3300fps to fast for Barnes TTSX

[lee31]

Flank is at the back side of the gut.
You asked for opinions and got them. But you seem angered in your replys. There's a unsatisfactory round in every make. But life goes on to shoot again.

Yea I'm aware of that. Someone said I probably ruined his hind quarters. Kinda hard to ruin the hind quarters when the billet entered the flank. As far as appearing angered, not sure if how your coming to that conclusion. I know it's hard to tell if people are mad, sarcastic or any other thing while reading their reply's online.

 

[lee31]

Just a question. Why do you need such a high muzzle velocity when belted magnums preform well between 2900 and 3000 fps. By the way nice buck

I wouldn't say 3300fps is all that fast. The load is essentially a book load. I just substituted RL17 for IMR4350. They have a nearly identical burn rate. And it seems to be a fairly accurate load. So why not run it there?? Also it's not a belted mag.

 

[Grizzly60]

Great observation. I'd like to think at that point it would act like a fmj. If so, it's odd it wouldn't be a complete pass through.

Looking at the #1 post, that's not all the bullet. The nose is missing down to the bands.

 

[Grizzly60]

Yea I'm aware of that. Someone said I probably ruined his hind quarters. Kinda hard to ruin the hind quarters when the billet entered the flank. As far as appearing angered, not sure if how your coming to that conclusion. I know it's hard to tell if people are mad, sarcastic or any other thing while reading their reply's online.

No not a conclusion. Just seems. Like you said, it's hard to tell how one comes off in type. It's been a good thread to read.

 

[Trm82]

Never to fast with TTSX in my opinion , I'm planning on pushing the 30 cal 168 ttsx at 3600 FPS once gun is done.

Speed kills when mixed with all copper !!

 

[SSgt G Cody]

Sounds like perfect bullet performance, in spite of difficulties! As I understand it, bullet entered in back of ribs on right side, penetrated liver and thorasic cavity, left lung, and was stopped against left shoulder. That's about 28 inches of penetration. Shed petals soon after entry, creating shock wave, then most of bullet core achieved full penetration! Sounds perfect to me! Had bullet been slightly heavier (115gn.) it would have broken left shoulder! If aim had been perfected to 'centered between front shoulders' heart would have been hit also, and deer would have died almost immediately! Just 4 inches off! It sounds like the Barnes 100gn TTSX did everything it was designed to do!

 

[Starlite]

+1
I was just typing something similar. If you put that bullet with sheared off petals through the lungs, that deer doesn't go far.

Or this. 110gr Barnes TTSX at 3335 FPS out of my 270win. head neck shots are always my preferred method. Just my 2c

OP. Thanks for being persistent and finishing what you started.

 

[Rob L.]

Never to fast with TTSX in my opinion , I'm planning on pushing the 30 cal 168 ttsx at 3600 FPS once gun is done.

Speed kills when mixed with all copper !!

Back to the OP's dilemma,
I have seen both others and myself make good and bad shots with good and bad results from all sorts of bullets. Like said before, some animals are just tough, tough tougher than others. Kinda like that one kid you knew in school who was just tougher than nails. Tougher than the rest of them. I've also found that what was a perfect shot on one animal, given the similar shot, is not necessarily the perfect shot on another, regardless of which bullet. In my experience, the only shot placement that produces pretty much the same results time after time are head shots, and again, regardless of which bullet.

I agree with Trm82 when you can send a good bullet with additional speed and accuracy, it is a lethal combination.
I'd been missing some chickens when I caught this guy stalking my prized Rhode Island Red and figured it was him who got the others. This coyote exit wound is caused by a .240 Weatherby Mag using 80gr TTSX at 3600fps muzzle. The shot was close, just over 50 yards, and obviously did not recover this bullet. He got flipped over and never budged.

After changing to Barnes, especially when the bullet improved from the old X bullet in the early 90's to the TSX and then TTSX, my rifles shot better. Velocities and accuracy went up and so did my confidence. Consequently, the results on game were better too.
I plan on sticking with Barnes because I see no need to change. YMMV

 

[dogz]

I recently bought some 100 grain Barnes TTSX for my 257 Roberts AI. I have heard how tough and indestructible these bullets are. Well I through a load together for the Wisconsin gun deer season. Load was 50 grains of RL17 and a CCI200 and I was getting 3294fps with a ES of 7 over 5 shots and just under 1MOA. I thought this would be a great load where my shots would range between 50-300 yards. Well I got my opportunity on a good buck on the last Saturday evening of the season.
The buck quartering away at 170 yards away in a cut cornfield just about to go into the woods. I ended up shooting him in the flank and was expecting bullet would come out either in front of the off side shoulder or would end up coming to rest right in his shoulder. The buck hunched up and took off into the woods. I waited 1 hour and went to look for blood. I found a little blood which was very spotty at best. After about 75 yards of tracking I reached our line fence and head something take off. I backed out and called the neighbors.
They said they'd be doing a deer drive in the morning and I was more than welcome to come along. Fast forward to the next day 16 hours later to be exact I caught up to the buck on the drive and had to finish him off. While I was cutting up the deer Tuesday night I found my bullet it had come to rest right under his off side shoulder blade. All the pedals had sheared off or the tip busted one or the other. I was astonished that this would happen. And now know why the deer was still alive as it had just left a 1/4 inch wound channel through the deer.
So I decided to email Barnes and their reply was that I'm probably shooting these bullets to fast and that they dont test bullets past 3000fps. They also told me my impact velocity was probably around 2950fps. And pretty much told me tough luck. I've shot Nosler accubonds outt my 25-06 at faster muzzle velocity than the Barnes and have never had a experience like this. So I'm just giving a heads up to some of you that are running big magnums at higher velocities than I'm running. You might run into this problem. Hopefully not but I will be switching back to accubonds if I can find them or Berger 133's.

First off, glad you recovered the buck.

Secondly, if you use bullets long enough sooner or later one will do something that makes you go hmm.........Now in my experience a Barnes that looses all it's petals isn't uncommon at all, fact is I think it happens a ton load more than most understand as what is left (basically a wadcutter) just passes on thru on one never even realizes that it lost all it's petals...

Loose all the petal and IMO you lose cutting effectiveness. Sure it still kills but often times the critters run a bit further than they would if taken out via a standard cup n core and or a Berger or Scenar.

Just some basic thoughts, have a super day and glad you recovered the buck!

 

[rbTanzan]

There is a minor data mystery: the picture at the beginning of the thread looks like most of the nose is missing, but the weight of the recovered slug is listed as 97 grains out of 100grains. Something is off. Was it actually a 115grain TSX? Was the weight actually around 75-80gn? Or . . . ?

 

[lee31]

There is a minor data mystery: the picture at the beginning of the thread looks like most of the nose is missing, but the weight of the recovered slug is listed as 97 grains out of 100grains. Something is off. Was it actually a 115grain TSX? Was the weight actually around 75-80gn? Or . . . ?

No mystery it's exactly what I said it was a 100 grain TTSX. Those are the only Barnes I own.

 

[Andrew Massi]

Used to shoot those over 3600 fps (257 wby) with no I'll effect other than dead critters.

 

[rbTanzan]

No mystery it's exactly what I said it was a 100 grain TTSX. Those are the only Barnes I own.

Fine.
Then the mystery becomes, "How can the bullet blow its nose, shear its nose petals, and retain 97grains weight? Four nose petals weigh considerably more than 3 grains total.

 

[lee31]

Fine.
Then the mystery becomes, "How can the bullet blow its nose, shear its nose petals, and retain 97grains weight? Four nose petals weigh considerably more than 3 grains total.

Yeah I dunno. But the only Barnes bullets I own are 100 grain TTSX. I dunno what to tell you and I'm still trying to figure out what exactly happened. That ls why I made this thread. Figured maybe some of the internet know it all's might have a answer.