I am wondering if anyone has used the 120 grain Branes TSX BT? or the 120 Barnes XBT? or the Nosler 120 Balistic Tip? If so, what load were you using? I am using the Winchester Model 70 Classic Laredo With BOSS. I deer hunt in southeastern Kansas where my shots run from 300 to 600 yards. I looked at getting a 300 RUM, but thought that I would try these loads first. Barnes told me that I could use the old loads for the 120 grain XBT for the 120 grain TSX. Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Rhett,

I've been shooting the barnes 120xbt for a couple of years now. I am loading it with 71.5 grs of RL22, win. std rifle primers and remington cases. Shooting over a chrony i get 3486 fps out of a 26 inch browning a-bolt. Groups are 0.856 at 100 yds. i have no experience at all shooting the 120 gr Nosler BT.

Dear Cajun56,
What is your terminal performance like? Do you get pass through shots? How big an exit whole are you getting? Are the deer dropping on the spot or running off? If they run, usually how far? Where I hunt, the grass is 6 to 8 feet tall. If you do not anchor them, you will hardly ever find them. Are you shooting 7 mag? I seen in your post that you use regular rifle primers, not magnum primers. Why is that? Thanks for your help.

oops!! forgot to tell you that. yes it is the 7mm rem mag that i am shooting. when i started loading the barnes bullet i followed what the load in the manual suggested. i also loaded the rounds 0.050 of the lands like barnes suggested. well as i started playing with this load the groups didn't show any promise whatsoever. i started playing around with them dropping powder charges, changing primers and playing around with the seating depth. i finally got a load that showed some decent groups, 1.5 to 2 inches. then i started easing the bullet closer to the lands and the groups started tighting up. i ended up at 0.020 from the lands. then i switched to std primers and the groups shrank down to below 1 inch consistantly. as you know every gun will be different. you will just have to play around with the loads till you get that will work for you.
i have never recovered a bullet in an animal. i've only shot 4 deer with the 120 xbt and they always pass through. i shot a fairly large doe, 121 pounds live weight. it was a text book broadside shot at 130 yards +/- a few. she took 3 steps after being hit. the lung/heart area was like mush and the exit hole was about the size of a quarter. i only had one that ran on me a little ways. for some reason i pulled my shot hitting it to far back and the deer ran about 50 yds. hope all this helps you.