Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Typical Barnes TTSX Performance

Need that quantified.
What are you shooting them out of?

Big difference between a 300 Savage to 300 Rum.

How many have you seen recovered? I recovered my first Barnes X-Bullet 25 years ago, not long before the TSX appeared, and have a pretty good collection of TSXs and TTSXs recovered since then--not just from animals Eileen and I have taken, but several other people who were on hunts with me, including a month-long South African cull-hunt in 2007.

In my experience how many petals they lose depends on what they hit, at what point in their penetration--and may not be consistent even then. Those that hit relatively heavy bone on impact tends to lose more petals, but have also seen that not happen.

As examples, Eileen killed two animals in a row with the 100 TTSX at 3150 fps from her NULA .257 Roberts one fall. The first was an average cow elk at 120 yards that was quartering away, which dropped right there. The bullet cracked about an inch off the lower edge of the spinal column, and ended up in the far shoulder, losing ONE petal, probably due to that one ticking the spine.

The next animal was pronghorn buck at around 275 yards, facing her. The bullet entered the front of the chest, and was found under the hide of the rump, retaining all its weight except the plastic tip.

The other bullets were in calibers from .270 up to .375. One was a 168 TSX from the Sisk .300 Winchester Magnum I used to take a big mule deer in Sonora. The buck was running almost directly away at around 150 yards, and the bullet broke the left hip, and was found under the hide on the front of the chest, weighing 167.8 grains, retaining all four petals.

The only variation I haven't seen is an X-Bullet, of whatever variation, retaining two petals.

This has been my experience, as well. I'll also add impact speed to the list of dependencies.

Yep!

Though the last one we recovered was a 130-grain TTSX started at around 2850 from Eileen's custom .308 Winchester. The animal was a BIG cow elk at around 250 yards, which was quartering toward us. She aimed for the near shoulder, and the bullet landed about two inches above the big shoulder joint. The cow was obviously dead on impact, but staggered 20-25 yards before collapsing.

225gr TTSX went though about 4.5 feet of moose. Entered right rib cage at appx 3,050 fps. Ended up breaking left shoulder from behind and stopped under the hide on the shoulder. Petals or not, it was amazing. By comparison, the other bullet pictured was my son's 243 deer kill.

Here are three 140 TTSX’s taken from a very large bull elk I shot with a 280 AI. All went through his chest cavity and all were under the hide on far side. The first put him in motion and the other two hit him going broadside on the move. All around 75 yards. Each of those are obviously dramatically different.

There's no rhyme or reason to those bullets. You would think that the bullets that didn't mushroom as much would of penetrated more.

They all mushroomed. One lost all its petals. One lost some and the other lost none. Mushrooming wasn’t an issue.

I have recovered maybe 8 or 9. Most were from Africa and were shot by my hunting party. 300 win mag, 300 H&H and abs a few from smaller calibers like 25-06.
I've seen one that looked like the magazine photo bullets
My experience with them is mostly complete pass- Through

I shoot the 110g TTSX in the 270 Winchester, Win 760, H4350m and R#17, they perform flawlessly.

IN the 7 Rem Mag, I have shot the 120 and 140g TTSX on top end pressure loads with IMR4350 with the 140 and R#22 with the 120s. Both bullets are very, very accurate seated .050 away from the lands. I do feel like the 140g TTSX, when started with a MV of 3250 leaves much less shock on a white tail at a range of 450 yards. A buddy was shooting the 120g TTSX in his custom short freebore 7 STW at 3850 with excellent accuracy. He shot a 100 lb doe and the bullet did not expand, impact 550 yards.

It is just my gut feeling that the Mono's need impact velocity to do their best work, or a large animal.

I would be tempted to use an 80g TTSX in a 25/06, same with a 243 Winchester.

How big of a real world difference is there between the TTSX and the LR-X long range bullet?
Pertaining to expansion.

I've been using the LRX for the past several years on game up to elk. Have yet to recover one, though the 127-grain I used from my Sisk 6.5 PRC ended up somewhere in the guts after a frontal shot on a big cow elk at 200 yards. Couldn't find it....

The others have all exited, including a 175-grain .30 started at 2850 on a quartering-away mule deer at 300+ yards.

Based on plenty of past experience with various TSXs and TTSXs from .257 to 9.3mm, haven't been able to tell any difference.

The inside of a bull elk, or any deer based animal, is dramatically different if impact is only inches apart.
I would say all three pictured bullets worked just fine.
Best regards,
F01

225 TTSX 338-378 VS Moose. WBY MK V Accumark. 151 yards, frontal chest impact, found in rear ham.

This is my youngest son's bull moose. No recovery of the 129 LRX, in and out, behind the shoulder. Approximately 100 yard shot with 270 weatherby. I have been impressed with the TSX, TTSX and LRX now. I had a texas heart shot on a whitetail running away that exited behind the offside shoulder after the anus entry with an 85gr tsx from my 243Ai along with multiple mule deer and elk as well. Rarely recovered any and don't have any pictures off hand of any. Also used the 110tsx with my older son's 270 when he first started as a lower recoil load. It performed as well.

I have had nothing but 100% success with Nosler Partitions on larger game animals for the last 40 years. They work, and they work well. My fondest hunting memories include Nosler Partitions. I have only recovered 2, one from a Zebra and one from an Elk, both in the 275 to 325 yard range. I have a lifetime handloading supply of these and then some. All of that said, being able to drop a weight range and still have the performance of a greater bullet weight size up is intriguing and an attractive proposition. The 30 06 starts getting into the old 300 Winchester mag ballistics, and the 250 grain .375 bullet makes my 98 Mauser .375 Ruger look like a one rifle, hunt the world proposition. I am going to try them.

Based on a limited sample size with the LRX, my initial impression is that the LRX expands more aggressively than the TTSX, which expands more aggressively than the TSX. The 127 gr 6.5mm and 145 gr 7mm LRX seem fairly willing to shed petals when they hit bone, even at fairly low impact speed. In terms of penetration, the TTSX and TSX exit so often that I haven't be able to observe a noticeable difference between them, but of the handful of LRX bullets that my hunting buddies and I have shot into deer (ranging from 100 lbs to ~400 lbs) and moose, I have seen a much higher percentage fail to exit compared to the TTSX and TSX. Again, this is a limited sample size and more game shooting may reveal that the first handful of kills contained a few anomalies.

If they're more willing to shed petals do they do as much damage to vitals or is sample size too small to make that determination?

Based on the small sample size with the LRX (8 critters so far, IIRC), it does more damage than what I typically see with the TTSX and TSX.

👍🏻👍🏻