March 2007 Barnes Bullet-n
Varmint season is just getting started. It offers a great opportunity to polish the shooting skills you’ll need for hunting deer and other game next fall. A few of the guys from Barnes will soon spend a weekend in Idaho trying our new Varmint Grenade bullets on coyotes. Hunting coyotes is a lot different than popping prairie dogs from a sandbagged shooting bench. You usually shoot yodel dogs while sitting or kneeling, sometimes with a bipod support. This is great practice if you have time because these are the same positions you’ll use when deer season rolls around. Learning to connect on coyotes, foxes or bobcats at different ranges really pays off when it’s time to bag your buck. Miss a coyote with your first shot, and you’ll get some fast experience shooting at running game. A spooked coyote can really cover ground and is much harder to hit than a running deer. Hunting rabbits is even better practice, particularly for shooting offhand. The same thing holds true when hunting deer and other large game. Shooting while standing up may be your only option, so you’d better be prepared. Keep that in mind next time you’re gunning prairie dogs. It’s great to practice long-distance shooting at prairie dogs 300 or 400 yards away, but you won’t have a shooting bench handy during deer season. After spending a few hours shooting prairie dogs at long distance, I step away from my bench. Then I concentrate on prairie dogs that pop up closer—80 to 120 yards away—and try to hit them shooting offhand. I sit or kneel for 130- to 200-yard targets. This is a lot tougher than shooting from a sandbagged bench. In addition to being a whole lot of fun, hunting varmints these next few months can really pay off at deer season. Learn to hit prairie dogs from the offhand, sitting and kneeling positions, and you’ll be a more confident (and successful) deer, elk and pronghorn hunter. Good hunting, Randy Brooks
Randy Brooks Message:
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For the next few weeks in March, a few of us from Barnes will be attending the I.W.A. show held in Nuremburg. This is the German version of the SHOT Show. Many other U.S. manufacturers will also be present at this show.
It will be a good show for Barnes. Our business is really growing in the foreign market, and we will be excited to visit with Barnes customers from many different countries.
I have not been in the office much these past several weeks, because we have had so many trade shows to attend. If attending these shows helps make hunters more aware of Barnes Bullets, our time spent there is well worth it.
I am happy to announce that the new Barnes website is up and running. I hope you will go to www.barnesbullets.com and check it out. Maybe we’re biased, but we think it’s one of the best websites out there. It has some cool, new things that weren’t on our old website.
A few of these new features are:
1. A Barnes blog, where you can post comments about selected subjects. Click on Blogs.
2. Access to a few select loads for each of the cartridges we’ve fired in the Barnes ballistics lab. These are some of the loads that will be included in our new Barnes Reloading Manual Number 4 scheduled for publication early next year. Click on technical.
3. High-speed video clips showing Barnes new .22 caliber, 36-grain Varmint Grenade bullet blowing up as it hits a grape. You can also watch a 180-grain .308 Triple-Shock bullet deliver instant expansion and impressive penetration when fired into a block of ballistics gelatin. Click on technical.
4. For your educational enjoyment, membership in Barnes University is now being offered at a new low price of just $9.95. Barnes University is a step-by-step program designed to improve your handloading skills. Learn all about statistics, trajectories and other information that will help you build more accurate loads and develop better shooting skills. A certificate of completion is awarded when you finish the course. For more information about Barnes University, Click on Clubs.
5. Get a free six-month subscription to Handloader or Rifle magazine. Click on Special Offers.
6. A New, improved store site. Click on Store.
As always, we welcome your hunting photos. Remember, there’s a special section for women and children. We love your pictures and want to show them off. So send those photos—along with your name, phone number and a brief explanation about what’s in the picture—to email@barnesbullets.com.
As you visit our new website, I know you’ll find something to interest the whole family.
Invite your friends to check it out. Ask them to join Club-X with you (it’s free!). Don’t forget that the Copper Club also has a lot to offer. There’s a $50.00 membership fee for joinng. Considering all the Copper Club benefits, we feel this is a real bargain.
Thanks for being a loyal Barnes customer. We truly appreciate your membership in Club-X, along with your kind words of encouragement when you tell us what great products we make. We never tire of hearing from you, and we take your comments seriously. My husband always says, “Farmers invent farm equipment—and in our case, hunters invent the bullets.” You can always learn from someone else if you’re just willing to listen.
Have a great month.
Coni
Ty’s Tips
Spring is fast approaching. That means varmint season is just around the corner. Since the cold weather is still upon us, there’s plenty of time to look over your personal arsenal and make sure it’s ready for the hunt.
This month I’d like to focus on cleaning and maintenance. It’s also a good time to load some ammunition so you’ll be ready when that sunny spring day arrives.
I suggest cleaning one firearm at a time. This will allow you to focus your efforts. If you’re like me, and one gun slipped through the cracks to be put away dirty, you’ll have some extra cleaning to do. Either way, you’ll want to begin by removing the bolt to access the action.
I clean the bore first, so any solvents that get slopped around can be cleaned up as I go. I always insert a bore guide before using a cleaning rod. This not only prevents solvents from getting all over, but aligns the cleaning rod to avoid damaging precise chamber and bore dimensions. I consider bore guides a real “must.”
First, use a brush with a few drops of solvent applied. I prefer Barnes CR-10 because it does the job quickly, but other solvents are okay, too. Start with ten to twenty strokes of the brush. making sure the brush completely exits the muzzle with every stroke. Don’t change direction while the brush is inside the barrel. Doing so will damage the brush. Follow this with a dry patch to remove the fouling. Next, wet a patch with solvent and again make a full stroke to the end of the barrel. Follow with another dry patch. Repeat this process until the patches come out white. I’ve found a tight patch is the key to getting the barrel clean quickly.
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Now that the barrel is free of fouling, you need to remove that aggressive solvent. We use and recommend non-chlorinated brake cleaner–the same stuff you buy at the auto parts store. Point the barrel downward and spray a generous amount of brake cleaner through it. I suggest placing a large towel or garbage can at the muzzle. Follow this procedure with a patch soaked in oil. Several types of oil will protect the barrel from rust. My favorite is Rem Oil, but a light 3-in-1 oil works well, too.
Remove the barreled action from the stock and clean away dirt and grime with an oil-soaked cloth. Many times I’ve seen rust begin to develop between the stock and action. If you find rust, you can remove most of it by using some very fine (000 to 0000) steel wool. Be careful—if you’re too aggressive, you can remove the bluing. Be sure to clean and oil all exposed metal, including the bolt, magazine and magazine box (if your rifle has one).
When reassembling, I suggest tightening the front action screw first to no more than 50 inch-pounds. For those of you who don’t have an inch-pound torque tool, 1 inch-pound converts to .08333” foot-pounds. This means 50 inch-pounds equals 4.2 foot-pounds. Torque the back action screw(s) to 30 inch-pounds or 2.5 foot-pounds. Over-tightening can warp the action and cause poor accuracy.
This is my cleaning and maintenance routine, and it works well for me. I hope you’ll find these brief tips helpful.
As always, your patronage is appreciated!
Ty Herring
Success Story!
Bill DeHaan
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Thanks again to Ty for the excellent help he gave me last summer as I worked up a 180- grain TSX load for my .300 RUM, which I planned to use on an Alaskan moose and caribou hunt. I recently returned from that hunt, and hope you enjoy the photos I’ve sent.
In September 2006, my boyhood friend Perry Chron and I went to Alaska on an unguided fly-in/drop hunt. We were both using .300 Remington Ultra-Mags loaded with Barnes 180-grain Triple-Shock X-Bullets. From the bench, these loads shoot ½-MOA groups or smaller after leaving the muzzle at around 3400 feet per second (fps). As you can see from the photos, these bullets gave spectacular results. I hadn’t dreamt of shooting a finer caribou than the terrific double-shovel bull I harvested. After a quarter-mile sprint across the muskeg, I finally got close enough for a 120-yard shot.
I am accustomed to complete pass-throughs when shooting TSX bullets, so I was surprised to actually recover a bullet. The only bullet we recovered (see photo) was found in my bull, AFTER it had completely shattered the upper leg bone. Today, that bullet still weighs 170 grains—nearly 95 percent of its original weight!
This kind of performance is exactly why we hunt only with the TSX, and why it’s revolutionizing the high-performance hunting bullet industry. My Barnes hat says it all: “The Tracks Stop Here!”
Again, thanks to you and the rest of your team at Barnes!
—Bill De Haan
Cor-Bon’s New DPX Ammo:
Breakthrough In Technology
Supercharges Handgun Performance
By Chuck Taylor
Published in Feburary 2007 Combat Guns
For virtually as long as modern high-performance ammunition has existed, there have been a several accepted concepts governing its capabilities and limitations. Among them, the following three are preeminent:
1. Super-sonic velocity is required before bullet expansion can be expected. Therefore, the higher the velocity, the more pronounced bullet expansion will be.
2. The hotter the load, the more difficult recoil, muzzle flip, blast and flash become.
3. Lighter bullets lack mass in comparison to heavier bullets and therefore exhibit lesser, often inadequate, penetration to vital organs.
Generally speaking, all three are true, the result being a kind of Catch 22 situation in which anyone evaluating handgun ammunition is forced into accepting a lesser-of-evils compromise. Indeed, for more than forty years, tactical shooters have been faced with tough, complex and often discomfiting choices as what loads, bullet weights and designs best suit their needs. Yet, in the final analysis, any choice made was a compromise, one which often meant literally betting one’s life on marginal performance.
On a seemingly endless basis, we’ve been forced to tolerate heavy recoil (often to the point where weapon controllability in the fast shooting sequences typical of tactical confrontations was less than optimum) in return to acceptable bullet penetration. As well, we’ve had no alternative but to accept consistent lack of penetration in return for both bullet expansion and tolerable weapon control. For all these years, these issues have seesawed back and forth, with no real solution ever discovered.
This is why the three concepts initially listed in this text emerged in the first place. They were logical and seemingly implacable and thus achieved the status of being absolutes, like the laws of physics themselves. Even today, almost four decades after they first emerged, most shooters still regard them as being the controlling factor of handgun performance.
The reason this occurred is primarily due to convention frangible bullet construction and design. Ever since JSP and JHP bullets were first conceived (the first of which date back nearly a hundred years), they’ve consisted of a lead core, around which a copper jacket with an opening in the nose is swaged. Hollow points have a cavity extending down into the exposed core itself, whereas soft points do not, the lead core merely extending outward from inside the jacket.
Though various modifications and variations on this basis theme have emerged, performance from both a penetration and expansion standpoint remained pretty much the same. So much so, in fact, that frangible bullets became known as being at best marginally effective, since whether or not they actually upset to any significant degree depended upon what degree of resistance they encountered during passage through a target.
No matter what the design looks like (and some look really wicked, to say the least!), their performance has pretty much been the same, more often than not with less than spectacular results. In fact, this is where the idea originated that bigger bullet are preferable because they don’t depend upon a frangible bullet to produce a large permanent wound channel.
Well, as one who has grappled as much with these problems as you have, I’m glad to tell you that our problems are over. Courtesy of the folks at Cor-Bon, there is now a line of commercial high-performance ammunition that utilizes a different kind of JHP bullet, one which isn’t subject to the problems of conventional designs.
Known as the DPX (Deep Penetrating Expanding) series, it utilizes a unique JHP design consisting of a solid copper bullet, with a deep hollow cavity created by six “petals” being closed upward to an open nose. Inasmuch as the DPX bullet has no fragile lead core or gilding jacket to rupture, separate or disintegrate (depending upon what they strike during passage), it retains almost 100% of its weight, expands quite well at not only super-sonic, but trans-sonic and sub-sonic velocities as well.
This means that in order to achieve both weapon controllability and the largest possible permanent wound channel, we can use a lighter-then-typical bullet without loss of penetration. And as if this momentous achievement isn’t enough, we can do it with less-powerful loadings, making weapon control even better! The result is that we can expect not only good weapon control, but decent bullet expansion from cartridges and barrel lengths with which they were previously impossible.
For example, the 2-inch .38 SPL, long notorious for producing such low velocities that even lighter, hotter loaded, JHPs fail to upset, performs quite decently with Cor-Bon’s DPX 110-gr.+P JHP. Also long considered to be a marginal performer with any load the shooter could actually control while shooting quickly, the 2½-inch .357 magnum is now controllable and exhibits with DPX 125-gr. JHPs.
Other cartridges that have long been thought to be capable of only limited JHP performance — the .44 SPL, .45 GAP, .45 ACP, .45 Auto Rim and .45 Colt — are now also quite efficient, and without the controllability difficulties associated with hot loads.
And DPX JHPs don’t just exhibit good bullet expansion, penetration to vital organs and controllability they’re quite accurate, too. From my Ransom Rest, they produced the following 25-meter, 3-shot groups:
1. .38 Special 110-gr. .99-inch
2. 9mmP 115-gr. 1.22-inches
3. .357 Magnum 125-gr. .87-inch
4. .44 Special 200-gr. 1.14-inches
5. .45 GAP 160-gr. 1.32-inches
6. .45 ACP 160-gr. 1.29-inches
7. .45 Auto Rim 160-gr. .88-inch
8. .45 Colt 200-gr. 1.24-inches
Using the .44 Special 200-gr., .45 Auto Rim 160-gr. And .45 Colt 200-gr. JHPs, I cleaned house on mule deer last fall, taking three nice bucks with a single shot each, one of which was from a full 85-meters. None of the animals moved substantially from the spot at which they were hit. All three collapsed either on the spot or within a step or two and had expired by the time I could reach them.
I also called in a couple of coyotes, a fox and nailed fifteen or so jackrabbits, using both my 6-inch S&W M14 .38 SPL and 3½-inch S&W M27 .357 magnum, dropping them all with equal aplomb.
Exit wounds in all cases at least an inch in diameter, with some considerable larger. Yet, though two of the deer were shot through the shoulder (specifically to measure penetration), all either exited (to be found spent on the ground behind them) or lodged beneath the hide on the exit side.
Terminal ballistic performance like this is not typical with any of these three calibers, thus demonstrating the significance of Cor-Bon’s achievement with the DPX series.
Fast shooting drills on both single and multiple targets with my S&W M49 Bodyguard, 4-inch S&W M14 Combat Masterpiece and 3½-inch S&W M27 .357 magnum disclosed excellent control, an experience repeated with my 6½-inch S&W M24 .44 SPL, 6½-inch S&W M25-2 .45 Auto Rim and 4-inch S&W M25-5 .45 Colt. Low light shooting discloses that muzzle flash with all loads tested was minimal.
So, my conclusion is both obvious and definitive — Cor-Bon has a definite winner with the DPX series. They’re highly accurate, quite controllable and demonstrate little flash. Yet they produce excellent bullet expansion (and thus fine terminal ballistics on live targets) without loss of penetration to vital organs, a long sought-after and highly elusive balance to say the least.
Try ‘em. Like me, I think you’ll find them to best fulfill all your tactical shooting needs.
Recipe of the Month
Marinade for Venison, Mutton or Rabbit
This is a cooked marinade, which can be stored in the refrigerator and used as needed for venison, mutton, or rabbit:
Saute the following in 1/4 cup oil until they begin to color:
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped carrot
1 cup chopped onion
Add 8 cups vinegar, 4 cups water and 1/2 cup coarsley chopped parsley and the following ingredients:
3 bay leaves
1 tbsp. thyme
1 tbsp. basil
1 tbsp. cloves
1 tbsp. allspice berries
Pinch of mace
1 tbsp. crushed peppercorns
6 crushed garlic cloves
Simmer for 1 hour. Strain and cool. Put meat in sauce and heat 30 minutes at 200 degrees F.
From the Lab
Question: I began reading the 7mm updates, and have a question about the .280 Remington with a 120-grain TSX loaded ahead of MagPro powder.
How does one get 68+ grains of MagPro in a .280 Remington case?
I’ve never worked with this powder, but this load seems to be beyond case capacity?
Thanks in advance.
—Blair Nelson
Answer: I assume you’re referring to the 101 percent load density listed for that powder in the newest data for our upcoming manual. Load density is a measure of the remaining volume in the case after the bullet is seated. Each powder is calculated to determine its density in relationship to the density of water. This tells us how much volume a given amount of powder will take in a particular case, and if the load will be compressed by the bullet. A lightly compressed load is okay, and does not necessarily give higher pressures than a non-compressed load. We have chosen to use and list loads that don’t exceed 110 percent load density.
MagPro is a ball powder, and tends to stack better than stick powders do. This allows loading a bit more powder by weight than a stick powder of a given volume.
In this case, MagPro powder is lightly compressed. but does not overflow case capacity.
Thanks for a great question.
Ty Herring
Question: I am attempting to load some of your 180-grain TSX bullets for my .300 Weatherby Accumark Ultra Light, and have been unable to find any data regarding overall cartridge length. I have only found remarks that recommend loading these bullets .03 – .07-inch off the lands. I don’t have (and can’t buy) a tool to measure that, so I am forced to make something I can use to determine that measurement. I understand seating TSX bullets the correct distance from the lands seems to be critical to the accuracy of these bullets. Any data or leads to getting this info would be great. When can the public expect to see the new reloading manual published, and will the info I am looking for be in that book? I have the latest edition and there is no overall length given. I thank you for your time in this matter, and look forward to hearing from you. I want to get started, then get to the range to enjoy your product.
Thanks—Jim
Answer: Weatherby cartridges are the exception to the .030 to .070-inch off the lands rule because Weatherby rifles have long throats. Typically, bullets loaded for these rifles are seated to accommodate the magazine. In some cases you can follow the SAAMI maximum cartridge overall length (COAL). For the .300 Weatherby, that length is 3.560 inches. Our new reloading manual should be available in early 2008.
Thanks, Ty
Barnes News
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Look for these ads in upcoming issues of your favorite magazines including American Hunter, Safari Times, Black Powder Hunting, Predator Extreme, Shooting Times, Handloader, Rifle and Shooting Illustrated, to name just a few.
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Club-X Prize Winner: Congratulations Dan Armstrong!
Dan Armstrong from Albany, OR is the winner for the month of February.
I’ve been an avid hunter ever since I was a kid. Oregon has a lot to offer in big and small game, on both east and west sides of the state. I’ve reloaded my own bullets for at least 25 years. Last year I switched to Barnes TSX bullets and worked up a load for my Remington .25-06. The 100-grain TSX bullets print ½-inch three-shot groups at 100 yards. The load chronographs 3485 feet per second (fps) at the muzzle. I’m working on loads for my 8mm Remington Magnum and my .223 WSSM. This is taking some time—but perfection always takes time. This year I drew a high desert deer tag, and used my .25-06 firing the TSX bullet with great success. I shot a huge 5×5 mule deer. The bullet entered high in the front shoulder, making a ½-inch entrance hole, broke the buck’s back, then left a 1-inch exit hole on the other side. The results were amazing! This huge deer dropped in his tracks!. I hung the deer to age for five days. When I cut him up, I was surprised to see very little bloodshot meat. That hasn’t always been the case with my .25-06. I’m now sold on Barnes TSX bullets, and would recommend them to everyone, regardless of the calibers they use. These bullets have great knock down power, hold together very well, and give you great speed and accuracy. —Dan Armstrong
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Prize for March
Capture the
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