Any one have experiences with either of these bullets? accuracy, effectivness on game, etc. I need to chose one to start reloading for my 8mm-06 but I have no experience with either. thanks

8mm Man, This should be an interesting thread, as this opens up a whole can of worms for those here that prefer one or the other.

I use both bullets. I load a 140 grain Partition im my buddy's 284 Micro Medallion for deer, and he loves the performance and his rifle shoots them quite accurately. My rifles have had a tough time grouping Partitions but again that is my rifles. Others here will report great game getting performance and very good accuracy.

I load 140 grain Barnes XBT's in 2 single shot 30-30's with super performance on whitetails. Never had a whitetail get away after being hit with an X Bullet. I load 130 grain Barnes XBT's for a buddies .308 Savage Model 11 and the rifle groups to 1/2" and this year that rifle was used to take 2 Alberta whitetails @200 lbs.+ Barnes bullets are able to be used in lighter weights than others as they out pentrate and generally hold together better than any bullet I have used to date. I know that if your using a 150 grain Standard lead core jacketed bullet, you could get by with a 130-140 grain Barnes. Check out my post about Barnes Bullets in 130 XBT-Great Results. http://www.serveroptions.com/ubb/Forum2/HTML/001120.html

One thing that would be good to know is what you are planning to use the loads on. I think that as far as penetration the Barnes IMO just can't be beat. There are other bullets out there now such as the GS Custom that is somewhat similiar that is also getting great reviews.

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The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can't get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten, that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods. ---------Chainsaw

[This message has been edited by Chainsaw (edited 12-16-2001).]

I have used the 175 grain Barnes X, Nosler Partition and Hornady Interlock on 4 of the same sized boar in Argentina.

In order of preference I like the Hornady, Partition then finally the Barnes.

Barnes lost me with its shoddy quality control. Not only do they let some crappy bullets get out, but they also released a manual with incorrect data in it.

I have also tried the X and XLC bullets in about 12 different rifles that I own and find them to be amoung the hardest to get to shoot well. In soem cases the accyracy is the worst I have ever seen.

Barens will lead you to believe that the X bullet does not foul in a clean bore, I have not found this to be the case. In fact they foul the plastic box they come in, I have never seen this with any other bullet, imagine what they do to your bore.

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www.rifleshooter.com

I have used the nosler bullets interchangably with grand slams depending on which one a particular rifle liked best. Both have done a good job for me. I have never recovered a slug from either loading so don't know if they make pretty, photogenic mushrooms or not. The wound channel from a partition will be kinda pear shaped. Beginning at the entry hole, it will get large fairly quickly as the front portion expands and then taper back down as the front either sloughs off or folds back along the rear shank of the bullet. The grand slam opens more slowly and the wound channel will be kinda wedge shaped starting at the entry hole. All the animals that I have shot with either bullet looked awfully dead when I walked up to them. I have no experience with the barnes bullet.

8mman
I have a 8mm Rem mag that all I shoot out of it is "X" bullets. They perform excellent on game.
As far as accuracy goes the 180, 200, and 220gr weights shoot vary well. But I burned a lot of powder, primers and 180 gr bullets before I found a combo to shoot well for this weight. I could not get it to shoot less than 3" at 100yd. Finely found a consistent grouping powder, primer combo (no flyers) then played with seating death. In frustration I seated some .08 off the lands and they went to 1/2" at 100. It now is my favorite weight in this gun. Shoots flat and hits hard.
As far as fouling, in a good I have not found them that much worse at fouling.
Bill I noticed the same thing about all the copper in the box of "X" bullets. I got an empty cleaned it spotless through some noslers in it. then shook it a couple of times every time I went to the bench for a couple of weeks. Opened it up and it was the covered with copper inside. I think it is just the black box that shows the copper. Try cleaning a Speer box throw some "X"s in it and the yellow will not show copper.
I am bias to "X" bullets. If they wont shoot out of a gun accurately I get rid of the gun.

I tried Barnes X bullets in a proven perfomer. It's a .300 Win Mag Ruger #1. The rifle will shoot 180 gr bullets into 1 MOA all day long. Put Barnes X bullets in it and the pressure goes up, the accuracy does to pot and the bore is fouled so bad that you can't get it out. I had to buy a Outers Foul Out kit.

The I shot one of the `165 gr Barnes X bullets into water filled paper cartons and all of the petals fell off. Nothing was left but a 80 gr pencil. It hit nothing but water and paper and fell apart.

I would not shoot another Barnes X bullet in any of my rifles no matter what.

8mman,

Welcome to the forum.

You might like to try both, and use the one your rifles likes to shoot well.

I don't think you would be disappointed in their performance on game animals. Both have an extremely good reputation.

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saeed@ emirates.net.ae

www.accuratereloading.com

Looks like I'm the bad guy, I have seen them fail and know a lot of other folks that have also seen them fail...

I will say when they work and thats most of the time they are very good, but they sure can do funny things on ocassions.

I do like the GS HV monolithic and believe they have better quality control than Barnes. thats the secret of monolithics.

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Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com

Ray
I've seen several posts by you regarding X bullet failure. Just wanted to know if that was with recent bullets, or was that some time ago?

Didn't Barnes admit to havng some problems with expansion on earlier models?
Thanks

My opinion is from "a meat hunter's"point of view. I like the way the partitions shoot, but they have always ruined alot of meat in my experience. The barnes in my use of them have never done this. The barnes have never really shot well in any of my rifles though. 2 in groups. I've been meaning to try the xlc's. I've heard that they shoot better.

I use NPT in .270 and BX in .300WM. No complaints.

I agree with Saeed. Your rifle will tell you what to shoot. I shoot both. I have a .300 Win mag. that will shoot a one hole group with a 180 gr. Nosler Partition and after years of experience with it know better than to try anything else in it. I also have a 7mm STW that will kick and scream if I shoot anything but a Barnes XLC 160 gr. bullet in it. Give each a good test before you decide. The worst thing you can do is decide before you start what bullet you are going to shoot and when it doesn't shoot well, say the rifle is no good. I have found that all barrels will like at least one bullet. Some like more than one. Good shooting.

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[This message has been edited by phurley (edited 12-16-2001).]

Gatehouse,
I'm snakebit with BarnesX, and I don't know why when some of the most respected people on this board just love them..I have just had more than my share of failures with them. the old ones really let me down and the new blue 165 gs. in a 300 H&H drilled a coyote...I was conversing with Ross Seyfried the other day as he has been the voice of Barnes over the years and he tells me that quality control is the problem today. He is a great fan of the WW Failsafe....

I did break down and shoot some of the GS HV, mostly because Gerard whined so much that I felt sorry for him and I must admit that they really have worked well on a number of deer, so I will be using them on the bigger stuff this year and perhaps I will become a monolithic fan, ya never know, but if they work I'll use them, if they don't then I won't...

I think as buyers that we are obligated to report how a bullet works for us with an honest evaluation and I have always attempted to tell it like it is...What I do hate is when a bullet is judged on a relitively few kills that proves nothing..I will say that any bullet is allowed a few failures from time to time, very few.

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Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com

I personally would climb over the top of a Dump Truck load of "free" Partitions. That to pay $50 for a single box of XLC's.

Your mileage may vary..............

I plan on hunting Elk, deer and Bear with it loaded to about 2700fps. with the 200gr bullets. I will eventualy buy a box of each but only have money to buy one for now.

By now Bob Hagel would have stepped outside and shot some into his bullet box!

Are we are on this kick again! The Barnes, specifically the blue-coated ones, have been able to group for me out of six rifles in five different calibers. By grouping I mean able to put 3 shots into under an inch at 100 yards at full power hunting loads with very little cooling time between shots. Their performance on elk has been superb. That said, the Nosler Partitions have produced the same sized groups or smaller with alot less effort and time invested. I use the Barnes because there is almost no angle that it cannot be relied upon to provide enough penetration to make a killing shot. I'm not a great hunter but I am a pretty good shot so if I can find the animals it's important to know that the bullet will do its job if I do mine.

8mman, buy you a box or so of speer or hornady bullets in the weight you want to use and do your load development with them. Switch over to your premium bullets for the hunt. You may need to move your sights slightly when you change bullets.

My hunting partner lost the buck of a lifetime shooting a 140 gr barnes X out of a 7mm rem mag at the buck standing broadside 50 yds away while he had a sandbag rest out of a shooting house. We found some clipped hair and searched until the early morning hours but still wasn't able to locate the buck. This same guy has routinely made 300 yd shots under the same circumstances. I obviously can't prove that the bullet didn't open since we didn't find the deer but it's my gut instinct. I've heard enough occurances of X bullets bending into a banana shape and I've seen enough pictures of recovered unopened X bullets to dismiss it as a likely occurance. Like Ray Atkinson said, they work great when they work but when they fail they fail miserably. Myself, I load nosler partitions, they always work. I guess I'm kind of partial to nosler bullets and consider them charmed because I've never lost an animal hit with a nosler bullet, and I've shot them with partitions, ballistic tips, and the old solid bases. 100% performance over the course of around a hundred animals is enough to keep me coming back.

Ray,
how did the X bullet fail for you specifically and what are the quality control issues you have found with these bullets?

Beman,
That could be dangerous if using X bullets because it's a longer for weight bullet and leaves less case capacity at a given OAL, PSI will be higher undoubtedly. Work up charges for the bullet it's pushing to be safe in this case.

Boltman,
No blood with an X bullet at fifty yards with a 7mm holed lung shot??

I say either one is a great bullet and will put a caliber sized hole, AT LEAST, in anything you can hit, which is plenty to kill and leave a blood trail to follow, if needed, on any reasonable shot. The X bullet will out penitrate the Partition or the bonded Swift in any given situation though.

Sweets 762 will remove ANY copper fouling easily if you've never tried it.

Lots of luck,
Brent

Big50,

No, we didn't find any blood which puzzles me also. As I mentioned before I can't say for sure that the guy made a good shot, but he's not known to choke under pressure, he's made plenty of tricky shots in the 15 years I've been hunting with him. The buck was in a food plot cut out of a 40 acre cutover and was about 3 yds from the cutover when he shot. At the shot the buck wheeled and disappeared into the cutover, we searched all around but couldn't find a blood trail. I agree a unopened X bullet should still leave a blood trail, but I have seen several well hit go for up to 50 yds before they started dropping blood. This cutover the buck disappeared into is the most god awful thicket you've ever seen, it's mostly briars and you can't walk through it, the only way to get through it is to get on your hands and knees and crawl through the "tunnels" the deer have made through the thicket. If that buck went 50 yds before starting to drop blood it would be almost impossible to pick up the blood trail, you'd only find it by blind luck.

Most of the accounts of X bullets failing to open I have heard seem to be on animals shot at close range. I think it's because at close range the bullet hasn't "gone to sleep" yet and isn't flying in a perfectly point on flightpath. When it impacts it could be slightly nose up which might pinch the hollow point closed and cause it to not expand. This may all be B.S. but it's the only thing I can come up with. I agree that an x bullet will outpenetrate just about anything other than a solid, but I just don't trust them completely.

I have used BX bullets in .338 WM. some years ago. 175 gr bullets in high velocity and 225 gr. in lower velocity. Hunting moose. The last years I have used the 160 gr. BX hunting reindeer with my .338-06 IMP. My experience is that they give extremly good penetration, some times when I used my first BX-es I wondered if they expanded at all, but when looking at the wound, I found that they HAD been expanding. I think it is necessary to use lighter bulletweights and higher velocities with the BX bullets, to get stability and effect in the animal. Doing that you will have a great bullet for most hunting. But it i often necessary to use more time to find a load with precision-potential. It also require more work keeping the barrel clean.

I have got no experience with the Nosler PT, but the reputation is quite good. Large wounds, but dependable penetration.

My choice today is SWIFT. There are bullets that are equal, but not better.

I have been a great fan Of Barns X and have never had one fail on me yet. You normaly go one bullet size lighter when you use Barns X. Really it is 6 and one half a dozen the other in choices between Nosler partition or Barns X, both are excellent.

Happy hunting