What kind of results have y’all experienced as far as terminal performance? Barnes or GMX. Thinking about loading some 140s up for the 280.

Love em. Move the Barnes fast as you can accurately

imo barns are hands down the most deadly bullet on the market. For anything on this continent anyhow.

Ive been shooting the Barnes TSX and TTSX with good results.
I like pass thrus is why I originally tried the Barnes. I know a lot will say pass thrus dont dump their energy and that may be true but a hole poked thru both lungs makes a sucking chest wound and they dont go far.
I have yet to recover but one Barnes bullet and it was shot long ways in a hog from front to back and was just barely under off side hams skin and it was mushroom perfection.
I do think the TTSX expand a little quicker than the TSX and seems to leave a better blood trail but most will fall withen sight.
Both types exit which I was not consistently getting from off the shelf loads with lead bullets on broad side shots.

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Even if you go smaller to do it? I saw so 7mm 120g

Barnes likes to go fast so decrease bullet weight if necessary

quick image upload

127 grain Barnes LRX

Very much so yes. Weight retention is huge. A 120 gonna act like a 140.

I've had great luck with both the TTSX and the GMX.

I think you’d be very happy wirh 140 TTSX or 139 or 145 LRX with a 280. The 120’s are good too but they Peter out pretty quick past 300 yards due to low BC. The LRX’s open up a little better.

Nothing beats a good old soft lead point.

Several bullets will , and a Barnes TTSX is one of them.

I've had TERRIBLE results with the TSX in a 300 Weatherby. Make sure you use the TTSX.

BC means nothing to the average guy shooting at average Alabama deer distances

Exactly

Een happy with the deer we have shot with them. Farthest travel after impact, 15 yards.

Like others have said, all copper, shoot light for caliber and make em go as fast as possible. 120 grain in 7-08, 150 grain in 300 wsm

I dropped 3 in their tracks this year with Berger bullets, furthest at just over 200 yards.

OK, but this thread is about solid copper bullets....

Some I have talked to had good results with them. Others I've talked to haven't. I have only shot a few critters with them and all were bigger/tougher critters.

I personally think the solid cooper bullets are too hard for out small/soft Alabama whitetail.

Nosler Partition or Accubond bullets are hard to beat IMO.

True but I’ve met Dixiepatriot and I consider him to be an above average guy.

I've had mixed results. Some run like a scalded dog after being hit for 200 yards with zero blood trail. Others fall over dead. They don't leave much of an exit, typically entrance and exit are same hole.

Nope.

I’d go with the 120 TTSX and drive it maximum velocity i could, i was shooting 140’s and swapped to the 120’s for the fatter trajectory and energy. They shoot excellent in my 7rm, and never had one run from the 140 or 120.

I have historically shot 140 accubonds in my .280 I played with some 140gr TTSX this past summer and they shot very well. I shot one deer at about 75 yards or so and was impressed. We do shoot the 80gr .243 in the rifles for the kids and no complaints there either. I have played around with the GMX, they give similar results on animals but haven’t given me quite the accuracy as the TTSX. I do get more rounds down the pipe between cleanings with the GMX’s. But then again every barrel will vary.

Why do you think not?

A solid bullet will penetrate further and retain more weight better than a cup and core bullet 99% of the time.

Not an all copper bullet by any means, but I’ve been really impressed with the 120 grain NBTs in my 7-08 this year.

You don't know near as much as you think you do.

You opened a can of worms bringing ballistic tips into the conversation, LOL

I shoot a lot of Berger hunting bullets and I have had good luck with them in light fast calibers such as .25-06 and similar. I shoot some Barnes as well but they seem to be about a MOA bullet which is perfectly acceptable in most circumstances. If Barnes are MOA... Bergers are 1/2 MOA in my experience. That's the only reason I gravitate towards Berger.

I don't think you can make a great argument for stepping down bullet weight then shooting them out of a larger caliber gun.... like 7 Mag. Why? It will push a 160 nearly as fast as a 140. There is not advantage in shooting a tiny bullet. At that point you have changed the dynamics of what you are doing and instead of relying on the "killing power" of the larger caliber gun you have reversed course.... and you are now relying on bullet performance. The velocity is a moot point the trajectory and maximum point blank range are very close. The muzzle energy is nearly identical. As many issues as some have with their bullets entering the Bermuda Triangle and blowing up, not expanding, blah, blah. Why would I want to put all my stock in a tiny bullet with some kinda mythical and almost legendary on the internet expansion capabilities. Not this guy.

Recoil is the only reason I can get behind. IMO You should just shoot something smaller if that's the problem.

I would say 100% of the time, but that's not necessarily the optimum performance for killing light skinned game like deer. I like some fragmentation, it creates a larger wound channel IMHO. I don't need a bullet to penetrate the deer and three trees behind it. Folks on here like to talk about how much energy you need to kill a deer, although I don't necessarily agree with that sentiment, but a bullet that zips through a deer with higher retained velocity also has taken that energy with it instead of transferring it to the deer.

If the game is thick skinned, heavy boned and can fight back, I would definitely consider a Barnes. I just see no need for one on a little Alabama whitetail.

This is very true. ^^^^

Nothing wrong with lots of energy.... I like it to drive a big bullet home and that works every time.

A 160 Sierra out of a 7 mag will blow a hole right through any whitetail in North America.

What more wound channel do you want

Looks like the bullet "blew up" to me. An intact bullet doesn't make a wound channel 18 inches wide. Honestly I'm really not that impressed with the photo to me that looks like a varmint bullet and a bad shot that raked the deer on the right rib cage about 6 inches deep but I'm not standing there cleaning it.

On the next thread someone will be crying about meat damage is the reason they think they need a Partition. Because it shoots a nice hole all the way through without a bunch of bloodshot meat.

Interesting bunch on this ALDeer board there is not doubt about that. Wondering in the Wilderness IMO.

This stuff is just NOT that hard. To me at least.

Shoot a deer with a 165 grain Sierra out of a 308/30-06 and tell me I'm wrong. You won't. I'll make a believer out of you.

Barnes TTSX 80 grain 243
This is the entrance and the internal damage was very impressive.

The issue for me is that the standard bullets work. No need for me pay a premium for Copper.

That’s the exit the bullet went in the front on the other side shoulder. The wound is nowhere near 18 inches maybe softball size. As far as bad shot I don’t know what you consider a good shot but I got quite a few deer convinced that that’s a pretty good shot. I’ve shot dozens of deer with an 06 and a few with a Sierra. And I’m not knocking them but give me a Barnes any day.

I like variety, and I use bullets from all of the major manufacturers except Speer. Some I pick for long range applications, some for woods hunting, and a couple for when I finally get to take that trip to Africa. For deer hunting, I want a bullet that expands rapidly at whatever range I'm hunting, so I choose a gun for that purpose. I don't believe that a mono bullet will reliably expand at 500 yards from my 308 when velocity has dropped to 1800 FPS , but a Hornady AMAX will. Likewise, a 150 gr Sierra GK from a 7X57 at 50 yards will make a devastating wound channel on a deer. The mono will do that also - for more than twice the price of a Sierra GK.

Au! Don't talk no kinda ballistic common sense on Aldeer. I've loaded 40 rounds of Barnes and they worked...but no better than standards. Drt's look promising for nonhandloaders( dynamic research technology)

I don't want to come off like an a-hole which I am but don't mean to be towards anyone here. For the record I shoot all these bullets myself including Barnes. I think Berger shoots better but the Barnes has better performance. The only thing I don't shoot much of is Speer in rifle calibers. But I shoot a lot of Speer handgun. I probably have more Nosler Partitions and Accubonds on hand than anything but that is just because I don't shoot them up as fast since they are loaded for hunting. To me all copper bullets are a solution looking for a problem. Maybe California liberals are to blame. Give me one all copper with a very good design and high BC and I'm on board with shooting it. Otherwise - I don't have a reason.

IIRC, the military is also pushing lead free alternatives, not just Kalifornistan.

The only rifles I use Barnes TSX ammo in are my speed demons, .257WBYMag & .270WBYMag. Everything else gets Nosler Partitions or Accubonds. I have one A-bolt odd ball in .270Win that absolutely loves the 130gr GMX.

I absolutely love them in my daughters 223. She has killed 5 deer and quite a few hogs with the 62 grain ttsx. Some ran a little ways some fell right there, but they all seemed to bleed well.

I also shoot them in my 308, and I am undecided on them. I shoot the 130 ttsx at 3175 fps. They shoot well. If I do my part, the gun will almost put them into a half inch. I've shot 3 deer with them so far and they all died fine, but none left much blood.

The first was around a hundred yards. The deer was quartering to me some. I aimed for the shoulder and hit him just behind it. It exited in the flank then entered again in the ham and on out the other side. The deer ran right to me and probably would have fell at the bottom of the tree I was in. I had short stroked the bolt and tried to shoot him again. When the gun clicked, he looked up at me and ran back to where I shot him and fell over. Though he probably would have run only 100 yards, he ran about 200 yards and I didnt really see any blood. Might have been hard to find if I hadn't seen him fall.

The second one was shot quartering to me at about 100 yards. He only went 40 yards or so, but didnt leak any blood until right before he died and it wasnt much then.

The third one is the one that really got me to thinking. I shot him at about 60 yards. He was quartering away pretty hard. The bullet went in behind the shoulder and went out maybe a third of the way down his neck. He hit the ground hard and kicked around . I couldn't see him on the ground, but could see the grass wiggle a little for a little bit. I called my wife to bring the buggy and stepped out on the steps of the shooting house to pee. Bout the time I got done, I saw him get up and start trying to get gone. I grabbed the gun and shot him again, broad side this time. He fell pretty quick at the second shot and bled a good bit, but none at the first shot. If I couldn't have shot him again, I think he would have been hard to find.

I'm going to shoot a few more before I make up my mind, but I'm not sure I wouldn't have fared better with a NBT.

X2

One advantage of the barnes is you can drive them as fast as you can and don’t have to worry about them coming apart, this yields flatter trajectory and more energy.

Weight sort and base to ogive measure your barnes I bet they will perform like the bergers. I've noticed a lot of variation in barnes bullets enough to effect groups at short ranges.