We got rained out of work this morning so I killed some time and a few phonebooks.

Cartridge-.300 WSM
Bullets-150 TTSX, 150 Ballistic Tip and 150 E-Tip
Range-10 feet
Impact velocity-3150fps



Bullets entered from the right and stopped at the arrows.

150 TTSX went 15".
150 BT and ET went about 10-11".

An identical test made last spring resulted in...
180 Accubond 11".
180 Partition 16".
180 TSX 18".
(2950fps impact)

I was quite surprised that the BT and ET stopped at nearly the same page. Figured that the ET would have ended up somewhere between the TTSX and the BT.


Bullet gack...



Width at widest point(L-R).
ET-.685"
BT-.676"
TTSX-.620"



Retained weight.
ET-149 grains/99%.
BT-90 grains/60%.
TTSX-149.5 grains/99%.



The ET clearly has a deeper 'tip cavity' than the TTSX.


Anyway, thought you people might enjoy viewing my big 'hunt'.

I really need to quit killin' books and do a real test this fall.

We caught these two crossing the road on the way out.
I tried to run up to them for a closer look and better pics but Momma was to fast.....grin





Low clouds, nice and cool. Great day for shooting.

Were the books wet or dry when you shot them?



Barnes & Nosler -that would be a good name for a bookstore... bet they'd have a good selection of reloading manuals.

It rolls right off the tongue....grin


The books were a mix of wet/dry. The dark fatty's(in the first pic) were the water logged ones.

Appreciate the test Sam.

I would like to see bullet performance when impact speed is 400 to 600 fps less.

You're welcome bud.

I agree, 3150 is a pretty harsh test.

Good info.

Looks like the E-tip opened up wider, plus has less space between the petals... uh... physics being what they are, and retained weight being the same... isn't that about the ONLY possible reason it penetrated less?

Correct me if I'm wrong... brain no workie today...

-jeff

My brain never works Jeff but the ET certainly seems to have a 'hollower' tip.

Great data Sam, thanks for posting the results!

No prob dude.

Scrounged up a pic of the ET..



Anyone have a cross sectioned TTSX pic?

TSX win again, the undisputed champ

Yeah but you shoulda seen the hole from the BT....grin

I have, large in diameter and shallow.

Rosie?

kidding

Is this what you were referring to Sam?

You are nasty.



grin

Egad !!! Almost lost my supper. Gag !!!

Sam - thanks for posting.

I agree with seeing what they would do 3-500 ft/sec less. That is if you have more phone books that need killing....... <g>

Those books are too heavy for me to lug out 200 yards away.

Anyone have a .308 I can borrow????grin

Seriously it would have been a good idea to download or shoot them from distance.

Thanks for doing the test; good stuff.

Any chance, if you do this again, you could throw the 130 TSX or TTSX into the mix?

Not sure I'd read that as a TTSX "win"...more penetration just means more wasted energy in most cases. The E-tip retained 99% weight, that'll mean great bullet performance almost every time.

The higher BCs for E-tips means more retained energy at range as well.

Nice to have so many great bullet choices these days!

I will gladly trade a bit of penetration beyond an animal for faster kills/bigger wounds.
Course I might just use a BT......

Hey Sam,

If'n I had to kill some feral phone books, I'd do the test with my 30 cal Contender pistol. I used to do expansion tests with the pistol alot. I only get ~ 2250 with 150's in that pistol. Simulates 4-500 yards velocities very well.

If you're interested and have a few spare bullets, I could see if the local phone book population needs controlled.

Sounds like a plan bud.
That was the last TTSX I had, but I have some extra BT's and ET's.

PM me your address and we'll make a plan of attack.

Good Info & thanks for posting.

MM

You're welcome.

The E-Tip would probably work well on a deer that you were mad at.

TTSX maybe more for the elk?


Of course all three would probably work fine most of the time for anything.

How much does the rifle weight?


Neat test. Thanks for sharing it!

A little ETIP Info for the Barnes fan club!

Another well known fact!








JW,Instead of being a Nosler basher,why not give the Etips a chance this fall,you seem to like testing bullets on game at long range!

Cool test, Sam.

I need to try and run something similar with the 308.

shade tree must be a right big place. our phone books look like a weekend flyer

thanks for burning your time on this planet doing things so we dont have too. hope to return the favor...

nice work indeed!!

thanks

woofer

About 40lbs. less than the books....grin




The gas station down the street always has a big stack of them out front. The other morning I made a raid, I'm sure the few people that saw me packing them to the truck were thinking.........What the hell?

Interesting to me that the BT and the ET penetrated pretty much about the same even though the ET retained a lot mo weight...

Dober

And, by the way Sam I do have a 308 you could use if you wish

Sounds like the resident Bullet tester has another rifle to test Etips with!

I've shot the 150 ET's out of the fat lil bugger, and for groups they work very well, if Sammy wants to run it and notch a few more phone book tags tis fine with me.

Dober

Thanks for the offer Mark!

Actually Bwinter's is gonna test a few down around 2200fps. I've got the bullets sittin' here in an envelope waiting to go to the post office.


I couldn't believe my eyes when I found the ET and BT had stopped at the same distance. Pretty odd considering.

I know I find it interesting as well, especially when you take into account of how much each one retained....!

Keep up the good work!

Doober

A hole through the vitails kills, nope penetration is never a bad thing

Here's what I'm trying to sort out...

I keep thinking about the 2500 lb. bison in that article, knocked DRT by a .257 caliber, 100 gr. TSX blazing out of the barrel at 4100 ft/sec., through both shoulders and off into the countryside.

To me, this is just freakin' amazing, and kinda belies just about everything I'd come to understand about bullet weight and size.

Question is, is there some point or threshold at which the physics involving speed in and of itself (assuming bullet construction that holds together, which Barnes obviously do) takes on or affects an entirely different dynamic?

Taken to the extreme in order to illustrate my point, "rail" guns being advanced for military purposes shoot a simple bolt, about 18" long, made of titanium I believe, at hyper speeds. When they hit a tank, they blow the damn thing to rat unowhat.

I'm reading in recent articles that the damage done by these relatively fast bullets is, in a word, devastating, whether on big game or in test medias.

Fascinating subject that has me wondering if we're seeing the evolution of bullets and hunting firearms to yet another level up until now somewhat inconceivable.

Cross section of TSX

Sam, have you done accuracy comparisons for the 3 bullets in this test? If i missed it i apologize. I also know that any given rifle may vary in accuracy and may show a preference for another bullet other than the one yours preferred.
Thanks,
From the Sandbox,

Bill

Sir Springer: Astute post Speed kills; how much matters or at what level things change?..............who knows. But it at least SEEMS something funky is going on with these high speed, light slugs that HOLD TOGETHER,which seems crucial.

Sam: Nice test and thanks for that info.Don't understand how the Etip did not dig as deep as the Barnes(??!!)

Hey Bob,

This may be the answer from JB, Mule Deer.

I am liking everything about the E-Tip- in theory anyway.

Rootin' hard for them to come out with an 8mm version pronto!!

SU:...........I like big frontal area.Might have to take you up on that suggestion and try some of those things....

Oh, man these are tough days for an old Partition/Bitterroot guy....all kinds of new stuff to try, but you don't want to abandon the girl that brung ya

A lot to do about an inch of penetration..About any monolithic bullet has "enough" penetration to make two holes most of the time in deer size game and most of the time on elk, if it does not then shoot the next heavier bullet...

I don't see that the tests tell you much other than most of the bullet manufacturers sure do make good bullets these days...

True enough.

Sam, I read your initial post but I just wanted to get you to clarifly something. I'm under the assumption that you had done load development with all three bullets and chrony'd each to be certain of equal velocities. Is this correct?


Nail

That Etip sure looks good!

Since I am set on 140's NAB's in .277 and .284, all I can wish for is a 100-110 grain TTSX, and/pr Etip to come out in the .257 flavor shortly!

Bob, you are not THAT old!

Jeff: No I'm not;but there ARE a lot of bullets to try.....you can go nuts trying them all.It can get time consuming.That's why I just reach for partitions so often.Nothing tricky in loading them,and they work well.

But I do like the looks of the Etip............

Sam and/or bwinters- have the reduced velocity experiments been completed?

Wttail - no not yet. I just rounded up the required phone books and just got back from vacation last night.

The e-tip didn't seem to expand a whole lot wider than the ttsx

About 6/100 of a inch wider and it surely has more frontal area because the gaps between petals are not as large.

i'll take 6/100 less and inches more penetration, aint choice great

If the Ballistic Tip was good the Accubond would have been excellent. Test seems to show the Ballistic Tip has been toughened appreciably.

i would like to see such a test done w/ hornadys interlock rn in 35 cal