I just haven't killed any game with those loads.

Take care

I’ve got Barnes bullets I plan on loading in my .30 cal rifles and my .338 WM. I tried factory Barnes ammo a few years back in several of my rifles. It shot great in my .30-06 and .308, shot it in my WSMs and it was horrible. This year, my son took a caribou using 168 gr. TTSX factory ammo out my .30-06. I was not there hunting with him, but he said the caribou went straight down on a 120 yard shot. I can shoot my .30-06 with factory loaded Barnes and the only difference is the 168 gr. Shoots 1” higher than the 180 gr ammo. I hope I can get it to shoot well in my .300WSM and others I plan to load for it by the time caribou season opens next August.

Barnes TTSX have been phenomenally accurate for me in several calibers.

I use the Barnes .451 275 gr TSX for whitetail deer with drop in their track results. One deer had a womb entry hole almost as my fist. The bullet ended on the opposite of the deer under the skin. Others had large wombs but not like that one...

Gotta love large womb entry holes!!!

I use the TSX in .25, .284, .30, .375 and have never lost an animal with one. Over a hundred critters taken so I would say that is at least something. They liked to be pushed fast. They are generally very accurate and laugh at bone. YMMV

This right here, cracked me up!

Also, I plan on testing the Barnes lrx out this year. Was having trouble getting consistent groups in my 270. Tried a lot of bullets and powders. Finally found a load that’s repeatable around 3/4” with the 129 lrx and rl-26 at 3150fps. Looking foreward to putting some copper into some fur!