Either will be accurate enough and perform well enough to reliably kill anything you can legally hunt in North America (or South America for that matter!) Just pick the one you like the looks of the best, work up a load, go hunting (often), and don't worry about what you Might have gotten out of the other.

People at Barnes say the reason high velocity impacts do not appear to cause the bullet to "expand" is because more than likely the petals are opening up and tearing right off. Originally, (according to Barnes) the X-bullet was designed to help rifles like the .308, .280 and '06 perform like a '06, 7 mag and 300 Win mag (respectively.) Somewhere along the line shooters (like me) inevitably think if 2800 fps is good, then 3000 is better and 3200 is best! And if I use the superhighpowerprimoexpandatallvelocityandpenetratedeeperthanjohnholmes bullet, I don't even need to shoot the deer, I'll just show it my cartridge and it will jump into the back of my pickup and begin field dressing itself!

Idaho "I do love those XLC's though...." Vandal

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People at Barnes say the reason high velocity impacts do not appear to cause the bullet to "expand" is because more than likely the petals are opening up and tearing right off.

If I cared a hoot about Barnes bullets I would call them and check this out. http://www.barnesbullets.com/contact.php

In my testing of X bullets into water filled cartons the petals did blow off of the 165 gr X when shot from a 300 WM at close range. The bullet still did blow up a lot of cartons and the remaining pencil penetrated as far as any bullet can.

Both a great bullets and I've used both but untimately chose TSX for one simple reason: Terminal performance at a broader range of distance.
I've had NP blow off their tip and pencil-through on close shots, with the animal departing seemingly unhit leaving not much for blood trail. Not so Barnes X, you can't push them fast enough to blow up or pencil out at reasonable rages (0-300 yards and beyond if necessary) And the TSX only made a good thing better by adding improved accuracy and less fouling to the mix.

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Not so Barnes X, you can't push them fast enough to blow up or pencil out at reasonable rages (0-300 yards and beyond if necessary)

In my testing of X bullets into water filled cartons the petals did blow off of the 165 gr X when shot from a 300 WM at close range.

Savage,

Your findings are consistant w/Barnes. They say the 165 nose is not as tough as the nose of the 168/180 bullets. The 165 is more pointed and the 168/180 more rounded.

Deke.