I killed my first deer last night with a TSX bullet and I was a little disappointed. The deer obviously died but there wasn't any blood trail and he ran further than I expected.
I was shooting a 130gr 270 TSX at about 3050fps out of a 20" barreled Sako Finnlite 270 Winchester. It was a pretty small deer just over 100 lbs, an 8 pointer that would have been 10 but for 2 broken off tines.
At the shot he sprinted towards me a couple yards and then bounded off too the left and bounced over and down a hillside about 80 yards from where I shot at him. I waited 30 minutes and went to track him up. I found a several tufts of white hair but what I thought was blood through my Bino's turned out to be small red berry's. I looked for 30 minutes and found no blood whatsoever. I thought that somehow I might have just flubbed the shot but I would have sworn I had a good break. I had to make a back and forth grid search to find him.
As it turned out I don't know how I could have made a better shot. I'd planned on trying to make a shot that didn't hit the shoulders. I usually prefer to bust a shoulder or two but thought I'd try something different to gain field experience. The entry would was just in front of the diaphragm angling forward. It took out a chuck of liver, the rear of 1 lung, part of the heart etc. and exited just behind the other front leg. There was about a 1 inch or more diameter exit hole and about a 3" wide circle where the hair had been blown off.
Obviously a more frangible bullet like a BT or Sierra would have blown up more and probably dropped him quicker. But I'd been reading several post that had said that X bullets usually turned the insides to mush and thought I'd give them a try. The partitions I've used in the past seemed to do more damage but again I usually end up dinking one of the shoulders in or out and that might skew the results. I like the penetration being in a straight line but the area damages seemed to be a relatively small diameter. Most disturbing to me though was the lack of a blood trail. Let's just say I'm still developing my tracking skills and would just as soon have a thick red line lead me to my downed animal instead of walking up and down hills in a grid pattern.
I'm not ready to give up on TSX's yet but I think that I'm more likely to try and bust a shoulder or two to drop them on the spot unless I'm early in the day and have plenty of daylight to track.
Does this match with any other TSX shooters experiences? What do you guys think? (VG I know you'll say use BT's and miss the shoulders). Has anyone else had quicker drops with X's and behind the shoulder hits.......DJ

I shot a doe two weekends back with a 150gr Partition out of a .308 at 20 yards. A close limb was covering the heart/lungs so I shot just over it hoping to just catch the top of the lungs, which is what happened. Upon reflection I should have aimed higher and just spined her at that distance (but it of course it would have reduced my error margin).



Point is, even with 1.5" exit through off ribcage and 1" exit hole in hide, the blood trail did not begin for about 20 yds. There was no discernible hair or blood at impact.

Of a few dozen whitetails shot with partitions this is the first for that.



I was certain of the shot as it called good and she kicked as if heart-shot. I believe many shoot and not finding hair or blood at impact assume a miss and do not bother searching for blood in the direction the animal ran. The body position so often is such that the flesh and hide holes immediately get offset and it takes a few leaps before blood gets outside the hide.



I'm not going to lose confidence in partitions (but I am going to loadtest the TSX and Accubond in this rifle )because of this and I suggest you shoot a few more with the TSX before concluding anything.



The beauty of the TSX and partition-styles is you can ignore all this bone/no bone crap and aim for the pump at any appropriate angle at normal ranges.



The cartridges I would bet on for blood "highways" most often is a hot-loaded .444, .45/70 or such (if the animal doesn't drop at the shot). The heaviest blood trail ever for me was a buck with a .44 Rem Mag (250gr partition) at a sharp angle down through the top of the heart and exiting underneath, running about 75 yds. It must have severed the major outgoing artery. That bloodtrail was due of course to the geometry of the shot creating an effective "drain-hole" more than the cartridge used.

I'm not sure that I see any failure here. You got a 1.5" exit hole. You say it damaged both the liver and a lung.

It sounds to me like the bullet held together, penetrated, and expanded to it potential. This deer just wasn't meant to leave a blood trail when shot at that angle. And sometimes that happens.

A .277" bullet enters the body and you have a 1.5" exit. Sounds like Excellent expansion. Now if the bullet had come apart and sent fragments everywhere you might have had a baseball size exit hole.

If you look at the ballistic Gelatin test, you can see the TSX (as most bullets) create a large cavity as the bullet opens and the shock wave is pushed out. If that happens in area of the body that is more air than tissue, the domino effect of the shock wave pushing through is minimized. The shocking blow that creates the Hammer of Thor knock down on the animals doesn't happen and you are then waiting for a bleed out from damaged tissue.

I shot a number of Elk with the 140g TSX out of my 270 WSM. None moved more than 20 yards, most just crumpled. I didn't have lots of blood shot meat, didn't have bullet fragments scattered all over. I've very pleased with the bullet.

these superbullets are simply not necessary for deer. a fast-opening softpoint would have caused much more trauma during it's journey though the chest, and that deer probably would have dropped on the spot with the same-sized exit wound. if nothing else, the extra trauma would have led to a much-more developed blood trail. i know that they are only 11 dollars or so per box, and that might not look good at the country club, but they work.

i do NOT advocate busting the shoulder of a deer, but considering the bullet you ahve chosen (a bad choice, i believe), a shoulder shot would ahve been preferable. to be perfectly honest, that bullet simply seems to be neither necessary nor desireable for deer. the fast-expanding partition would have been much better, assuming that you need a premium bullet for these armor-plated monsters.

i have made a similar kill on a deer, had a wound channel almost exactly like the one you described, except it missed the heart. that deer went less than 20 yards and piled up. the bullet? a 150-grian .30/30 roundnose by remington. this year, i made a similar in-and-out channel which entered in front of the diaphram, shredded a lung, and out behind the opposite leg. the bullet? a 149-grain winchester powerpoint coming out of a 7x57. my point? these bullets WORK. you can plan for end-to-end, long-range and other trick shots, but the fact is that most shots are within 200 yards and the isntinct of most hutners is to shoot a broadside if possible. for these opportunities, you can spend much more on fancy bullets, but the fact is that they will not ever work BETTER than the plain-janes, and from what i see on these forums, they usually work worse. any time you ask a bullet to do something it isn't designed to do, you run the risk of failure. rather than blaming the bullet, look at the choices you made in bullet choice, shot palcement, waiting half an hour to begin tracking, etc.

hopefully you know this, but the sarcasm here in this post is all tongue-in-cheek. there is only one way to learn, and that is by doing. i hope you make the right choice next year.

I'm not ready to give up on TSX's yet. First of all they shoot extremely well in that particular rifle. They did exactly what you could ask of any bullet, they expanded quickly, damaged everything in their way, and left a nice exit wound. I just continue to be surprised at how far even small deer can run with vital organs trashed. I also can't explain why I didn't get a good blood trail, maybe I need to carry Hydrogen Peroxide to spot smaller drops or make bigger holes.........DJ

all of my tracking jobs have been (knock on wood) short and easy due to blood or the terrain. i didn't see it mentioned, but is it possible that a chunk of tissue was blocking teh exit wound? on second reading, it does look like the bullet expanded well, and with a lung hit, they never go far in 99% of the situations. as mentioned on the other thread, the TP and hydrogen peroxide would be handy to take along.

DJ: It's a great bullet and it's gaining a great reputation in africa for everything. Yes they are tough for deer, but since I prefer the shoulder, it works great out of my 06. Again I prefer something softer like a Power Point for deer out of my 06, but regardles I still aim for the shoulder. And like you said, accuracy is SUPERB. jorge

If you keep using the TSX on thin skinned game, I would strongly recommend shoulder shots. Losing a trophy due to little expansion, is just not worth it.

Glad you got your buck. I've seen some good ones almost get away after a "tough bullet" through the lungs.

Good Luck!

Reloader

My friend used my rifle this year to shoot a very nice 4x4 muley that scored around 160. The shot was over 400 yards with no chance of getting any closer. He was shooting a 270 and i talked him into using my custom 7mm stw as i knew the trajectory much better than he did with his own rifle. I am using 140 grain triple shocks cruising right along at 3540fps. He got the shot because he spotted it. Anyway, the bullet hit the deer high and behind the shoulder just under the spine. The entrance was tough to see through the fur but turned out be as big as your pinky finger, the exit hole was a 2 inch circle. The deer dropped straight down into some brush and you could see the blood splatter for lack of a better word on the hillside behind the deer from over 400 yards away. For not hitting any major bone but a rib i am damn impressed. This was the first animal i have seen taken with a barnes triple x and it wont be my last.

My son and I have only killed 3 deer with the 130 TSX from the 270 WSM, so we don't have a pile of data...

204 lb buck broadside high lung shot at 125 yds. Dropped at the shot without taking a step (spooked and excited at the shot).

120 lb doe quartering towards neck shot at 140 yds. Dropped at the shot without taking a step (ready to bolt at the shot).

120 lb spike broadside high lung shot at 50 yds. Dropped at the shot without taking a step (calm and unaware at the shot).

All three deer shot with the same relatively mild load of 60gr IMR 4350. All had significant internal damage and exit holes, especially considering shot placement.

I will keep using this bullet and would not hesitate to recommend it. Is it necessary for most deer hunting conditions? No. Will it serve well in any remotely reasonable condition? Yes!

Tim

FWIW, a high lung shot deer can run quite a ways before showing a blood trail. The blood is puddling inside the lungs and chest cavity which must fill before it overflows. By which time, the deer is usually dead.
Since coming to West Virginia, I have used exclusively Hornady RN and Rem Core lokts on our local whitetails. I had forgotten just how good those bullets are. I am not driving them to warp speed but am shooting them out of a .260, 7-08, 300sav and the like.
So far I have found them, both rifles and bullets, to be all I've needed on this side of the big river.