Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 338 fed 185 tsx-not expanding!!

Hey everyone, I follow the campfire but first time posting.
I have a 338 fed kimber montana and did some dry newspaper bullet tests @ 100y,2 feet thick and was stunned to discover 185tsx @2640fps didnt expand at all, made it to back of box!
I could load it again, tried 2nd time only to have one petal just begin to peel back. (Wish I knew how to post pics).
What gives, are they made for the fast 338's.
Any thoughts would be appreciated, scratching my head if I should take these out on next moose hunt.

Welcome to the Fire

Dober

If it were me, I'd fire a few other types of bullets into that ol' dry newsprint, and see what they did.

Ya got penetration, I'll say that.

I started out useing the barnes 185, then switched to 200gr Fusions and finally speer deep curls( which is what I've beleive are the fusion bullets anyway). The only bullet I've ever recovered was the barnes 185, from a small 6pt shot at aprox 30yrds, through the brisket, it ended up underneath the skin above the opposite back ham. although It seemed to open up perfectly, that was not enough penetration for me, especialy at almost point blank range. I have never recovered a Fusion or a speer (again I think they are one in the same), and although I havent had an opertunity to test them on moose, they have broken the both shoulders of bear and deer, as well as gone length ways through a deer in about the same circumstance as the barnes (started at the back ham, came out the shoulder from 127yrds) My barrel is only 16.5 so they are going a tick or so slower

Here is the barnes


Here is the texas heartshot

It helps if they are shot into a fluid medium. Just be sure not to hunt dry newsprint with that load.

And be sure to use a CRF action...

Dober

Shooting,dry,fluid,and load in one post

Milk jugs stuffed with shredded newspaper and then filled with water? Anybody tried it? Maybe a bit time consuming, but could be cool.

185gr TSX will kill most anything with aplomb, [bleep] the newspaper tests and go kill [bleep].

Welcome to the Forum, where no one hardly argues! I think your next move should be to get a box of 180gr. Accubonds, find the sweet spot and go hunt up a moose.
For those TSX's, there is a Classified section here.

Must be a Winchester Featherweight also.

I've shot quite a few 185 TTSXs into magazines and paper and they always expanded perfectly. Two 215 Sierra gamekings left .338 cal holes through about two feet of magazines though. Couldn't even find them in the dirt.

Welcome,
I have not shot any into newspaper, but have taken 6 deer with my Tikka T3 with the 185 TSX. All exited and I did not recover any bullets, but the exit wound was a whole lot larger than the entrance. I wouldn't worry about it, they will work fine.

My one experience with the 185 gr TSX was on a decent bull elk at 290 yards. It was loaded to a bit over 2900 fps from my 338-06. The bull just collapsed at the shot. A quartering away behind the shoulder shot that centered the off shoulder. The bullet was recovered under the hide, lost all its petals and weighed 122 grs.

Hard to beat a 210 grain Nosler Partition out of the 338 Federal for moose.

Were lucky that they expanded. Like others have posted, need water to make them work, sort of. Most animals (like us) are 70% water. The density and fluidity resists the bullet enough so that the energy is diverted to cause the bullet deformation.

Thanks for the welcome and replies everyone.
I figured the dry news print had something to do with the hollow point of the tsx and expansion.
Have'nt shot anything in a fluid median yet but did shoot a bunch of bullets out of several different calibers that day-308,358,444 and the 338 fed.
Read somewhere that dry news print will certainly stress a bullet,if it performs in the dry stuff it will definitely perform in a wet median which more closely resembles a living game aminal.
Mako25, I did shoot the 180 accubond,200 hdy IL and 200 speer hotcore, got mushrooms out of all of them including the other cals in different bullets/weights. Only weird thing was the tsx!
Dropped a young bull moose,apprx 600lbs live weight,at 30y paced, last oct with the 338 fed and the 180 accbnd combo @2750. First shot went just behind leg into lung, ran 10y and dropped on side of road, put 3 more into his chest as he got up and began limping into forest-20y in was a steep drop into a ravine.
Easiest "packing" out job ever, just jack-knifed the truck and trailer and hauled him in with another truck!
After reading some of your experiences with the tsx, I would think it'll do fine on big game-think I'll take Steelhead's advice...
Side note: Have some pics I'd like to share-can anyone direct me to posting them?
Thanks again

They seem to do just fine for me. Note: this wasn't a dry doe, it leaked all over the place.

Well done, experience is a great teacher, and thanks for sharin' yours.

My take is certain chamberings just don't require a specialized, or "premium" bullet, and the .338 Federal is in that catagory. That's not a knock on the .338 -- I truly like 'em -- I'd happily hunt it with the Speer, or Hornady.

Yup, sure looks like they're expanding just fine!
Anyone have any favorite loads with the 185 tsx?
Have'nt played too much with load workup-getting 2640fps with I3031 at max with 22" tube.
Thanks in advance.