Copper bullet performance

[EastTNHunter]

I’m thinking hard about trying the Hammers, and may start out with them in my 6.5 Grendel. I love the performance of NABs - bang flop with an exit wound . The Hammers are supposed to be similar, but all copper.

Im with Schmalts, I was underwhelmed by the TTSX in the limited use tgat I had of it. After 4 deer I went back to NABs

 

[Cammy]

Like a lot of people have already stated, Barnes TSX copper bullets due a ton of damage quick making for clean kills. My whitetail this year at 210 yards with a .270WSM took 1 shot slight 1/4 away. Bullet hit a rib just in front of the drivers side shoulder and it exited the other side. Outbound wound was about the size of a quarter. Bullet shattered the rib and took out the top of the heart, lungs and severed the trachea. Deer didn't take a step just sat down and fell over. No meat damage except in the throat area of the neck

 

[TrumpkinTheDwarf]

I'm scratching my head at the folks having issues with Barnes bullets. I've lost track of how many critters I've killed with them over the years. My 06AI pushes a 168 TTSX at 3000 fps. I've only ever recovered one bullet from an animal. My bull this year lived about 10 seconds after I put it through the boiler room. I've also not had to shoot an animal multiple times if I hit them in the lungs on the first shot. Maybe I'm just lucky.

 

[rjthehunter]

Maybe it is just me, But my opinion of the TTSX is not that high. I have shot at least 20 deer with them and while I did kill every one, I am a little bummed by the lack of good blood trails and small entry and sometimes very small pencil size exit wounds. I am trying to make up my mind what to use for my new 6.5PRC when I can actually get components to reload. First and only kill so far was a bang flop at 275yrd but the 143Gr ELD-X lost 100% of lead and 36Gr of jacket is all that made it to the other side and stopped by the hide. Not happy with that either but in the end I will put up with a bang flop and lost meat over looking around up to an hour for a deer that went 150 yards and took a long time to find because there was little or no blood. The compromise would be something in the middle like a partition but with better BC. Anyone suggest a copper that might expand a little better at short and long (up to 500yrds) than ttsx?

Copper jacket on the Hornady eldx. Supposed to expand reliably at any range. I just got my box in the mail on Monday and loaded up 20 rounds on Tuesday. I'll shoot them this weekend and see how my gun likes them! But I've read lots of positive reviews on them. High BC compared to lots of other bullets

 

[Taxed in Maine]

Copper jacket on the Hornady eldx. Supposed to expand reliably at any range. I just got my box in the mail on Monday and loaded up 20 rounds on Tuesday. I'll shoot them this weekend and see how my gun likes them! But I've read lots of positive reviews on them. High BC compared to lots of other bullets

They don't expand "Reliably" at any range. They are a long range bullet that the fanbois have adopted as their pet bullet.
Eldx are completely unreliable inside 250yds, they disintegrate to the point of complete failure.

 

[mtmuley]

In any bullet thread, the animal always dies within a couple steps or doesn't move. Funny. mtmuley

 

[rjthehunter]

They don't expand "Reliably" at any range. They are a long range bullet that the fanbois have adopted as their pet bullet.
Eldx are completely unreliable inside 250yds, they disintegrate to the point of complete failure.

I guess check out the thread I have asking about the eldx bullets. Seems like people like it.

Hornady SST vs ELD-X

Well i was lucky enough to catch the bullet from a deer I shot this weekend. It was a 200 grain sst shot out of a 338 win mag. The bullet appears to have held together pretty well. It was only about a 80 yard shot. Has anyone caught an ELD-X? I'm thinking of ordering a box to try out as well...

www.hunttalk.com

Or if you don't trust the people's opinions here, check this out. Panhandle precision does more shooting than anyone I know

Hornady 143-grain ELD-X: Review & Hunting Performance Test

The Hornady ELD-X bullet is advertised as a technologically advanced, match accurate, all range hunting bullet. This review covers the 6.5MM 143-grain ELD-X, and focuses on how it performs as a hun…

panhandleprecision.com

With the high bc and accuracy of the bullet I'm hoping it performs as good in my rifle as others have experienced.

 

[rjthehunter]

In any bullet thread, the animal always dies within a couple steps or doesn't move. Funny. mtmuley

I'm always looking more for accuracy. If it's accurate, and expands, then it'll kill in my hands!

 

[CubSlayer]

I find the copper bullets to be at least as accurate as the cup and core/bonded lead bullets. Where I am still skeptical is expansion. So far in my admittedly small sample, lead bullets seem to expand better and provide much better blood trails. My shots have all been short range though.

 

[Don Fischer]

If it weren't for the cost of the premium bullet's I'd probably have tried them long ago. But I suspect that the most expensive premium bullet poorly placed doesn't do any better than the most inexpensive cup and core bullet. Fact about all bullet's is that sooner of later even the best most expensive bullet will not give you the results you think it should. I have used cup and core bullet's all my life, mostly Hornady's, they are what I can afford. Never had one fail me but that doesn't mean the next one I fire might not. Every manufacturer of a product puts out a bad one now and them. Barne's TTSX has a great following and I'm sure there's a reason for that. Whatever happened with the OP's bullet it's hard to say but I'd say it would not have mattered a lot what bullet he might have been using at that time. Given the same shot placed the same with any other bullet the result's could well have been the same. I would suspect the shot placement was off a bit and that would be the whole problem. He found an entry hole but no exit. From the entry hole on had to be a trail left by the bullet. One thing I think for sure is if that elk ran 500yds the bullet could not have been to well placed.

 

[CubSlayer]

This year, for the first time, I had to deliberately shoot my bear in the upper arm. He was in a tree and the vitals were covered, so in the upper arm my 165 Federal Vital Shok .308 went. We never found the bullet, but found two copper petals. I suspect that perhaps copper was a better choice in this case. I've read that a similar shot would have significantly fragmented a lead core bullet.

 

[handwerk]

Now days about all I use are Barnes TTSX or LRX, no complaints at all. I load them for 8 cartridges from .243 to 300 H&H.

 

[HandgunHunter]

I’m shootings “handguns” so my stuffs a bit different.
The 127 Lrx in a 15” 6.5-284 is killing amazingly out to 535 yards (farthest so far). The 6.5-284 in a short barrel is similar to 6.5 creed in a rifle.

the Barnes 225 44....bang flop on an elk at 40 yards with perfect expansion.
On a deer with the same load and bullet from 110-150 yards I hit it 4 times behind the shoulder in a open hand sized area....6-8” group....not a single one expanded and just punched through. I’m done with them in a strait wall handgun.

 

[AlaskaHunter]

Now days about all I use are Barnes TTSX or LRX, no complaints at all. I load them for 8 cartridges from .243 to 300 H&H.

Have you loaded the 200gr LRX in 300 H & H?

 

[Deleted member 20812]

Have you loaded the 200gr LRX in 300 H & H?

This wouldn't seem like an ideal match to me. I would think there would be issues in both magazine length and case capacity.

 

[Taxed in Maine]

Have you loaded the 200gr LRX in 300 H & H?

All I shoot is Barnes. My experience is lighter and faster works better with mono bullets. I would try the 175LRX first

 

[CubSlayer]

To those of you who hunt using copper bullets, do you also practice with them? For cost reasons, I practice with cheap ammo like CoreLokts and PowerPoints and then attempt to match the ballistics later with the pricier ammo (copper or VitalShoks).

I've got this formula nailed in .308, as the 150-grain CoreLokts have the same POI as the copper Federals. (The 180-grain Fusions also match the 165-grain Trophy Copper quite well).

In .338 Federal, this isn't working out. The cheap Fusions have the same POI as the VitalShoks, but the Trophy Copper's POI is always ~2" off. Both group well, so it isn't a stability problem. I'd like to hunt with the Trophy Copper but find practice with it prohibitively expensive. I'd love to hear any suggestions any of you might have. Otherwise I'll probably use the VitalShoks (which is what the Federal engineer suggested to me anyway).

And please don't say "reload" - I'm not there yet.

 

[HandgunHunter]

To those of you who hunt using copper bullets, do you also practice with them? For cost reasons, I practice with cheap ammo like CoreLokts and PowerPoints and then attempt to match the ballistics later with the pricier ammo (copper or VitalShoks).

I've got this formula nailed in .308, as the 150-grain CoreLokts have the same POI as the copper Federals. (The 180-grain Fusions also match the 165-grain Trophy Copper quite well).

In .338 Federal, this isn't working out. The cheap Fusions have the same POI as the VitalShoks, but the Trophy Copper's POI is always ~2" off. Both group well, so it isn't a stability problem. I'd like to hunt with the Trophy Copper but find practice with it prohibitively expensive. I'd love to hear any suggestions any of you might have. Otherwise I'll probably use the VitalShoks (which is what the Federal engineer suggested to me anyway).

And please don't say "reload" - I'm not there yet.

I shoot the same ammo I hunt with.

 

[noharleyyet]

I shoot the same ammo I hunt with.

Yes sir....trust but verify.

 

[Jbotto]

I shoot the same ammo I hunt with.

Same here. The way I get around cheap practice is having similar rifles in cheaper cartridges. Have essentially the same rifle in .223, .243, .30-06, and .338-06. I actually shoot all of them fairly regularly, more than just sighting-in. It’s expensive but it’s worth it to not worry about changing impacts and spending time and energy re-dialing in rifles a few times per year.