Recovered Barnes TTSX

[jdrivsd619]

I shot these from my Weatherby Vanguard S2 in 6.5 Creedmoor at 100 yards and while gathering up my targets and cleaning up my trash i followed the skid marks from the bullets passing through the paper and found these little gems.

I shot my first buck with one of these and was unable to track for very long.... it seemed like he had just stopped bleeding..... my busy is a stud tracker and would find water droplet sized drips every 25 yards or so...... tracked the buck up a mountain through some rocks and that was it...... two days of tracking and nothing recovered made me loose confidence in these bullets...... but seeing there expansion is pretty impressive i must say......

I take full responsibility for the shot on the deer but after speaking with a barnes rep he did mention that pin holing or small entrance and exit wounds can make tracking very tough that the deer often bleed out inside there body...... I want something that leaves a nice blood trail, is effective and reliable from 50-500 yards

Not a day goes by that i don't think about that day, i replay the situation in my head constantly and know i aimed perfect and had a good rifle zero, but just couldn't believe i couldn't find the buck. My first buck, highest high....... and lowest low i have ever experienced in my entire life and i do not want to do that to an animal again. I believe as hunters it is our duty to but the animal down and fast and ethically as possible and i just did not think this bullet was the proper choice for black tail deer...... but i might be reconsidering at this point

bullet tripled in diameter and retained all its weight

 

[firstcoueswas80]

Iv' e used the TTSX..... a lot. they work bwst when pushed and through bone. Ive had more drt's with the ttsx then any other bullet. Aim for shoulder and watch the animal die in your scope.

 

[greyman]

read your post on SCH, I have a couple hundred of these bullets in 7mag, 140s and 150s I have heard mixed reviews on these so the jury is still out on em for me. I have killed quite a few Elk with the nosler Partition and they have never let me down. I am currently messing with load development and the results are less than stellar out of my savage.

 

[jdrivsd619]

I took a standard regular broadside armpit shot should have been a double lung easily but the buck was never recovered :.(

I bet if i took a shoulder shot it would shatter and throw all kinds of bone fragments around into tissues, and looking back now i wish i would have taken a shoulder shot

greyman
I am trying to get a hand up on the game incase San Diego gets nailed with the lead ban...... i guess i can say I'm behind the curve now. Also are you a fellow San Diegan? John at Fine Firearms shoots 6.5 ttsx out of his rifles, he told me he took two elk last year with it

i just don't think blacktail are heavy enough and are way to thin for this type of bullet but i bet this bullet is great on hogs, big muleys and other bigger heavier game.

 

[greyman]

I am an X San Diegan, I moved out of that jacked up state and moved to Texas. I have all those Barnes bullets for the exact same reason as you I wanted to get changed over before it was mandatory. I have been quite busy with my business and then a big move here, I have just got back to load development on my 7mag with those bullets but I am not sure. I am thinking of trading them for some partitions, those I KNOW are a proven design. I have yet to take anything with the barnes so I will have to do some field testing this coming hunting season. If I get a chance to do some pig hunting that will help with my decision making. John and the guys over at FF are some good people been in there a few times. This past season I got to hunt with my Bow only.

 

[FEENIX]

I am an X San Diegan, I moved out of that jacked up state

Sorry to hear that; I was born in NAS North Island and moved out in 1965.

 

[jdrivsd619]

Ya i agree California is very messed up but thats why you get your magazines from arizona and save your mag release for your 80% AR builds

You archery hunt D16 greyman? or pick up an AO tag? I'm hoping A22 is restrict this year and doesn't sell out so i can gdb one after my D16

FEENIX do you hunt D16

How good are barnes at ranges like 500 yards, these were recovered at 100 yards on dirt.

 

[FEENIX]

FEENIX do you hunt D16

Negative, all my hunts these days are in Montana.

 

[greyman]

I usually do the A22 and D16, I have been here just shy of a whole year, so I didn't hunt So Cal this past season. Yeh I did an 80% build party in El Cajon a couple yrs ago, when I got here I took out my AR and removed and discarded that stupid BB and I now own many 30rnd mags (just in case you know LOL)

 

[jdrivsd619]

I usually do the A22 and D16, I have been here just shy of a whole year, so I didn't hunt So Cal this past season. Yeh I did an 80% build party in El Cajon a couple yrs ago, when I got here I took out my AR and removed and discarded that stupid BB and I now own many 30rnd mags (just in case you know LOL)

i have an 80% 308 lower i need to get milled and i can't find anyone capable .. i don't want to buy a jig either...... you know of anyone with a machine set up for dpms pattern 308 lower ?

 

[firstcoueswas80]

I took a standard regular broadside armpit shot should have been a double lung easily but the buck was never recovered :.(

I bet if i took a shoulder shot it would shatter and throw all kinds of bone fragments around into tissues, and looking back now i wish i would have taken a shoulder shot

greyman
I am trying to get a hand up on the game incase San Diego gets nailed with the lead ban...... i guess i can say I'm behind the curve now. Also are you a fellow San Diegan? John at Fine Firearms shoots 6.5 ttsx out of his rifles, he told me he took two elk last year with it

i just don't think blacktail are heavy enough and are way to thin for this type of bullet but i bet this bullet is great on hogs, big muleys and other bigger heavier game.

I'll play devils advocate here... just because you took that shot doesn't man you made it. First deer, unrecovered, its impossible to know where you hit the deer with out the carcass. Buck fever is a wonderful thing.

 

[jdrivsd619]

I'll play devils advocate here... just because you took that shot doesn't man you made it. First deer, unrecovered, its impossible to know where you hit the deer with out the carcass. Buck fever is a wonderful thing.

Like i mentioned earlier i play the situation through my head daily and its very possible i hit him bad...... we did find a small bone fragment with a drop of blood while tracking about the size of a tooth ...... this is the only blood we had......

following pictures are of the terrain and the only blood we found.... we were following fresh tracks that would lead to a small drop of blood ever few hundred feet or so........

I have never gone from such a high to such a low so fast..... it made me sick by the end of the second day tracking.......

 

[jdrivsd619]

the blood the land

 

[greyman]

I believe the build parties are pretty much a thing of the past, BATF has jumped in the middle of it now, so I would say anything that is going on nowadays would be in the subterranean market(I'm guessing) there are a lot of capable shops around just finding one that will do it for you is the question. Personally I would just buy a complete lower they are way cheap and you don't have to worry about the MAN breathing down your neck. Go over to Calguns.net and look around and ask a few questions.