Barnes TSX For Elk Good or Bad?

JCL

New member
This last year I switched from the original Barnes X bullet to the Tripple Shock. I was having some problems with copper build up in my barrel thought these would help with that and they have. I killed a nice 340 bull with a 180 gr TSX from my 300 RUM. However when I quartered and boned out the elk I was surprized to find the bullet in the off shoulder. Normally with the old Barnes X they always seemed to go all the way through. The recovered bullet looked like a FMJ with all the petals gone it was barely larger than .30 caliber. I haven't weighed it yet but I believe it lost quite a bit. I hit the elk just behind the shoulder about 10 inches below the backbone angeling forward. The shot was from 217 yards. I shot the elk a second time as he ran off and hit him right in the front shoulder low the bullet penetrated to the heart and it lodged against the off side shoulder. It looked like the 1st bullet. I lost it somehow so I can't weigh it. Im use to complete pass throughs and was a little disappointed with the performance. I load these pretty hot but haven't chronographed them yet. But with my gun zero at 200 I'm only 4 inches low at 300 so they must be steaming along fairly quickly. Anybody elsed used the Tripple Shock Bullets on Elk yet? And if so what were your results?
 
We have had customers reporting the same thing with the TSX in faster cartridges. On the other hand, they tend to open up more consistently in lower velocity cartridges than the old X-Bullets.
John
 
In my opinion I would rather not see a pass through. If the bullets stops in the beast it means that all of it's energy was transitioned to the animal and more force on internal tissue damage. But thats just my opinion.
 
Still a dead elk.

I think to much emphasis is placed upon recovering a bullet from an animal that looks like the one in the advertising.

Did you ever order a certain sandwich at a fast food joint based on the picture on the menu?

Bet the one you unwrapped didn't really come close to looking as nice as the one pictured. did it.

But it still curbed your appetite.

The mangled petal-less Barnes is just about the same.

Enjoy the elk meat and the hunt.

Clayman
 
I did a little more checking and called a few other guys I know that used Barnes bullets. One who just came back from Africa told me his PH told him to get rid of the TSX bullets they just don't work well in Magnum rifles. He has since switched to Nolser bullets. The first shot on my elk really did little damage small hole in and the damage to the lungs was minimal.
 
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I have only had the chance to go Elk hunting once. I was using the Barnes TS 160 grain fired from a 280AI. Went through both shoulders of decent 5 x 6. Chrono showed 2,966 FPS for that load.
 
I shot a cow a coup;e years ago with the 140 tsx & 7mmRM. 150 yards the bullet hit the spine traveled 6" and came to a stop. One petal was still attacheted and weighted around 120 if I remember right. I still pack that load with me for elk.
 
Barnes are all I use in my 270, 30-06 and 243 for big game, since the early 1990's, and I use the Barnes 45gr XLC for coyotes in my Hornet.I used to use Partitions. The on-game impact with Barnes is noticebly better than the Partition, especially on elk. I am a huge Barnes fan.

That being said, there are lot's of excellent bullets to choose from today, like Sciroccos, Accubonds, Etips, Partitions, Interbonds, to name a few.
 
I sent pictures of my failed Barnes TSX to the company and explained what happened. They did write me back and essentially told me that occasional any bullet will fail and making a bullet that will expand realiable at .308 speeds and one that will perform equally well at 300 RUM speeds is nearly impossible. With that reply I have started shopping for a new bullet for cow elk season this year. Anybody interested in a full box of Barnes 185 TSX .338 or a partial box of 180 Barnes TSX .308.
 
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