Eaglet, If you are gearing up to shoot elk at 1000 yards and beyond the 185 Barnes ttsx is not the bullet you need to work with. I fully agree It is not designed for that purpose. If you are hunting inside of 800 yards with a light rifle wanting low recoil it makes a good choice for many types of game. I took quite a bit of game with it last year to just under 800 yards with a 6 3/8 pound 338 winchester at 3220 fps. Recoil was not noticable. All one shot kills and complete pass throughs. From the performance I saw last year I would not hesitate to shoot anything with it out to 800 yards out of a 338 winchester. The 338 SIN is 300 fps faster.
Is .432 the BC you came up with shooting the 185 ttsx? My testing of that bullet is not showing that number to be accurate. You are probably 100% right; due to the speeds you're getting that baby moving, the BC definitively will be higher. The 0.432 is the BC that Barnes website is giving them. That BC was probably calculated for around 3000 ft/sec.
The best bullet to 1000 yards I have found is the 225 Cutting Edge bullet I am testing now. 1000 yard drops out of my 338-378 are showing between a .65 and .66 bc. Run the numbers on that with my 338 SIN accuracy load of 3160 fps and see how it looks compared to the 300 SMK. Will be interesting It is shooting very accurate with light recoil I can stand in the 6 1/4 pound rifle. The 300 grainers are not tolerable so I look for the best bullet fit within the range this light rifle is most capable. If I am shooting elk over 1000 yards I have some heavy rifles to do that with. A heavy rifle 338 SIN is capable of elk kills beyond 1000 yards but my 6 1/4 pound rifle is not a 1000 yard plus rifle so I am not looking at ballistics out that far. I am looking for the best killing performance within the range limits of this rifle with recoil that is tolerable.
You have a pretty amazing set up there, that light of a rifle with that much power is just pretty awesome. I believe it does what it's suppose to do and does it very well.
Hope this explains why I test many different bullets for different purposes. The 225 CE bullet is the closest thing I have found so far to a one bullet do all for hunting at all practical ranges. It does really well to 1000 yards where I have tested it and that is about as far as anyone would ever shoot to kill stuff unless they were shooting specialty rigs specifically designed for the purpose. Now for the killing part of the testing next month.
For a rifle that light, I think the 225 CE would be my to go set up!!!
I was just messing around with the numbers I posted, the one thing that called my attention was how BC catches up with SPEED even with such a difference in muzzle velocities. I fully understand the difference between a light hunting rifle and a much heavier long range hunting beast.
Good post!
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