Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Barnes Failures

The old Barnes X bullets were bad about not opening on impact. We had several guys at my deer camp shooting them and every one of them lost deer that they felt they made good hits on. Of course they didn't recover the deer or the bullet so you can't say for sure, but these guys are experienced hunters so I trust their word. Guys that weren't shooting X bullets didn't have the same strange things happen, all four guys switched to different bullets and the problems stopped. I know a guy with a .375 X bullet sitting on his mantle that he dug out of an elephant he shot, no expansion at all and it's kind of bent like a banana. A guy that shoots one elk every five years and proclaims them the greatest thing ever don't have enough experience with them to make that claim. When you're in a Mississippi deer camp and see 50 deer a year shot with X bullets you figure out if there's a problem pretty quick, and we saw a lot of problems with the original X's.

Fast forward a few years and Barnes introduced the TSX with a bigger hollow point than the original X so it would open easier and the pencil through stories seemed to go away. Next they introduced the Tipped TSX with the plastic tip which I think is a much better design, the plastic tip gives something to initiate expansion instead of relying on something to get inside the hollow point and start it opening. I shoot the TTSX in my 7mm rem mag on deer, killed three nice bucks with them this year.

The original X bullet design WAS flawed, anyone who shot or saw many animals shot with them would figure that out. I personally don't like the hollow point design, even the bigger opening one on the TSX. I think the TTSX is the way to go with the plastic tip because they're going to open every time. I can't see any reason to pick a TSX over a TTSX. Ironically, as much as I didn't like the original X bullets I've pretty much settled on the TTSX as my go to bullet. I like the TTSX a lot.

We shot a lot of old X bullets,IE myself and friends, about 6 of us, even trips to Africa for some of us....

We never saw an X not expand and not kill well.

We did see issues of fouling and non accuracy until TSX came along

This doesn't mean I don't use monolithic, zero-weight-loss bullets anymore. I do, and for some purposes they're great. But contrary to what some people apparently believe, bullets that retain more weight don't kill quicker. In fact the opposite is true.

The way my narrow-minded self has viewed things over the past 40 years of killing stuff.....as long as Nosler keeps making a partition (or lately an accubond) it keeps things simple for me.

I've killed at least 50 animals with various Barnes X's from the original to the TTSX, and seen around 100 others killed, including a bunch by my wife--which meant we both got to do the autopsy.

One mistake in evaluating bullet performance is judging ALL bullets of a certain make on specific calibers and weights. The X's I've seen fail to open were all above .22 caliber and under 30, and were straight hollow-points, not Tipped models. These have fairly small hollow-points, which evidently can be closed (or at least damaged) by bumping the front end of a typical box magazine. From .30 on up the hollow-point is larger and so much harder to damage. The .22 centerfires evidently don't recoil enough to damage the tiny hollow-points. When they DON'T expand, animals can go a very long way without much blood trail, even if solidly double-lunged.

One thing I've done for years in my hunting notes is record how far animals go after the hit. Monolithic bullets that don't fragment at all have resulted in the longest blood trails om average. Bullets that fragment considerably result in the shortest. This is with typical double-lung hits, without spine or more than one shoulder involved.

The difference, on average, the last time I added it all up a few years ago was about 20 yards for "very fragmenting" bullets and about 50 for zero-weight-loss bullets. And it didn't matter if the zero-weight-loss bullet was a Barnes X, Fail Safe, E-Tip or whatever. That's because zero-weight-loss bullets make a narrower wound channel.

This doesn't mean I don't use monolithic, zero-weight-loss bullets anymore. I do, and for some purposes they're great. But contrary to what some people apparently believe, bullets that retain more weight don't kill quicker. In fact the opposite is true.

Which is exactly why smaller monolithic bullets at very high velocities, and larger-caliber monolithic bullets at modest velocities work quite well: Both result in larger holes than monolithic bullets of modest weight and diameter at moderate velocities.

The way my narrow-minded self has viewed things over the past 40 years of killing stuff.....as long as Nosler keeps making a partition (or lately an accubond) it keeps things simple for me.

That entire post was excellent BTW, MD.

Funny how these Barnes X bullet threads pop up seemingly every other month. I've had several conversations with different folks here on the fire and elsewhere. Phone and email conversations with Barnes personnel to boot. I just can not be convinced to use these bullets at all.

I just do not get the warm & fuzzies for mono's from any manufacturer old, new or otherwise. Talk to one guy that loves them and thinks they are the boom. Then you can find 2 to 5 others that say they are the worst bullets ever designed.

Even getting information from the manufacturers is certainly not an easy affair. One email says one thing then another from the same person says something completely different. It is easier to get information on Sasquatch than these bullets.

With my limited time to hunt, the expense of a hunting trip, coupled with the respect that I have for the game animals that I pursue. I will not be using this type of bullet until I am absolutely forced to by our tree hugging government.

The way my narrow-minded self has viewed things over the past 40 years of killing stuff.....as long as Nosler keeps making a partition (or lately an accubond) it keeps things simple for me.

That entire post was excellent BTW, MD.

I've never lost an animal with a TSX, but they sure do run further than with a bullet that sheds shrapnel in the lungs.

Monos are for bones.

Funny my experiences over the last 11 or so years have been very different. Since I have gone exclusively to them I have had more DRT than ever . The furthest has gone maybe 35 yards .

I'll always err on the side of penetration