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I shot my last cow right at 100yds, 300WM with the Barnes 175 LRX, started 3080 or so. To see for myself how "soft" the nose was I shot her broadside, tight behind the shoulder. she was up on the mountain, so entrance was low right and exited high left side. she made a death run 30yds downhill. Good 1 1/2" entrance/exit holes, massive damage inside. I could have killed her easily with my 30-30 Ackley, ha but it proved to me the LRX is the "berries". I have never killed anything yet with the Hammers, but assume they would kill the same, what with the claws tearing off. Can anyone add their Hammer story?

A Barnes 168 ttsx works as a elk bullet. 638yds and the bullet was stuck in the off side hide after smashing a rib. I'm interested in weighing what's left of the bullet, because there's no mushroom or petals.

That's disappointing. I hoped they would expand better at that velocity.

I was thinking the same. But man, you cannot whoop their track record. One of, if not the most talked about and used Barnes I hear of.

Since Barnes makes both a 165 grain and a 168 grain version of their .308 TTSX I was curious what is the difference in them. I sent an email to Barnes with my question and here's the reply I got.
I'm sure plenty of guys on here have used the 168 TTSX in their magnums though.


Hi John,

Great question! The 165gr versions incorporate a short nose profile, often referred to as the ogive, to accommodate cartridges that require a short COAL (Cartridge Over All Length) requirement, such as the 300 Win Mag and 300 WSM. The 168gr TTSX has a longer ogive than the 165gr TTSX and it provides a more efficient, more streamlined design that allows it to retain its velocity and energy better. We test each bullet and assign it a value that rates each bullets ability to overcome air.This is referred to as the BC or Ballistic Coefficient. The higher the BC value the more efficient it is. So you’ll see a slight downrange advantage to the 168gr versions with their higher BC’s when they are incorporated in cartridges such as the 30-06, 308 Winchester or 300 RUM that can accommodate the a longer finished cartridge length and magazine requirements.

The 165gr TTSX requires a minimum impact velocity of 1800fps for bullet expansion and the 168gr TTSX only requires 1500fps.

Thanks, Ty

Ty Herring | Consumer Service

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About a month ago I shot a 5x5 bull at 30 yards using a 168 grain TTSX out of a .30-06 at about 2900 fps. It was a high shoulder shot and the bull dropped at the shot and slid back down the steep hill about 10 yards. I found the bullet under the hide on the far side with all the petals gone. The bullet passed though quite a bit of bone so that's probably why the petals were lost.

The TTSX worked great at close range. If I expected to shoot at 400-500 yards I would probably choose another bullet that expands a bit more easily.