A friend is concerned by reports that his new E-Tip 338 Win Mag load will foul his barrel.
Some say Barnes's driving bands reduce fouling in comparison.
Any comments are appreciated.

I've used them in a 7mm Remington Magnum and got no more fouling than with any other bullet I've used.

Karoo, pardon a smart azzed reply, but that's what they make copper/powder dissolving solvents for, is cleaning fouled barrels.
I've not shot the Nosler e-tips. I've shot a lot of other bullets including the Original Barnes X. I've also loaded rounds from 17 ackley hornet cal to 458 Lott.
From my experience barrel fouling on modern rifles from say 6.5 caliber and up is overstated. Particularly if you start with a properly cleaned barrel.
When Remington first introduced the 338 RUM I purchased a Sedero in said chambering. Barnes was not making the TSX then but the X bullet. Suffering from magnumitis and belief that I needed more velocity (I'm now cured thank you), I loaded 180 gr. X bullets. IIRC velocity was north of 3,400 fps. Don't recall any loss of accuracy during load testing or use. I discontinued use of said load after pretty much total destruction of a couple whitetails and hogs. I like my jelly from grapes or strawberries.
Get some JB bore paste, Kroil and a couple or three bronze brushes. Mix some kroil with the JB bore paste, coat a bronze brush and run 50 strokes through the barrel, clean your rod and put on a new brush do this 1 to three more cycles. Check to see whether you've got all the copper/powder fouling with an agent such as Eliminator, Wipeout/patchout, Sweets etc. Once you're down to bare metal run a couple patches with Kroil through the barrel. If you don't get down to bare metal you're not there yet. Once you have an absolutely clean barrel you're good to go. Go to the range or wherever. Fire six or 8 rounds to foul. That should do the trick Don't know whether your friend would want to make the investment, but I'd be willing to be the accuracy would not fall off to any degree under sixty rounds or so, if then. At the end of a hunt or season, run a patch with Kroil back through the bore if corrosion is a worry. Just be sure to fire a couple rounds to confirm POI again before you hunt. If your rifle don't like e-tips, well that's a horse of a different circumstance.
Just MHO.

Best

GWB

quote:

When Remington first introduced the 338 RUM I purchased a Sedero in said chambering. Barnes was not making the TSX then but the X bullet. Suffering from magnumitis and belief that I needed more velocity (I'm now cured thank you), I loaded 180 gr. X bullets. IIRC velocity was north of 3,400 fps. Don't recall any loss of accuracy during load testing or use. I discontinued use of said load after pretty much total destruction of a couple whitetails and hogs. I like my jelly from grapes or strawberries.

I had nearly the identical experience with a 300RUM and the same results with the lack of fouling. There are probably some rough bores out there that have fouling problems but most of it seems to be overblown.

Thanks for the responses. I guess the answer is that there may be some extra fouling but nothing good cleaning will not solve.

Nosler claims their E-tip is made from gilding metal.....the same stuff their jackets are made from on the normal bullets.

I haven't used any of them....

Barnes bullets are pure copper, which is softer and more prone to fouling a bore, especially if it has remnants of prior fouling, hence all their "clean bore" requirements. My use of barnes original X bullets did show heavy copper fouling, much worse than normal bullets. The TSX bullets did not cause this level of fouling for me.

I'd test a bit at the range but not be too worried about the E-tip.....

Cheers,

Dan

Karoo,

I've used Nosler E-Tips, Barnes "X", TSX & TTSX, Hornady's GMX, Jaguar & Impala.

Jaguar & Impala were dropped along the wayside as I'm not a fan of ultra-light, hyper-velocity fragmenting bullets; they kill but there's no bullet mass involved. Also the 80 gr. Barnes TTSX, fantastic accuracy and obvious hyper-velocity outa the 25-06 Rem but the bullets went quirky; no straight penetration.

Of the remaining 3, Nosler, Barnes and Hornady; I've obtained the best terminal performance with Barnes TTSX's (the newer plastic-tipped version), 100 gr. 25 cal. & 180 gr. 30 cal. this in two cartridges; 25-06 Remington and 300 Weatherby. I've used these two barrels (Blaser R93) exclusively for the past three seasons shooting only monometals on European sized deer to Red Stag & Wild Boar. They also performed optimally last year in Namibia on Oryx, Zebra, Blue & Black Wildebeest, Kudu, Waterbuck, Warthog, Impala & Springbok both Trophy & lots of culling..

The Nosler & Hornady's as mentioned above are constructed of guilding metal, the same as what is used for the Cup of Cup 'n Core bullets but instead of a Cup are solid.

The Noslers & Hornadys are harder than pure copper and in my experience do not expand as violently nor as quickly the way I loaded them as the Barnes (remember this is my personal opinion others may not share this). This may be a pentration advantage for Zebra, Eland and other larger antilopes.

All of the monometal loads shoot well under 1" for 5 shots and the accuracy with Barnes, Nosler, Hornady, Jaguar & Impala deteriorated to @ +1.5" at 50-60 rounds. A quick scrub following the directions involved using any reputable copper remover (Forrest, Shooter's Choice, Robla Solo, etc.) brought the accuracy right back down to <1". Does this mean the rifle/load combination is no longer capable of hunting accuracy? Well, No, unless you're doing head shots on Springbok at "extended ranges". But, all of the monometals required more & regular bore care to maintain the keen accuracy; much more so than required with Cup 'n Core bullets I used in the same barrels.

A real scientific experiment; well, No; just alot of bullets shot for both load development and a reasonable quantity of game.

Thanks for the detail, guys, and I will pass the message on.