I need a hand, I'm after building up a load for 180 grain barnes TSX for a trip to africa, does anyone have a good recipe for these heads? I currently use 51gns Vit N150 with 168gn TSX heads but fancy something with more hitting power hence the 180 gn heads. I shoot them out of a Sako 75 SS if that makes any difference. This is my first go at bulding up a load so any help would be appreciated.

In my rifle, 60 gr. RL 22, Fed 210 primers, 180 gr. TSX's give 2770 fps and 1/2" accuracy. No pressure signs.

Geronimo

I'm all for trying new things, but have you found the 168 wanting? The performance I have had with the 168 TSX in my .30-06 has been so good that I would not hesitate to use that load on anything that I ought to be hunting with an '06 upto and including at least elk. 36"+ inches of penetration is hard to argue with.

LWD

56 gr IMR4350

59 gr RL19

58 gr IMR4831

55 gr IMR4350 2550 fps with 24" barrel.

M-W Paul,

Like LWD; I'm a real 165-168 grain bullet fan in the 30/06 Sprg.; to the point where I've never missed not using 180 grain bullets in this cartridge. The 168 gr. Barnes TSX's are pretty much about the size of conventional 180 grain bullets anyway.

I'm using 60.0 grs of VV N-160 with 165 gr. Nosler Partitions, Sierra HPBT's and the Combined Technology 168 gr. Ballistic Silvertips and all three loads produce spectacular accuracy in my .30/06 Sprg. Blaser R93.

With the Sierra bullets:
60.0 grs. VV N-160, Norma brass, WLR primers, OAL 3.33"

With either the NP's or CT BS's:
60.0 grs. VV N-160, Federal Nickeld brass, Federal 210 primer, OAL, 3.31"

VV N-150 is a good powder for the .30/06 Sprg. but for my tastes it doesn't give me the load density. If you want to step up a notch in bullet weight; I'd reco moving up a notch into the slower burning VV Series range as well. I've gotten better performance with either VV N-160 in the .30/06 Sprg and VV N-560 in a coupla other cartridges. I haven't tried VV N-560 in the .30/06 Sprg. yet because the VV N-160 loads are so accurate but if the VV N-560 gives me the huge boost in velocity with the same accuracy that it did when I changed from VV N-160 to VV N-560 in the 7x57R and 7x64; then that's where I'd attempt to steer you for a 180 grain Barnes TSX load in the .30/06 Sprg.

Good Luck

Thanks for all the advice, I've never had any bad results using the 168gn TSX's but am planning to shoot Zebra while in Africa this year and just thought that 168's might lack a bit in knock down power. I'll probably stick with the 168's but just fancied trying something a bit heavier.

quote:

Originally posted by Millwall Paul:
Thanks for all the advice, I've never had any bad results using the 168gn TSX's but am planning to shoot Zebra while in Africa this year and just thought that 168's might lack a bit in knock down power. I'll probably stick with the 168's but just fancied trying something a bit heavier.

We're talking about only 12 more grains of bullet weight to go to the 180. While I still believe this is likely the most popular wt in 30.06, the 168 tsx over a mere 55.0 of H4350 is shooting 0.4" groups in my rifle. One could argue the benefits of either bullet weight but inside of ~ 250 yards, is there really much energy difference in the 2?

The lighter bullet can be pushed faster than the 180, so the differences within reasonably accepted shooting distances will probably not be remarkable.

I've heard of zebras dropping to the plane jane 270 with 140 accubonds. I wouldn't sweat the 168 at all in your 30.06.

FWIW, I will second Geronimo's powder choice. The 180 bullet in the .06 does very very well with Re22. Another excellent powder would be IMR4064.

i would stick with the 180, but not the barnes proj, every so often they do something erratic, and it just may cost you a day or so tracking a wounded animal
use R 22 or NORMA MRP with the 180 nosler and work up to a vel of 2850 if you have a 24 inch tube
or better still get a 200 gn nosler @2700 with norma mrp and you will not regret it
Daniel

My default load with the 180 gn Barnes bullets in my .30–06 has been 55 gn IMR 4350 for over 15 years. Although I noticed that in the Barnes manual #3 they lowered the max load with this powder from 55 to 54.5 gn (this is for the X bullet, there’s no TSX specific data in the #3 manual). I’ve put together numerous 1 hole 3 shot groups with this load at 100 yards, and dropped a 4 point bull elk in his tracks at 200 yards with it.

165,168,180,TSX''s would all due you proud on your africa hunt. really its your trip,you pick! regards

Thanks for all the advice I think I'm going to take the 168's with me to africa, they shoot well enough for my abilities and killed everything with 1 shot last year so should still work well next year. Merry Christmas everybody.

180 gr Barnes, 576 gr 4831, Fed 115 mag primers, Federal brass.Rifle stainless stalker Browning. 6 elk all one shot none went more than 20 yrds after shot.Load cronos 2700 fps.

quote:

Originally posted by 6x5:
180 gr Barnes, 576 gr 4831, Fed 115 mag primers, Federal brass.Rifle stainless stalker Browning. 6 elk all one shot none went more than 20 yrds after shot.Load cronos 2700 fps.

I assume this is 57.6 gr 4831 ????

Is it IMR 4831 or H-4831 ????

quote:

Originally posted by Oday450:

quote:

Originally posted by 6x5:
180 gr Barnes, 576 gr 4831, Fed 115 mag primers, Federal brass.Rifle stainless stalker Browning. 6 elk all one shot none went more than 20 yrds after shot.Load cronos 2700 fps.

I assume this is 57.6 gr 4831 ????

Is it IMR 4831 or H-4831 ????

and Fed 215 primers.