I have been using the Barnes mono's since 2004 and they are my choice. What is your favorite and why?

I have discovered the Barnes bullets to be extremely accurate and pass-thru everything broadside.

Question:
Prefered bullet brand?

Choices:
Barnes
Nosler
Swift
Berger
Hornady

 

Accurate, never failed us on anything we’ve shot. With one exception... always get an exit wound. The exception....full length a small bull elk (Texas heart shot), shattered pelvis on entry, bullet recovered beneath hide upper front leg. There were three hide penetrations, the entry (just left of rectum), exited in front leg pocket (armpit for lack of better term), re-entered upper leg, with full penetration, found beneath hide on offside. It was missing one (1) petal. This was the original X-Bullet, there have been many improvements since! memtb

Once again ar corey your poll is defective, my bullet is not listed.
I've shot at targets and killed animals with Sierra bullets more than any other.
I've killed a pile of Elk with a 30/06 and 180 grain Sierra's and never recovered one bullet. Same for Deer.
I killed a Wildebeest over 300 yards with a .338 and recovered a 225 grain Sierra on its hip weighing 204 grains nearly 36" of penetration.

ar corey,

I think for me it's more about what shoots in my rifle not the brand of bullet. I've used the Barnes, Noslers and Swifts with perfect results. I don't think the Bergers are good all around bullets and I've just not used the Hornady bullets.

Mark

Have used Nosler bullets just about everything I shoot since the mid 1950s. I have never experienced a terminal ballistics failure of a Nosler bullet. They are not “ super” bullets. Driven within their design parameters they simply do what they say they will do. Every time! Been good enough for me!

Nosler had a great line. Something for every situation. I like Ballistic Tips at moderate speeds.

North Fork?
Cutting Edge Bullets?
If you want to vote for the best of second place, you have a good list there.

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
ar corey,

I think for me it's more about what shoots in my rifle not the brand of bullet. I've used the Barnes, Noslers and Swifts with perfect results. I don't think the Bergers are good all around bullets and I've just not used the Hornady bullets.

Mark

I would think the bullet that shoots well in your rifle, or rifles, would become your brand, no?

Hornady Interlocks are very accurate for a cheap bullet.

quote:

Originally posted by Rusty:
Have used Nosler bullets just about everything I shoot since the mid 1950s. I have never experienced a terminal ballistics failure of a Nosler bullet. They are not “ super” bullets. Driven within their design parameters they simply do what they say they will do. Every time! Been good enough for me!

Same goes for me. I've killed probably 300 big game animals with Nosler bullets. I have great confidence in them.

Using 243, 25-06, 270, 30-06, 338, and 35 Whelen I've killed more game with Hornady Interlocks than anything else. If I want something stouter I use a Nosler Partition.

I probably have more calibers loaded with Speer Hot Cores than anything. I don't own a rifle that they don't shoot well out of and I have never found their performance lacking. Second most would probably be a tie between Nosler & Hornady.

I would rather have a swift aframe from buffalo, Accubond for elk on down.

Since I have not shot buffalo, I voted Noslar.

"...very accurate for a cheap bullet..." Does how much it cost determine whether a bullet is good or not? I thought we'd gotten past the idea of a magic bullet that could compensate for poor marksmanship and lousy shot placement.
Over the years, I guess I've shot just about every brand of bullets (no mono's) and have settled down to my first trial bullet being a "cheap" Rem core lokt. They don't shoot well in every rifle but I've never sent one after a head of BG that it didn't bring it to bag.

For me, it depends on what I'm hunting.

I shoot Ballistic Silvertips for Deer and Antelope (Pronghorns). Nosler Partitions for Elk and other African PG. And Swift A-Frames or Trophy BBC for African DG.

So I can't really pick just one from the list and be truthful.

My choice would be monometal first.
Solid shank second.
Partition third.
Soft point a distant last.

It does not matter who makes them.

I use a mix of Hornady, Speer and Sierra bullets. Probably more Hornady than anything else but that's because I load XTPs for my .44s and .357s.

My rifle hunting is mostly limited to whitetails so I never really saw the need for anything other than cup and core bullets.

My question is why do I have to choose, I tend to use them all..I like to try every bullet on the market on game, and pretty much have and still have no real favorite since all of todays bullets work 99% of the time and they all may fail on very very rare occasions, and most failures are imagined and misses are blamed on bullets..

Push come to shove I will always pick a Nosler partion, GS Customs, or Woodleigh and not in any particular order..

Sierra first. They tend to be more accurate than most. But in reality, whatever shoots best in the rifle. I buy a lot of Sierra since I can go there and get seconds. I buy a lot of Nosler since I can get their seconds as well. Hornady for the same reason.

the last few years I have had real good luck with almost all of the different brands.

I have broke down my bullet choices based on the weight that the rifle prefers.

my one 25-06 doesn't like longer bullets but shoots the speer 100gr boat tail like a champ and deer never move after a good chest shot.
the other one prefers the Hornady 120gr hollow point.

the 7X57 Ackley is built around the 139gr Hornady and 140gr sierra.
I like the Hornady better on game.

the last couple of years the sierra 150 copy I make myself but bond the cores on have been the choice of my 30-06.
the 308 really likes the Hornady 150.

I tend to use more Hornady than any other. They just plain work for me and I only have the opportunity to hunt white tail deer as the largest game. I have used other bullets, but cant justify the additional cost of premium bullets for deer.
If something large and dangerous were on the menu, I would look into using premium bullets.

I like Nosler for their variety. I love B-Tips, Partitions, Accubonds, and Bonded Prformance lines, but If I had to pick one bullet to shoot accurately and kill anything, it would have to be the Barnes TTSX.

I voted for Nosler, but honestly I'm now using more Sierra. Getting to old to chase elk in the Rockies and Sierra's work well for everything I hunt. Should I decide to hunt elk one more time, I would probably use one of the Sierra bullets since they shoot so well in two of the 3 rifles I've used to hunt elk (Sierra doesn't make a bullet for my 9.3x62).

My bullet of choice is not listed either. For North American game, I use Hornady Interlocks. For Dangerous Game, I use CEB's.

quote:

Originally posted by boom stick:
North Fork?
Cutting Edge Bullets?

+ Woodleigh!

Darn, should have put Sierra instead of Berger in the poll.

Thec problem is, no matter what you ask, someone is gonna have a problem.

Also not mentioned: Bitterroot Bonded Core

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
My choice would be monometal first.
Solid shank second.
Partition third.
Soft point a distant last.

It does not matter who makes them.

Yup.....agreed.....I'm now in the process of changing all my loads for hunting to Lead free.....Barnes primarily.....

I have used Barnes once. It was the XLC precursor to the TSX. Worked like a charm but they were nowhere near as accurate as the newer TSX and TTSX bullets. That is the only premium bullet i've used on game. I've used Sierra for all of my reloaded kills and for factory ammo I think i've used the Remington Core-lokt ammo to take all other animals. This is excluding varmint bullets.

As mentioned above you have left off one of the best bullets made and for most of my life my favorite.

Sierra

I use what the rifle tells me it likes after much Shooting. I will probably leave something out but here goes.----- .223's get Sierra 52 gr. HPBT exclusively. .243 wsssm and .25 wssm get Nosler Ballistic Tips and Sierra Gameking. .270 WSM's get Nosler Partition, Barnes TSX, Nosler Ballistic Tips. 7mm STW gets Northforks and Nosler Partition. .300 Winny gets Northforks and Nosler Partitions. .340 WBY and .338 Lapua get Barnes XLC and TSX. .358 STA's get Northforks and Swift A-Frame. 416 Rigby and Remington get Hornady for practice and Northforks soft sand solids for animals. I also shoot a 30-30 but do not load for it because I hate crimping so I use Federal Premium Nosler Partition. That is what I use for what it is worth. Good Shooting.

Im pretty sold on barnes ttsx and tsx across the board and have been reloading them exclusively for my 7mm and 30 cal rifles across the board..

I just picked up one hundred 300gr TSX in .375 at DSC a few weeks ago.. I havent loaded barnes in 375 before, but plan on brewing up several batches over the next 12 months tipped with the 300gr TSX.. assuming I can find a load that is accurate and performs well in my rifle, Ill be using the TSX on my 2019 buff hunt..

quote:

Originally posted by mdwest:
Im pretty sold on barnes ttsx and tsx across the board and have been reloading them exclusively for my 7mm and 30 cal rifles across the board..

I just picked up one hundred 300gr TSX in .375 at DSC a few weeks ago.. I havent loaded barnes in 375 before, but plan on brewing up several batches over the next 12 months tipped with the 300gr TSX.. assuming I can find a load that is accurate and performs well in my rifle, Ill be using the TSX on my 2019 buff hunt..

Maximum doses of Reloader 15 behind a 300 grain TSX is really grouping well in 2 of my .375 H&H's, fast and accurate, that's all I want from it...

First choice = is it available/does the store have anything?
Otherwise, Barnes TSX/TTSX works a treat for me.

Voted for Nosler as I always like to support the local economy.

What no Serria's

quote:

Originally posted by ar corey:

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
ar corey,

I think for me it's more about what shoots in my rifle not the brand of bullet. I've used the Barnes, Noslers and Swifts with perfect results. I don't think the Bergers are good all around bullets and I've just not used the Hornady bullets.

Mark

I would think the bullet that shoots well in your rifle, or rifles, would become your brand, no?

Hornady Interlocks are very accurate for a cheap bullet.

IMO The point is not all of my rifles like any one type of bullet and no one type of bullet is the best choice for all game. I'm hunting black bear and ibex next year and in both cases I want a bullet that opens quickly but will also penetrate. The two rifles I'll probably be using both like Nosler Partitions so that is what I'll use. If I were to go back to Africa for buffalo I'd load TSX or Northforks as both my 375 WBY and 458 WM like them and they are A good choice for buffalo. It's not about favorites it's about what bullet works in your rifle for a particular job.

Mark

I voted Barnes because it is my bullet of choice FOR HUNTING in my .375 RUM and .300 Weatherby. But it really depends on what I am shooting at, and what rifle that I am using.

For practice I shoot Sierras in my .375 RUM. and Hornadys in my .300 Weatherby.

In my 7mm Rem mag I shoot Accubonds for hunting, and Sierras for practice.

In my .30 Gibbs I used Partitions for hunting.

I've used a variety of bullets (Hornady, Nosler, and Sierra) in my .257 Ackley, and use the same bullets for hunting and practice. I've probably killed more animals with that rifle and Sierra GameKing bullets than any of my other rifles.

I’ve used all your options on game except the Bergers.

As I see it, the Berger design is too expansive for my tastes but very accurate.

Hornady cup and cores didn’t impress me, but didn’t disappoint me either. I was in camp with a guy who had multiple failures with the DGX.

Nosler... I like the partition. I’m not as sold on the accubond as the recovered bullets are a bit too expanded to me. Ballistic tips are my varminting bullet of choice, but my experiences with them on big game (deer) lead me to go with the partitions and maybe accubonds.

Barnes have worked well for me, but I’ve only used them in .338 on up.

Swift would probably be my across the board “it works in every thing” choice, but I’ve had a few rifles that don’t like them well.

Ones you didn’t mention of note...

Woodleighs work well in the big stuff.

Sierra is my go to accuracy bullet.

Speer has some old bullets that are great... but I haven used any lately. If you throw trophy bonded in there, they have some excellent stuff but I haven’t been able to find any except as loaded ammo.

North fork are great, especially their cup point solids.

I loved the old Winchester fail safes, but haven’t seen any component bullets from them in over 10 years.

Remington core locks lots of guys swear by... personally I haven’t gotten them to shoot well.

For me, as Mark said, each rifle seems to have its own preferences so I tend to use the one that works the best if it has a reasonable track record for my use, meaning I won’t take cup and cores to Africa but for deer or pronghorn, ok...

Hornady, Sierra, Speer. No need for any of the new fangled solid brass or copper bullets. The old types kill fine, for me and if I need to get more penetration, I go to a bigger caliber, not trying to make a pest gun into a big game rifle.
I know........