December 2007 Barnes Bullet-n
| Randy Brooks Message: |  |
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This Thanksgiving reminded me of the many things we can be thankful for. First and foremost are the freedoms we enjoy in this country. They include the freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and the freedom to worship as we wish. Let’s not forget the freedom to own firearms and hunt with them. We can’t take those privileges for granted—we’ve seen too many countries deny their citizens these valuable freedoms.
I’m thankful for our brave servicemen and women, who daily risk their lives defending our precious freedom. Let’s not forget them during the holidays. One of our employees is currently deployed in Iraq with the Utah National Guard’s 116th
Security Force. Barnes participated with a local Family Readiness Group (FRG) to send more than 600 Christmas care packages to deployed Utah soldiers.
You to can send a soldier a “thank you” to let them know their efforts are appreciated by those whom they are serving back home. Gifts can be sent to deployed troops by logging onto www.aafes.org or calling 877-770-4438. From there, the gift certificates are sent to individual service members (designated by the purchaser) or distributed to “any service member” through the Air Force Aid Society, American Red Cross, Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes, Fisher House, Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, Operation Homefront, Operation Interdependence or USO. Soldiers can redeem “Gifts From the Homefront” gift certificates at exchange facilities worldwide.
U.S. Department of Defense regulations now require all packages and mail to be addressed to individual service members. So if you don’t personally know someone that is deployed, this is a great way to give back. Prepaid phone cards for calling home are particularly welcome. For those of you mailing packages, remember that First Class mail must be sent by December 10 to arrive by December 25.
December is one of the hottest months for hunting deer. Three good friends recently reported taking some outstanding trophies. Jeff Mitchell killed a 230-inch mule deer in Utah’s Henry Mountains, while Denny Austad shot both a huge bull elk and a giant mule deer, also in Utah. Trent Wall just returned from a highly successful hunt, where he killed a trophy desert bighorn on a once-in-a-lifetime tag he’d drawn. Finally, Cole Peck shot a great desert bighorn in Nevada.
That reminds me—don’t forget to apply for the tags you’ll need for next year’s special hunts. Many of these tags go on sale early—January or February. If you snooze, you lose. Miss the application date, and you’ll miss out on some super hunts.
Here’s wishing you good hunting and a happy holiday season.
Randy Brooks
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It is hard to believe, but 2007 is about to end. It has been a very busy year for me, and a very exciting one as well. I’m looking forward to 2008 with great enthusiasm because of the many new products we have lined up to offer our great customers. Also, Barnes will be building a new manufacturing facility in 2008. It will be located in a small farming community approximately 40 miles south of our current location. Mule deer and elk roam the hills above the new factory site, and we’re looking forward to making the move.
As mentioned in past newsletters, the new Tipped TSX is really taking off. Sales are even better than we had hoped. We’ve already begun shipping these bullets, and we’ll have even more calibers and weights made available early in 2008 so keep watching for more TTSX news.
We also will be offering the new Barnes Reloading Manual Number 4. This will not only be informative, but an attractive work of art. We’re working feverishly to have it available to ship early in the year.
Other exciting news for 2008 is the 26-grain .204- and 50-grain .223-caliber bullets will be added to the Varmint Grenade lineup. We’ve been overwhelmed by requests for a .204 bullet, so we just had to offer it. They’ll be available in January 2008.
The Multi-Purpose Green Bullet—MPG—is another new addition. Developed for military applications, the bullet features a highly frangible, powdered-metal copper-tin core inside a guilding metal jacket. The open-tip bullets combine pinpoint accuracy with explosive fragmentation.
The 5.56mm (.224-inch) 55-grain MPG bullet is designed for M4, HK416 and AR-15 type autoloaders and other firearms with a rifling twist rate of 1:9 (one turn in nine inches) or faster. Another offering will be a 140-grain 7.62mm (.308-inch) version for AR-10, SR-25, M40 (Remington 700) and M14 rifles with 1:12 or faster rifling twists.
Remember: if you haven’t yet ordered the new “Bullet Myths Busted” DVD, please do so. I know you’ll be impressed with not only the content and cool high-speed video, but the quality as well. It can be ordered by simply going to our website and clicking on Free DVD at the home page of www.barnesbullets.com.
We’re proud of what we do here at Barnes—and of our ability to innovate, not simply imitate. We’re always thinking of new products we can offer our customers—and have a lot of fun doing that.
We are also proud of the distinguished list of factory ammunition featuring Barnes products. Ammunition manufacturers we are associated with include Federal Cartridge Company, Weatherby, Black Hills Ammunition, Cor-Bon, Norma, Sellier & Bellot and Sako. We also want to mention custom loaders Superior Ammunition and Safari Arms. These two companies are a real asset for shooters and hunters who don’t reload, but want specialty custom loads for their rifles—or who own out-of-the-ordinary calibers that factory ammunition is not available for.
We wish you a great holiday season, and hope you will have a wonderful new year in 2008. As always, thanks for your great support of Barnes and our products.
Coni Brooks
The new Tipped TSX Bullets are here! I thought I’d take a moment to give you the inside scoop. Calibers and weights available are as follows.
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Caliber
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Weight
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| .270 | 110-grain |
| .270 | 130-grain |
| 7mm | 120-grain |
| 7mm | 140-grain |
| .308 | 130-grain |
| .308 | 150-grain |
| .308 | 168-grain |
| .338 | 210-grain |
| .338 | 225-grain |
Based on the feedback we’ve received about this new design, more weights and calibers will be offered in the not-too-distant future.
Why a tip? The tip helps in a few different ways. First, it makes the bullet more streamlined, giving it a higher BC value. This translates into flatter trajectory, with more velocity and energy downrange. Second, the tip helps initiate expansion—not that the TSX needed any help here, but we feel it’s an improvement. High speed video illustrates this point extremely well. Third, this design widens the expansion-velocity window.
Why use a lighter weight bullet for hunting big game? We are able to design the expansion window of the TTSX to accommodate the higher impact velocities we expect to see from these lightweight bullets. In her column last month, Coni Brooks reported on the great mule deer she took using a 130-grain TTSX moving at breakneck velocity from a .300 Winchester Magnum. Results were outstanding, with over 30 inches of penetration and tremendous hydrostatic shock that literally jellied the heart and liver without actually touching them.
Editor, Dave Scovill, published a great article in the November 2007 Rifle Magazine titled ‘Barnes “Mystery” Bullet in Africa’ , where several large plains game trophies were taken with the same .308-caliber 130-grain Tipped Triple Shock bullets. He saw fantastic results similar to those Coni experienced. You can visit the Rifle Magazine website and order a back issue at the following links:
www.riflemagazine.com/home.index
Or
www.riflemagazine.com/backissues/index
Currently we recommend using the new TTSX bullets with X Bullet or TSX bullet load data. If you need help with a load, please call me direct at 800-574-9200.
Barnes encourages shooters to switch to a lighter bullet weight than they’ve normally used because of Barnes’ all copper design and great penetration. See for yourself how well they really do work!
Happy Hunting,
Ty Herring
I recently switched to 140-grain MRX bullets in my Lazzeroni Tomahawk, and gained 130 feet per second (fps) without changing anything but the bullet. At the same time, this already accurate rifle went to super accurate. Last week I finished a trip to New Zealand, where I took tahr, chamois, red stag, and Arapawa ram.
Shooting ranges varied between 80 and 305 yards. The only bullet recovered was from the tahr; it weighed 139.2 grains. The red stag was hit behind the left shoulder from 305 yards, and the bullet exited in front of the right hip. I now have a Grand and World Slam and I am working on my Capra Slam.
The MRX will be the bullet I use. I am truly impressed with its performance.
—Mike Davis
Elk Roast Baked In Foil
3-4 lb. roast
1/2 pkg. of dry onion soup
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place roast on piece of heavy duty aluminum foil. Sprinkle 1/2 pkg of dry onion soup over meat. Bring edges of foil together and seal tightly. Place in shallow roasting pan and bake for 2 to 2 1/2 hours. There will be ample juice collected inside foil which can be thickened for gravy. *You can also use venison or moose for this recipe.
Jessica Brooks, Ballistics Lab Manager
Can someone answer this question? Why would someone spend big money on a match-grade rifle, and not incorporate that same level of reloading practices into their routine? (Hey AR guys – you know I’m talking to you!) If you’re shooting sub-par, junk brass in your rifle, you could be short-changing yourself. Furthermore, safety may become an issue.
Using inadequate brass to save a little money just doesn’t make sense. Are you one of those guys who drive your crew cab, dual-wheeled pick-up truck all over town looking to save a penny on gas? If so, you may be beyond help, so skip to the Gel Shot. The point is, if you figure your costs out over just three or four firings, you’ll find that brass is really pretty inexpensive. However, quality and consistency can be a tremendous factor in how your ammo performs. The question is, “how much of a factor?”
In the lab, we started the month of November off with a “bang,” fighting accuracy with bullets that we know shoot extremely well. After some review and discussion, we switched out all the old brass for new, and the groups came right back in line. This prompted a test that produced the following results.
The cartridges chosen were the .223 Remington and .308 Winchester. The test was to determine the overall performance of new, once-fired and old, inadequate brass. Twenty pieces of new brass were prepped for each cartridge, which were then used to produce the “once-fired” results. The old brass was from the same manufacture and lot. Loads were worked up in the old brass, then the same loads were used in the new and once-fired tests.
SAAMI pressure barrels were used for this test. They were thoroughly cleaned and inspected. Three five-shot strings were fired for each test group. The barrels were allowed to rest five minutes between firing each five-shot group. The barrels were inspected and cleaned after each test group was fired.
In conclusion, the 308 Winchester results were somewhat of a surprise. Sometimes we found little difference between the results obtained with new, once-fired, and old cases. However, the 223 Remington performed as expected. Crappy brass gave crappy results.
On a separate note, check out this photo of some .300 Winchester Magnum cases. These were fired in one of our test barrels just this month. The .300 Winchester is a cartridge we use a lot in our testing, so the brass gets used quite a bit. The load was 8.0 grains under maximum, but due to worn brass, the pressure spiked to 72,000 psi. Considering the SAAMI maximum pressure for this cartridge is 64,000 psi, these results weren’t good! Notice the extractor marks on a few of the case heads and leaky primers. With all the shooting and testing we do in our lab, we’re bound to come across things like this from time to time. Hopefully, you’ll find this information useful and informative.
Good shooting!
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I have been a law enforcement officer in Phoenix for 17 years. I am married, with two children. I am currently working in patrol and am a precinct firearms instructor. My hobbies are hunting, target shooting, fishing and camping. My free time finds me usually out scouting my hunting areas with my family throughout Arizona. I have lived exclusively in Arizona for my 43 years, and formerly resided in the Tucson and Phoenix areas. My shooting and hunting have taken me to all corners of the state.
I had heard many good things about Barnes bullets, so I had to try them. The first load I used was a .270 cal 130-brain Triple-Shock. Wow, was I surprised at how accurate they were! My first group went into just under an inch. After experimenting with the charge, I got five shots into a half inch! I used a custom Remington .700 with a Shilen barrel in .270 WSM. I shot this Coues whitetail at around 200 yards, and he dropped in his tracks.
—David Long
Hunter’s Edge Fixed Blade Knife
Savage Arms proudly introduces their Hunter’s Edge Fixed Blade knife. Designed by Savage, the Fixed Blade knife is a multiple purpose knife featuring a drop-point blade, a serrated edge, a gut-hook and a saw – all in a single blade knife. In addition, the knife features a two sided screwdriver bit – Philips Head and Straight Slot. A sharpening “steel” also accompanies this knife as well. A sturdy nylon canvas sheath rounds out the new offering from Savage.
The Fixed Blade knife is the second knife in the Hunter’s Edge series of knives following the successful introduction of their Interchangeable Blade Knife in 2006.
For more information visit our website at www.savagearms.com.
This month’s “Parting Shot” is brought to you about the time we’re all gearing up around here to do some serious coyote hunting. Our Varmint Grenades have really taken off, and for good reason, they work! This photo features the 6mm 62-grain Varmint Grenade in a 10″x10″x6″ block of ballistic ordnance gelatin. The bullet was fired at 3800 fps muzzle velocity from a 6mm Remington and impact occurred at 15 feet from the muzzle. We placed a 2″ square piece of fiberglass tubing just inside the entry point to assimilate bone, which was completely blown in half. Not one bullet fragment exited the 6″ long block. The bullet completely vaporized – and take a look at that cavity!
