I started reloading about 4 months ago after a friend gave me a reloading set up for free. The first rifle I loaded for was my Remington LVSF in 7/08. I decided to try the Barnes TSX and Varget per the recommendations of several folks and loaded up 3 each of increasing in .5 grain increments and boom...43.5grains gave me a sub .5" group. I went home and loaded up some hunting rounds and went back to verify and my first group was .201".





I then went to a 257 Roberts Ruger RSI and 100gr TSX's and RL19.....Same build up in .5 grain increments and 1" groups from a rifle with a full length stock,no trigger work, no bedding. Good enough. I verified and again shot smaller groups hovering around .75".




Sendero 300WM 168gr TSx's and IMR 4831 again as suggested by Barnes and .25" groups...Verified after reloading fire formed cases and again .25" groups.



Ruger 77 Mark II 22-250...No bedding or trigger work and 53gr TSX's with Varget. Again I shot a group around 1" and then verified with hunting rounds and averaged just over .75"





What I am asking is are all the rifles I load for going to be sub-MOA shooters with this combination of the Barnes TSX and the Barnes load data or have I just been lucky thus far?

Maybe you just have good taste in rifles!

Hey Bruz

IMO you are lucky that your 22-250 will shoot the TSX, all the rest of them are just using good info, good bullets in good guns.

quote:

Originally posted by woods:
Hey Bruz

IMO you are lucky that your 22-250 will shoot the TSX, all the rest of them are just using good info, good bullets in good guns.

Is the 53gr TSX not a good shooter in most 22-250's?

I just stayed with the TSX because I had enjoyed the prior results and I want to Deer hunt with it a little. Which bullet would be a better choice?

Thanks,

Robert

Well, quite a few people have found the TSX to be a very accurate bullet including myself. So you choice of bullet is likely a big factor.

You're also shooting quality guns that one would expect to shoot well, and that certainly helps.

The powders are also appropriate choices for the calibers.

So there's probably some luck involved in that you happened to pick powders that worked well with the given bullets in the given guns, but the other factors count too.

LWD

Well, luck may be at work in that you didn't have to try too many different powder charges before getting outstanding performance. However, you are using the right approach and obviously are loading your rounds to very uniform specs, which helps with accuracy!

While the TSX offers good hunting accuracy with minimal fuss in load development (as opposed to the original X bullet), it is still far from match-grade and not what I consider acceptable in MY guns. Then again, I must admit to being rather picky.

As an example, I took a 26" custom Contender barrel from Match Grade Machine in 6.5 Bullberry IMP and tried virtually every suitable powder and seating depth with the 120 and 130 grain TSX. The best 100 yard groups ran around 3/4th inch. Meanwhile, the 140 grain A-Max, 130 grain Accubond, 140 grain Sierra GameKing, 140 grain Ballistic Tip, 125 and 140 grain Partitions and 85 grain Sierra HP all will consistently shoot 0.5 MOA or better with just about ANY powder/seating depth combination.

The same has held true in other guns as well.

As to expansion, I'll never fully trust a Barnes again after experiencing failures with a batch of 25 caliber X bullets in a .250 Savage. Early on, they worked well for me, but I then ran into a lot that behaved like a full metal jacketed projectile and failed to expand. Barnes acknowledged the problem, told me to send in all of my bullets (I even pulled the loaded rounds) and that they'd send me bullets from a new lot. Several calls over a 6-8 month period produced a variety of excuses, from blaming a former employee for not following through to having to "re-test" the batch. But I was asssured they'd get to the bottom of this and replace my bullets.

That's been more than a decade ago -- and I guess those bullets are still "in the mail" because I have never received them...

It was not that big of a deal, though, because there are plenty of other bullets out there that perform just as well or better and even cost less. Particularly in my moderate-velocity 6.5s, conventional 140 grain bullets perform as well or sometimes better than a "premium" as the high sectional densities and moderate muzzle velocities contribute to superb penetration.