Here are some comments on the 400 grain x-bullet and field results. I used this bullet in Tanzania on 15 animals. I was using this bullet in a 416 Rigby at a mv = 2470fps (chronographed). I only reocvered 2 bullets.

Here is a picture of a Duiker that I shot at 40 yards. It was a "Texas Heart Shot". The bullet fully expanded in the first 7 to 10" of this 15 pound animal and exited through the front of the chest (I estimate the body length of the Duiker, from end to end at ~18"). The exit hole is visable below it's nose.




Recovered bullets: bottom & left from lion (frontal chest shot at 20 yards); top and right from zebra (texas heart shot at about 140 yards).





This bullet performed well on animals that weighed from 15 pounds (duiker) to 1600 pounds (buffalo).

MHC_TX,



Performance looks perfect! Can you give us the recipe for your handloads?



Regards,

Dave

I was also thinking about trying the Barnes in my 416. Does the blue plastic (or whatever it is) really do anything to lessen copper fouling?

I used a 350 gr Barnes X from a .416 Rigby on a Gemsbock in RSA in May. 98.0 gr or AA4350 w Fed 215 primer on Norma cases gave 2660 fps from my 26" bbl CZ 550. Actually a mild load for the Rigby.

Impact was at 30 yards on the lower shoulder. Gemsbock was simply stunned ... staggering slowly maybe 20 yards before falling over. Bullet exited the off side shoulder with no deflection of the bullet.

I like the performance of Barnes bullets!

I've got a bit of a problem with the old Texas Heart Shot. Being a Texan myself, I've never needed to shoot an animal in the anus in order to make the kill. In other words I've never needed to kill an animal so badly that I'd shoot it in the ass. It kind of makes me mad that the phrase was coined with the Lonestar State the moniker because I've never known any of my Texan friends knowingly shoot an animal in the mudpipe. In my 30 odd years of hunting if I found myself staring at the poopshoot of an animal I wanted to harvest, I realized with a little patience it would sooner or later turn for a nice quick quartering away shot.

I realize that there are very good arguments doing what you did because the bullet/caliber you are using makes the bunghole shot a plausible and highly effective kill in certain situations. I have no doubt that the 40 pound critter that you blasted from aft to fore with a 400 grain bullet died quickly. However, for me putting the crosshairs on the rectum of a trophy animal and squeezing the trigger would just make me feel like well, like an ...you guessed it.

Slatts,
So you sit in a stand and shoot'em eating corn on the road...Very easy broadside shots.

In the real world of hunting, the Texas heart shot is a viable option, it kills quickly and destroys more tissue than any broadside shot...I have hunted the South Texas brush on foot and all you will ever get is a going away shot, same for Idahos elk in the thick black timber, either you take that shot or you go home empty...

I think your hunting experience is very limeted in style, judgmental and unfounded. Furthermore if cleaned properly no fouling of meat occurs with a going away shot...

DavidC: 400 grain Barnes X; 96.0 grains of H4350; Norma Brass; Federal 215 primers; bullet seated to top of canelure

Wink: I think the blue coating does help with copper fouling in the conventional X-bullet. The newer Tripple Shock design is uncoated and is suppost to have less fouling due to the grooved shank.

Slatts: I am sorry I offended you with the expression "Texas Heart Shot". I too am from Texas and have been hunting for about 30 years. Obviously, we all try to get "the perfect broadside shot" and shoot for the off shouder. On this trip I actually shot 1 duiker, 1 warthog, 2 impala and 2 zebra as they were "facing the other way" or from "south to north" (I'm trying not to offend a fellow Texan). The impala, warthog, duiker all crumpled in their tracks. I shot both zebra again even though on one of them it wasn't necessary as the bullet had traveled through the entire length of the animal and exited through the center of the chest. My policy is if it is still standing I will normally shoot again. I guess that is why I really liked the performance of this bullet. It would penetrate in a staight line and create a wound channel the length of the animal. I don't know if you have ever hunted in Africa in your 30 years of hunting (I've only been there twice, so am by no means and expert), but the animals over there aren't like our Texas deer - they don't just stand under the feeder waiting for the corn to come out

I really am willing to be enlightened on the going away shot, but I've been taught by a bunch of other judgmental hunters that it's not the way to go. I wasn't aware that this tactic was so prevalent so I guess I am pretty narrow-minded. Yes, believe it or not I've actually passed on going away shots and sometimes went home empty handed. I'm mostly concerned that I'd just take out a hindquarter and have a wounded animal that I couldn't recover.

By the way, I DO NOT shoot deer from beneath feeders. I learned a long time ago that it's worth it to pay my guides extra to tie my deer to trees before sunrise so I don't have to wait so long for a broadside shot. (That was a joke)

I have got to ask this.

If the bullet travelled 7-10inches prior to expanding in the animal, would not it have passed completely thru the duiker without expanding on a broadside shot?

Arguably it still would have been dead. But that may not have been the most desirable wound channel on a medium sized animal.

I will preface my Barnes experience by saying I've been hunting for 40 years, although nothing bigger than whitetailed deer, and only groundhogs and one red fox ever dropped straight down to the ground like they were head shot unless they were actually headshot. Everything always ran some distance before expiring. That all changed this September in Africa.


I had never taken any animal with a Barnes bullet until my recent plains game trip to Namibia. Everything from steenbok to kudu and zebra dropped in their tracks when hit in the shoulder with 225 grain Barnes XFB from my 338-06AI, and 5 springbok did the same when shot with 85 grain bullets from my 25-06. Although the steenbok was a severly quartering away shot which gutted him from stern to stem. Every one was a pass through. Not a single bullet to recover and covet as a memento. And to think that I chose the X bullet so that the trackers would have both an in and an out hole yielding blood for them to trail. They didn't get much of a workout from me. I can't say enough about how well I liked the Barnes performance. And I wrote Coni and Randy Brooks and told them so.

I've had similar results with 350 Gr. X bullets from my 416 Rem. The bullets that I've recovered have all been perfect specimens except one that broke a Buff's spine. That one lost a petal.

I also think the THS is a great shot to take, and it doesn't destroy anymore meat than a shoulder shot. Saturday I used it on a doe that had previously been unzipped by a broadside shot. After a long tracking job, that was the only shot presented, and the deer went down instantly with the 150 Gr. bullet from my 270 exiting the chest.

Slatts: We all have formed opinion's (right, wrong or indifferent) based on "our" experiences (at least I know I have). To tell you the truth, I have never had to take a "going away shot" until this trip and I would not take that shot unless I knew I had enough gun and bullet to do it. The zebra in this area were very skitish and typically they were with impala and heartebeest. They would rely on each other's senses to detect danger. On the zebra I shot from "south to north" I was waiting for him to turn broadside. The PH said "we have just been spotted by a hartebeest and to take him now if I felt comfortable with the shot, because he was going to run" and so I did. I would not have taken that shot with my .375 H&H (using 300 grain Swift A-frames) because I didn't (and still don't) feel comfortable with this caliber/bullet combination's penetration from that angle on a zebra. That's not to say that someone else may feel comfortable with taking this shot. When you are writing the checks I think you earn the right and responsibility to make that call. I think you should really reconsider your policy of not shooting deer beneath the feeder, it would save you some money from the "tie up fee" (I'm glad you have a sence of humor on this matter)

TheBigGuy: I think the X-bullet would have worked fine on a broadside shot. In fact, a lot of people shoot this small anelope with solids, so they don't totally blow it up. In this case, the whole rear section for about 10" was "unzipped" or blow open where the bullet was expanding very rapidly with a neat 3/4" whole in the center of the chest were it exited. The bullet, based on the wound channel) began opening imediatley upon impact, completely expanded and exited the animal. In fact, the trackers got into an argument over which way the animal was standing, based on the wound channel. One of them could see it when I shot (I swear he had 8 power binoculars for eyes) and the other was basing his argument by looking at the wound channel.

The whole point of my orginal post was to show how well the 400 grain X bullet worked for me. It would penetrate through 4' of zebra, but still open up on a 15 pound duiker (these are Texas sized jackrabbits). The only reservation I had with this bullet is you had to make sure there wasn't another animal behind it. Especially, when hunting buffalo in a herd situation.

So for me, based on my experience (right, wrong or indifferent) with the performance I had with this bullet (from 40 yards to 180 yards, from ~15 pounds to over 1600 pounds) I am sold on the X-bullet. I just wanted to provide another data point for others on this forum to use or disguard as they see fit.

Slatts,
Well sir, you need to give that shot a try and you will take home more venison, but use enough gun...Truth be that most hunters don't really realize the penetration of these good calibers we shoot today from the 270 on up...

I know a 180 gr. Nosler will penetrate lengthwise in a bull elk and a 200 gr. Nosler in a 300 H&H will do even better, My 338 with a 250 gr. or 300 gr. bullet will pass through a Zebra lengthwise, two Sudanese refugees, and richochet to Iraq and take out a three Nuns and two Muslim clerics so caliber does have a lot to do with taking the THS..

If I had to advise on a shot that should not be taken it would be any shot over say 350 yards...At thoses distances under field conditions, a really poor shot will just miss but a really good shot is prone to wound an animal, seen this happen many times..There are just to many elements in the long shot, and I had to learn this the hard way, I never miss at long range, but I have wounded a couple of animals doing this, and because of that I have disaplined myself to 300 yards or less....All hunters should be honest with themselves.

And hey, I have ambushed many a deer eating corn in the road. and I have shot them at all angles and some that were way to far down the Sendero..but that was in my mispent Texas youth.....

I have tried to get Pierre and Saeed to corn the roads in the Selous, to make finding a real old dugga boy Buffalo, to so far my Texas accented whining has fallen on deaf ears.