I have not seen to much on the 250 ttsx in the 375,so for those who used both or either can give your advice on which is better. I will use it for elk and deer, mule. I would like to know how the performance would be on longer range shots if needed. I have not seen enough information on the 250 grain ttsx to know if it has been working well in the field so for those who have used it please fill me in

We are taking the new 250 grain GMX to Africa next week....will do a report at the end of the month. If it works as well as it does in the smaller calibers it will be a winner for sure. With a BC of .430, the trajectory is pretty impressive.

Sheephuntersb,Thanks for the reply and yes keep me in the loop on this, if it works as good as a ttsx I would look hard at it, sounds like a flat shooter with its high BC,Kev

I can't offer you field experience as I will be taking my .375 for it's first hunt in a few weeks. I will be using 250gr North Fork bonded cores, hopefully an Eland will meet one of these bullets.

I can offer you some loading experience on the TTSX's. First of all unless things have changed, there isn't any load info from Barnes in the manuals. I tried doing a linear interpolation between the the 235gr and 270gr versions. Even then I backed off to what I thought would give me a safe starting load. It wasn't exactly safe as I had a sticky bolt on the starting loads.

I was using H4895 and don't remember what I backed off to, but I'd probably start with the minimum's for the 235gr and work up from there. Eventually I found a very accurate load pushing the 2900fps velocity per my chrony.

The only issue I had was that in my barrel the bullet dropped a lot of copper and it didn't take too many shots before the group would open up. But with a clean barrel these bullets shot very well. I can't imagine these loads not putting a very big hurt on an elk.

Now as mentioned, I'm going with the North Forks. I'm going to Africa, not much need for the extremely flat ballistics there and they don't foul my barrel like the Barnes.

I do have some AB's in 260gr on the bench. I never really did much load dev't with these, but starting loads were very decent.

All,

I spoke with one of the Barnes Ballisticians on load data for the TTSX 250 grain bullets. They told me to use the load data from a past manual that had data for the "X" bullet in 250 grains. Here is a photo of the page they sent me:



I'm working up this exact load in my new Win Safari Express right now. So far, over 74-76 grains of RL15, I have yet to get any good groups, although I literally just fired 30 rounds through the new rifle yesterday, which before that was unfired. I will do some more shooting and report back!

-John

You should be able to go to the Hodgdon loading data website and use any data for 260 gr partition for 250 Barnes. The TTSX has a lot less bore friction than the "old X" the barnes guy sent you.

W760/H414 is an excellent powder in the 375 H&H using magnum primers. It also meters beautifully through a powder measure.

The 375 H&H is a very accurate cartridge and, in a good rifle, will cloverleaf 3 shots.

As another member says: one world, one rifle, the 375 H&H.

enjoy !

Out of a 25" barrel in my M70 .375H&h Alsakan and using a listed max load of 76.5 grains of Reloader 15. I am getting 2845 FPS out of the 250 gr TTSX. Accuracy is fantastic. I've killed two feral hogs with them neither huge one was about 120 lbs the other 80 lbs or so and as should be expected both bullets exited.

quote:

Originally posted by kev5000:
Sheephuntersb,Thanks for the reply and yes keep me in the loop on this, if it works as good as a ttsx I would look hard at it, sounds like a flat shooter with its high BC,Kev

We managed to recover two of the 250 grain, .375 GMX bullets on the trip and both performed as expected. Here's the one from my eland. It smashed the shoulder on entry and then hung on the hide on the far side. Shot was 150 yards. The one from a 238 yard shot on a wildebeest looks the same.

Barnes makes a 250 gr. TTSX, but I'm not aware of the 250 gr. GMX in .375. Please elaborate.

quote:

Originally posted by Ackley Improved User:
Barnes makes a 250 gr. TTSX, but I'm not aware of the 250 gr. GMX in .375. Please elaborate.

Hornady added it to the GMX line up for 2013.

I have used the 375 H&H enough to know that either bullet will be more than suitable for elk and deer at equal range..You will get more penetration with the Barnes bullet but probably quicker kills with the softer Accubond, but both are very suitable under all conditions..

Bottom line is there is no such thing as failure on deer and elk with a 375 and 235 to 350 gr. bullets, unless you stick it in the wrong spot..

That said, after a lot of experimenting on game and game bullets with the .375, I only use 300 gr. bullets these days. Even on long shots the 300 gr. Sierra BTSP will hold up with the lighter bullets according to my 400 yard firing range, and that bullet is a killer I assure you. ..If I needed less bullet weight I'd go to a lighter caliber, like a .338 or perhaps a 300 mag.

is the sierra the bullet of choice for you, Ray with thin skinned game then?

With so many quality bullets available today in larger calibers, lighter bullets are becoming a very viable option for big bores, even on the biggest game. No longer is heavy weight required to achieve suitable penetration in most cases.

Sheephunterab, thanks for the pics they sure look like they work great, Kev

I just got back from a plains game hunt in Namibia where I used the AB 260's in my 375. I will have to say that while I am certain they will perform fine here at home, I was surprised that they did not perform better on plains game than they did.

Granted I was only able to recover two bullets but those two had lost a lot of weight. Also they don't produce any sharp edged petals like the tsx. Just a blunt mushroom, which may be the way they're designed.

I shot a kudu at about 150 yards. It was a high heart/lungshot. Well, maybe more lung than heart, but it split apart and one piece exited the neck and the remainder turned the far shoulder into jello.
One of the bullets recovered was oddly enough from an Impala at maybe a 100 yards, the other from another kudu at about 50 yards. They sailed through a couple of Gemsbok at maybe 130 and 160 yards respectively.

I didn't expect to find any bullets in the smaller game such as jackal and warthog, and didn't.

The big low point of the hunt though was a blue wildebeest that I shot at 170 yards from the prone position using my tracker as a rest. The shot felt great, the PH said he saw the hit and that it was perfect. The wildebeest ran about 30 yards and stopped, raising his front leg repeatedly like he was lung shot. I asked the PH if I should shoot again and he told me not to, as the shot was good. He congratulated me and shook my hand as the wildebeest took off into the thick stuff.

After waiting a few minutes(not long enough, unfortunately) we started to track the animal. We had blood and even found a piece of lung on a branch. About 300 yards into the brush we spooked the animal and it took off.

For the next two miles I was absolutely certain that we would find it dead in the brush. We had blood, not a lot, but I didn't expect pools of blood either, until the tracks led to an open area near a waterhole. There the blood just ended, and with the myriad other tracks leading to and from the waterhole, we lost the track.

I felt extremely low at this point and was angry with myself for not shooting again, angry with the PH for telling me not to, and replaying the shot in my head over and over.

While I still feel that I should have fired a second shot, I cant help but wonder if things would have turned out differently with a different bullet. Considering how they performed on smaller game...

These bullets and this load shoots very well in my rifle, which is why I brought them, and I will use them on black bear and maybe even elk but next time I go to Africa, I'm bringing solids.

Not sure solids are the answer for plains game....why not just a higher quality expanding bullet the holds together? I've used Accubonds a lot in smaller calibers and they are highly frangible, especially for a bonded bullet but I've never tried them in the bigger calibers.

Bluefish,
I have never been a fan of Sierra bullets except for accuracy where they shine, but I observed a number of hunters using the 300 gr. .375 cal. BTSP Sierra on Eland, Hartebeest, Zebra and buffalo. One hunter shot some into a dead hippo to check expansion and they looked good! Needless to say I was amazed at how well they worked. Then I read where Craig Bottinton had good things to say about them and he has used them extensively, and Craig has been there and back...

Based on this I decided to give them a try. After all, it was a 300 gr. BTSP bullet that shot as flat or flatter than a 180 gr. 30-06 or asm flat any of the lighter .375 bullets and maintained its velocity and trajectory at long range. I used it on several elk and several deer so far and its a pretty amazing bullet and goes back to my old claim that there is no such thing as 300grs of bullet failure..

I'm not saying its the best bullet for big game under all conditions, it isn't, but it sure has its place in the big game field..Its not expensive and its fine for deer and elk and such size game and lets say "in a pinch" it would surfice for DG, used properly.

Sheephunter, I would have agreed with you three weeks ago. My friend used the new Swedish solid copper bullets from Ferrobull in his 9.3x62. They all expanded properly, retained their weight and seemed to dump all their energy in the animals at all but the closest ranges.

Energy dump is nothing more than myth but expanding bullets do create some pretty impressive temporary wound channels that can cause some extensive damage away from the primary wound channel. Whether they remain in the animal or not is basically inconsequential and typically a result of range/velocity but other factors do play in.

With the advent of some of the newer mono metal bullets especially, weight retention is basically 100% so penetration is assured yet you still get the devastating tissue damage caused by an expanding bullet. Solids do have their place but with better and better expanding bullets, that place is much less than it used to be. I'd pick a high weight retention expanding bullet every day of the week for plains game.

quote:

Originally posted by sheephunterab:

quote:

Originally posted by kev5000:
Sheephuntersb,Thanks for the reply and yes keep me in the loop on this, if it works as good as a ttsx I would look hard at it, sounds like a flat shooter with its high BC,Kev

We managed to recover two of the 250 grain, .375 GMX bullets on the trip and both performed as expected. Here's the one from my eland. It smashed the shoulder on entry and then hung on the hide on the far side. Shot was 150 yards. The one from a 238 yard shot on a wildebeest looks the same.

Sheep:

Can you give me some idea of the muzzle velocity of your gun. I read the article by Chuck Hawks and he suggests that these bullets are pretty hard and really need magnum velocities to work.

My experience is that you need impact velocities above 1,900-2,000fps so you need to keep that in mind. My muzzle velocity with the 375 was 2810 fps. We shot them out of the 30-06 as well and can maintain sufficient impact velocity out to about 500 yards so certainly magnum velocities are not required but they wouldn't be a great extreme long-range choice that's for sure.

Those smooth mushrooms cause a lot of damage at 2100 to 3300 fps, after all we're not shooting arrows. I like the Partitions for thin skinned game, A-Frames for thicker skinned game and just got my first bunch of North Forks about 3 months ago but have been too lazy to reload. I do use the 570g TSX in my 500 Jeffery but have only killed two animals so far with it (400 lb elk cow and 450 lb feral hog). It expanded, held together and was devastating on both as you would expect.

I'll buy that! Your learn something new everyday...

Sheep:

You may want to check this out. At 2000 fps, these bullets barely expand:

http://www.chuckhawks.com/hornady_GMX_bullets.htm

I've seen better results than that picture in test medium at 500 meters with a 30-06 and I've personally killed a half dozen or more animals between 400 and 611 yards with a 270WSM with no issues. Definitely not a great long range choice but for impact velocities to 2,000fps I'm more than confident. Truthfully, most bonded bullets wouldn't look much different at those velocities.

In a 375H&H, I'd be more than confident to 300 yards or more.

I dug out a few bullets for comparison here. These are three .308 GMX bullets fired from a 30-06. From left to right:


250 yards on an axis deer, impact 2450fps, .568 diameter

300 yards on a zebra, impact velocity 2300fps, .582 diameter

530 yards in test medium, impact velocity 1900fps, .510 diameter

Here's a picture of a .308 Swift A Frame just for comparison.


I wish I had more of the .375 GMX to compare but from what I saw, I suspect performance would be pretty well identical to the .308.