Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game A bullet survey

Lately there's been some posting on the Campfire about "petal-type" hollow-point big game bullets failing to open. One thing I noticed is that all such instances mentioned so far have been of smaller-caliber bullets, from .30 on down. Also, the posts have only mentioned one plastic-tipped bullet of this sort.

One hypothesis I've come up with is that the smaller bullets might be more susceptible to this, because of the smaller hollow point necessary in such bullets. On the other hand, most of us shoot .30 caliber and smaller rifles. Also, plastic-tipped bullets of thissort have only been available for less than two years now.

My two questions:

1) Has anybody seen a petal-type hollow-point of OVER .30 caliber fail to open all the way?

2) Has anybody seen a petal-type plastic tip fail to open all the way?

In either, I would appreciate knowing if this bullet was recovered, or the failure to open was a guess based on evidence, and if so, what the evidence was.

To answer both you questions I have never recovered any of the Barnes bullets I have ever shot. We have been shooting the TSXs since they came out and we shot alot of the 53s in our 250s and a few of the 45 XLCs and never was able to recover any. As for 30 caliber or bigger I shoot my 338RUM at deer with the 185gr TSXs and they are still going for all I know. I wish I could recover something just to see what it looks like. So I guess all I can say is no I have never seen any of that. HAPPY HUNTING

JB,

I can only speak to all of the non-petal types, I.e. Partitions, Sierras, Speers,Nosler BT, Sciroccos and Accubonds...never have seen any of them NOT open up.

This was my first year using a TSX, two doe, no recoveries (100TSX out of a 257Roy).

Tony

1. NO
2. NO

My only fail to open was a TSX .30 cal in 168 gr.

The two 210 gr .338 TTSX that I recovered are picture perfect.

Good question JB.

I'm curious to hear your results.

I've only shot them(E-Tip, TSX & TTSX) into phonebooks and pine logs. No failures out of a 'whopping' dozen or so test shots.
The cross section of one pine log revealed that a TTSX veered slightly as the tip left the bullet. Of course wood and paper are not big game animals...

Old style 270 grain .375 Failsafe (hollow point). Failed to open all the way, but instantly killed the animal. I have been very happy with the performance of these bullets, this one just didn't completely open for some reason.

I have had two monolithics fail to open in .308 caliber, did not recover either bullet but did recover the animal in both cases..One was a coyote that I happen to find the following day and it appeared to me the bullet just didn't open up..It was a 165 Gr. Barnes X in my 300 H&H at 30 yards of so, shot was through the shoulder basically shattering it..The dog ran about about 1.5 to 2 miles on 3 legs and died, I couldn't get a second shot off..I was hunting deer and walking back to the truck. It got dark so I came back the next day and hunted that same area for deer and stumbled on the coyote and sort of tracked him back to where I had shot him or at least enough to satisfy myself that it was the same coyote. Also I am probably the only hunter in this particular area, never have seen another in many years of hunting it...

The other was a Mule Deer buck I shot with a 165 gr. Barnes TSX in my .308 Sav. 99, It was an early TSX. the deer went about a mile and another hunter shot and tagged him..I helped clean the deer and get him out to the fellows car.. My bullet went in behind the last rib came out on the last rib on the opposite side..The deer was going almost directly away and the bullet should have gone into the off side shoulder..showed little if any expansion and turned off course..I am assuming the bullet point pinched and bent and deverted hard right. Internal damage was nothing to get excited about but would have killed the deer eventually, but I may not have recovered him as he got into a herd of does and tracking without blood was slow and extremely hard to maintain the right track, then I heard the shot and guessed what happened and was right. I did find a small piece of rib bone and a few drops of blood about 20 yards from my shot, that was it, but it did give me a track to follow. The hunter said he was sitting on a rock and some does came buy and the buck was limping and bringing up the rear, so he shot him to put him out of his misery, but the deer seemed freshly shot so he opted to keep him..I didn't tell him I had shot it, I was just greatfull he did..

Another event that a friend of mine told me about and he was with two other friends of mine..He shot and elk and the bullet went in and made a u turn and came out and hit the tree beside him..He was shooting a 280 Rem. IMP. with 160 gr. bullets as I recall.He had the bullet with blood, wood and meat on it and pictures of the two holes about 5 inches apart...freaky for sure.



I have seen many cape buffalo, Hippo, and one elephant shot with Barnes X bullets in big bores and everyone of them that was recovered showed perfect expansion.

JB, I have recovered two 375 300gr X/TSX from hard dirt that failed to open as has been described - at least one of which I'm sure I still have in a drawer somewhere.

I'm not sure I have a defensible theory on this subject - beyond a notion of rapid/early plugging of the hollow core.

on game, I've used TSX from the .338 225 to the .416 400 on game, all with evidence of expansion/straight line penetration. I have recovered 2-3 of these that have confirmed expected expansion.

the under .30s I've used are restricted to .270 cal and include the 130,140, and 150 gr X & TSX. Non have been recovered from game and all seemed to exhibit expected expansion and straight line penetration.

not sure if that helps or not....

I've had that hypothesis for a while now. I've taken game with two 416 cal, 300 grain X bullets and four 30 cal, 168 grain TSX bullets. Ranges were from 20 to 200 yds. No bullet was recovered, but wound channels on all the critters indicated proper expansion.

What led you to your hypothesis given all bullets appeared to indicate proper expansion?

Yes on #2. A whitetail plunked through the ribs at 40 yards with a 225gr Ballistic Tip from a 35 Whelen. Watched the deer run off and walk around for 5 minutes till he fell over. Complete penetration but when I unzipped him all I found was a 35 caliber hole through both lungs.

I am a shoulder shooter and the above reminds me why.

1. Yes, but not in game or any soft media. (I'll throw in I have seen the some goofy stuff with cup/cores and partition syle; but NOT in game).

2. Never used any. Plastic tipped lead cores have worked fine.


The 270 FS posted above just lost its petals. The shape left over is a killer, IME.

Weird Scott...




I was wondering if JB's question #2 was referring to plastic tipped/hollow point solids(TTSX/E-Tip...)?

May be the first I've heard of a BT penciling. Generally the complaint is that they blow up.
Just goes to show ya, YMMV.

Not sure if he were or weren't but thought I would throw it out there.

I was just wondering(beer....grin).

Your Whelen deer just further shows a guy never really knows what the hell to expect(with anything)...

I can say I've never had an issue on anything that I punched bones on. Not so much the other way.

Roger that.

Pretty tough to run off when the front end isn't working.



I thought I completely missed my first buck(mule deer). Lunged him with a 22-250/55gr softpoint at maybe 150-200 yards. At the shot the herd ran behind a hill and then appeared on the other side. The buck wasn't with them. He made it about 100 yards and died on the other side of the hill with zero signs of being hit.

On the other hand, I have pretty much found that if the shoulders are punched by a solid that pretty well stops things. So why bother with an expanding bullet if you're going to break bone? The right solid will out-penetrate any expander, and shoot up less meat too.

Not many solids for the 223 or 257.....