Barnes TSX FAILURES.

[FOTIS]

My buddy George took a Muley buck last week here in Wyoming. He is using a SAKO 75 SS in 7mm RUM. Bullet in question is a 140 TSX. I developed the load for him last season and due to time constraints I was only able to fid a load that launched this bullet right at 3300 fps MV shoots like a target gun at that speed though.
Anyway last Saturday he popped a buck between 50-75 yards. Shot was a little too far back (nice way of saying gut shot) and the buck took off. No blood or any fluids found on scene. They later found the buck 300 yards away dead. Internal damage was nill. 7mm in 7mm out. That TSX must have hit the paunch (full of food and fluids) well over 3000 fps and no expansion at all. George was dreading the field dressing (who wouldn't with a gut shot?) but to his pleasant surprise no exploded guts, no nasty smell, nothing.
But it has both him and I worried about that darn TSX.
The week before that he shot a nice antelope buck at 325 yards through the ribs behind the shoulder. In/out...no sign of expansion at all. Looked like someone had stabbed the buck through the lungs with a 7mm caliber knit needle.

I guess this means little in terms of statistical value but I though I would report it. What say you?

 

[Brad]

What say you?

I have far more confidence in the TSX than the AccuBond.

 

[340boy]

Ugh, POP!
I hope those instances were "statistical blips": I am hunting mule deer the next few weeks with my 270"bee" stoked with 140 gr TSX's @3300 fps. That is the only load I have found so far that will shoot really well in my MkV ultralight
I tried one load with 150 grain partitions(my preferred bullet) using IMR7828, the "group" looked more like a shotgun pattern! :shock:

 

[FOTIS]

I wish you guys the best of luck. I guess any bullet can have a bad lot or bad one in the lot.................

 

[JD338]

I have never used the Barnes bullets so I can't speak to that. I can say that I have used Nosler bullets for 25+ years and have never had a failure. They always work!

JD338

 

[340boy]

JD338,
I agree, the Nosler lineup is hard to beat! My own experience is very limited, but the 200 grain Partition in my 300RUM smacked a 3x3 Muley at 300 yards and left its "clockwork" in a shambles! The deer flopped over as if the rug had been yanked out from under it...
My 270wby is a recent find and I have not had the time to do extensive load development, and the TSX shot great right off the bat. On the other hand the one Partition load I had time to try would not even keep 3 shots in 4-5 inches at 100yds! :shock:
As soon as season is over I plan on trying the 140 grain AccuBond, then hopefully I can have my cake and eat it too 8)

 

[R Flowers]

Just one man's opinion, but I will NOT shoot Barnes bullets at game.

I have not tried the TSX, but did try several of the plain old X bullets on wild hogs, they were a dismal failure.

A friend in New Mexico shot 5 cow elk one winter on a landowner depredation hunt. He was using a 340 Wby Mag that usually drops elk like lightning with other bullets. Not so with the Barnexs X bullets. He had to track every one of those cows. He cornered Randy Brooks at a convention a few months later and Randy did not enjoy hearing about it.

I even tried some Barnes X bullets in my silhouette pistols since I had decided not to shoot game with them. With the same loads Sierra or Hornady bullets will knock over the 200 meter rams every time, while the Barnes X bullets simply bounce off. You can hear the difference, the Sierra and Hornady bullets go CLANG, the Barnes just go "TING" and we found them lying on the ground not opened up at all. (On a STEEL target!)

I know lots of people like the darned things, but not me, no thanks.

 

[FOTIS]

I have reached the conclusion that Barnes bullets are neither good nor bad. What do I mean by that? There seems to be a great deal of inconsistancies in their performance. I have seen/heard them fail miserably and as the flip side of the coin some have performed admirably. Look at my post

http://noslerreloading.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=2691

Basically a Brown bear or a Cape Buffalo bullet expanding like that on a small frail creature is amazing and at 363 yards to boot! This was not a close shot, and velocity was relatively low. Kind of hard to reach a solid decision on this.

 

[Guy Miner]

I had poor accuracy, a tough time getting good velocity, and experienced excessive fouling when I tried the Barnes X bullets, so I quit trying with them. When the TSX came out - I decided to give Barnes another try. Easily worked up a very accurate, fast load for my .25-06, and took a nice Washington state mulie with it last year. Load was a 100 gr TSX at 3340 fps mv.

Have no idea about bullet performance, because the deer was running, I led it too far and almost missed, but luckily the bullet zapped it behind the ear, coming out the eye. Needless to say I had an instant one-shot kill, and the bullet wasn't recovered.

I've been a bit concerned about 'em not opening up. Hunting with them again this year and hoping for the best. If not, no problem, it will be back to my tried and true Noslers again.

Regards, Guy

 

[WVhunter]

This is also my opinion. I have taken several deer with Nolsler Ballistic Tips, and Combined Technology Ballistic Silvertips from a Ruger chambered in .270 Winchester. I have yet to have a failure. I have only had one deer run, and it only went 15 yards and expired. That shot was taken at roughly 185 yards. "liver Shot"

I am currently working up loads for that gun using 130 gr TSX bullets.

I shot one to see how close to being lined up with my scope it was at 15 phone books .270in / softball sized hole out. The bullet was burried 5 inches into the kill behind the target and was expanded perfectly. 8)

[/img]

 

[jjmp]

i''m a fan of barnes x bullets,always have been, iv''e shot un coated coated and their triple shocks,haven''t shot any mrx''s as yet..... i don''t work for them , i shoot many different brands of bullets some shoot in my rifles and some don''t,i guess you can say i''m more a target shooter than hunter, still its all a learning curve rite? many people are at different learning levels in reloading..... some excell , some are in the middle some where,and some are plain sloppy, same goes for shooting and hunting,ran into a guy at our range and he was shooting a 270 bdl with 130 gr btips, i was shooting my 270 mountain-eagle loaded with 140 accubonds we both shot at 100 yds and compared our bullets, my 140s had 3/8 of the core shaft left,his were pealed back to all most nothing,i wouldn''t hunt with his choice bullet, but on the other hand he''s hunted 20 years out west and in wisconsin with out a faliure,soooooooooooo go figure,mostly deer mule and whitetail, and antilope, he had over 2,000 plus reloads through his 270,and i wasn''t about to tell him what to shot!!!!!!! :shock: different bullets for different folks...thats half the fun ???? iv''e loaded up 160 accubonds for my up comming elk hunt,rifle sako 75 ss ..stw... regards and put''em all in the same hole...... 8) jjmp

 

[300rummy]

I love the tsx

 

[skeeter]

Well my experience has been mixed on the TSX. They fixed the fault of the x being picky in bores for accuracy and copper fouling with the tsx. On 2 bull elk and 1 bull moose the 140 TSX have performed flawlessly from my 7mm rem mag. Only one bullet recovered from the bull moose after entering on a 1/4 away through the upper lungs and out the opposite scapula to recovery on in the opposite side hide, the bullet measures .714 in diameter and retained 93% off it's original weight. The moose buckled at the whopping 70 yard shot, the damage to vitals was excellent and the meat damage or blood shot was aboput as good as it gets. Both elk were pass thrus 1 double lung DC tipped over in 100 yards or less, the second took out the top of the heart and lungs and dropped in less than 30 yards. Both shots 100 -150 yards. Exit holes showed sign of good expansion.

On deer things haven't been as rosy, 2 mulie does both hit DC of the lungs. First one was 200 yard shot, second was less than 100. In both cases little damage to the lungs and appearance of very little expansion. Deer #1 ran 200 yards before piling up and deer 2 was less than 100.

I have talked to others who say shoulder shots on thin skinned animals and still others it works perfectly on loper to moose in regards to the TSX. Seems a love em or hate em affair, similar to the AB.

For me the TSX is a great elk/moose/bear bullet for deer I'll stick with a BT or AB style from now on out. Accuracy with all three is very good in my rifle so I don't feel any loss by switching out for the intended target.

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

THis is just my opinion and always will be, but who on earth needs a friggin "X" bullet for deer??? Come on guys, I dont think deer have gotten any touger since 1900 when they were shot with 25-35's and 30-30's. Any halfway decent jacketed lead bullet is all you need for deer. Put the little or big bullet in the chest, and its not going to run no 100-200 yards, thats for sure. I can see on special occasions why the X is used, but for most, any lead jacketed bullet will still bring the animal down, and usually its much faster death. :wink:

 

[340boy]

I just shot a mule deer( a 3X3) yesterday afternoon with my 270bee loaded with 140 grain TSX at 3300 fps. Shot the deer at 355 yards(He was facing almost straight away from me looking up the hill) hit him under the tail, bullet came out the lower opposite side, exit wound was quite large, internal damage was massive, the deer took a couple of steps and fell over. So, in my case anyway, the TSX worked just fine 8)

 

[JD338]

340boy

Congratulations on your buck. Show us some pictures so we Nosler fans can have a first hand glance of another bullet manufacture's success.

JD338

 

[340boy]

I will post a picture as soon as I can figure out how! I checked pop's thread under off topic stuff... I got on cupidfish, but my pic file is too big to download, and I cant get any help from them on how to reduce file size, so will try again soon....

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

340- Try tinypic.com, thats the one I use. Pretty self explanitory when you get there. Open your files w/ the pics, then select upload. When there done, copy the URL for the one to put in forums. Once you do that, come to the forum, type your story and paste the URL. Should work out ok.

 

[chuck nelson]

I've been shooting both Nosler and Barnes products at game for several years. Both the Partition and the X (and now the TSX) have never let me down. The following two bucks took 150gr partitions from a 280 rem and lost em out the other side after breaking bone and creating havock in between. The whitetail at 20', and the Mule Deer at 326 steps. The results are obvious. The Elk took the same load quartering away and the bullet broke the off shoulder before exiting.

I've taken a couple of Bear, and a Mule Deer doe this year so far with my 30-06 and the 150gr TSX with equally impresive results. Breaking bone on all of them and having all 5 bullets exit (I smacked the bears twice each) The Mule Deer doe went the farthest of the bunch because the steep angling away shot knocked her off her feet and she rolled 20yds down a steep embancment. My wife also killed the pictured buck with a 260 Rem and the 120 TSX and shot through both shoulders he went straight to the ground. Believe me when I say that there was no lack of internal damage on these TSX shot critters. The blue tarp contains the other and bigger of the two bear.

 

[skeeter]

Congrats of your guys harvests.

In cases such as 340boy's, shoulder hits, etc basically the toughest media a deer presents the TSX seems to be a solid performer. Though in my 2 mentioned deer and others where the rib is the only thing in way of bone it meets the TSX hasn't proved as reliable for thin skinned animals. As mentioned I do like the bullet but am not sold it is "a jack of all trades" projectile. At least for me as the majority of my animals are shot behind the front leg through the vitals.