Barnes 30 caliber 150/165 gr TSX bullet seating questions

[flintlock hunter]

I won a Savage 30-06 at our local NRA Banquet a few months ago, and I'm working up some loads for it.
I managed to acquire some Barnes TSX bullets, I heard they are like lightning on deer, so I got some. They seem pretty consistant at 100 yds, printing one inch groups, but I know this rifle can shoot 1/2" groups at 100 yds with 150 gr Sierra Gamekings.

Has anyone here played with seating depth to shrink groups down? The 150's have three, the 165's four grooves the top one I have used for seating with a crimp. Would it cause any unwanted results to use one of the lower groves instead? What have you guys found to work well with these bullets?

Presently I'm loading to the recommended OAL, 49.5 grs IMR 4064, and CCI200 primers.

Thanks for any help in advance.

 

[Carlos88]

For the best results you need to know the "max" OAL of your rig by finding the lands. That number will vary from rifle to rifle. Once you are able to determine a baseline number you can begin the process of increasing or decreasing the OAL. Generally rifles will be more accurate with a shorter "jump" to the lands.

Oh and BTW, Barnes recommends starting OALs to be .050 < than max.

The following helps greatly in obtaining max length info. https://www.hornady.com/modified-cases#!/

 

[Seabeeken]

As Carlos said, find the rifling first. ive done a LOT of testing with Barnes and every rifle I have likes .050 off jam except my 280ai which likes .030". My 338 RCM has to be .1 off jam because of mag length but it shoots .5". As you can see, they do well with more jump than jacketed bullets.

 

[flintlock hunter]

Thanks guys. My Sierras are seated .015" off the lands, and a quick trip into the reloading room looks like the Barnes TSX bullets are about .050" off jam than the Gameking. I admit I'm a bit concerned with extending the OAL to match the Sierra's jump between Carlos' <.050" and Seabeeken's experiences with Barnes.
One inch isn't terrible, but 1/2" is muc, much better. I'm glad you fellas responded before I went ahead and reduced the powder charge, and increased the OAL to match what the Sierras like. That seemed logical to me at the time.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

IMO, decreasing the distance to the lands with Barnes bullets is counterproductive.

First, you should determine what the maximum length can be to fit and reliably feed from the magazine. Then check the distance from the lands. You will likely be well off the rifling. Generally speaking, Barnes bullets do well with a lot of jump. It's not unusual to find an accurate load that is .050"-.075"- ,150 or even .200: off the rifling.

My buddy is shooting Barnes bullets at a full 1/4" off the rifling in his 300WBY Mark V. The gun is the most accurate with monos at that point.

 

[flintlock hunter]

Thanks Varmit Hunter. I have decided to give it a bit more time, and see what gets posted here. I'm a little surprised at the long jump, but nothing ever succeeds like success. So far you guys have taught me something new about solid copper bullets I wouldn't have thought about before.

 

[Blacktailer]

You don't need to seat the bullets so you can crimp in any of the grooves. While you can use them for crimping, the grooves are just there to reduce the friction on the bore and reduce copper fouling. I generally don't crimp Barnes. Also I have a 308 that because of mag length, the bullets are jumping close to 1/4 inch so don't worry about long jumps, they usually do better at .050 or more.

 

[Seabeeken]

I should note that I've taken more deer than I can count with Barnes tsx in 7mm, 25 cal, 338 cal and they performed perfectly every time. Expansion and full penetration every time with minimal meat damage. I recently switched to hammer hunters because I couldn't get Barnes.

 

[cabelasken]

I have found that seating depth is not as critical when a custom barrel is installed and everything is perfectly aligned. However, on factory original rifles, you have to find the sweet spot and generally that is between .025 and .075" off the lands. I have exclusively used Barnes TSX or TTSX bullets on game for over 12 years and find them extremely accurate and their performance on game has been for the most part superb.

 

[Idaho Hunter1]

So this experience has been with the LRX line of Barnes in 7mmRM, 300wm, 300RUM and 338LM…

I have gotten 1" groups when following the seating depth directions of Barnes and starting at .050" then working back. But the best luck I have found was to simple seat the bullet at just barely below the front groove on the bullet so all we're covered AND increasing neck tension from .002 to .0035 or more. Then groups shrank dramatically down to .5 or better. This idea was "unofficially" provided by a Barnes rep that I spoke to and was his personal experience.

It is not scientific or something I can correlate to other bullets but it has worked on some but not all of the rifles. Others I just accepted as hunting rounds and chose to save my reloading resources.

 

[bullet man]

there was a guy last week with a problem getting barnes bullets to shoot check the dia of the bullets he was getting as much as 5 thousand of an inch differences. if the game king shoots twice as good as the barnes I would stick with the sierras.

 

[vadalejrfan]

Thanks guys. My Sierras are seated .015" off the lands, and a quick trip into the reloading room looks like the Barnes TSX bullets are about .050" off jam than the Gameking. I admit I'm a bit concerned with extending the OAL to match the Sierra's jump between Carlos' <.050" and Seabeeken's experiences with Barnes.
One inch isn't terrible, but 1/2" is muc, much better. I'm glad you fellas responded before I went ahead and reduced the powder charge, and increased the OAL to match what the Sierras like. That seemed logical to me at the time.

From my experince and all I have read about the TSX/TTSX They like to be run as fast as pressure and accuracy will allow and 40-60 thou. jump is not a bad thing.

 

[tigerrose01]

My 30-06 (168 TTSX) and my 300 RUM (180 TTSX) both like 50 thousand exactly.

 

[flintlock hunter]

The answers to this thread are a real eye opener! Looks like the bullet depth and/or powder charge could go either way before the groups are smaller than an inch.

I appreciate all the input.