Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game The BEST damn Accubond vs. Barnes TSX thread?

I'm curious to hear the Wisdom of the Campfire (tm) as far as this comparison. Let us assume an accurate 30-06, shooting 165-gn versions of both bullets. How would you expect the wound channel to differ? Penetration at 25 yards? Pentration at 250 yards? Accuracy on average? Reliability?

And finally, which one is the overall better bullet for game such as deer, hogs, black bear, caribou, moose, and elk? And why the HELL would you say THAT!?



-jeff

Anyone want to also discuss politics, religion and the moon landing conspiracy theory, too??? Ha, Ha, Just kidding, Jeff.

This should be interesting...

Yeah, I like to stir the pot, what can I say...

My wife insists we never landed on the moon. Whadaya gonna do? She's also held her figure very well into her 40's so I ain't complaining about a little irrationality! ;-) I tell her that her Indian name is Looks-Good-In-Jeans.

-jeff

The best D**N Accubond......

Is that a different bullet than just a regular Accubond?

TSX has proven to be the best big game bullet ever. Most accurate hunting bullet. Most consistent killer.
I will be testing the MRX on New Mexico antelope in about 45 days. I will let you know if it is as good as its older brother.

How you like them apples!!!

Of the two, as a bullet for the game cited, no contest; TSX. But the TSX would not be my #1 choice, given the others that are available today.

Grin...

Well I'm a TSX guy all the way but will have to admit, that in my 6.5x55 Win FWT I have never been able to get the TSX's to shoot good ( the gun has Issues) I loaded up some 130 AB's and the last load I tryed yesterday shot about .6, so if that continues Ill be good on it.

I will say that I can tell other people that the AB is a good bullet but when it comes to my stuff (mostly Mags of some sort) the TSX is the first and only thing I load for them.

I've had really great luck with Accubonds as far as accuracy, in several different rifles now... I've only killed one critter with one, a large blacktail buck, though. It did work extremely well.

So what exactly does the TSX do better? A complete lack of a failure mode? What?

-jeff

Jeff: The TSX is tougher.

So more suited for moose and elk, but not any advantage for lesser game, is that fair to say? Any DISadvantages with the TSX for deer, black bear, hogs, etc?

-jeff

This what JJ posted in a thread dealing w/ TSX's with his RSA trip recently...;


I strongly feel that Rifles shooting over 3000 fps *OR* when shooting game over the 400-500lb range justify the TSX bullet, and should be very strongly considered as your top choice. Also the bigger bore rifles seem to have flawless performance of the TSX. The much larger hollow point tip in bullets .358 and larger really opens them well!


Here is his comments about the TSX with smaller game such as Deer, etc...


Shooting slower cartridges, or smaller lighter game in the 100-400lb range there are all kinds of good options. The TSX still works well in this situation, but quite often zips clean through without a good reaction to the impact. Bonded core bullets and even cup and core bullets will more frequently show the impact shudder and stagger game a bit better upon impact. These comments are for non CNS, non structural bone impacts.

That has been my experience using the TSX on smaller big game such as Deer and Hogs. The TSX'ers will do the job but a quicker expanding bullet drops deer much quicker on average.

I"ve been running TSX and X slower than average.
Never had an issue. Gotta trail some, others not. I don't live and die on bangflops... I live on crunchtime performance and the x series has been best there.

As such, there is no best accubond and never will be..... vs a barnes.

Rost has a good approach. "Bang flops" are nice, but no bullet gives them 100% of the time; long, uniform wound channels produce solid, consistent results, even if game has to be trailed a few yards, and so long as the bullet expands sufficiently to tear up vital organs. There is no magic in an Accubond. So long as the cartridge drives a tough bullet fast enough to expand it at long range,the TSX should work fine on lighter stuff. I say this never having used them because I continue to use a lifetime supply of Bitterroots, which, like the TSX behave best when driven fast.

One of the things I've liked about X bullets for moose-sized, but also lighter animals as well, is that you can hit bones and not get the same jelly effect that is so common with lead cored bullets. ( I think particulate spray may be a big factor in the blood jelly phenomenon.) I once turned a young bull's pelvis into charcoal briquet sized chunks (with a .358 225X) and the "mess" - not that it really was- was simply fine meat with an occasional large bone lump needing to be cut out. There was virtually no blood pockets or clots in the meat. I suppose, but don't really believe, the the initial shot had so well drained his blood as to account for it. Many lengthwise "drillings" of 200-ish pound caribou with smaller caliber and weight X bullets has shown similar absence of bloody deposit around the bullet track, yet they have killed very quickly.

Accubonds that tumbled inside deer without hitting anything on the way in... Not what I expect nor accept from a bullet.
art

Those accubonds look OK. However they should have exited; you shouldn't have even found them!

-jeff

IMO, an Accubond is a really not such a hot bonded bullet when you compare it some of the better ones out there, past and present. I'll take a Swift Aframe any old day.Weight retention in the 40%to 60% range is not why you buy a bonded bullet.

I went to South Africa in May on what was mostly a cull hunt, but also involved some trophy animals. Altogether about 20 hunters killed 181 animals from springbok up to eland. (There were two Cape buffalo killed as well, but neither hunter chose a TSX or AccuBond.)

Of the overall bullets used in various rifles, cartridges, etc., the TSX and AccuBond tied for most-chosen, and in numbers far outstripping any other bullets. This is among hunters who mostly did not know each other beforehand, and in cartridges that covered the spectrum from 7mm-08 Rem. and .270 WCF to .338 Win. Magnum and .375 H&H.

I took notes every evening on what everybody shot during the day, and the results. The results wil be published in the next issue of RIFLE, which might be of interest to anybody in this debate. It will be out any day now.

JB

What an advertisment for the next issue of Rifle!!