TSX Sizing

R

Ran6er

New member
OK not to open up the "Is the .223 big enough" for deer debate, but I would like some opinions regarding my current Bullet selection for WI Whitetails.

Details
.223, 1 in 9 twist, 24" barrel.
All shots will be under 150's, and most will be under 75's

My current selection is leaning toward Barnes TSX 62 grain
or would the 55 or 70 grain be better.

Thoughts
 
60g partition is also an excellent bullet, you will see different expansion and meat destruction characteristics vs the TTsx.

Friend in Tx culls deer with the 55g Hornady.
 
Im a fan of sierra bullets. 65gr game king is my choice for a 223 deer bullet. Have not shot one with them yet but Im sure they are up to the task. Ive taken many with a 22-250 and 55gr and 60gr hp
 
The 60gr Partition is a good bullet in the the .223 no doubt, but so far my favorite is the 55gr TSX. However, if I could find the 62's and 70's locally to give a thorough test, I suspect they would win me over handily. Tim Nietzke, 2MG and SS110 have used the 62's and 70's on largeish Michigan whitetail with very good results within limitations. My Texas smallish Texas whitetail and largish feral hogs have folded up like a lawn chair with the 55's.


Chupa
 
I havent used 223 on deer sized yet but likely will this year. However i am in the process of switching every caliber i hunt with to tsx/ttsx. It started with a buddy who used it on cape buff, i them tried it with a very light for animal weight on elk, them really light again on deer and goats. 30-06 and 25-06 respectively. The performance has been 10 kinds of impressive. I have a habit of switching premium bullets all the time for hunting, first time ive decided to use only 1 type.

I like them. I still use cheapies for plinking. Premiums are too expensive for practice.
 
I don't think I would use Barnes or the Partitions either. And I will give you a personal reason why, something I experienced first hand.

Two years in a row I had to help a buddy in Texas find lung shot whitetails. He was shooting an H&K bolt rifle in .223, using 60-grain Nosler Partitions. Both deer were hit in the "boiler room", and both ran over 600 yards before expiring. That little bullet when it exited left an extremely small hole, and there just wasn't any blood trail to speak of. At times we were 15' apart, one of us standing at the last speck of blood, the other looking for the next drop.

When we found the second one, after 2-1/2 hours of tracking, I threatened to bend the rifle barrel into a singletree and hang it around his neck if he used that .223 on another deer.

I have worked in Wisconsin, and you folks have a much larger subspecies of whitetail than we do here in TX. Having said that, and based on what I said above, if you are dead set on shooting deer with a .223 I would go with a Sierra bullet. They have a thinner jacket and have a much greater probability of blowing up in the body cavity and creating much more damage than a monometal or "bulkhead" style of bullet.
 
I have lost deer using the Nosler Partition, usually at longer ranges. The bullet just doesn't open up. I switched over to the Nosler Ballistic Tip with much better success. Once I moved over to the Barnes TTSX, everything has been DRT. I have switched every hunting caliber I have over to the Barnes TTSX bullet. I have never recovered a Barnes bullet yet. I can't say that for the Nosler or Sierra bullets I've used in the past. While it's a little light, I used a .257 Weatherby Mag to take a couple elk through the boiler plate with a 115 grain Barnes TTSX bullet. They didn't go more than 25 yards before dropping.
 
I sure wish that you fans of Barnes "screw Kalifornia" Bullets would show loads and twist rates of bullets used? Are you getting MOA ie "Internet Groups" from standard rifle twists and barrels? Most standard barrel twists will not deliver the same performance that you are touting. In a .223 you must be 1'8, or 1'7 ? Let us know what you are finding. Not many manufacturers "bolt guns anyway" make a .223 faster than a 1/8 twist.
 
Keep in mind that Barnes bullets have near 100% weight retention and you generally go with a little lighter bullet and higher velocity than lead. As a previous posted stated they will pencil thru a double lung whitetail, even on a pig. Where they really work is when hitting the hard stuff like bone or shoulder and staying together while penetrating deeper instead of grenading at the surface.
View the photos of the bullets penetration lower down.
The Berger explodes but doesn't penetrate. Perfect for that double lung deer but that shoulder shot on a bigger animal is a fail. Pick your shots for each bullet.
http://www.barnesbullets.com/information/bullet-talk/lab-tests/
 
Originally Posted By: Orneryolfart357I sure wish that you fans of Barnes "screw Kalifornia" Bullets would show loads and twist rates of bullets used? Are you getting MOA ie "Internet Groups" from standard rifle twists and barrels? Most standard barrel twists will not deliver the same performance that you are touting. In a .223 you must be 1'8, or 1'7 ? Let us know what you are finding. Not many manufacturers "bolt guns anyway" make a .223 faster than a 1/8 twist.

Ruger 77 30-06 150gr max varget, savage axis 100gr 25-05max varget. Dont know what the twists are,true velocity either, and theyre too expensive to just plink with imo. Sight in with cheapies, tune with a couple rounds tsx, and go hunting. Pull the trigger once, walk within 2 feet of where your animal was, start field dressing
laugh.gif
always a 1 hole group on target
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So far almost 0 fur damage on either side, everything in the middle looks like it was in a blender for an hour. Havent recovered 1 yet. Best advice is to make sure youdont have a 2nd animal behind your target unless you have 2 tags. I dont know how they would do for a blood trail, havent had a trail to work with them. Its been bang, flop, time for work.
 
Ornery:
My Armalite M15-A4 does have a 1'8 twist and they just pile up in a single hole. I get the same results with RL15 and/or aa2230.
I'm not sure the twist rates in my other rifles but they all perform the same on paper and game!
Armalite 300 RSAUM 168 grain TTSX 2900fps RL15
Remington 700 375H&H mag 270 grain TSX 2800 fps RL15
Remington 760 30-06 168 grain TTSX 2900 fps RL15
257 Weatherby Mag 100 grain TTSX 3600 fps IMR 7828 or RL22
Browning Abolt 300 Win Mag 180 grain TSX 3000 fps RL22
Oly Arms 243 WSSM 80 grain TTSX 3300 fps Varget
25 DTI 80 grain TTSX 2800 fps H322
Armalite 308 130 grain TTSX 3300 fps Varget or Win 748

I adjust my loads until my group is 0.5" @ 100yards or better. To date, I haven't had any problem!
I understand Barnes has issues in the beginning, but it would seem they have worked all the bugs out. Everything I have taken, from coyote to elk, is DRT. I'm convinced that whichever firearm you shoot will ultimately benefit by using the Barnes bullet.
 
Originally Posted By: gary paughThe 60gr partitions shot like crap out of my 1/8" AR 65gr sierras shoot great killed two deer with them.

Id like to hear a little more about the 65 sgk. barrel length, velocity, doe/buck and about how heavy? I have some 65sgk loaded up for a doe load.
 
My AR has an ArmaLite barrel with a 1:9 twist.

Load 1:
50-gr. Varmint Grenade
23.5 grains of H335
CCI 450 primer
COAL 2.20"
5-shot group printed 0.55"

Load 2:
62-grain TSX
25.0 grains of Varget
CCI 450 primer
COAL 2.250"
5-shot group printed 0.77"

Load 3:
62-grain TSX
22.5 grains of H335
CCI 400 primer
COAL 2.25"
5-shot group printed 0.80"

Working on a 50-grain load right now.
 
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