A hunting buddy had me load some 130 grain XBT's for his Savage Model 11F. I used BLC-2 powder and WLR primers in a Remington case. I seated the bullets off the lands .045 and chronographed the loads at 3050 fps. He used the rifle to shoot an 200lb.+ Alberta Whitetail at 275 yards, and his partner "borrowed" it after that and shot a 200+ lb. plus whitetail at 100 yards. One deer dropped in his tracks, the other went less than 15 ft. He elected to go with the 130 grain as shots could be had to 350 yards in certain stands and he liked the ballistics in my Barnes manual.

Has anyone experienced the same results with these lighter for caliber bullets. I use the 140 XBT in my single shot 30-30 with great results also.-----------Chainsaw

Chainsaw, I shot a coupla' three mulies and a 6x6 bull with 140 gr. XLC's at near light speed from my 7mag, and none of them went more than 7 paces. Still looking for the bullets .

That said, I've bought some of Gerards bullets, and my, oh, my, they are nice. Shot a 6x6 with a 130 gr. 7mm, and my wife shot an antelope with one (yes, with the '97 in 6PPC!). Gerard has a picture up on his site. I like the X's, but I am SOLD on Gerards bullets. Easy to work up load and I am starting to expect holes touching. HTH, Dutch.

I've been using them for awhile in my 300 Win, a load that clocked 3663. On deer and antelope they were spectacular (but did ruin a bit of meat ). Huge wound channel, but they always held together and exited. Recovered bullets from low-tech penetration tests usually weighed 129+ even at that muzzle velocity. It's a good bullet.

I don't like BarnesX bullets, I have had them fail and seen them fail with others. When they work they work beatifully but they don't always work, especially when the nose pinches shut on a bone or all the pedals come off or when they bend...Others love them and thats what makes a horse race.

------------------
Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com

Have used 4 .308 125 grain X bullets to take 4 whitetails. The 125's are now discontinued, I believe, as they are not shown in the Barnes #3 manual. My loads have chrono'd at 2950-2975 from a 22" barrel.

All 4 deer ran, but none over 35 yards. 1 bullet recovered, a stern-to-stem shot that penetrated a doe lengthwise and lodged in the right shoulder as her front was swiveled around at an angle. That bullet weighs 119.x grains.

On a little-bitty deer I shot 3 years ago, I got good expansion, even though the bullet only passed through a few inches of tisse at the bottom of the rib cage. There was a big hole on the off-side and innards hanging outards.

I'll be trying the 130 XLC for future efforts.

BigIron