Barnes LRX - First Season Impressions

[Ron Milby]

Very nice report...thanks!

 

[Wedgy]

I used the 127LRX a little over 3,000 fps for years taking ~30 animals out to 700 yards from pigs to elk but never recovered a single bullet and never had a blood trail, just a pencil exit. That includes 2 cows shot ribs to off shoulder with complete pass thru. The animals were hit in the vitals and died but I never had more than a couple drops of blood. Very accurate bullets but didn't do what I wanted. In the 30 caliber I had much better results but not the 6.5 for whatever reason.

 

[srogerson]

I've had great luck with the .308 130gr TTSX in the 30-06.

I have some 127LRX that shoot great in the 26 Nosler, but will try them in the 6.5CM, soon.

Thanks! Very interesting write up and great photos.

 

[Ga6570]

Thanks for sharing your experience. I love the LRX. Great bullet. Been using them for various reasons for the last 4-5 or so years, pretty much after I found out about them. My experience is similar to what you and others posted here. I've only used in the 6.5. I'm looking forward to barnes releasing a heavier than 127gr in 6.5 as well - I'll use it in my PRC... seems Covid and Remington bankruptcy slowed that release down. I'm being patient.

 

[CTK]

I thought I'd write a brief note about my first season using the LRX as it might be of interest to some of you guys, i've used the TTSX before, but with an estate policy change for this year to shooting 100% none lead ammo I decided to try the LRX. I am a professional deer stalker (guide) here in the Highlands of Scotland and the majority of my season is spent hunting about 30,000 acres of mountainous terrain on the West Coast.

From that area between myself and another stalker we normally try and shoot about 60 red deer stags (males) a year between mid August and the 20th of October. In a normal year all of this is guided hunting for paying clients from all over the world, however because of COVID we were restricted heavily and ended up with only domestic visitors, which is a bit of a shame. Final cull was 35 stags, quite a few of which I shot myself.

I ran LRX bullets out of all three of my rifles, a Tikka T3x in 6.5 Creedmoor (127g @ 2,765ft/sec), a semi custom Remington in .270 (129g @ 2,890ft/sec) and a Sako 75 in 7mm STW (168g @ 3,250ft/sec).

Firstly I shot say that I only shot one stag with the STW all season, it does not have a suppressor which is unusual now in Scotland, so I didn't use it when we had guests out. It was quite a 8 point (4x4) stag that weighed in at 170lb and it fell on the spot to a shoulder shot at 496 metres on a nice calm day. No surprises there.

The Creedmoor and .270 both shot the majority of animals inside 300m, and I was impressed with the terminal performance with both shoulder and rib shots at these distances. The LRX for me offers a significant advantage over the TTSX bullet in this regard, which i've found to be less than ideal for shots placed behind the shoulder, as long as you break the bone they work well enough. Compared to lead bullets which I'm used to (Nosler HBT and ELD-X being favourites) I don't see a huge difference in performance, other than on two points.

Firstly the deer will stand a lot longer with the copper bullet, I have ended up shooting a number of them again even when it turned out the first shot was finely placed and 100% lethal, this seems to be the case specifically with lung shots. Occasionally with impacts that have hit the humerus rather than the scapula the bullets will fragment into two or three pieces, these fragments seem to exit the carcass in most cased. I have recovered only two bullets all season, images of which are attached.

Secondly and certainly a bonus, is the significant reduction in meat damage I have found, even with good deep wound channels there is smaller exit holes than I am used to, which is good news as long as the animals are dying quickly. As well as the images of recovered bullets I have attached a couple of other images from the season.

I suspect from an American/Canadian point of view my rambling is most relevant to Mule and whitetail deer, elk being so much larger than a red deer even though they're genetically so similar, and I hope some of you find it interesting.

We're now starting our hind cull, which we carry out ourselves without clients, and will be around 150 adult females plus calves where needed. This will be a better test of the bullets and I might report again in February when we've finished that up.

Sam

Those are awesome photos!

 

[DJ Morrison]

I have used Barnes bullets for years... I really like using ttsx, but have recently used the LRX 270gr while bear hunting... First shot on my bear was looking at me just under the chin came out rt ham....2nd shot was thru the heart on turning...did not recover either, but the bear went 9 yards...very accurate and easy to load develope....

 

[XSIVSPD]

I killed a big whitetail buck with a 212 LRX at 560 yards this season, the damage was impressive and he died instantly even though I hit him too far back.

Those are the bore rider ones right? What are your thoughts on them overall? What are you running them out of and at what velocity?

Sorry for tge possible thread hijack, but it's almost impossible to find decent info on the web about them

 

[CTK]

Posted this on another thread. 130g .277 TTSX found

under skin of opposite shoulder of wt buck. 3030fps ish @80-100y out of son's 270 Win. I am curious about the LRX. Love the TTSX.

 

[gte150v]

Great report and I'd really appreciate your insight as well after the hind cull season. I've been looking at switching to copper. Reports like yours with dozens of witnessed data points are extremely valuable since I may only get a few data points at best per hunting season.

 

[Fowlplay66]

I shoot a 26 Nosler using doubletap ammo loaded with the 127 LRX. I shot a Blacktail quartering away from me at 300 yards this year. Blew through ribs on both sides and the top part of the lungs. At the exit hole I found 1 small copper pedal from the bullet in the skin. Deer went 30 yards and dropped dead. Bullet performed great but it is going around 3600fps which helps.

 

[huntinghuasna]

Great story with awesome photo's and thanks for sharing. I'm getting ready to work a load for a friend using the 129g LRX out of a 270 Win. He would like to try H4831SC but we're out. I do have ~7lbs of standard H4831 so that's where I'll start.

 

[vancewalker007]

Great story with awesome photo's and thanks for sharing. I'm getting ready to work a load for a friend using the 129g LRX out of a 270 Win. He would like to try H4831SC but we're out. I do have ~7lbs of standard H4831 so that's where I'll start.

I've been testing the 127gr LRX in my 6.5 PRC. The one thing I found true was the direction by Barnes to not load closer to the lands 50 thou. My rifle has shot the best at 70 thou off the lands.