Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Which .338 Barnes TSX for elk?

The RN Core-lokts are still fine controlled expansion bullets; it's the well formed heavy, tapered jacket that seem to do the work on these.

The 185 TSX will do just fine most all the time, but I've seen it stopped in an elk and would prefer a bit more bullet. Until people have hunted elk and seen a lot of dead elk they just don't get what I'm talking about.

Pigs and African plains game for the most part is a very different proposition than hunting elk. Especially if the elk are on public ground.

Just a thunk

Dober

The TSX is the best option, especially for exits, from that point you start to determine which you can drive the fastest and remain stable. My suggestion would be the 185TSX

The Priority should be speed with the TSX, they faster they go the better they work. I have not yet seen where you can have them arrive with too much velocity. Unlike lead core bullets which can disintegrate, the TSX even losing petals is going to blow right through.

Exits and visible blood cannot be understated. Nobody should spend a day looking for game when they can be hunting. Herd animals stampede out after a shot like an explosion. They leave a mushroom cloud of dust to settle behind them. Sorting out the tracks without blood is a bugger. The advantage of making two holes to find the game quickly is critical many times.

The two bullets I have seen used most are the 210 and 250 partition.

The 185TSX is a distant third for frequency of use. However the performance seen with this much lighter faster bullet was significant. The only bullet recovered from my memory was a single bullet with only one full petal and a part of a second. The internal damage from all game killed and the exits were impressive.

The Noslers also do a fine job, but having seen both I would choose the TSX if they shoot well in your gun. Several of the hunters could not get the TSX to shoot well with the handloads they tried and stuck with Partitions for that reason. There is nothing wrong and you're not short handed with the partitions, I especially like the 210. But after seeing the results with the 185.......... well it was decisive and lots of blood compared to single entry holes. Partitions did not exit as often and that is the key advantage IMO.

I don't care if they lose the petals half way through the animal. They drive straight through and exit. The loss of petals inside is no different then the Partition losing the front half.

The advantage is that the "wad cutter" TSX that exits is better then the mushroomed partition that does not exit. Two holes have so many advantages in finding the game after the shot.

I use a 30/06 with 165gr TSX for all my personal Plains game hunting and it's the loaner for many of my hunters. It's had a long history of success with to my recollection only a single lost wildebeest in almost two decades of use and easily 1000 animals.

The same cartridge with a far greater diameter, and 20 more grains of weight is simply as good as it gets for plains game hunting in a nice light low recoil rifle. As I said earlier, the 338 Sabi Sabi made in RSA is a near identical cartridge built for good reason there. The TSX and modern powders has allowed the simple 30/06 to equal the 300 win mag when it uses cup and core bullets.

The 165TSX from a 30/06 will out penetrate the 180 cup and core from the 300win mag. This same situation can be closely compared with the TSX in a 338/06 VS the cup and core from the 338 win mag. However it's actually better then that. The 338 TSX bullets are all designed for the cartridge and capacity of the 338 win mag. Shooting them from the slower 338/06 means you can drive them as fast as you can and still be at or below the maximum design threshold of the bullet.

The flawless performance of the 30/06 with a bigger bullet......... how is that not the perfect choice?

I've shot elk with a 405gr projectile and had no exit and was underwelmed so big and heavy don't always win the race

This is just me, but one of the biggest things I've learned over 3+ decades of hunting and killing elk is that I like to have 2 holes in the critter. If all goes right, many loads, guns etc will do just fine. When I'm going for serious I like to ensure that I've a load that will give me 2 holes.

The 185 TSX will do just fine most all the time, but I've seen it stopped in an elk and would prefer a bit more bullet. Until people have hunted elk and seen a lot of dead elk they just don't get what I'm talking about.

Pigs and African plains game for the most part is a very different proposition than hunting elk. Especially if the elk are on public ground.

Just a thunk

Dober

Mark,

As Klik noted, the round-nose Core-Lokts haven't changed, as they still have the same very thick jacket along the shank, and still work very well.

But the Pointed Soft-Point Core-Lokts has their jackets thinned considerably maybe 20 years ago, and are now just basic cup-and-cores, unlike the older PSP's.

Dober? Mister .220 Swift and 6-06 on all things that crawl, walk, or slither- is that you???

Klik - can you say what was the MV on that 120 Barnes on the 'bou and how far was the shot and the placement? It looks to be in the low 2K range at impact, my guessing.

210 TTSX.

Gunner

Keep in mind I am big on the idea of two holes on an elk so for me I just don't see the 185 TSX as the bullet to you on elk out of a 338 Federale and or any of the other 338 rounds.

Short story, bud hit a nice 330 bull with 3 rounds at about 330 yds. Took a while but the bull went down. That's a lot of 3's isn't it...grin

Non of the 3 bullets exited. 338 Federale with 185's.

Now obviously he had a dead bull though. Personally, I feel that a large part of the drive to lighter bullets has to do with people trying to get more speed out of short action rounds.

Dober