Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters I'd like to discuss the Barnes TSX.

I have never had a problem killing anything with a Gameking or a B-Tip... Im thinking that if most guys obsessed with shooting in the off season as much as they do bullets they wouldnt need much more than a Gameking.
BTW to the comment on relishing a tracking job. I want to dispatch the animal asap and I consider it poor shot placement if I have a kill result in a lengthy tracking job.

Good for you!

Is being real good at tracking sort of like having a great sand game because when you play golf you're in the bunker all the time?

Just funnin' rost.

What he really means is that he's hopeing that if he can push them to the limits they might actually expand..

Yep, that's it because it's apparent that Brad has seen the light and it is good. He has passed on the word and the word is good.

We should all be sheep to make Brad happy, just watch your bung hole.

So a heavier TSX doesn't do that as well?

Deer sized critters seem more impressed with stuff going fast. I've had more stuff drop quickly when using little bullets pushed at warp speed.

A heavier Barnes seems to kill like a heavier Partition say for smaller critters.

I still experience less bloodshot stuff when smacking things with a Barnes than any other bullet I've used. I have no qualms shooting bone with an 85gr X doing 3350 but I would with a like BT, Sierra etc.

I'm sure I'm the anomaly here, but the only bullet I have had fail to expand was a Ballistic tip.

I am on Steelhead's side in this one. I personally think that Barnes 130s and a .308 Winchester is perfect with Barnes 130 grain TTSXs. I would much rather have those bullets in a .308 than 180s for anything. Anything!

I have seen many cup and core bullets (including partitions) deflect badly inside animals. I have seen quite a few lead core bullets shed their cores. When those things happen and turn what would be a mortal shot into a non-fatal wound ( or take much longer to kill) I consider that to be a bullet failure. I have never seen either situation happen with a Barnes. I have never seen a Barnes not open in an animal. The Barnes experience is getting close to fifty animals. The cup and core experience is a lot more.

I am very intrigued by two such different experiences. It does not seem possible that random chance is at work here.

Since I started loading in '55, I have never had better bullets than I have today. The Barnes are the best I have used. They are just flat out uniform and perform much more uniformly that anything else I have ever used. The two different experiences with the same bullets begs an explanation.

Dave

Steelhead tells use he's never recovered a Barnes.

As far as I can tell he shoots black bear and deer. Neither is much of a bullet stopper IME. They're what most would call the smaller variety of big game. Lightly boned, relatively easy to kill.

I wonder how many unopened Barnes Bullets have zipped right on through Steelheads deer? He certainly doesn't know.

Sure, shoot out the lungs, even with a pencil, and things will die. I just hate rolling the dice on $0.85 bullets when I know more consistent options exist for the same or less money.

In fact, I really can't see the point of a premium for either, unless hunted in Brown Bear country...

I've shot enough game with the "monolithic expanders" to know that usually they work, and sometimes they don't.

As I said, I've used them since the early 90's and early on thought they were manna from heaven... after enough years with them, I see them as a design that are usually very accurate and usually work well, are expensive, and fail more often than any other bullet I've been around.

Never said I've never recovered a Barnes, looks like your reading skills are inline with about everything else.

Maybe you can quote the writer, we already have Don quoting one. I don't believe Don has ever seen a Barnes, much less shot anything with one. Seems you Connecticut boys stick together like a hound in a bitch on a hot Mississippi July evening.

All you need now is to get E quoting from Chapter 9, verse 6 from the book of optics and you boys will have the perfect trifecta.

Not sure if this one expanded or not, maybe Brad can help me with that.

Must be tough having 1 year of experience 49 times, but you do stupid well.

Wow, what a prick.

Ok. Has recovered one bullet... I still contend deer and black bears aren't much of a test of bullet design...

Best to type looking at the screen, not the mirror.

What did Dober's bullet not open on?

Granted, but that don't make my experiences any less wrong of different. If it helps you to think of the world as flat, have at it.

Guys I trust, key word is guys, have used them plenty on plenty of other [bleep] besides deer and bear. Never heard of a problem from them either.

Never seen me type what I would or wouldn't use on Elk, since I've never hunted the damn things. You are funny, funny little yankee man. Paul was correct, just directed at the wrong person.

Yep, cuzz if they open in 12" of deer that don't mean they will open in 12" of elk.

Seems to me that poor shooting on your part ain't much of a test either, but I forgot you are perfect.

This one don't count either, he had very light bones.