My sons and I have used TSX exclusively for all our rifles in 7mm-.375 for about 15 years now. We've killed several dozen North American animals and a couple dozen African animals from warthog up to eland. Excellent performance. The only one I saw which didn't open made a "keyhole" entry wound on an eland, I assume from hitting a twig or something on its way.

I particularly like using the TSX on our North American game because I don't have to worry about bits of lead getting sprayed into the meat.

I have shot quite a few deer and animals up through buffalo with TSXs. For elk and bigger they are my go to bullet.

I have shot a myriad of WT deer with a .308 Win and 165 gr TSX and TTSX. I get the same experience as Mike...no or poor blood and sometimes a long trail. One of the 2 biggest deer I have killed was with this load (~180” at Jerry Huffaker’s now) and I damn near didn’t find him. I wrote this report up here year before last.

The shot was just as Mike’s first except the exit was a bit farther back just in front of the tuber coxae in the flank with a large exit...just missed the spine on entrance. The distance was ~95 yds. The deer died with shot of course but went over 100 yds—probably close to 200. It did leave a consistent but sparse blood trail. In bad light...my 56 year old eyes could not follow it. Fortunately, I had my 10 yr old boy with me that had followed several before. His eagle eyes and previous experience took us right to the deer.

I am going to shoot Accubonds for a while in that rifle when I shoot up all the TTSX I have loaded for WTs. I am convinced they are not the right tool for the application in soft animals.

Mike, leave some deer for the Admiral!

Shot another whitetail this evening.

This time I was hunting with a Steyr ssg69 and shooting the same 168 Barnes tsx.

The shot was in a open field and in good light.

I wanted to check out the Barnes. I shot a double lung. The deer was whacked hard. He nearly tipped over before turning 180 degrees and ran in a arch before folding at the tree line. The whole distance was 50-60 paces in a straight line and 90-100 paces in the arch.

I had a clear picture of where I shot him, where he turned 180 degrees and the exact arch he ran.

I walked it. Where I shot him there was a blood and piece of the lung. Along the whole track there was zero blood. Where he laid dead after I picked him up there was little blood.

He bled significantly more at the processor when I took him out of the truck.

The exit wound was slightly larger than the entry.

The Barnes kills but there will be little blood to trail.

Mike

I found better luck shooting the TTSX bullet than TSX. I switched after losing a Blacktail buck that I’d shot with my 338. We found the buck much later and all we could conclude was the 225 grain TSX zipped through like a solid. That tip on the TTSX seems to open the medium and small caliber Bullets better on light animals like deer.

When shot placement is good solids kill.

I see virtually no difference between TSX and TTSX bullets regardless of caliber. That encompasses .223 up to 50 ML. It has not been noticeable to me that there is a difference in the holes in the deer related to caliber, and I have field dressed and butchered 100% of the deer. There have been no lost deer with them. There have been no failures to expand nor even questionable expansion. There have been a couple-three that had no blood trail, but had I been using cup and core bullets I think that would have been about what I'd see with them, or if anything less with the monos. I use very large cut broadheads when I shoot deer with a bow. Even then I will on occasion see one which does not put blood on the ground. The same broadhead that can lay a 4 foot wide swath of blood on the ground can also with a comparable wound put no blood at all on the ground for as long as the deer runs.

Like with the broadheads I do what I can to maximize blood trails with monos. I load them as light as I can and push them fast. For most of the monos that seems 6to work, but it doesn't explain the differences seen with slower cartridges and sometimes small hollow points that have worked well for me.

Congrats on the nice bucks, Mike. I would say your bullets are doing a fine job for you.