Anyone out there have firsthand experience with Barnes TSX terminal performance on elk? I killed a nice 300 lb. whitetail in Saskatchewan last year with a Barnes bullet out of a muzzleloader. Blew right through the chest. Big blood trail. The deer ran about 45 yards. I assume I would get a similar result with a 180 grain bullet on an elk out of my .300 Win Mag. And if it hits bone, that bullet should be more effective than many. But I have the concern expressed that the all-copper bullet does substantially less damage internally. Any reason to think a double-lung shot elk would not go down quickly just like a whitetail? Again, I would love to hear from anyone who has actually used this bullet on elk.

I dont think the copper bullet does any less damage than a similar design lead bullet, ie one designed to stay together....

Im using my 338 WM loaded with 160gr TTSX this fall for a cow elk tag, Im confident in it.

It's too bad Barnes can't figure out a way to make their smaller-caliber TSX and TTSX bullets open that well. They claim full depth-of-cavity expansion down to 1600 fps, but I have yet to experience as much on game or test medium.

The Derek-

Very nice photo, by the way...

Bobby

Ditto the photo comment.

Barnes is the most advertised bullet on the market today - and they need to be.

Shoot your elk with an old fashioned cup & core and you will find your elk dead. Shoot him with an X and he'll die, but you might not find him.

Hey Swampcat

The last Elk I shot was with a 180 gr TSX out of a 300 win mag. The Elk was bedded down facing away from me across a small canyon and was 253 yards away. I had a good rest and little wind so I aimed the first shot just off the backbone down through the chest and out the brisket. He did jump up and move about 10 yards and I put the next one through the front shoulders.

Then he went down and immediately piled up in the brush and timber. He was on a 45 degree slope. When I got to him I could stand sideways and reach out with my hand and touch the slope. Since he was in such a precarious position I could not do a thorough inspection for bullet paths and damage. I did find the entrance just to one side of the spine right above the diaphragm and took these pics of the front shoulders back at camp

Entrance


Exit (although I think it is the inside of the exit shoulder )


He was a 5x5 and about 700 pounds. We had to haul him up that 45 degree slope about 200 yards.

The cool thing was that after I shot, 3 other bulls jumped up, all 6x6's. But I'm not griping, it was a moment I'll always remember.

I would not hesitate to use the same bullet again, very little meat damage and full penetration. I have switched to the 200 gr Accubond in that rifle now because it likes them so much.

Swampcat, I'll apologize first by not meeting your criteria to reply b/c I do not personally have elk experience with the combo you list, however, a friend of mine whose been in bear camp with me a few times does with your exact combo.

In 2006, he took a big 6x7 or 7x7 bull elk in Colorado at 75 yards with a frontal shot. The bull dropped where he stood if I recall. As to TSX and deer, I have plenty of experience and have never ever had a "failure" or had one animal run one step after being struck with this bullet.

I'll have to respectfully disagree with Pancho's implication:

quote:

Shoot your elk with an old fashioned cup & core and you will find your elk dead.

This is a blanket statement that guarantees locating your animal. Sorry, but if that was such a true statement, we wouldn't have the partition and every other premium bullet thereafter. I have witnessed lung hit deer with cup core bullets that were found....3 months after the season was closed and after they were shot. We're talking about a bigger animal in this thread.

quote:

Shoot him with an X and he'll die, but you might not find him.

The same holds true for any bullet on the market. This is not a scenario soley related to X style bullets. I have no problem with hunters who are anti-Barnes, but the above statements have a biased tone.

quote:

Originally posted by Doc:

I'll have to respectfully disagree with Pancho's implication:

quote:

Shoot your elk with an old fashioned cup & core and you will find your elk dead.

This is a blanket statement that guarantees locating your animal. Sorry, but if that was such a true statement, we wouldn't have the partition and every other premium bullet thereafter. I have witnessed lung hit deer with cup core bullets that were found....3 months after the season was closed and after they were shot. We're talking about a bigger animal in this thread.

quote:

Shoot him with an X and he'll die, but you might not find him.

The same holds true for any bullet on the market. This is not a scenario soley related to X style bullets. I have no problem with hunters who are anti-Barnes, but the above statements have a biased tone.

I was thinking the same thing. I have a cousin who is a tightwad and will only hunt with remington bulk bullets out of his 30-06, possibly core-lokt I'm not sure. My best friend hunts with TSX's in his 7mm magnum. The thing is they are both extremely successful and I have never seen or heard of either of them losing an animal.

Sorry, no experience with elk and TSX's either, but on trophy Alaska moose they are devestating. If you can believe the internet, my moose hunting pictures on the Alaska Forum will tell the story of a .375 loaded with TSX's

Last year in MT I shot an elk with a 168 grs TSX out of a .300 Win Mag. Worked well.

I have previously shot Asian wapiti (locally known as "maral", but in reality the same animal as the North American "elk") with 180 grs X out of a .300 Win Mag. No complaints.

- mike

Bobby, the pictures of the 120 TTSX (7mm) are disappointing I must say. I am planning on using the same bullet in my 7mm RM this fall for deer. Here is another picture I took recently. Larger bullet is .451 275gr XPB shot out of my muzzleloader at about 2000fps, recovered from mud at 100 yards. The other is a 85gr TSX shot out of my 243 win MV about 3300fps, shot a doe quartering towards at about 80 yards, recovered the bullet in the offside rear leg next to the skin.

In the sub-.30 calibers, if you have an impact velocity of 2600 fps or above, you'll get terrific performance.

Under 2200 fps, they are extremely iffy. Barnes has attempted to address this, the latest effort being the intorduction of the TTSX. It is better than its predecessors but is still best suited to higher-velocity cartridges.

At lower impact speeds and in cartridges which produce modest velocity, the plain ol' cup-and-core bullets tend to work pretty well.

Thank you all so much for sharing your experience with me. I am going to try this bullet and will make a point of reporting the results here after the hunt.

Here's the recovered 185 gr TSX from my last bull taken at 270 yards with my 338-06 at a muzzle velocity of 2970 fps. The elk just crumbled at the shot that entered just behind the quartering away shoulder, centered the off shoulder and stopped under the hide.



Here's the elk!

quote:

Shoot him with an X and he'll die, but you might not find him.

This reminds me of the old saying of "you get what you pay for." Very common on the internet.

While I haven't killed an elk with a TSX bullet yet, I have killed 18 African animals on two hunts in Zimbabwe and South Africa with TSX bullets. Most were one shot kills, including Buffalo and Eland, and most died within 50 yds from where they were shot.

I am currently putting together a new .300 Weatherby Vanguard for this year's elk hunting. It will be loaded with 180 gr TSX bullets.

And just because I said I haven't killed an elk with a TSX bullet yet doesn't mean that I'm new to elk hunting. So far I've shot 28 bulls and 4 cows using archery, .257 AI, .30-40 Krag, .30-06, and a .30 Gibbs. All DIY hunts in Colorado and Montana. I've found that it's more important where you hit them than what you hit them with.

I have killed over a dozen elk with TSX bullets. They are fantastic. I use 180 grains in 30.06, 300 WSM and 300 Win mag. I have never had a problem out to 500 yards. I've shot nearly a hundred head of game with the TSX altogether in calibers from .270 to .375. I can't imagine better performance. All recovered bullets look like magazine advertisements. Of course a number are never recovered - pass through. The wound channels are great. You won't go won't go wrong with the TSX.

Bill

We've killed 6 bulls in 5 years with the TSX's. A spike and a 6 pt. for my 160/7MM, and 4 mature bulls with thw 300 WSM, 300 WM, 300 Weatherby, and 338WM. Again, shot placement and accuracy are most important, follwed by the bullet.

Last year I took a large bull with a 185gr. 338cal TSX . One shot, worked great for me. He went about 25yds down hill.

quote:

Originally posted by Bobby Tomek:
In the sub-.30 calibers, if you have an impact velocity of 2600 fps or above, you'll get terrific performance.

Under 2200 fps, they are extremely iffy. Barnes has attempted to address this, the latest effort being the intorduction of the TTSX. It is better than its predecessors but is still best suited to higher-velocity cartridges.

At lower impact speeds and in cartridges which produce modest velocity, the plain ol' cup-and-core bullets tend to work pretty well.

I must thank you for this and previous comments you have made that appear to be based on data obtained from testing.

I was hoping to use the 120gr TTSX in my short barreled moderated 7mm08 in an attempt to get a better trajectory with a premium. As the bullet would start out at 2,800fps I realised that the velocity remaining at my max range of perhaps 350yards would be too low. Add in the expense of working up a new load, the likelihood that they won't be accurate (the 120gr TSX was variable) and I've decided to stick with 140gr partitions at 2,700fps.

"Shoot him with an X and he'll die, but you might not find him."

You must be one of thoose guys the shoots the animal in the gut and blames the bullet, or have never actually shot anything besides paper.

I shoot them in all my rifles including the 257 Rob and 7x57 at very modest velocities with 100% satisfaction. The theory, and I use that term loosely, that you have to drive them hyper velocity is pure bunk. i am getting great performance all the way down to 1800 fps and in the 2200-2500 range expansion is 2x starting diameter.
I killed a bull elk last year with the 140 TSX in my 7x57 with a mz of 2800fps. the shot was a frontal chest at 150 yards. As he ran towards me I could see long strays of blood every time his heart beat. He is now in my freezer.

Perry

perry wrote:

quote:

in the 2200-2500 range expansion is 2x starting diameter.

I am glad you are getting those results, but even with impact through heavy bone, I am not seeing that type of performance.

Check out the bullet below that impacted the spine between the shoulders on a large hog. He was facing me, so the impact with heavy bone was virtually immediate.

I must be doing something wrong. I've not recovered a Barnes bullet yet.

Doc-

If you want to recover some bullets, take up hog hunting. A heavy, dense hide, a layer of gristle covering the vitals (on mature boars), thick fat and relatively heavy bone structure will test the integrity of any bullet.

Below are just a few that I took in early July:

Sorry I dont have pics but I do have experience. My brother shot a 5X5 bull at 315yds with 225gr tsx last year out of his 35Whelen. Perfect mushroom, bullet was recovered in the hide on the off side after breaking both front shoulders. DRT I shot a 5X4 at 265yds with a 180gr tsx out of my 8X57 and bullet was recovered in the hide on the off side. Same performance as above and also DRT. Hope this helps

I have shot one elk, two mule deer and one pronghorn with the .300 wm with TSX. All dead within 50 feet. All one shot, no bullets recovered. Lots of "hole" on the offside. I like them.

I haven't shot an Elk, but I did shoot an Eland at about 180 yards with an 8x57 pushing a 200 gr. TSX. He didn't like it...

This is the offside of the ribcage. He was north of 1,500 lbs...




Here he is.


We also shot a Kudu, Gemsbok and two Mountain Zebra. The TSX performed perfectly and I think would be an excellent choice for Elk.

TSX are great bullets for elk. My daughter got her bull with a 140 gr tsx in a 7-08. My wife got her bull with the 150 gr tsx in 30-06. I use them in my .375 and the only one I have ever recovered was from a large eland bull. They worked great on zebra, blue and black wildebeest, hartebeest, and a host of other plains game.
I am also a huge fan of the Hornady Interlock. I used a 300 gr. Hornady RN for a lioness with great results.
I have taken a dozen elk with a 338 and 250 gr Hornady Interlocks. Where you put the bullet is the most important factor in bullet performance. But the question was whether or not the tsx was a good elk bullet. Yes it is.

Nice looking Eland, good job.

180gr tsx recovered from a large bull elk after being fired from a 300ultramag at 3380fps.The shot distance was about 200 yards.

quote:

Originally posted by Bobby Tomek:
Doc-

If you want to recover some bullets, take up hog hunting. A heavy, dense hide, a layer of gristle covering the vitals (on mature boars), thick fat and relatively heavy bone structure will test the integrity of any bullet.

Actually Bobby, I will be driving to TX on the last day of Sept to hog hunt until the 3rd. Then we will antelope hunt. As of now, one of the rifles going is a 270 with 110 TTSX bullets. I'll shoot for shoulder. We'll see what happens!

If your recovering a bullet out of a dead animal, how is that a bullet failure? In my world dead is dead....