I have taken 30 or so animals with Barnes bullets and for the most part they have been superb. And I reload for a few friends and they have taken a half dozen more game animals. We have only had what I would recall two failures. One was a 150 TTSX in a Rem Mag on a mule deer buck at 40 yds broadside shot. All the petals broke off. Deer was dead in it's tracks, but I have come to expect 100 % weight retention from these bullets and full penetration. And last year i shot a wounded bull elk from above - 200 yd steep angle from above. it appeared the bullet glanced off the near side of the spine just in front of the hip and lodged in the opposite shoulder bone. Very little deformation from the bullet that i found lodged in the shoulder bone. I think that as the bullet hit the spine it reversed and went thru heal first and that is how I found it in the shoulder bone. All other recovered or non recovered showed perfect 4 petal expansion with over twice the diameter going out. It's nice to see a 4 petal exit hole in the hide. And unlike other premium bullets, these have been superbly accurate. I have a 284 Win that likes the non tipped variety and my 300 WSM likes the TTSX Variety. I understand Barnes may offer lots of 250 or 500 when manufacturing is back in full swing and that will be good! Now when I work with a new rifle, I try these first.
I do know that Barnes had early tooling problems that caused the olgive to be inconsistent and therefore seating depths were inconsistent with their soft point bullets. I noticed this and sent a letter off to their customer service office back around the mid 90's. I was told they would replace all that i had of certain lots, but it wasn't that many so I used them up as fouling shots. I went to the TSX bullets around 2005 or 6 and have used them or the TTSX ever since.