Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Barnes TSX & TTSX: Changing the Game for Good?

I'm shooting 570g TSX's in my 500 Jeffery, just seems to be the best expanding bullet out there for my particular rifle. The diameter of the hollow point is huge and since it was developed for the 500 NE, it's designed to expand at a relatively low velocity.

For my 270, I'm a fan of the 150g Nosler Partition, because it penetrates and ALWAYS expands. My ideal bullet would be the original Partition bullet with the Woodleigh Weldcore bonding in a sleek boattail configuration. Open up and hold together like a Woodleigh, penetrate like a partition or A-Frame, tipped boattail with a ballistic coefficient of .500 would be nice too. Maybe if Swift took their A-Frame construction and married it with their Scirocco shape and front portion ...

If you always take a shoulder shot because you have to make sure your bullet will expand, it's not the bullet for me. Or if you have to wait for a broadside or quartering shot the same goes. A premium high velocity bullet should be able to do both at 15 yards and at 500 yards.

I am holding to my guns and refusing to shoot a bullet that does not have lead in it. My hunting choices are more important to me than the condors.

I am intrigued by the Barnes section whenever I am at the store though. I have to pry myself away before I buy a box.

Tell your dad hey for me.

Shots at animals are presented in various ways,which is why I'm a bone shooter today,and a lung shooter tomorrow...

Bullets that handle both very nicely are not uncommon.....I can't imagine the Barnes is any sort of handicap on either shot,except maybe to the true LR hunters who require very high BC,of which I am not one...

I have seen nothing but very good accuracy from any I have tried....seems the expansion issues have abated since the TTSX came around.

The only thing I dislike about Barnes are their rapid ignorant followers that try to convince you that any other bullet is not as good for the game you are after. This thread is a good example. I love the argument "how many animals have you killed with barnes?". None, because hot cors, interlocks, cor-lokts, power points, ballistic tips and sierra's kill deer and hogs DRT.

I don't need a barnes tsx to hunt deer in East Texas. If I was going on an expensive hunt for larger game, I would invest in a "premium" bullet. It might be a TSX but an Accubond, Partition or A-Frame would do JUST as well.

The TSX is not a game changer. It's just another premium bullet that does it's job. Certainly not the only one out there.

I'm sure I'll get called a [bleep] by the Barnes worshippers.

scott not by me you won't....I haven't used one yet!

Not me,I'm relatively new to Barnes,third season actually but I still like my Partitions in all calibers I shoot.Never liked to shoot cheap bullits especially on hunts!! With all the other high ticket investments in hunting these days a few extra bucks for premium bullits is a no brainer IMO...

You won't get any criticism from me, Scott.

Barnes, like many components that come along I give them a try for advantages over what I am presently using. Started with the X's and quickly stopped using them. TSX - killed a few head of game with them and they even improved accuracy, although slightly, in a couple of cartridges. Only recovered one TSX and that one barely expanded. Shot a Mule Deer buck, lung to lung, standing in a wash at 225 yards. While we were gutting the deer, the hunter with me said I may have found your bullet. I turned around and saw disturbed soil in the bank behind me. Sure enough.

When I shoot up my supply of TSX's I most likely will give the TTSX's a try, but in the accuracy department they too must compete with cup and core and Partitions going done the barrel of my rifles. In the reliable kill department, I have not seen any performance that would dramatically seperate the TSX's from the aforementioned bullets.

Are the Barnes bullets "Changing the Game for Good? Maybe in part of the game...and that would be in the ability to use lighter weight bullets to achieve the same results as a heavier bullet. Reducing recoil with a lighter bullet is always a good thing.

My fear is Barnes has the potential to change "the game" negatively. Shot placement. Due to the extraordinary hype surrounding the Barnes bullets, are hunters taking shots that they may not normally take in the past? I can recall in past years hunters were taking shots at big game with magnum cartridges that were at best risky. They become overconfident with the big firepower in their hands. The result was a lot of maimed and suffering big game animals.

Is this thought process going to become prevelant with Barnes users?

I knew a guy once that was with at least 10 high class hookers a week, I'd still not call him playboy though.

Provincialism is what causes the greatest number of disagreements on the Fire methinks. If you don't know, you don't know. Some folks just can't get past the idea that the rest of the world ain't East Texas, or Northern Michigan.

Nope, I put the bullet where it's supposed to go, but sometimes [bleep] do happen and sometimes the guy I'm with don't put it where it belongs.

If you want a bullet that works when the deer is perfectly broadside, between 111 yards and 234 and less than 147 pounds live weight, have at it.

Sometimes [bleep] do happen and I've no problems driving one up the cheerio to end the fight.

i personally don't think theres any way hunting bullets will have lead in them in 25 years.
Therefore I do applaud the fact that Barnes did development of this style bullet.
When other bullet manufactorers get the impetuous to jump into the monometal market in a large way, will these same concerns about "penciling through"still be there?
I believe so.
As Calvin stated, if it's the animal I want I take the shot - thus the use of premium bullets.(don't get your panties in a bunch second guessing where I've shot em)
As with all bullets,some shots just can't be explained. Some animals die fast some slow with the same shot placement.
I haven't used the TSX's yet, but I bought my first box. I'll load them and use them, unless there is a great discrepency with there on game performance, actually something more than a fractional percentage of failure, I'll not bad moutth them any more than the penciled thru, NPT, or the blown up NBT's i've seen.
I do have a tendency to like a bullet who's supposed failure is complete penetration, not a surface explosion.

Interesting to note that as more African PH's have become exposed to Barnes bullets over the past several years, they are by and large enthusiastically beating that drum...

Remember, we're talking about men (our very own JJHack for one) that are exposed and intimately involved with the killing of literally hundreds of game animals (big and small) every year in various field conditions, angles, and distances.

Speaks volumes....

Me too.

Speaks volumes as to the mechanics of guiding people hunting in Africa, certainly.

Read what JJHack says and you'll find many references to the fact that most of the critters his people shoot are in large herds, in dusty conditions. He puts a HUGE premium on a reliable exit wound, less of one on killing quickly. In fact, he has stated that the bonded bullets kill noticeably quicker.

He's also been involved on the 7-08 for plains game thread, where he talks about how 7mm bullets don't provide near the blood trail as .30 cal bullets...

I've said it a dozen times but I'll say it again. If penetration is a problem, then the mono's appear to be a great solution. Since I've not seen the problem- even on big animals like elk- I'm not real inclined to run an expensive, slower-killing, low-BC bullet that has expansion "issues" to fix a problem that I haven't seen exist!

This isn't TSX bashing, it's just a rational look at the bullet's strengths and weaknesses as related by those who love and use them, as well as those who've used them and come away cold (Brad, Bwalker, etc etc etc).

TSX's do WAY more than just penetrate.

I know. They expand.... usually.....

Jeff,

Please tell us about the time you had a Barnes bullet fail to open up on game.

The hunter proves the bullet, not other way around. That said, the hunter needs to know what the bullet will or may not do. And one cannot equate, Africa, or New Zealand or Alaska, with other places where conditions may differ, often significantly, and then make blanket statements. That Barnes bullets seem ideal in Africa does not prove that they are ideal elsewhere anymore than that blued steel and wood are every bit as practical as stainless and synthetics in all conditions.

Since you have absolutely no experience with them JO, you'll understand and appreciate that like others, I pretty much gloss over your musings as they hold absolutely no weight.

Can't help but notice you cherry pick to attempt to bolster your uneducated guesses. Not sure why you always feel compelled to wade in on topics that you have no relevant experience with.... I suppose you're just one of those individuals that just likes to hear yourself talk.

I'll continue to rely on my own first hand observations and the vast experience from professional hunters that have seen the effects of Barnes bullets on literally tens of thousands of critters....

Slow-killing, and "expansion issues" doesn't seem to be a real world issue/problem based on their extensive experience/observation as it's being portrayed in this and other threads.

FO,

I was responding to your mention of JJHack, and truth be told, you are the one cherry-picking his statements.

The pro-TSX guys don't hesitate to talk about their bullet on any ol' thread. Can't see why someone who is neutral on them (I'm not anti-TSX) can't participate on a thread that declares them to be a game-changer or whatever.

It's the innernet, man. This is a discussion forum. Lighten up, or just put me on ignore if my "musings" upset you.

I'll be loading 'em again here shortly for an app where I want max penetration. I already know they shoot well in that rifle since I've run several hundred of them through it. Also know I'm happy in the woods with that rifle so loaded since I carried it that way the bulk of one elk season.

But I won't sign off on them being the be-all end-all bullet because they aren't, for the reasons I've articulated.