Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles More Barnes TSX "failures" LOL!

Don't go lighter with the -08 unless you're just shooting the lighter animals. Try the TTSX instead. The old original 140 XFB in the 7mm-08, (not the later sleeker ogive XFBs), had a perfect track record in my 7mm-08 on an uncounted number of caribou. That bullet was responsible for tipping many of those animals over right on the spot and I never recovered a single one of them. In my first outing with the 120 TSX (and TTSX), I recovered one of the TSXs in a caribou. Expansion was minimal and the animal, though the bullet cut a long, eventually lethal path, benefited from a finisher. The double-Ts seem to have a bit more 'whack' to them.

I shot a bull elk with a .338 cal. 185 TTSX at an impact vel of ~2600. Two quick shots actually. Surprisingly small exit wounds, but the internal damage was significant. I got tremendous blood from one shot and zero blood from the other. Both went through lungs. Total distance traveled was ~20yds. It worked, and very well, but I was surprised at how small the exit was. Had to dig around in the fur to even find it.

I used 200 grain TSXs in my .300 Win. Mag in Africa recently and thought I'd share my experience:

On the larger stuff, they made smaller exit wounds than the smaller animals. I'm talking like .6 or .7 inch exit holes. Also, the one I recovered on the off side of an eland had mushroomed, but not as much as I like to see.

My conclusions:

1) Even the .300 WM doesn't have enough oomph to expand a 200 grainer properly on bigger animals (although this eland shot was at 250 yards).

2) And, the bullets were doing max damage about the time they exited the smaller animals.

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