Barnes Banded Solids Update
Please click here for an update on the Barnes Banded Solids/ATF decision.
With Club X™ and Barnes’ Copper Club™
Barnes VOR-TX® Ammunition Awarded the 2012 American Hunter Ammunition Product of the Year!
Mona, UT – Barnes Bullets, LLC (“Barnes”) is proud to announce its VOR-TX precision ammunition won the 2012 American Hunter Ammunition Product of the Year Golden Bullseye Award from National Rifle Association (NRA) Publications.
“At Barnes, we continually strive to make better products that outperform the competition. We now not only have the best performing bullet out there today, we offer hunters the ultimate in accuracy, terminal performance and handloaded precision in a factory loaded round,” said Randy Brooks, president of Barnes Bullets. “Having VOR-TX acknowledged by American Hunter as ammunition product of the year is an honor that everyone at Barnes is extremely proud of.”
The NRA Publications Golden Bullseye Awards acknowledges the finest products available for shooting sports. Now in its tenth year, the awards are given to winners selected by a seven-member committee comprised of editors, graphic designers and veteran NRA Publications staff who, collectively, represent more than a century of shooting and hunting experience.
The Golden Bullseye Award will be presented during a special breakfast at the 2012 NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits in St. Louis, Missouri held on Friday, April 13, 2012.
About Barnes VOR-TX
Barnes VOR-TX ammunition is precision loaded with the deadliest bullets on the planet. The leader in bullet innovation offers hunters the ultimate in accuracy, terminal performance and handloaded precision in a factory loaded round.
For more information on Barnes VOR-TX ammunition click here.
Barnes Has Updated the Copper Club Packages!!!!
We have updated our Copper Club packages!!! To view the new packages go to: http://www.barnesbullets.com/clubs/copper-club/.
BARNES BULLETS HAS NEW APPAREL!!!!
Barnes Bullets is please to announce NEW apparel items!! T-Shirts, hoodies, hats, and beanies all with the Barnes logo! To check out the new items go to: http://www.barnesbullets.com/products/other-merchandise/apparel/.
George Soros is buying up the gun industry: FALSE
CLICK HERE to view a statement released by the NRA about this false claim circulating around the internet
CAUGHT IN THE VOR-TX CONTEST!!!!!
“GET CAUGHT IN THE VOR-TX®” CONTEST
Mona, UT – Have you been caught in the VOR-TX? If so, send us your best Barnes® VOR-TX Ammunition story and picture for a chance to win some truly great prizes.
Simply click here to post your favorite VOR-TX story for a chance to win. All posts must be 500 words or less and include a picture. Contest participants will have until December 31, 2011 to submit their stories on the forum.
A panel of judges will review and select the top 10 stories based on level of passion and enthusiasm for VOR-TX ammo, uniqueness of the experience, photo composition and quality. Once the top 10 finalists are selected, a poll on the forum will be created allowing all registered forum members to vote on their favorite story. Registered members will have until January 31, 2012 to vote.
The top three winners will be announced on February 15, 2012. The prizes to be awarded are:
1st Prize – An all expense paid mountain lion hunt in Utah with Randy Brooks, President of Barnes Bullets, and professionally guided by Wade Lemon
2nd Prize – A Dakota Arms Model 10 rifle
3rd Prize – A DPMS Prairie Panther rifle
For a complete listing of official terms, conditions and contest rules please click here.
Employees and directors of the Freedom Group Family of Companies, Inc., its affiliated companies, participating sponsors, sales agencies, suppliers, subsidiaries, advertisers, advertising agencies, public relations agencies and their immediate family and household members are ineligible.
VOR-TX Trajectories
Loaded with Barnes TSX®, Tipped TSX™ & TSX FN™ bullets
BARNES® VOR-TX® Ammunition – precision loaded with the deadliest bullets on the planet. The leader in bullet innovation offers hunters the ultimate in accuracy, terminal performance and handloaded precision in a factory loaded round. The whirling, destructive power™ of Barnes’ all-copper bullet’s PERformance leaves lead-core bullet DEformance in the dust.
Offering double-diameter expansion, maximum weight retention and excellent accuracy, the TSX®, Tipped TSX™ and TSX FN™ provide maximum tissue and bone destruction, pass-through penetration and devastating energy transfer. Multiple grooves in the bullet’s shank reduce pressure and improve accuracy. Bullets open instantly on contact – no other bullet expands as quickly. Nose peels back into four sharp-edged copper petals destroying tissue, bone and vital organs for a quick, humane kill.
Group with the NEW Vor-TX® ammunition and his 7mm rem mag.
| 223 Rem—55 grain TSX | 30-06 Sprg—150 & 180 grain Tipped TSX BT | |
| 243 Win—80 grain Tipped TSX BT | 308 Win—150 & 168 grain Tipped TSX BT | |
| 270 Win—130 grain Tipped TSX BT | 300 Win Mag—165 & 180 grain Tipped TSX BT | |
| 7mm Rem Mag—140 grain Tipped TSX BT | 300 WSM—165 grain Tipped TSX BT | |
| 7mm Rem Mag—160 grain TSX BT | 300 RUM—180 grain Tipped TSX BT | |
| 30-30 Win—150 grain TSX FN | 338 Win Mag—225 grain Tipped TSX BT |
The new VOR-TX® Rifle Line additions for 2011 include:
| Caliber | Weight | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 25-06 | 100-grain | TTSX Boattail |
| 270 WSM | 140-grain | TSX Boattail |
| 7MM-08 | 120-grain | TTSX Boattail |
| 30-06 Sprg | 168-grain | TTSX Boattail |
| 300 WSM | 150-grain | TTSX Boattail |
| 300 Winchester Mag | 150-grain | TTSX Boattail |
| 300 RUM | 165-grain | TTSX Boattail |
| 338 Winchester Mag | 210-grain | TTSX Boattail |
| 45/70 Govt | 300-grain | TSX Flat Nose |
| Caliber | Weight | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 7×64 Brenneke | 140-grain | TTSX Boattail |
| 8×57 Mauser | 200-grain | TSX Flat Base |
| 9.3×62MM | 286-grain | TSX Flat Base |
*Metric calibers, 270 WSM, and 7mm-08 available in May of 2011. Other rifle line additions will be available by June 15, 2011.
This factory loaded ammunition is loaded with the toughest bullets on the market for the toughest animals on the planet. Strategically weight-matched with TSX® bullets of the same caliber, Banded Solids™ can be interchanged with expanding TSX bullets without varying point of impact for the most dangerous of game. While the TSX bullets offer maximum tissue and bone destruction, pass-through penetration, and devastating energy transfer with their ability to rapidly expand to double-diameter, the Banded Solids™ are virtually indestructible, always tracking straight and won’t deform or deflect on heavy bone.
The new VOR-TX® Safari Line additions for 2011 include:
| Caliber | Weight | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 375 H&H | 300-grain | TSX & Solid |
| 416 Remington Magnum | 400-grain | TSX & Solid |
| 416 Rigby | 400-grain | TSX & Solid |
| 458 Winchester Magnum | 450-grain | TSX & Solid |
| 458 Lott | 500-grain | TSX & Solid |
| 470 Nitro | 500-grain | TSX & Solid |
| 500 Nitro | 570-grain | TSX & Solid |
*Vor-TX® Safari line will be available in May of 2011.
Deep, dependable penetration and rapid double-diameter expansion make the XPB™ bullets ideal for hunting. Offering maximum weight retention and excellent accuracy, the XPB™ bullets provide maximum tissue and bone destruction, pass-through penetration and devastating energy transfer. Bullets open instantly on contact – no other bullet expands as quickly. Nose peels back into four sharp-edged copper petals destroying tissue, bone and vital organs for a quick, humane kill.
The new VOR-TX® Handgun Hunting Line additions for 2011 include:
| Caliber | Weight | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 357 Magnum | 140-grain | XPB |
| 44 Magnum | 225-grain | XPB |
| 45 Colt | 200-grain | XPB |
*Vor-TX® Handgun Hunting line will be available in May of 2011.
About B.C.
Because accurate BC values are important, particularly for long range shooting, Barnes fires each bullet under tightly controlled laboratory conditions. The muzzle velocity, time of flight to target and distance to target then goes to a computer programmed to use these and other variables including temperature, humidity, altitude and barometric pressure to determine the actual BC of the bullet. Some manufacturers only compare their bullets to existing size and shape models to determine a static BC. This “theoretical” method fails to take into account rifling marks inscribed in the bullet, muzzle yaw, actual bullet velocity and other important variables.
Barnes now measures BC values over 300 yards (they were formerly measured over a distance of 100 yards). Dr. Ken Oehler, of Oehler Research, Inc., suggests that BC values will probably predict trajectories at more than twice the distance over which the BC value was originally measured. Barnes feels measuring the BC over 300 yards will provide customers with data more useful for long range shooting out to 600 yards or more.
Over the past five years, Barnes has made slight changes to the geometry of many of its bullets, most notably in the shape of the ogive. Some fairly pronounced secant ogives have been changed to provide more tangent ogives. While slightly reducing BC values, this has significantly improved accuracy. BC values are also affected by multiple rings cut into the shanks of Triple-Shock X-Bullets.
Current BC values can be found on the company website. Click here to download a pdf version of the Barnes catalog & view current BC values. If you have questions about a specific bullet, please feel free to call 1-(800)-574-9200 or email email@barnesbullets.com.
From The Lab
Thad Stevens
Ballistics Lab Manager
Here’s a test question for you: True or false? Barnes Banded Solids create higher pressures, and therefore should not be fired in some double rifles, particularly older guns with softer barrel steel.
Answer: False! Read on. I’ll explain why and bolster our case with test data.
Rumors are floating around on internet forums, chat rooms, blogs and by word-of-mouth that some firearm manufacturers are recommending full metal jackets or soft points only for use in their rifles, no mono-metal solids. Because our Banded Solids are in the mono-metal class, customers have asked for our feedback. More specifically, people want to know if our Banded Solids create higher pressures than the competition’s jacketed soft points and full metal jackets to the point their rifle could be damaged. For the record, we’ve been presented with one occurrence of this nature to date, but it didn’t involve a Barnes solid. Holland & Holland reported to us that a monolithic solid manufactured by another company actually damaged one of their rifles. However, this particular company was at one time using melted down, reclaimed cartridge case brass to manufacture their monolithic solids. Barnes has always used pure, virgin material for our Solids, and now Banded Solids.
According to some blog and forum posts, there are a number of factors involved that must be taken into account such as barrel thickness and even the age of the barrel. Let’s look at the facts. Mono-metal solids are made of a solid alloy such as bronze or brass. Full metal jackets are made from a steel cup with a copper wash applied to the surface of the steel. A lead core is inserted in the base and the “cup” is then closed to form the base of the bullet. If what these folks are saying is true about thin barrels and older steel being more “sensitive,” then wouldn’t steel on steel produce a higher friction coefficient than brass alloy on steel?
The Barnes Banded Solid is slightly under-sized. We do this to accommodate the great variety of tolerances found in double rifles. It is a fact that some double rifle barrels are out of spec on bore and groove diameters. In a perfect world we would build bullets to fit each individual throat and barrel, but this is simply not feasible. So we try to build bullets that will work safely for the majority. SAAMI requires that diameters on all sporting rifles not exceed +.002”, but double rifles were being built long before SAAMI came into existence.
The material used to manufacture Barnes Banded Solids will not obturate at less than 45,000 psi. So how is it that a turned bullet, slightly undersized in diameter, held to precision tolerances on a CNC machine that will NOT obturate, create excessive pressure or damage a barrel that is even close to within spec? I submit that a full metal jacket comprised of a .003” thick copper-plated steel core engraving into the lands and grooves is going to be much harder on a barrel.
To further reduce bearing surface and pressure, Barnes has cut a series of grooves in the shank of the mono-metal solid that provides any material displaced by the lands someplace to go. Full metal jackets do not have this feature. Steel on steel is not the desired scenario for a rifle barrel, especially if what people are saying is true about the older barrels being made from softer material. Is the steel in the jacket material softer or harder than the barrel steel? In general, we don’t know the answer to this as the metal used for double rifle barrels has varied to such a great extent over the years. However, we know for a fact that the brass in Barnes Banded Solids IS softer than barrel steel. We also know that the grooves cut in the shank provide an area for the softer material to displace.
Still skeptical? Of course you are. You want proof and we figured you would, so we performed pressure tests. Hopefully, the results will put this myth and your mind to rest. While we were at it, we shot some penetration tests to compare Barnes bullets with one of our leading competitors on the African market.
I believe the “high pressure with all mono-metal solids” propaganda was spread via the old “someone heard something from someone” and so on, and so on. If someone out there is aware of an actual case involving pressure issues with BARNES mono-metal solids, I would ask that these people contact Barnes personally. We would like the opportunity to investigate any such claim. Based on our tests and experience, I’m comfortable stating that Barnes Banded Solids are better for antique barrels than the competition.
For our test, we fired 500 grain bullets in a 470 Nitro test barrel with 85.0 grains of RL15, Norma brass and Federal 215M primers.
MID-YEAR TTSX INTRODUCTION!!!
Barnes now offers the .358 cal 180-gr TTSX flat base! For more information on this bullet, including the B.C. click here .