Ray how about that lost deer bullet? There has been some heated discussion among friends re this issue. What weight was the bullet? The considerations seem to be that you need a very light bullet for deer or other light game in the X bullet. What do you think? D

Deer Hunter,
It was a 150 gr. ,308 Win. Barnes TSX at almost 2800 FPS..The range was 40 yards and I could actually see the shot strike in my binocs.

I have no doubt it resulted in a kill, but the deer covered a lot of ground before he expired it appears, and simply left no blood or tracks on the ground, except at the sight of the actual hit, which indicates to me he blead internaly and that says the entrance and exit holes were small and probably got plugged...Just an opine on my part.

I realize that a number of things could have occurred, and that the bullet may or may not be the culprit, but the indicators tell me it is...I have seen this occur with failsafe and Barnes in the past and particularly on smaller animals? Sometimes the hollow point pinches shut IMO. and many of you that use them must admit that at times the entrance and exits are rather small and sometimes they plug with internal fat. I see a lot of bullets used in the course of each year, and I am a dyed in the wool bullet digger...

I have just had/seen a lot of bad experiences with Barnes and Failsafe bullets. I will state that they have always performed wonderfully on big heavy animals..I quite using them on small animals some years ago, but I liked the look of the Triple X and the larger square cavity so I decided to give them a try, but I am going to let someone else use them for awhile after this experience...

The problem with game bullets is most of them only fail on ocassion, thus they have their promoters and distractors, so it mostly depends on whos driving!! One group praises them highly, the next bunch hates them with a passion...


Everyone should look at bullet failure from the standpoint of why risk it, and make your own decision based on your experiences and the experiences of others, If I hear of a number of bullet failures with a certain bullet then I will usually back off of that bullet, if I only hear of one or two then I take that with a grain of salt, Many base their opinnions on one or two kills and thats worthless information unless a number of folks have the same experiences, so its good for everyone to evaluate the bullets they use and document it on these boards, and in combo it becomes a clear picture in time, that is my policy..I put my results out there, hope everyone else does the same then you make your own choices based on a number of kills....

I praise bullets highly that work for me, and I will slander the ones that do not..I would expect likewise from everyone on this board,..In this case I have have quite a number of failures from Barnes and Failsafe and seen many others on light game like deer and smaller antelope...others have had the same or the opposite results, but where there is smoke there is fire.

I will stipulate the tissue I found seemed to be lung as it appeared pink in the very early dawn light and was covered in dirt, but I suppose it could have been coagulated blood that was watered down or whatever and at the going away simi broadside shot angle it is possible that the bullet could have bounced off a rib and gone between shoulder and rib cage and out the front..I have seen this on more than several ocassion and if so then bullet failure is not the culprit unless the rib pinched the hollow point closed and turned the bullet...

I have put my case before the jury, both pro and con with all the possibles I can think of..Take it for what its worth which isn't much unless others come up with like results...

As for myself, being an unforgiving soul on bullets, when I have a failure, I will usually feel a lack of confidence in that bullet, until someone or something changes my mind..

Ray,

I think it is more likely that the X petals blew off and left a 30 caliber wadcutter.

That will work on a large animal but not a deer.

This is the main problem with X bullets in my opinion. It should probably be annealed so it is less brittle and expands at lower velocity, but then it would really wipe alot of copper off in the bore.

Andy

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