Barnes bullet failures?

Ridgewalker said:

CoElkHunter, I prefer the lung/heart shot. But when there are large predators such as lions in the area and particularly late in the day when you might not recover the animal before dark, the shoulder/spine shot is a major advantage at dropping the game on the spot. Sadly, many times with this shot, you have to slit the throat or do a brain shot to put the animal out of its misery.

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And then there's the large and easily excitable animals themselves, that you dont want to come after you in their last seconds or minutes.

Shot placement will also differ depending on species being hunted. The smaller ones are better shot just behind the shoulder. Bigger ones are better shot taking out one or both shoulders and the top of the heart and both lungs.

CoElkHunter said:

Very nice video on shot placement. Plus, the video infers to use a CZ rifle and Remington Core Lokt ammo for hunting in Africa! I have both! Guess I’m ready for Africa! Ha! Ha! Ha!

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I had a bullet failure on a whitetail deer using their 270gr .375H&H ammunition. I personally would take something a little more premium if I was to hunt dangerous game! It wasn't even a close shot - 100 yards give or take a few.

I’m going to put my opinion in here. This is the first year using Barnes Ttsx bullets. The reason for using Barnes ttsx is as I was trying to find a good load in my Ruger Hawkeye 300 win. mag. It seemed it did not like any bullet and powder combo. I tried a few Hornady and Sierra and others as well. I picked up a box of 180 gr. ttsx at my local Bass Pro. Loaded some and started shooting. These bullets by far were the best that I had tried accuracy wise. Settled on 71 gr. Rl 23 and at book coal. 3/4 inch groups at 100 yards. So that’s what was loaded for hunting season. Now I’ll give my opinion and my opinion only on performance. Shot a small buck Saturday November 16th opening day of our rifle season here in very western tip of Virginia. Deer was shot at 211 yards across an open pasture field. Bullet struck deer about base of the neck exited just behind the off shoulder. Was shooting quartering to me at a downhill angle. After retrieving the deer and skinning and quartering deer bullet did not in my opinion do the tissue damage as say an interlock or Nosler partition. Bullet did the job as the deer was harvested. Here is a picture of the damage. As you notice not a lot of bloodshot trauma around the wound. Deer was shot on left side exited right side. About three inches of spine was taken out. No bullet was recovered.

James Sexton said:

I’m going to put my opinion in here. This is the first year using Barnes Ttsx bullets. The reason for using Barnes ttsx is as I was trying to find a good load in my Ruger Hawkeye 300 win. mag. It seemed it did not like any bullet and powder combo. I tried a few Hornady and Sierra and others as well. I picked up a box of 180 gr. ttsx at my local Bass Pro. Loaded some and started shooting. These bullets by far were the best that I had tried accuracy wise. Settled on 71 gr. Rl 23 and at book coal. 3/4 inch groups at 100 yards. So that’s what was loaded for hunting season. Now I’ll give my opinion and my opinion only on performance. Shot a small buck Saturday November 16th opening day of our rifle season here in very western tip of Virginia. Deer was shot at 211 yards across an open pasture field. Bullet struck deer about base of the neck exited just behind the off shoulder. Was shooting quartering to me at a downhill angle. After retrieving the deer and skinning and quartering deer bullet did not in my opinion do the tissue damage as say an interlock or Nosler partition. Bullet did the job as the deer was harvested. Here is a picture of the damage. As you notice not a lot of bloodshot trauma around the wound. Deer was shot on left side exited right side. About three inches of spine was taken out. No bullet was recovered. View attachment 314717View attachment 314718

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I can clearly see where the bullet entered, a bit difficult to be sure where on the should it exited. Would the bullet path have taken it through much of the lung(s)?

PHOENIX PHIL said:

I can clearly see where the bullet entered, a bit difficult to be sure where on the should it exited. Would the bullet path have taken it through much of the lung(s)?

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Did catch the very top of lungs.

Just shot two cull whitetail with Barnes TSX in .223. Both expanded well and exited. One went 15 yards one DRT (ok maybe 3yds) 223 too small for deer? Not if using Barnes! I am very happy with the performance and can’t wait to use more Barnes in more calibers.
Philip

Not meaning to bring the thread back from the dead, but ended up here looking for comments on the Lapua Naturalis (the search function had a hit here), and have been reading through the 8 pages because although it's focused on the TSX, it also touches on monollithic bullets in general.

Have a new rifle in hand, and looking to get it dialed in - but struggling with bullet choice.
156 Norma Oryx (or Lapua Megas), or the 140 Lapua Naturalis (6.5x55).

I've always favoured heavy for caliber cartridges, but I am really interested in the Naturalis as well. The general comments on copper monolithics have been helpful, but I'm curious if anyone has any in depth experience with the Naturalis? This seems like the closest thing to the AH roundtable on copper solids.

Aside from that, the other thing that struck me was that in the various after action reports, it seems as though the instances of issues with the TSX have been on quartering toward shots - historically one of the most debated shots in hunting (with the possible exception of some nonsense like the "Texas Heart Shot").

My takeaway is that the bullets perform well and as expected on all except when pressed into the worst of circumstances and a shot that has a well earned reputation as being a marginal shot irrespective of bullet.

Sitka doe taken with a 270 this morning at about 30 yards with a ttsx... another Sita doe taken this afternoon with a 308 at about 175 yards with a ttsx... both were quartering toward shots...

Both dropped in their tracks... DRT...

I remain a Barnes believer...

The early Barnes copper jacketed lead cored solids ( which were ultimately replaced by the monolithic Barnes Super Solids in 1980 ) were quite prone to distorting upon striking the heavy bones of Asiatic jungle elephants and Gaur . The early Barnes Super Solids ( which were unbanded ) were quite prone to fouling rifle barrels . Other than this , I have found most Barnes bullets to be quite excellent . Especially the 450 grain Barnes TSX for the .458 Winchester Magnum .