Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles TSX/TTSX Comparison

Unless you want to play with the TSX. This:


I have used TSX's in 22, 270, & 338. I am slowly converting over to the TTSX as I run out of TSX's. I have never experienced the "failure" that others have. But the tip certainly can't hurt.

How about telling us the load?

Because it hit with good speed and yet did not expand

The 100 TSX is very problematic in my book. I have shot more than a few animals with them and the either die right now or run luck hell with little internal damage.
I would go with the TTSX for sure.

An 80 grain TTSX is my go to bullet in front of Ramshot Hunter running 3415 fps out of my 243 Win. The deer and antelope don't like this combination so much!

I've also got a 180 grain TSX load for my 300 WM and working on a 168 grain TTSX load. One of these two will be accompanying me to South Africa in June along with my 375 H&H shooting 300 grain TSX bullets.

Needless to say, both myself and my rifles like the Barnes TSX/TTSX bullets and their performance.

I have used TSX and TTSX in .223 Rem, .270 Win and ,280 Rem. I have had some animals drop dead on the spot, some run off that needed to be tracked and some never found. My .223 puts the hurt on with either one, my .270 Win likes the TSX and my .280 Rem likes the TTSX. Each have put food on the table if I do my part.

Went to South Africa this past June. But 18 months before that I had worked up loads for my .338 (225gr TTSX2800fps) and my Sons 7m-08 (140gr TSX2800 fps)
We both did a whole lot of practice shooting, from sticks, prone, kneeling, standing you name it. We wanted to be proficient. I am glad we practiced a bunch. My Son shot 5 animals with his 7m-08, all but the Kudu were thru the heart, the Kudu was a double lung shot. His Duiker, Warthog and Impala dropped pretty much in their tracks. The larger Kudu and Zebra were a different story. The Zebra after shot thru the top of the heart ran 120 yards before dropping, The trackers followed the tracks to the Zebra but there was not a single drop of blood. When we found the Zebra we saw a 7mm entry and a 7mm exit hole, no expansion at all. The PH said that was common with those bullets. We watched them skin the Zebra and the entire chest cavity was full of blood and the heart had a nice 7mm hole in it.
The Kudu ran about 400 yards with a double lung shot, same scenario, 7mm entry and a 7mm exit with only one small drop of blood at the place he was standing when shot. I was proud of my 14 y.o. Sons shooting and I believe all the practice paid dividends. I believe it was shot placement not bullet performance that won the day.
I shot 4 animals with my 338 using the 225 TTSX's. Not a single heart shot, yes my Son shot way better than I did, lol. All of my animals had a .338 entry and a massive exit wound with lots of blood (made for an easier more relaxing track)
I know we are talking 2 different calibers but I can't help but think, at least in our case, that the TTSX bullet out performed the TSX bullets. Next time we go it will be TTSX's for the both of us and I may have to practice a little more than my Son

The load is 54 grains of reloader 22. With federal 210 primer.

A couple of summers ago, I started a test of several different bullets at 'near' and 'far'. I didn't recover several of the far bullets to compare, but the near: 155 yards, into tidal silty, mud, were recovered:



L to R: GMX, TSX, TTSX, E-Tip, Accubond; all 150 grain using a max load of IMR 4064. The TTSX seems to be a typical performance, not an anomaly. (I trust them to expand where I sometimes know the T/XLC/TSX do not.)

klik- what caliber

I've now seen close to 200 animals shot with TSX's and TTSX's. The problem with TSX's not opening appears to be most frequent to those of smaller than .30 caliber, but in a cartridge with a enough recoil to peen the hollow-point closed. Which is probably why very few problems are reported with .22 canterfires.

I've seen the most problems with the 100-grain .25, including one that apparently didn't open at all when I shot a pronghorn buck right behind the shoulders broadside with a .257 Weatherby Magnum. The buck went 250 yards before falling, and only started leaving any blood about eight feet from where it fell. Have yet to see anything remotely like that in a number of animals shot with the 100-grain .25 TTSX.

.308 cal; w/ 30-06