With Club X™ and Barnes’ Copper Club™
Your Barnes Product Test Results
We’re pretty excited about the great feedback we’ve been getting on the BLOG. How about letting us know some of your “home-brewed” test results with Barnes products?
*NOTE: FOR TECHNICAL QUESTIONS, PLEASE EMAIL:
email@barnesbullets.com
Earlier this year, we received some 36 grain .224 Varmint Grenade bullets for testing and evaluation. PSA PRO STAFF Member, Richard Kendall, performed the test with the bullets.
We used a .22/250, Remington VS 24″ Barrel and a Remington .223 SPS with 24″ Barrel for the testing.
Velocities ranged from 3600 to 3800 fps for the .223 and up to 4050 fps for the .223.
Bullets fragmented reliably on a wide variety of surfaces, including pavement and anything soft. Some richochets were noted on icy surfaces but that is to be expected.
Richard shot groups ranging from .61 to.75 with the .223 and half minute groups with the .22/250. Smallest group measured .19 @ 100 yards for 5 shots with the .22/250.
Richard shot 2 coyotes (no exit) 1 fox (big hole on off side), 1 bobcat (no exit) and numerous jackrabbits with the loads. Massive soft tissue destruction was noted on all animals.
About the only negatives are the drop from 200 to 300 yards was 9-10″ due to the low BC. This bullet is probably at its best to around 250 yards or so for flat shooting. Also, major fouling at higher velocities but that is to be expected.
Great bullet, consistent performance on game within its distance envelope. Probably a bit too destructive on fox if you are trying to save the hides. Coyotes and Bobcat – no exit.
I would like to thank the folks at Barnes for taking the time to send these bullets for us to test. This is a true mark of professionalism.
Sincerely,
Ron Avery
President, The Practical Shooting Academy, Inc.
I just got back from my first season Elk hunt here in Colorado where I harvested a mid size ( 600 Lb ) bull with a 168 grain TSX loaded in a 30-06 doing about 2800 FPS. My shot was just shy of 40 yards in deep timber. The bullet no doubt did it’s job. I had to shoot twice only due to shot placement. The animal was quartering a bit more than I thought. The second shot was on the mark and dropped the animal in it’s tracks. I recovered one bullet and it maintained 95% (160 grains)after going through 2 feet of animal and hitting bone! That was the first shot. The second was a pass through and had similar results to other hunters response. Clean entry without a huge exit. The area’s in between however were nicely cut. It will be interesting to see what the same load does to a mulie doe the winter.
Tested your 168 grain TTSX bullet on an elk this week. I loaded a friend some 168 TTSX in a 300 Win. mag. He shot a cow elk this week at 639 yards. One shot kill, the bullet went through the front shoulder through the heart and out the other shoulder. The elk went down in less than 20 yards. This is got to be the best bullet yet. Thanks for making them!!!
I switched to the Knight Red Hot by Barnes .50 cal 250 grain this year for Iowa whitetails using muzzle loader. I took a 160 class buck at 120 yrds and a beautiful mature doe at 110 yrds. I recovered both bullets and they had opened absolutely perfect and retained 100% of their weight. The wound channel was impressive and both deer fell right where they stood. What an awsome round. Both were fired on top of 150 grains 777 pellets.
I’ll try to keep this short, but it’s a long story.
In 1983, my wife’s dad drew a once-in-a-lifetime (OIAL) North Dakota moose tag. He bagged a 51-inch bull that scaled about 1,300 lbs. He did the job with three or four shots from his .300 Savage. Happy with the results.
In 1992, our daughter drew a OIAL tag for a cow moose. She used my dad’s .30-’06 with 180-grain factory loads. Ignore the burned ear and pinked butt, she put four heart/lung shots into the cow, which still traveled about 100 yards after the last one, before lying down for good. Happy with the hunt.
This year, my wife drew a OIAL moose (cow) tag, AND a OIAL elk (cow) tag.
My son and I had to decide what was the best move upward in caliber, since she usually shoots a .243, and has had good results on deer.
After a lot of mental juggling, and trying the “fit” of Pa’s old 760 and a 788 Remington in .308, mostly as backup ordnance, she liked the Savage 111 with Accu-Trigger in .30-’06.
I tried several variations of factory loads, and had mediocre to terrible results. (Brands and bullets not mentioned, available upon private request, to avoid nastiness from the manufacturers.)
So, he cooked up a load straight out of a book, with the 180-grain TSX.
After a tuneup at the range, I shot minute-of-angle.
The rifle was ready, and my wife liked the load. (I forget, but it has … um … ? however many grains ? … of 4064 pushing the bullet.)
She was upset with herself after missing three shots at a fast-walking large cow … while shooting offhand, at 250 yards. (I finally convinced her that this is a tough shot for most folks. Also, she’s probably not fired more than 100 rounds of centerfire in her life. But she has fun. And so do I.)
After most of our sixth day of hunting was gone, a neighbor spotted a cow and calf.
We arrived, the cow was facing us straight on, she stepped out of the pickup, and waited until the cow turned her head and took a quarter-step.
One shot. Broke the shoulder and punched the lungs.
Cow went down, and never got up.
I’ve been hunting for a lot longer than she has.
I am VERY impressed with the Barnes bullets. We’ll be switching all our game loads to some sort of Barnes, and burning up the lead ammo on paper targets.
By the way, we have a granddaughter who will hunt deer this year for the first time. Now, if I can only manage to move her up to a caliber/load she can handle, and she can draw a tag, we could be a Four Generation Moose Hunt family.
Is that any good?
I just tried my first box of the new tipped TSX .308 168gr in my 30-06. I was short on time for developing a load for this bullet in the rifle but the inital results were very good – less than a MOA at 100 yards. It was a good thing that it worked so well as it was a few days before the local moose season( 2 hours north of Toronto Ontario)and we had a Bull tag. Had the bullet not shot as well I would be carrying the tried and true 8mm drilling…
Thursday we filled the tag, on a 46-48″ bull. One shot with the new bullet literally dropped the 1000+ animal where he stood. Recovered the bullet from the bull and it scaled off at 167.2gr. Called Barnes and the tech depatment stated the plastic tip weighs .8 gr.
After smashing into a bull moose at 170 yards, dropping it in its track, retaining basically 101% of the bullet, I now have 3 more boxes of tipped.308 168gr TSX, 2 boxes of 200 gr to develop in the 8mm, 2 boxes for the 6mm and the 7mm and awaiting 3 boxes for the 22-250 to show up. Definitely a convert to exculsivly shooting Barnes – phenominal bullet.
What are you supposed to do you do with a bench load of prehistoric bullet tips from other mfg’rs?????
barns triple shocks are awsome shot my second best buck ever one shot in the neck and he dropped in his tracks 200yds everyone should use barns bullets theres none better
I have been hunting with Barnes 165 grain XFB bullets for about 4 years now. Originally I chose the 165gr XFB for an Elk hunt. I only hunt with one rifle because I want it to be second nature when the adrenaline is flowing. My rifle is a custom Savage 11FC in 308 win.
For Elk hunting I used a load that gave me an average velocity of 2750 FPS over a Chrony Beta and groups in the 3/4″ range consistently. This load was right on the edge with my rifle. Case life is very short before the primers would become loose. I could get an average of 7 reloads per casing. As I said this is a hot load for a 308 and not one I use for deer hunting. At a confirmed 423 yards it will pass though an elk taking ribs with it. My first shot was low and traveled though the leg bone and stuck 3/4 of the way into the breast plate loosing only 1 petal.
For deer hunting and range shooting I slow it down to save my barrel and powder. Same components but with 42.5 grains of Varget. This produces groups averaging 5/8″ and velocity averaging 2590 FPS. I love this load and I get long case life.
I hope when I run out of the XFB’s that the Triple Shocks are as accurate in my rifle.
I just got a chance to try the 270 .375 TSX bullet on deer. I wasn’t sure if this bullet would expand on deer size game because generally the 375 is meant for heavy game. I loaded it to about 2700 fps in my H&H. I got a shot broadside at a small-medium size buck. The bullet entered very low and clipped the heart. Because the shot was low, the bullet only went through 5-6″ of animal. No bone was hit what so ever. The entrance hole was the size of a pencil and the exit hole was the size of a 50 cent piece. it expanded, but There was no way I could recover the bullet. I even checked the trees behind the deer in luck that it might have hit one of them. The deer ran 50 yards, and was dead when I got to him.
All I can say is it’s great to have one accurate bullet that will expand on deer, yet penetrate the largest bear. Another added bonus is that I don’t have to worry about any lead contamination in the meat.
I had bought a brand new Rem 700 S/S 300 ultra mag after last season and hoped I would test fire it this fall. I had heard that softer bullets could shatter on impact if shot at close range with the 300 RUM and so I went for the toughest bullets available. Does Barnes TSX ring a bell?
For me, moose hunting here in Eastern Canada is a family thing and a serious business. There is no shooting for no reason and minimal meat loss is expected. Man was I able to verify Barne’s reputation!
I shot a bull moose quartering towards me at 200 yards. The bullet went through the ribcage behind the shoulder and vaporized the lungs. The bull jumped on impact and fell dead on the spot.
I surely did my part but Barnes didn’t let me down! Now I know what kind of bullets I need when hunting big game. After seeing the result, my dad is talking about buying TSX bullets for his 7mm rem mag
I have taken 6 animals this year, all one shot kills. A 19 point Red Deer, Axis deer, 129″ Patagonia Ram, and Black Fallow Deer all in Argentina. A 4 point Mule Deer in Washington State and a 355″ Elk in Idaho. All were taken with a 300 Ultra Mag and a 180 Barnes TSX. These bullets have preformed flawlessly. Every one of these animals dropped in the tracks except the Mule deer, he went about 60 yards. Keep up the good work. See you @ SCI.
Jim Stack, Kirkland, WA.
I have taken two whitetails this year with your XLC 130gr bullets loaded to around 3000fps in my ultralight 30.06. Both deer were one shot kills, not moving from the spot they were hit. I can’t wait to try loads from my Swedish Mauser with your your X bullet. Thanks for such great products.
I have been using barnes bullets for the past three years I recently loaded up the new MRX in my 270WSM made a 250yrd shot on a antalope in Clayton New Mexico. This bullet performs great one shot and the buck was down instantly and it didnt tear up the animal. Keep up the good work thanks Barnes Bullets!!!!
Earl Muniz, Bloomfield, NM
I ave hunting in Zimbabwe in september : Hippo,Elefant and Buffalo.
Hippo :1 shot cal. 300Wby my loading w/ tsx 168grns- Brain shot on the land. Head of Hippo praticaly exploding.
Elefant: 1 shot cal. 416 rigby my loading w/solid 400 grns – Brain shot . The bullet go aut of the head of Big bull 50 pounds.
Buffalo: 1 shot cal. 416 rigby my loading w/ tsx 400grns – Heart shot. The bull, same hippo and elefant drop down on the shot
I am very happy to use Barnes bulletts for all my huntings. Thankyou very mutch
Thanks for all of you that have given feed back on the Barns bullets, especially you reloader guys. I have reloaded for the first time this year and I now believe it is something that I am doing with the reloads or something.
I will keep trying and let you guys know.
Thanks,
Mike
Thanks for the great product, I just took my daughters hunting and was able to try the barnes 7mm
TSX 150gr on a 75 lb wild hog @ 30 yards.when I dressed out the hog I could not find the bullet so I thought it was a pass though. I shot the hog in the vitals and took it down immediately. after butching this hog I gave a hind quarter to a fellow hunter .after cooking it he brought me the bullet I was amazed that I did not see it. the bullet weighed in at 142 gr which is excellent for such a close shot. I have used other brands and had to dig and find all the fragments what a job !
barnes bullents are the best!!!
keep up the great products.
I am extremely happy with the performance of the TTSX in a 300 WSM. I shot a desert mule fork at 175 yards behind the left shoulder. It went through the chest and hit the shoulder blade on exit. The deer went down right away. When I opened him up, I found out why: the heart (what was left) rolled out. Very nice performance.
I just returned from an Oryx hunt on White Sands Missle range in New Mexico. Prior to this hunt, I had loaded the 140 gr. TSX in a 270 WSM. The load chronographed at 3198 fps using Norma brass, RL-22 powder and Winchester large rifle magnum primers. Accuracy of this load through my Sako 75 was 1/2″-3/4″ for a 3-shot group at 100 yards. One shot at 460 yards dropped the oryx in her tracks. The recovered bullet expanded as advertised, was .510″ at the widest point and weighed 139 grains (99%). The bullet entered the left shoulder, traveled through the lungs, took out the lower 1/3 of the spine, continued through the right shoulder and lodged under the hide-where I recoverd it. TSX bullets are accurate and tough as hell – What else could you want?
I just reloaded for my wifes 270 winchester TC Encore 140 TSX they were more accurate than the 140 Nosler Ballistic tips. 3 shots one hole at 100 yds 54.3 of IMR 4831
I live right smack in the middle of the condor range in California, so I had to convert all my rifles and pistols to a none lead bullet. I went with Barnes and I’m glad I did. Bullet performance and accuracy are nothing short of Spectacular. This past June I shot a big boar with my Marlin 1895 Guide Gun and a 300gr
Barnes TSX bullet across a canyon at about 100yds. The boar was at a downward angle and the bullet broke about
7inches of his spine and tore a silver dollar size hole on his right lung. The boar died instantly and 5 seconds later rolled down the hill. I will never buy,load or shoot anything but Barnes.
Thanks Barnes for making out of this world products.
Omar
I have been shooting Brnes bullets for almost 10 years. I started with my 300 Win. and have been slowly fazing out my other bullets when they run low/out to make room for more barnes’. of all the animals I have shot, three were with “regular” bullets, with disastrous results: an elk at 200yd with 180gn Speer took foour bullets that exploded without reaching the far ribs(one shoulder and all of its organs shredded to mush)- a coyote from 100-350yd with 55gn Blitzking took seven rounds on both sides of the body from shoulder to hip(ran out of shells and he hobbled off SEVERLY wounded)- a deer at 200yd with 95gn Partition took two roonds that acted like frangibles, peppering the lungs with shavings(dropped on the first lung shot, then got up and ran from follow-up quartering lung shot).
I will only use the “regular” bullets to keep me proficient with my guns, and not for hunting.
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just returned from a moose hunt here in idaho. my wife killed a moose with hand loaded triple shock .270 winchester. first shot broke sholder and went fhrough rib on off side to stop under skin. second shot went through neck transecting the spine and stopped in juglar vein. one dead moose.first kill for my lady! bullets expanded to .589 inch with four petals. beautiful! full weight retention. am sold on these bullets.
I have been hunting for 49 years with everything from a 22 to a 30-378 weatherby .I have used many different bullets and have never been so impressed as I am with the Barnes tripple shok . My wife and I just returned from a deer hunt { in our back yard } and we both got 3 point bucks western count . She shot hers at 80 yards behind the front shoulder ,when we walked up to the animal the bullet had passed right through not making a very big entrance or exit hole , I though this that it was like shooting armor piercing {not good } until I skinned the animal and seen what kind of damage it had done on the inside .WHAT knock down power . I shot mine at 125 yards under the chin at it took the head almost off.Very pleased with the results and will be using nothing but BARNES bullets from now on. We both shoot 270WSM calibers for deer and I use a 300 Remington ultra mag for elk. Cannot wait to get some bullets to reload for it . Thankyou Mike Archer
I bought a t/c triumph 50 cal.blkpwdr rifle this year. I got drawn for a november bull elk hunt this year in arizona. This is my first blkpwdr hunt so I went along with what the dvd instructed for this gun. It stated that the t/c shockwave sabots were the best suited sabots for this gun with great accuracey and with the 777 pellets…Well let me tell you dont fall for the sales pitches that you are told. After spending countless hours at the range and about a couple of hundred dollars trying to find the right combonation of pellets and shockwave sabots I have realized that in my opinion it was just not true..never did I get any consitansy (spelling)..After doing alot of on line research and reading I have found the right combo for my gun…I am using the BARNES T-EZ 250 grains sabots and 110 grains of blackhorn209 powder…WOW …I can not believe the difference in accuracy and consistancy. 100yards dead on 2 shots kissing and the third 1/2 inch away I mean dead on…at 200 yards first shot to check bullet drop next two kissing in a 2×2 square target…..I cant not believe what a change…This only goes to show how good a product BARNES T-EZ sabots with blackhorn209 powder are…when you have a great product like BARNES and the research they put into their product you cant go wrong…THANK YOU BARNES I CANT WAIT TO GET OUT ON MY BULL ELK HUNT I AM PUMPED..AND CONFIDENT TO TAKE THAT 200 YARD SHOT IF I NEED TOO. MICHAEL DELGADO PHOENIX ARIZONA
Barnes TTSX Bullets turn deer lungs into liquid!
just finished a Coues Whitetail hunt in So. Arizona.
Your 110 gr TTSX over 67.5 gr IMR-4350 in my Kimber 270WSM dropped my Coues in his tracks. Hammer of Thor style at 246 yds.
Your 120 gr TTSX over 51.5 gr of H414 in my wife’s Rem 700 Syn. 7mm-08 gave almost as dramatic results with her buck keeling-over about 5 seconds after she woke him up from his nap with a double lung shot.
In both of our guns, the TTSX Bullets group sub-MOA.
I have been reloading since 1974 and have always been a Nosler man. I have nothing but good to say about their products. They still make fine bullets.
BUT, you can bet all of your copper that the TTSX has won me over. Now I need to lay-up a few thousand!
This year I have killed two bucks with my 50 cal Knight lk93 using the 250 gr Knight “Red Hot” bullets (Barnes Expander MZ) & 90 grains of Pyrodex loose powder. The biggest buck of the two was 150 + pounds.The bullet did not exit but blew the front of the lungs out and left a 4″ gash in the heart and then came to rest under the skin of the offside shoulder. He left a blood trail so massive that it looked like someone had mopped the forest with blood( Not that I needed to track him, he only ran about 15 yards maximum). Perfect textbook mushrooms about an inch wide on both bullets. I will be switching my ammo for my 30-06 over to Barnes.