As to my post of above and my high expectations of the Barnes triple Xs and their outstanding accuracy in my .308..

Well the very first deer that got shot in our group was with my gun and it was a total disaster, a broadside shot at about 50 yards, a chunk of lung the size of my thumbnail and a 10 foot tiny droplet blood trail that went into the Cianosa brush so thick I had to crawl in it to follow tracks only, no blood..this went on for about 200 yards in about 4 hours on hands and knees, then he hit the quakies and soft wet leaves on the ground and blow down timber thicker than a horses mane, and then got in with a large bunch of does, and that eluded my skills as a tracker, but about that time I heard some shooting about a mile in the right direction and I really hope someone shot him. Deer are scarce in Idaho this year, I have never seen it so bad..

I can only assume the bullet failed to open, entrance and exit didn't allow blood to flow..I saw the bullet strike in my binoculars. The shot was center shoulder, just right.

I have been snake bit on Barnes X bullets from the get go, and I know a lot of folks that love them; I have seen them used successfully on big animals like Buffalo, and I have tried to use them in the past myself, but I guess its just not in the cards for me...I have seen them fail on too many light boned animals, same for the WW failsafes..

Ray,

Good grief, you almost gave me a heart attack. If the bullets weigh 320gr, they are 404 bullets. The 416 HVs are 330gr and we sent you some of those in Dec 2002 with Marius.



There are two labels on the boxes. The one denotes the bullet number (418320HV.069) and pack quantity. On the other side of the box, the label states the calibers the bullets are intended for (425Express, 404) . The bullets should measure 10.630mm (.4185") at the rear drive band. Please have another look and confirm if this is what you have recieved. The .416 330gr HVs would measure 10.580mm (.4165"). We do the labels this way because of the weird connections some calibers have with the actual bore/groove sizes. The confusion created by the various .257 calibers that are actually around 6.5mm and the 6.5mm calibers that are actually around 6.7mm (.264) and a host of others, prompted us to change the labels. Lately we have also added recommended twist rates to the labels.



RIP,

The packaging was changed and, although we still use whatever small boxes we can find, the parcels are reasonably bulletproof now. Bear in mind that someone pointed out here that "Fragile" is postal worker code for "Do not throw more than 20 meters." We have ordered sheets of double corrugated board and will be making up our own boxes from that shortly.

.

Just to let you know that my order of .500 jeffery bullets arrived safely from South Africa this morning, less than a month after I placed an order.

Thank you Gerard

Gerard,
I emailed to hivel concepts, apparantly thats your old address, and just the other day I told Marius to give you a call....I now have your new address in my address book, so all is well....the bullets weighed about 320 grs.

You also sent me a box of 500 gr. .470 N.E. monolithic HPs in the order, apparantly at no charge I believe, which I greatly appreciate. Now that is one interresting bullet, can't wait to test that one...

Gerard,
No, these are .416 and they weigh 330 I suppose, I weighed them pretty fast yesterday...

When I went to load them for my 404 the bullet dropped in the case to the powder charge, thats when I knew something was amiss!

Ray I had the same thing with a 168 gr blue bullet from barnes in my 30-06 two years ago. 30 yard shot. I had a good solid rest. Tight behind the shoulder, at last shooting light. No blood no hair no nothing. It was in a deer dense place near a food plot and deer tracks were absolutely on every inch of ground. Which were the right track? Never found the deer. Did I miss the deer at 30 yards? Certainly possible. I don't think so. I remember the sight picture as clear as if I was seeing it for the first time. I figure it missed ribs in and out and never opened on light airey lung tissue. I am sure the deer died but it became coyote food as no blood left no trail to follow. I will use a softer bullet for deer. Thanks D