Bullet Choice

Bullet Choice


  • Total voters
    75
  • Poll closed .

Bowhunter60

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Mar 26, 2016
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I expect that there will be a lot of thoughts on this issue and thats fine. I'm OK with anything you guys come up with. But here's the general idea. I've long been a fan of Nosler bullets, and, I still continue to believe they are fantastic. However, the past several months I've been shooting Barnes and been very impressed with their performance at the range. Now, I know there's a myriad of other bullets out there that are excellent choices; Berger, Hornady, Sierra, etc. I've used all but Berger up til now. I'm also aware the choice will be largely dependent on the animal you're after and the rifle your using. I've simply gone by, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Hence I stay with what works for me and my rifle.

Now to the point. There is something in me that makes me a little uncomfortable with the Barnes TSX. It's a hollow point and for some reason I can't wrap my mind around the fact that it will be that effective on large deer and up sized game. But, I've read the other posts and heard what guys are saying about it's performance. Frankly, I've never considered a hollow point for large game, but, the reports on here seem to say my thoughts are unjustified.

So, below is a poll with a some bullets listed. I'd like to hear from the reloaders what their using and what they've found to be not just accurate but effective on game.
 
My father has killed deer, elk, caribou, and moose dead in there tracks with partitions. Are they the most accurate? I don't know. Heard accu-bonds are great as well. I've been currently using ttsx in .308 and .338 with great results on deer. Never recovered a bullet from a deer, all pass throughs. Shot one into a hardwood stump and it looked like it would be on the cover of a magazine, 4 perfect copper pedals!
 
I load nosler ballistic tips, but that wasn't an option so I picked accubond because that's probably what I would use out of the choices given.
 
As long as I can consistently get Nosler factory seconds, I will shoot their stuff. When Barnes sells their blemishes I would consider some 120grain TTSX for my 7mm-08 (7mmHuntTalk)
 
I've killed game with all the copper offerings listed above and neither was less dead than another. I've had no trouble finding accurate factory and handloads either. It does seem that a polymer tip would help expansion, so I'd stick with one of those if I had to choose.
 
I agree with Jryoung on the polymer tips. It may just be me but I think they help expansion. Ive killed game with the tsx, ttsx, partition, and accubond. Im running accubonds in Nosler's trophy grade factory load right now for my 06 and it's doing everything I could ask for so I prob wont be changing anytime soon. Ive got some 140gr ttsx I need to load up in 7-08 when it gets it's new trigger in. I think a 120gr ttsx/tsx or e-tip in 7-08 would be bad medicine on whitetails.
 
The reason you have a hard time wrapping your mind around shooting a hollow point is because of the association with varmit rounds and match bullets. Barnes bullets are a different cat completely. The main criticism of the X bullets is that if you don't have high enough velocity, expansion may not be enough. I've shot Accubonds, Partitions, and now TTSX. They are all great, I just prefer an all copper bullet because I got tired of picking lead frags out of the meat when I butcher. To be fair, most of that problem came when I was shooting soft point Core lockts.
 
Ditto GMs thoughts.
I load Partitions, Accubonds and TTSX. All can be loaded to be very accurate and all have been proven on game. If lead ingestion wasn't a concern (especially for children) I would not have explored solid copper bullets. Also bought and tried a few loaded boxes of TSX, which seemed to mirror the performance of the TTSX.
 
I don't load, but I switched to 165 Barnes TSX in Federal years ago for my 30-06 & loved them. 3 yrs ago I switched to Nosler AB's after Fed dropped Barnes bullets.
The AB's are even more accurate & almost the same effect as the full copper Barnes w/more umph.
Going to order some more 165 Nosler AB's & try a box of Barnes ammo to compare at the range.

I buy Partitions for the ammo supply & back up. But memories of blood shot shredded meat remain.
 
Bowhunter60

Just know under all those plastic tips is big hollow point. I have taken animals with all you have listed and found them all to work well. Shoot what give you confidence.
 
I have shot Nosler Partitions for deer for more than 20 years. Here in the UP of Michigan the vegetation can limit your shot opportunities. You need a bullet that will reach the vitals no matter the shot angle. I have never been let down with partition performance. However I am working on some loads of Barnes TTSX and will give them a try this season just to see if the drop animals as well.
 
I'm with MJE. My Go To is the ballistic tip and has been ever since Nosler dropped the Solid Base. With that said, I have an equal # of AB's on hand, for my 7HT, and equal amounts of AB's & PT's for my 338Fed.
 
Since I shoot plain old Remington Core-Lokt ammo I didn't vote.
From the current polling results I see the tried and true Nosler Partitions lead by a large margin. I guess a lot of people go by the saying "if it ain't broke don't fix it".
Some people feel the need to try every new bullet that comes out.
 
I have used a bullet from Aussie-Copper Projectiles called the sidewinder and took 1 deer with it, seemed to have opened up and provide tremendous hydro-static shock so a copper Hollow-Point doesn't phase me for bullet choice

I have used a 160grain 338 ttsx on a coyote and there was certainly expansion in that short span

nosler offerings are what I have the most of, but haven't shot anything more than groundhogs with them yet so can't judge but i'm certainly not concerned about anything except availability with the nosler offerings
 
I've killed more animals with Nosler AccuBonds than any other bullet I use, but I also use Nosler Ballistic Tips and Berger VLDs in hunting rifles and have had great results as well. If I'm only looking at accuracy, the Berger VLDs and Hybrids are very tough to beat, we buy those by the thousands.
 
All the premium bullets mentioned above are proven and have proper applications, which won't perform well used outside of those applications. Some are made to hold together, some not. Both types do a good job of killing when used under the advice of the manufacturers.
 
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