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Because it does more to dump blood pressure faster...

The X cuts through meat and bone and any other tissue in the way, leaving a free-bleeding wound. Cup and cores seem to bruise and stretch a lot of tissue, but it does not seem to bleed as freely... This of course is my subjective opinion after having watched it happen quite a few times...

Back to the cardiac surgeon friends I have asked questions of, they have seen amazing things with hearts damaged where people should have died, yet did not. Trauma of some kinds is simply easier for the body to deal with... but blood loss rules. An example given was a knifee with a big blade in the low pressure side of his heart, inserted from behind. Blade blocked the hole and BP was low enough that it did not leak all that much. If the tip had not hung up in the sternum and been extracted he would have died.

I realize the above is a stretch in many ways, but I honestly have seen huge differences...
art

I wholeheartedly agree with art and my results mirror his. The last 3 X bullets I found were in the steak on the dinner plate (these were length wise shots on critters). Didn't even know the bullets were there, due to no blood shot meat. The wife actually bit into one (that hurt). Cup and core of any design leave more blood shot meat. I don't really care about that, trauma is trama, but the X's do cut nice clean wound channels, for what it is worth. I like them due to the bone crunching power,staying together and exiting, regardless of shot angle. Perfect broad side shots are great for game ranches and "feeder shooting" but not for real life on public land.

I can't say anything good about partitions. I have never liked the way they perform, especially on elk. Partitions are far from a premium bullet. Me no likey them at all. Flinch

"killing faster" along with what Art stated about blood loss. I will say, It has been my experience that nearly every single animal that I have shot since using the TSX in my 7-08 an other calibers has died either DRT or within 20 YDS. My tracking skills are just fine from many years of bow hunting, but since I have started using the Barnes I don't get to use them much anymore because most things expire within sight of the POI. This has been my experience YMMV.

I sure hope to try one... TSX in a .325 WSM, on elk. "Should be sufficient!"

:-)

-jeff

160gr NP out of a 7RM at 100 yds. Broke the 600lb black bear's shoulder, lungs and exited out the rear ham:



Same load, exited on a frontal quartering shot:


140gr NP out of 7-08, same old boring performance on a front quartering shot = exit out the rear ham:



Same old 7-08 140gr NP load, broadside but hit him high and back in the ribs just under the spine and exited out the other side. He went down with his hooves pointing to the sky:


Have some more NP kills but these are the ones I have pictures of.

I better switch to the TSXs, these NPs just don't kill fast enough I guess!

MtnHtr

NIce critters!

No one ever said the NP would not work, just that an X will make less bloodshot meat, dump the BP faster and exit more reliably. All things that make a difference to me. I have some pretty nifty critters right here above me that expired via NP. I have not shot as many big critters with Xs as I have NP, even, but I still see a difference more than worth trading up for...

Besides you live in KA where they will force you into Xs within a year or two...
art

Art,

If push comes to shove I will be shooting Nosler's E Tip. Nosler should have it available in the weights I like if the kommies have their way.

MtnHtr

I shoot the TSX out of my 300 WSM, partly because the Fed premium loads are much faster than I dare handload. In my 270, I have used the 130 and 150 partition exclusively on game for the past 25 years.

In my experience, the partition damages considerably less meat than the TSX. It is not even close. And even the 130 partition exits on the elk I shoot, unless I hit the shoulder bone, or shoot diagonally through them.

Both work fine, but the hyperbole is not correct, in my experience.

kcm270
I know quite a few folks that have used both and you are the first to say damage rates are reversed. Which is fine and possible when dealing with anecdotal evidence in small quantities, especially on something difficult to quantify. My only question would be based on the size of your test group...
art

I don't really get into the X thing anymore because Xs are history and I have yet to shoot an animal with a TSX. I used to be in virtual thought lockstep with what Art is saying about the way the X bullet seemed to work though.

It does more damage faster while doing less damage, a rather contradictory statement, but with some truth to it. A second shot on a young bull moose one time hit him in the butt as he was making tracks. It busted his pelvis into chunks of bone the size of charcoal briquets. The crazy thing was I threw away no meat. All I had to do was cut out the big chunks and rinse off the small bone bits - which were few. There was zero jellied blood or bruising of the meat. And that seemed typical of what I saw on nearly all the several dozen animals I killed with plain old Xs.

I see a lot of pictures of animals shot with the TSX which look pretty horrible and not anything like what I used to see with the X bullet. If that's normal, it's not a direction I want to go.