Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles An interesting 'trick' to get Barnes TSX and TTSX's to shoot well early on.

Like you, H4350 is the powder of choice in my Rugeer .257 Roberts. With 100g TTSX/115g TSX I seat them so they fit in the mag which still leaves the bullets quite a way off the lands. Accuracy with the 100g TTSX and 115g TSX has been outstanding.

Would not matter if I measured the distances in several other 300WSM's..... what amtters most is the measurement in YOURS, and that measurement will vary rifle to rifle. More than that though, this thread was about the fact that loading these things WAAAAYYY off of the lands (as in using the top groove as a cannelure per this thread start) usually works great and ends the search and usage of much gunpowder and barrel life. Glad you are enjoying it and benefiting from it. MARK

Has anyone loaded a 120grn Barnes in a 6.5x55 and found the sweet spot for distance from lans? I shoot this combination in a Tikka T3 and would like to compare it to my load. Thanks
Buckfever1

Got a note from Aliant powder they say use RL17 like IMR4350, of course disclaimer regards watching for pressure signs etc.

I have wondered how the 115 would shoot but don't think I need to got to this weight for WT deer. I would think that a 115 at 3100 FPS from the bob would "way over penetrate" on deer, maybe more of an moose load...

Hi Safariman,

Perhaps I should have provided a rationale/reason for my question - I am interested in the distance from the lands from a safety point of view. I am fairly new to reloading, but I remember reading from another post that bullets seated too far from the lands can also be dangerous - I can't remember why, but I remember this being stated. It would make me feel better/safer to know how far others are seating their bullets away from the lands (to know what I depth I should limit myself to). Hence, I asked my question not from a accuracy standpoint, but a safety standpoin (I know rifles have different preferences/characteristics - including the length of the leade - which means different guns will have different "accuracy-related" characteristics).

As other have already said, thanks. This may save me a lot of time (and money) in developing TTSX loads for my .300 WSM.

i'd like to know as well

It depends on the rifle. On some you'll never reach the lands.

Welcome to our hobby, or.... uuhhhh AFFLICTION!

There is no danger seating bullets too deep, at leaset with most rifle ammo. Getting them too close to or into the lands is cause for concern. As you seat the bullet farther and farther away from the lands the pressure goes down, not up as the bullets get more of a free jump to the lands during the time when the pressure curve is the steepest. Still, be careful as always and even with a deeply seated bullet start with lighter loads and work up.

Good luck and good hunting!

This is the second group I ever shot out of my 300WSM Savage 16FLSS. I love it when load development goes like this!

I have two new M70 Winchesters in 3006. I have both 168 and 180 TTSX loads that are shooting 1 inch or less with between .090 and .100 off the lands. Powder is H4350. 168--56 grains, 180---54.5 grains. Win Brass and WLR primers. Deeper into the case than .100 will start to compress the powder with both loads. These are mild loads in my guns but but start lower as per all the good advice here. I started at .050 as per Barnes info but had to go to .090 to get a good result with my set up. Hope this gives some additional info that will be useful... Phil

Thanks Safariman for the advice, I have a Remington 700 ADL 30-06 with a 22" barrel, 1/10 twist and was trying to shoot the Barnes 168 gr TTSX. Seating them to your recommended depth helped out tremendously. However, I still was not getting types of groups I was looking for so I dropped down to a 150 gr TTSX seated to an OGL of 2.587 (I think that comes out to COAL of 3.218" if I remember correctly), Winchester Brass, and WLR primers. I got my best groups using 50-51 grains of H4895, still trying to fine tune this load but so far I have gotten 0.982" group with 51 gr H4895 and 0.808" group with 50 gr H4895 at 100 yards.

I also got good results with 51.5 - 52.5 gr of Varget behind the 150 TTSX but started to run out of daylight so I couldn't let the barrel cool down as much as I would have liked. I will go out to the range again and try this load again.

Seating the bullets to the depth you and Barnes recommended gives them a huge jump (0.229" = 5.82mm according to my Hornady OAL gauge measurements, after doing the math) in my gun b/c of the significant amount of freebore, but it worked.

Before I saw your post I was getting terrible groups 3"-4" groups with numerous flyers at 100 yards by trying to seat them 0.050-0.070 off the lands.

Bottom line is that I gave up trying to chase the lands and seated them deep and it worked, at least in my 06. I would have loved to use the 168 gr TTSX but I just couldn't make them shoot in my gun, so 150 TTSX it is.

165 MRX gave me good results with 57-57.5 gr IMR 4350 as well but I can't find them anywhere. In fact, at Sportsmen's Warehouse there isn't even a slot on the shelf for them anymore, not to mention they cost $34-$38 for 20 bullets depending on where you buy them.

Thanks for the advice.

Shaking my head..............

My method with Barnes MRX/TSX/TTSX is to load them about .070� off the lands. Then I load one round each at 0.5g powder increments, generally 10 rounds total with the last at max book powder charge or just beyond. (The top loads often get taken home and torn apart rather than fired.) I shoot over a chrono and record the velocity and POI for each shot. When I am done I look at the velocities and POIs ad search for a string of shots that provided consistent accuracy with a steady increase in velocity. If I find such a string (and I almost always do), I pick a load from the middle of the string and load up a small batch with that powder charge for further testing.

This method saves a lot of expense when working up loads with expensive bullets and I�ve rarely been disappointed. The only real problem I can think of was with my 7mm RM and 120g and 140g bullets with the traditional powder I had used with 160g bullets. Switching powders to IMR-7828SSC) solved everything.

Interesting.....thanks, I will try it.

so .070" is the magic distance for every Barnes MRX/TSX/TTSX....now I'm shaking my head

Well, ya made me go and look-
By some wierd coincidence, my .280 Rem., .270 WSM, and .300 Wby Mag. handloads, all carefully worked up and very accurate with the TSX bullet, are all loaded with the bottom of the uppermost band at the case mouth!

Not so with my .257 Wby, tho- it is seated a bit further out.

I have a 300 rum that shoots bug holes seated waaaay deep. Never thought to address here at the fire for the thought of getting lip lashed by stick

Not necessarily, just a distance that has worked for me in my .257 Roberts, 7mm RM,.308 Win, two .30-06's and .300 WM.

I'm not going for competition accuracy, but sub-MOA loads are common using my method, and it saves a lot in bullet costs.

YMMV.

I have shot Federal factory ammo in my 243 with 85gr TSX's and they are seated at the top most band. They shot under an inch and if or when i start loading TSXs for my 243, thats where Ill start seating them at also.

I may give that a shot, I guess you could say I'm a poor med student who is strapped for cash and time. A friend of a friend of mine has a chrono, I may see if I can use his. If I did this what velocity range am I looking to obtain. The gun is going to be used as a hunting rifle, so while I want to get the absolute tightest group possible I want to make sure that I can make a quick, clean, ethical kill out to about 350 yds max. Since MV controls many of the factors of calculating bullet drop it would be nice to have a chrono.
Also, how did you control the neck tension with the bullet seated out to 0.070" off the lands (Redding Type S bushing dies, which I don't own). Problem with my rifle is that when measuring the distance to the lands the bullet is just about out of the case, which is why I thought the 168gr TTSX would work b/c it is longer at around 1.42". Even with 165 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip BT's seating them out further gave me poor results. I am relatively new to reloading so any advice would be helpful.