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62gr Barnes TSX Field Report!!
So, a certain Californian requested that I try out some .224cal Barnes bullets in my pig killing escapades. Seeing as he lives in a stupid state that is about to go all lead free bullets...........I told him.......Hell no!!! Well, actually, he asked if I'd be willing to work up some handloads with some Barnes bullets and I said no to that. I had no interest in working up loads for a bullet I wasn't interested in. BUT...........I'd be willing to test some ammo with whatever bullet he wanted.
So, a box of Barnes 62gr TSX showed up at my door last week compliments of Midway and some California dude.
Saturday morning, I sighted in my recently rebarreled AR-15 with the new ammo. It shot alright. Not very impressed with the accuracy, but it clocked 3,157 fps.
But, trying to sight in, get an acceptable group, and conserve ammo for hunting still took up 8 rounds of my 20 available. 12 left to shoot pigs with.
So, a buddy and I went out Saturday night to a new field shown to me Saturday afternoon. When we arrived and parked at the farm house, I looked out in the field in the moonlight and saw a band of hogs about 350 yards out. Gathered our gear and it was game on.
Sneaking up to about 100 yards. We proned out and aimed in. I told him I'd take the biggest boar in the bunch and he could shoot any of the sows he had a shot at. When the boar turned broadside and slightly quartering away, I let fly with the little bullet into the hulk of a pig. The bullet hit with a thump and my buddy sent a round after a sow. Don't know if he hit or not, but, the boar I shot took off across the field in a death run that covered approximately 75-85 yards. Digging his nose into the dirt like a snow plow.......he finally flipped end over end on a shower of soil. Done!
I quickly sent a couple rounds after the scattering herd. No impacts. Then, they made it to the edge of the field and into the tall grass. I ran to the edge and found a sow standing still trying to regroup the piglets. Dropped her with a spine shot. Looked to my right and saw another trotting away through the grass. Put a Barnes through her guts quartering away and she stopped. My buddy then sent a round through her shoulder and dropped her.
All was still.
We gathered up the two sows for a pic.
Then loaded mine on the Mule and headed over to the boar.
Good Lord!!!! He was much bigger than I thought. We almost needed a bigger boat!
With my friends help, we loaded him into the Mule and then drove over to my truck. Loaded one of the sows and the boar into the truck and took off in the Mule to check out another part of the field. Finally locating another boar, we dismounted and stalked to within 75 yards. I let my buddy have the honors and he promptly missed a broadside shot. Heading for less hostile pastures......the boar split with lead flying his way and up his backside. Making it to the property line and out of our lives. I looked at my buddy and shook my head. Well..........it's raining..........let's go home.
Dropped my buddy off at his house and went to my rancher friend's barn to use his hoist and boom to unload the beast. Lowered him on my game cart and wheeled him over to a bush to take pics. He weren't small.
The blood on him is from the sow he road with in the bed of my truck. That is the off side you are seeing. There was none of his blood on his off side.
Entrance
The bullet broke one rib on entrance and passed behind and below the thick shield on his shoulder.
Passed through the back of his heart angling forward.
It canoed the heart!
And exited the front lobe of the off side lung.
Passing through the off side shoulder.
It lodged in the meat, under the hide of the off side.
The recovered bullet weighed 61.6gr of it's original listed 62 grains.
So, a box of Barnes 62gr TSX showed up at my door last week compliments of Midway and some California dude.
Saturday morning, I sighted in my recently rebarreled AR-15 with the new ammo. It shot alright. Not very impressed with the accuracy, but it clocked 3,157 fps.
But, trying to sight in, get an acceptable group, and conserve ammo for hunting still took up 8 rounds of my 20 available. 12 left to shoot pigs with.
So, a buddy and I went out Saturday night to a new field shown to me Saturday afternoon. When we arrived and parked at the farm house, I looked out in the field in the moonlight and saw a band of hogs about 350 yards out. Gathered our gear and it was game on.
Sneaking up to about 100 yards. We proned out and aimed in. I told him I'd take the biggest boar in the bunch and he could shoot any of the sows he had a shot at. When the boar turned broadside and slightly quartering away, I let fly with the little bullet into the hulk of a pig. The bullet hit with a thump and my buddy sent a round after a sow. Don't know if he hit or not, but, the boar I shot took off across the field in a death run that covered approximately 75-85 yards. Digging his nose into the dirt like a snow plow.......he finally flipped end over end on a shower of soil. Done!
I quickly sent a couple rounds after the scattering herd. No impacts. Then, they made it to the edge of the field and into the tall grass. I ran to the edge and found a sow standing still trying to regroup the piglets. Dropped her with a spine shot. Looked to my right and saw another trotting away through the grass. Put a Barnes through her guts quartering away and she stopped. My buddy then sent a round through her shoulder and dropped her.
All was still.
We gathered up the two sows for a pic.
Then loaded mine on the Mule and headed over to the boar.
Good Lord!!!! He was much bigger than I thought. We almost needed a bigger boat!
With my friends help, we loaded him into the Mule and then drove over to my truck. Loaded one of the sows and the boar into the truck and took off in the Mule to check out another part of the field. Finally locating another boar, we dismounted and stalked to within 75 yards. I let my buddy have the honors and he promptly missed a broadside shot. Heading for less hostile pastures......the boar split with lead flying his way and up his backside. Making it to the property line and out of our lives. I looked at my buddy and shook my head. Well..........it's raining..........let's go home.
Dropped my buddy off at his house and went to my rancher friend's barn to use his hoist and boom to unload the beast. Lowered him on my game cart and wheeled him over to a bush to take pics. He weren't small.
The blood on him is from the sow he road with in the bed of my truck. That is the off side you are seeing. There was none of his blood on his off side.
Entrance
The bullet broke one rib on entrance and passed behind and below the thick shield on his shoulder.
Passed through the back of his heart angling forward.
It canoed the heart!
And exited the front lobe of the off side lung.
Passing through the off side shoulder.
It lodged in the meat, under the hide of the off side.
The recovered bullet weighed 61.6gr of it's original listed 62 grains.
"To Hell with efficiency, it's performance we want!" - Elmer Keith
Replies
That diminutive pill smoked a rather large boar, traveled from one side to the other, breaking a rib, splitting the heart, puncturing the lungs, bisecting a lot of meat, expanded picture perfectly, and retained practically all of it's weight.
That'll do, pig. That'll do.
I'm impressed.
I'm not gonna run out and buy Barnes bullets. I don't want to pay the high price, I'm not on board with the accuracy I've seen and heard, I don't want the headaches I've read, and I flat out don't need what they offer. I get buy just fine with my cup/core and bonded bullets.
But............if I needed penetration and weight retention for a task at hand................I now know a bullet I can reach for and have confidence in. Not bad at all.
Of the other two pigs I shot with this bullet, the spine shot passed all the way through the sow. Shattering the spine and leaving about a 1" exit wound. The one that passed through the guts went in and out with little fanfare.
No.
I cut his snout off to boil like I've done before.
Yep. Worthless cartridge.
Story of my life.
I'll fight ya for it.
It ain't the size of the tool. It's how ya use it.
Honetly, I think I could kill a Cape Buffalo with this bullet. He might run a little ways and I'd probably send a few at him. But, with a slightly quartering away shot at less than 100 yards (typical buff distance)........I think I could hit the heart.
Does that hat mean I think it's Buffalo medicine? Nope. But, if you'd hold my beer...........I think I'd try it.
Cattle? Hmmmmmm
:drool:. . .
:drool:. . .
Expectations. . .EXCEEDED!
:worthy:
I figured we'd have a good sized dead hog or three out of this little experiment, but I wasn't expecting a week's worth of raw materials for Jimmy Dean on ONE of them. Pretty much tells me all I need to know right there.
The accuracy. . .? Pop and I have two 700's and one Ruger Scout that are bug-holers. I would have tended to think that it's all in the seating depth because solid copper is probably going to deform differently, but the Scout shoots that theory down as it needs deeper seating to clear the front of the mags. Dunno. . .probably got to load some .22's now. Might just have to pick up a featherweight .223 for local deer now that you have shown us the way.
Damn, Amigo. . .that's some pig!
(BTW: Let's be clear on this "California guy" stuff: I live there; I am not OF there. :beer:)
"Nothing is safe from stupid." - Zee
Ha!!!
That's exactly what he calls her!!
And we thank you for your contribution to science.
While I might not be a Barnes Convert, you have succeeded in making me a curious fringer.
Looks like you found some good hunting ammo for folks that do not reload.
Imagine what that would do in a 150 gr .30 caliber at 3000 fps...
D
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.... now who's bringing the hot wings? :jester:
Hee! I figured you might like the result.
Veral Smith (LBT Molds) is one of the great cast bullet authorities, and he LOVES the results the Barnes TSX family dishes out. Reading between the lines in his book, one concludes that a Barnes is essentially acting very much like a homogenous, large-meplat, heat-treated lead/antimony/tin bullet that you can drive REALLY fast. . . where the cup-and-core bullets - typically being of swaged construction - need to have a softer, more frangible/ablative core. Really nothing to separate on a Barnes.
Welcome to the fringe!
"Nothing is safe from stupid." - Zee
I killed my 2014 buck at 70 yards with a 168 TTSX launched at 2975 with a very similar angle to what Zedrick did on Mr. Porky here. Didn't get the heart on that one, but shall we say. . ."lung soup"? Was starting to run at the shot; made it ten yards.
My new Scout .308 is grouping REALLY well with the 130 grain version at 3,000. October is coming. . .
"Nothing is safe from stupid." - Zee
Yep, in a .308 or .06 that would be a Death Ray.
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
About the accuracy:
My most accurate load for my 20" heavy barrel 1:8 is the 68 gr. Hornady Match, which shoots 6 rounds out of ten into a half inch at 100 yards, starting with a cold barrel bulls eye. This is over a 'book' maximum load of Varget. I load the same with a 70 grain Barnes TSX, and get similar results to the 68 gr. Hornady match - only a slight widening of the group - call it 3/4". This is simply where I stopped load development - not necessarily the best it will do. But, I use Varget for everything, because I have a lot of it, and because it pleases me enough, just to come in considerably under MOA with 70-80% of my shots, from cold barrel to warm barrel.
Also, I have seen similarly impressive terminal performance on small deer, with 55 grain Barnes TSX. I believe the TSX to be an outstanding killer, and am delighted with your results, since I have yet to score with it.
Absolutely everything I read including this thread shows remarkable terminal performance.
It's good to know.
I've got several boxes if you want to do a little testing without committing 30$ to a box
No, the Death Ray, is the 130gr .308 going 3300-3800 fps! I tried the factory loads in the 300 Wby when i couldn't reload. Gotta be easy on the shots though, 3 shot string and that barrel was HOT
I was thinking of re-barreling this rifle with a Shilen match in more of a bull contour, but if I can get enough loads that will shoot in it, I'll just keep the stock barrel and try to wear it out before changing it.
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
I have some .338 cal Barnes bullets that were given to me. I may need to load them up and play around. Might hit you up for data.
Hot is an understatement. You shoot 5 rounds in a minute and you can BBQ a 20 pound brisket on that barrel.
Of course it doesn't help matters that it's a 26 inch tooth pick. But if you get that bear zeroed in good and you can shoot it even 3 shots inside an inch you can kill about anything with it out to 400-500 yards, no problem. The .30-.378 is hotter but it's a real flinch maker. My .300 Mk V with a brake will shoot like a 308 and is sweet to shoot. My grand son has killed deer with it. He killed his first deer with my .30-06, but won't touch it now since he killed one with the .300. He calls it the Cannon! It's a great gun, but it is a real pain to get sighted in because it gets hot so fast.
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
TSX = Triple Shot X.
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/494440/remington-hog-hammer-ammunition-223-remington-62-grain-barnes-triple-shock-x-bullet-hollow-point-lead-free-box-of-20
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/553835/barnes-vor-tx-ammunition-556x45mm-nato-62-grain-triple-shock-x-bullet-hollow-point-lead-free-box-of-20
You da man!!! Your write-ups are excellent.
We should rename you Zeeter Skelton.
Mat approximately $60 for 100 bullets........ouch!
Glad you enjoy. We aim to please.