Barnes TTSX Performance on Elk (photos)

[Rich Coyle]

Well, Steve, I will be using your Hammer hunter 6.5mm 124 grainer in May and June hog hunting, Lord willing. That is if the rifle is back in my hands after all the work is finished.

Up till now I have been very successful with Barnes in 7mm, 6.5mm and .270 Win. No complaints. But, I want a new company to do well so I will be using your bullets.

 

[Wild Bill G]

I have had issues wuth other companies bullets but never Barnes. They are all I have used for the last 15 to 20 years and never lost an animal I shot with them. From what I gathered reading the original post alot of his problem sounds like shot placement issues. An animal shot in the neck through the spine should drop in its tracks. I also question why so many people shoot light for cal bullets especially when hunting elk. They are one of our toughest animals in N.A. use a heavier deeper penetrating bullet. Any way no Barnes issues here but I have heard others say they have had them. The probably now 30 or more animals I have shot with them never got a chance to complain.

 

[shortmagshooter]

Just thought i might share my experience with these. Ive had bad experiences in the early days of barnes x bullets and wrote them off as crap then jump ahead 25 years and I gave the ttsx a try. I had a special reason to try them as my daughter was going on her first bull hunt and was a little tiny thing that was somewhat recoil sensitive. I was trying to get her shooting her 300wsm with 180bt and she didnt like it at all. I had read a hunting article about the 130 ttsx in africa and thought we would give it a try. So i loaded a few using the barnes book load of 4064 and accuracy was great and she enjoyed shooting them. First day of elk season she killed a nice 5 point at 275 yards with 1 well placed shot. Bang flop. Since that day we have killed 4 more bulls and 4 bucks with great results but we are using lite weight for caliber bullets at high velocities. 3450 with the 130 in her wsm and 3400 with 120gr in 7mm very low recoil extreme accuracy and ive never recovered a bullet. Longest shot has been 420 yards with the 120 on a raghorn bull. My feeling is these bullets need high velocity and impact bone. Shoulder shots anchor the animal instantly lung shots they will walk around before they fall over.

 

[Song Dogger]

Great feedback, gentlemen. Level-headed, too – apparently that's not easy to do per other posts I've researched! In general, opinions are more positive than negative for the Barnes TSX or TTSX, especially among those killing a multitude of animals. That's not just from this post string, I've researched others. There seems to be very little middle ground, though. People love 'em or hate 'em.

Observations from posts thus far:

On shot placement – agreed, this is the most important factor. But if I were a perfect shot in all conditions, I wouldn't be overly concerned about bullet performance. Stating the obvious now, but my quest is to find a bullet that increases recovery odds in the event of an imperfect shot. Not asking much, right?

On the 100-200 yard neck or rib shot with the 180 gr Barnes TTSX (see photo on original post) – given their reputation for penetration and holding together, I thought there'd be more concern that the petals sheared off with 65% weight retention, or that I even recovered the bullet. One custom reloading business I contacted experienced similar "failures", only recently after years of using them. But at this point, I'm not too concerned about the failure of one bullet that I can't verify 100% what it struck, especially when some experts say losing the petals isn't necessarily a bad thing.

On heavy or light bullets for caliber – from this post and others, I gathered that for most brands heavy-for-caliber bullets are best for elk (strongly for Berger bullets), but light for caliber may be best for the Barnes TTSX to ensure the higher velocity expands them. It made me wonder if the 180 gr TTSX is too heavy for my 300 Win Mag, but one Barnes fan (Wild Bill G) posted that it's too light? Any thoughts on that?

At this point, I'm thinking about staying with the Barnes TTSX and try to up my confidence level with them for elk next season. That's based on feedback to date, success I've had with them on deer, and the better than MOA accuracy I'm getting with them out to 650 yards (back to the importance of shot placement).

 

[JohnnieB]

Song Dogger,

I'll offer my thoughts on the 300/180 combo for elk and other game. My wife shoots everything with her 300WSM, with 180 TTSX's at 3015 fps, has for years. This includes everything from 70lb hogs, a 65lb blackbuck, lots of deer at 150 - 275lbs, a 300+lb nasty old boar, and a 900+lb kudu. Her longest shot has been 406 yards to date and the bullet performance on all animals has been as expected. Even on the smaller creatures we've had good expansion and clean quick kills. We've only recovered 2 of the 180's from her kills. One from her kudu bull which was shot at 110 yards, quartering to, slightly downhill. The bullet entered right above the near shoulder knuckle, broke ribs going in, pulverized the lungs and arteries above the heart, broke the last rib on the far side and was stopped by the skin. All the petals broke off that bullet, but that made no difference to the bull as ran 70 yards and piled up. The second bullet we found was on a 180lb hog sow that she brained face-on, found the bullet with one petal missing in the right thigh. I think her most prolific example to the 300/180 combo was our biggest hog at 300+lbs that hit quartering slightly forward at 234 yards, that bullet had a tiny entrance and tiny exit wound and went through both in the plates at nearly 1 inch thick, but everything inside was destroyed, I literally just scooped the lungs out of that one.

So my personal preference is heavy-for-caliber bullets, 180's in the .308, 168 in the 7mm, 200 (TSX) in the 8mm, and 225 in the .338. The one overiding factor in my personal opinion is the ensure the impact velocity is appropriate for the bullet/cartridge combo. I've read that the impact velocity for the TTSX is 1800 fps, but we've never even come close to that number, (lowest impact velocity we've calculated is approx 2100) and have had good results.

Once again, if you're planning on shooting game over 600+ yards, this may not be the best bullet for you. But under that limit, we've been very satisfied.

 

[RockyMtnMT]

Buy a box of bullets from us and if you don't like them for any reason we will by them back. So far to date we have not had to refund for a box of bullets. I exchanged a box with two different customers who bought bullets too long for the twist rate that they had.

Our bullet is of softer material and without a tip. They will always work no matter the impact vel, down to 1800fps, or where you hit the animal. They do not need bone to work properly.

Steve

 

[just country]

morning, apples and oranges. used Nosler new technologies, barnes
TSX-TTSA bullets from launch date. lapua, hornandy, sierra and other
brands of bullets. depending on what size animal i am harvesting.
depends on the bullet I use. I shoot hogs-deer-coyotes. any other
animals that taste good. varmints-barnes 53gr.-55gr. nosler
new technologies-Sierra 77gr. TMK. larger game 145gr. LRX-TTSX Barnes,
deer-larger hogs. i test every bullet for accuracy. this day in time
we r blessed with some bullet makers who do care about customers service.
calibers 223AI-243AI-6mmAI-257wbee-7mmwbee-340wbee
250sav.-300Wm. all shoot barnes bullets. have no problems.
push the bullets hard. just me gbot tum

 

[Dr. Vette]

7mm Weatherby shooting a Barnes 150TTSX at 320 yards, ~30mph crosswind. We calculated the wind drift, adjusted the turret for distance, and Dad took the shot. Results below.

 

[Wedgy]

As JohnnieB said, "tiny bullet entrance and tiny exit but everything inside destroyed", this has been my experience with the 127LRX from a 6.5x284, I would never get a blood trail. A bedded deer way downhill at 630 yards facing away, bullet entered right back exited left lower shoulder taking out the spine. The deer slightly turned his head then I heard the bullet hit, kept watching thru the riflescope for 15 seconds and he never moved. I switched to the spotting scope and he was gone. WTH ? Made the long trek around the hill to the spot, verified by the range and a photo from above and found no deer. Eventually realized he rolled ~100 yards down the hill under a log. Not a drop of blood anywhere. I archery hunt and have tracked a lot of animals day and night finding tiny specks far apart, this guy left nothing. Two cow elk had no blood but folded within 10 yards, tiny bullet exit hole. A third cow staggered into the brush at dusk and was being recovered in the morning, again no blood trail, but upon returning there were 2 grizzly bears on it. That was scary and almost got ugly....20 yards. Luckily the bears ran. About 8 pigs, 2 deer, 3 cows, all the animals died from shot placement and all were recovered except the one cow but never got a blood trail and never recovered a bullet. Very accurate 2.2" groups at 600 yards. I am in a non-lead state and have been shooting copper for quite some time. I have some Hammer loads worked up in a few rifles but haven't got to hunt with them yet. The alloy is quite a bit softer than Barnes.

 

[atkinsinc]

I use Barnes 140g in my 270 Weatherby. It has been a great round for Whitetail and mule deer. I finally went on my first elk hunt and it performed a small bull.

I friend has killed several nice deer and elk with it. It has been a really consistent shooting round that has performed well with good shot placement.

 

[scott63]

I've used the Barnes XLC 140 grain bullets in my .284 Win, and they have been great but I fired my last 5 at a target yesterday and I am working on loads for the TTSX 140 grain. With the XLC I've killed 6 bucks numerous coyotes and a few skunks. Never had a problem with how animals reacted, always had easy to follow blood trails. Now I'm worried about the switch to the TTSX because of my experience with the 130 grain in .270 Winchester. I've killed 3 coyotes with it, no problem, bang flop. First buck with it was moving, hit it at the base of the neck in the spine, bang flop as would be the case with pretty much anything hitting there. The second buck is what has me worried, hit him broad side center lung at 80 yards. Buck took off, and I really really thought I'd missed. No blood for 50-60 yards, small dime sized spots from there to where he fell, at least 150 yards from where he was hit. Exit wound the size of a quarter, quartersize whole through the center of both lungs. Not super impressed and I know a Sierra BTSP would have made the lungs look like a grenade went off in there. Not sure if the E-Tip or GMX will be any better.....

 

[Riflehunter1776]

I cannot speak as to elk, but I've never lost a deer because of a Barnes. I have lost them to Noslers however.

This is the only Barnes I ever recovered from dozens of deer shot.

 

[waltercrouse]

I cannot speak as to elk, but I've never lost a deer because of a Barnes. I have lost them to Noslers however.

This is the only Barnes I ever recovered from dozens of deer shot.
View attachment 94693 View attachment 94694

I have been using Barnes for years. Barnes suggest to use a lighter bullet than would use for lead. I have had a bad experience with Noslers green tip bullets. They had just came out on the market and I tried them on a hunt. This was a 270 win. and had no problems in the past with Barnes. I hit a Elk and it just kept run like it had not been hit. Took the rest of the day to find her and finish her off. Went back to Barnes and had no issues.

 

[RockyMtnMT]

Lighter than normal conventional bullet weight recommendation is their way of saying that an all copper lead free bullet of the same weight as a lead jacketed may not stabilize because it will be too long for the weight. That is why all of our bullets have a recommended min twist rate posted with each one.

Steve