Barnes TTSX 130gr 308 Feedback

[salmonchaser]

Not quite apples to apples but my brother has killed a couple of elk with either the 180s or 165 out of his 06 at bow hunting ranges as has my BIL with his 7mm RM./160s. No tracking that I recall, they were pretty much DRT. I do recall one mule deer in a big sage brush choked flat we had trouble finding that he shot at bayonet distance. That deer ran about 100 yards. Don’t recall we recovered any bullets on the close ones, deer or elk.

 

[Charlie-NY]

There's always been a bit of internet chatter about the Barnes 130 TTSX in the .308/30-06 platforms. Eventually, I decided to give them a try in my custom .308 rifle. Initial loads were ok but noting to get excited about. One thing that I noticed was that most common powders for the .308 seemed too bulky and required compression, which I'd prefer to avoid. For a while, I gave up on finding an accurate load, but the half box of bullets kept staring me in the face, so I started testing again. The very last load I tested pulled it all together. I was consistently getting sub 1/2 moa at 400yds and good velocity. Here's the load that worked for me:

Barnes 130 TTSX (loaded anywhere between .135"-.165" off the rifling)
Lapua cases
Fed 210M primers
46.5gr Benchmark
Velocity was 3,120fps

 

[RL338]

I think BL-C2 tops out around 54gr, thats going to be almost overflowing out of the case…

My daughter’s 308 is loaded at 50grs in SSA brass with a velocity in the low 2900’s. Barrel length is only 20”.