Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Your 1st Experience with an X Bullet

I knew that many folks had problems with the original X Bullets ……but damn, you guys are “snake bit”!

I had a friend that tried the original X in his new Remington 700 SS in 25-06. He had similar results as you guys. I talked him into hand lapping his bore. It cut the groups in half, but were still pretty bad. Although in his only opportunity to elk hunt in Wyoming, he went out and killed the largest bodied bull elk that I’ve ever seen. He shot it on the run, broadside…..the elk continued for about 50 or 60 yards and pilled-up!

I also hand lapped the bore on my wife’s SS Model 70, it helped it’s groups a bit also.

Since the advent of the grooved X Bullets, getting 1” or better groups hasn’t been an issue! memtb

On my first trip to Newfoundland in Oct. of 2000. I loaded 225 X bullets with RL19 and Fed. 215s in my A-bolt .338 WM. Out of that rifle it averaged 1.5-2 inch groups.

Took a moose at 90 yards with a shot on the point of the shoulder that dropped it. Two days later I took a caribou at 160 yards. Bullet impacted the left rib cage and exited the neck in front of the shoulder. Folded up and dropped right there.

i used them in '92 or '93 on the Rem m7 in 243 Win with a 85gr X bullet. accuracy wasn't good, 2 1/2"+/- up at 100 yards (3 shots, bench). i manage to find a group that was 1 1/2" at 100 yards (3 shots/bench). my regular load was a 100gr Hornady RN with IMR4831 and it was under a inch at 100 yards (5 shots/bench).

i took the 243 out deer hunting and i shot a doe around 30ish yards. she ran thru the mountain laurel and spruce trees and i had to get on all fours to track her. luckily there was about 3" of snow. i found drop or two of bright red blood every 50ish yards. 300ish yards later, i found her dead. the X bullet did go thru her, but it never expanded. the doe had a pencil type wound all the thru.

the Barnes X bullet did not impress me. the X bullet was the first and last premium bullets. i'll pay for cup-n-core bullets for deer, i never shot a premium bullet again. i've seen TTSX expand on deer, but i can do that using cast bullets that i make.

My very first experience with Barnes bullets was (IIRC) with the 300 gr X in .416 cal out of my Ruger #1 in .416 Rigby, back in the mid 90's. I bought them because they were the lightest .416" bullet I could easily find at the time. Looking at ballistic tables and loading data, I found a couple of loads using that bullet that basically duplicated the trajectory of one of my favorite 7mm Rem Mag loads, at around 2880 to 2900 fps, so I worked up to that load. I had a Leupold Vari-X III 1.75 - 6X scope on the rifle. I wanted to shoot it out to 400, maybe 600 yds, just for grins, so my son and I went to our farm, where I had a 600 yd shooting range.

Arriving at our range, I started to get my stuff out of the truck, while my son (about 8 yrs old) got out with his binoculars and started looking downrange. Suddenly, with a hushed but excited voice he says "Daddy! There's that big wild dog you've been after!" Sure enough, right past the 400yd target stand was this huge, male, long-haired, black & tan, feral dog that we'd been having trouble with. It had killed and partially eaten some of our neighbor's calves, had stalked one of my sister-in-laws, had attacked or killed one of their dogs plus killed some neighbor's dogs, and had tried to attack one of my nieces, but my brother managed to protect her. The dog weighed around 175 lbs and looked like a monstrous cross between a St. Bernard and a Rottweiler.

I quickly got ready to shoot and aimed at the dog. Dog was standing there looking at us. He sensed danger, whirled around before I could get a round off, and started running straight downrange away from us. The rifle was sighted about 2 1/2" high at 100 yds. I knew where I would hold if I was shooting my 7 mag, hoped that this load really would duplicate its trajectory, put a little daylight over the dog's head, and squeezed off the round.

That was the first time I'd fired that rifle without a bag of shot between my shoulder and the butt of the rifle. The recoil was rather....uh....robust!....and sharp! My son yelled "WOW Daddy!! It did an endo!" I quickly reloaded and watched it to make sure it was dead.

The dog wasn't just merely dead, but really quite sincerely dead.... His body was pointed back up-range, so he really had done an endo. There was blood, fur, and canine clockwork splattered for 20 to 25 feet all over the grass and weeds downrange of the dog. The entrance hole was about an inch below his anus and about a half inch left of center. The exit hole was high, about in the centerline of his chest and was ripped up into the base of his neck. I could have easily shoved my fist up into it. I had had my doubts that the X would expand, but I was wrong. That 300 gr X bullet had obviously expanded very well traveling lengthwise through over three feet of dog.

My first experience with Barnes bullets on big game was in '08 or '09 with a pronghorn in Wyoming using the 100gr .257" TSX out of my Ruger #1 .25-06 loaded to around 3300 fps. I shot the speed goat from about 350 yds. It was almost perfectly broadside to me and I hit him just behind the shoulder (should have drilled the shoulders). It took off running and ran into a grove of cottonwoods and ran three or four laps in there before running out and falling over. Straightened out, that run would have been about a half mile. Bullet drilled both lungs, went right above the heart - pencil sized exit wound. I was not impressed.

A few weeks later, opening day of Missouri whitetail season, I was hunting with my Ruger 77 RL tanger in .250-3000 with some of that same batch of 100gr TSX's, loaded to about 2750 fps. I was urinating in some fresh scrapes as I walked to my stand. I was standing there urinating in the third scrape (the last one before my stand), when suddenly I heard a buck grunting loudly and it was charging me, head down to gore me with its antlers! I barely had time to get my rifle off my shoulder and yelling like crazy and trying to jump to my right, I fired from the hip when it was literally less than two yards, maybe one yard, from me. It reared up and fell on its back, jumped up and ran about 40 yds into a bunch of thick brush and died. It took me a bit to regain my composure and process what just happened. I was shaking like a dog pooping peach pits. The buck was a 140's class 10 pt., weighing about 280 lbs. The TSX had hit him square in the chest, and there was about a 4" diameter patch of hair missing around the entrance wound. The TSX did not exit, but I was unable to find it when I dressed the deer. I really wanted that bullet because I believe it saved my life.

My dad’s friend needed some “heavy” loads for his .270wby to go on a short notice Nilgai hunt in TX but couldn’t find any ammo locally except 130gr cup/cores. I had some 120gr original X bullets, loaded them up, and gave them to him. We never told him they were “only” 120gr, just that they were solid copper. He loved them and they worked great. This was around 1993.

Have some, but have not loaded them. About 25 years back I loaded some for a neighbor to use in his .300 W'by. He was disappointed in their precision. Seems he always had a flyer out of a group that was about 3/4 MOA. One ragged hole with an outlier 1/4" outside the hole. I didn't know what to say......other than it was good shootin' for a Bee, or any gun for that matter.

He really was frustrated. I gave him the dies and bullets, told him to buy a press and load his own.

1992 was first time I used the X bullets, took them on a deer and antelope hunt loaded in my 300 Win mag. It shot them pretty well, typically giving 1” or slightly bigger 3 shot groups. Shot both animals and they seemed to work well, internal damage was pretty extensive.

'89 or '90 at very latest. Friend wanted to try X bullets. Loaded the 125gr .308" to 3470 fps (.300 Win, Howa). Very accurate, no increase in fouling. Lost first whitetail tried, shot through the neck. Don't think he tried it again.

OTOH, he used the 175gr and 225gr .338" X bullets as recently as about 5 years ago. Took them to Newfoundland for moose, plus two or three trips to Africa for plains game. No complaints. I have a couple expanded ones that came out of kudu. Accurate and no increase in fouling (Ruger tang).

Another friend prefers original 235gr .375" X bullets to the TSX. Dunno why.

My first experience was in 1991 with a 721 300 H&H on a spike elk. I was using the early version 165 grain. The shot was facing me at a slight angle right at 200 yards. The bullet entered just inside the left shoulder and ranged the length of its body, coming to rest in the right hip. Clipped some lung along the way.

The elk went down but got right back up. Because the ranch was split between Oregon and Washington and within a short distance the spike would be headed down hill into Oregon, I opted for the only shot I had. A Texas heart shot. The bullet made it the full length of the elk. I recovered it inside the left shoulder. The elk went down and got back up. Standing spraddle legged and broadside I put one through the chest. I didn’t recover that one but it put him down for the count.

Both bullets I recovered had shed all four of their petals. I recovered two of the petals during the cut and wrap. I couldn’t complain about the performance.

The following year I took a mule deer with the same bullet. Similar bow to stern shot. He dropped at the shot. No bullet recovery but ample damage along the bullet path.

I didn’t see any real advantage over the partitions I was using and went back to them. I did use a 300 grain TSX in my 400 Whelen to take one caribou. Good expansion and lots of blood. Good size exit.

My wife’s BSA 308 has always like the 150 grain TSX and she used one to take a cow moose. 30 yards quartered away. 30” of penetration and an exit. Death was within seconds.

I have 80 grain TTSXs loaded in both my 6mmx222and my 25x222 in the hopes of trying one on a deer.

Enjoying the performance reviews on the earlier X bullets, seems like a lot of your results mirrors mine. The latest version like the TTSX apparently is much improved.

Thinking of working up a black bear load for my Savage M-99 carbine in .308 Winchester, might investigate the 130 grain TTSX.


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Should one have to hand lap barrel to get bullets to shoot? That is crazy IMO

The TSX and TTSX are totally different. Example of a bullet manufacturer working until they got it right.

"X" bullet, XLC, TSX , TTSX

My first shot at game with the X was in March, 1992, on a coyote at about 10ft, facing away, using the 45gr X in my 22Hornet. The Texas Heart Shot exited behind the left shoulder, and I don't think the coyote even twitched.

That fall, I used the 140gr X in my 270 (a Harrington & Richardson Ultra Rifle), on a mature cow elk at about 175yds/ Shot was slightly quartering towards me, bullet went in the left shoulder and exited the right rear leg, pulling a plug of fat out with it. She went about 15-20yds downhill and did a somersault.

As I walked up to her, and I see the white stuff hanging out of her right hip area, my first thought was she is diseased, but then I realized it was the exit.

I had been using Partitions from my very first big game hunt in 1970, with no complaints, but then read a magazine article in Jan/Feb 1992 about loading the 223, and he used the 22cal X bullet shot out of a T-C Contender at about 2,600fps. He said the 45gr X expanded a 10lb gel block so violently, that it knocked another 10lb gel block off the table. The author said no other bullet, even out of a rifle at full throttle, did that.

So, I tried that bullet in my Hornet for coyotes, and I had noticeably fewer runners and floppers with the X than any other bullet I had tried.

The author claimed that Randy had been going to Australia to shoot big animals, like camels, with his prototype copper bullets, and the Australians that guided him were so impressed with the performance that they bought the entire first years production of the 22cal, 45gr X for the kangaroo shooters. The author said he was the first person in the US to get ahold of the 22cal 45gr X. I wish I could remember the authors name, but I think the article was in Precision Shooter/Handloader.

Some factory barrels are not as good as you would hope for. My friends 25-06 would load up with cooper in just a few rounds. Hand Lapping improved it considerably. My rifle had a SS match grade Douglas Supreme…..fouling was never an issue, even with the original X Bullet which was notorious for fouling!

I see it as no different than some people, that go to pretty extreme lengths when working with their firearms/hand loading, I don’t think that Hand Lapping is anymore extreme. In fact, I Hand Lap every new firearm I get, the exception being a match/target grade barrel. I see it as a few minutes well spent! I guess that it’s, to each their own!

FWIW, We too have followed Barnes through their bullet evolutions. Just this past summer worked up a darn good load using 270 gr. LRX’s for my .375 AI. 1/2” +/- 3 shot groups @ 100 yrds @ just under 3100 mv was pretty pleasing performance. memtb

Inadvertently omitted the LRX's.

I used the 155gr out of my 1:8 twist 270 last fall with much success. Also have a LRX 129gr load I am tweaking in a standard 1:10 twist 270.

First critter with the 250 gr X via 9.3x62 in 2002.

Shot a fair amount of the originals when they first came out in .264 Win, 7x61 S&H and 8mm Rem Mag hoping for decent accuracy but never found it. Thinking back, the only deer I've killed with X's were in .22s, 45gr in .221 Fireball and 53gr in .225 Win.

PMC “Eldorados” in my custom 98 30-06. 1 1/2 moa @ 200 yards. Bought 160 (8 boxes) of them in 92 or 93. That’s all I shoot in that rifle. First kill was a Texas heart shot whitetail @ about 50 yards. Bullet was in his throat. Still have it. Left the muzzle weighing 165 grains ,and still does. Buck ran about ten feet.
I have 41 rounds left of the original 160.

I used the 7mm 100 gr X when they first came out. It was in my only rifle, a 284 Win. Got 3575 fps with that bullet. It flattened the trajectory before we had rangefinders.

I shot a few coues wt with the bullet. It tended to anchor them requiring a closeup finishing shot.

One time a javelina was facing me from a cave at 100 yds or so. The shot went through the edge of the face through the entire body or so I thought. When I was grinding the meat of the hind leg the grinder suddenly stalled. I discovered the bullet perfectly mushroomed.

Barnes discontinued the 100 gr bullet after a few years of production.

The “X” bullet was cutting edge technology when I went to Alaska on a caribou hunt in 1990. I have always shot handloads, so I got some “X” bullets from a friend for my 30-06. Loaded with IMR 4350, and plenty accurate, it took old “meat in the pot” to Alaska.

After seeing a small number of bulls on the tundra, I put a sneak on them and shot at a decent bull. It took off running and crested a hill that was almost out of range, stopped and looked back in my direction. Holding high over the back, I took another shot and he dropped right there.

When I got to him I could see my “X” bullet had broken his back. We had to bone the caribou out to get him back to camp, and that is when I found the first shot had penciled through his neck, barely leaving a hole. I then decided to stick with Hornady 165 grain spire points, as they had never let me down and after that, never did.

What Barnes “X” bullets are now is inconsequential, I find it unnecessary to shoot anything in the 30-06 but 165 grain Hornady spire points and 150 grain Remington core-lokt bullets in my Garand or 1903-A3