Copper bullet report. Results on 5 pigs and 2 deer.

[Hitechhunter]

The results are in. After a weekend of shooting five pigs and two deer over Labor Day weekend, the consensus at camp was that we are in for a lot of trouble.

Most pigs required multiple shots to bring them down. It took three hits from a 300 WBY inside 100 yards to bring down a 160 lb hog. One deer took three hits. Double lung on a pig at 100 yards and it ran far into the nasties. We are lucky it was recovered.

It seems the copper bullets cut through and most of the energy travels out the far side of the animal instead of being absorbed into the animal. These bullets have too much penetration. The sharp cutting action reduces the "knockdown" power.

These regulations are going to significantly increase the number of lost and fatally wounded animals.

 

[Rampage1]

The only animal I have ever shot with copper was a pig that was dead before he hit the ground.......

 

[hatchet1]

NO DOUBT HI-TECH, COPPER SUCKS PERIOD!!! it may be a plot to get that starving condor
a full belly so he can survive, my experiences have been anything under a 100yds usually
will pile up fairly quickly with a good hit,anything beyond,if you can get your bullet to fly true,
will be a total crap shoot,its a shame really that its come to this,but we all enjoy are sport to much to not be out there, and i personaly cant afford to be written up for not abiding,so here i am in the same
boat, feeding the bird,damn condor

by the way,congrats on a great weekend

 

[SDHNTR]

Were you using the original X bullet or the TSX (which opens up faster)?

 

[Hitechhunter]

Unknown which copper bullets, there were a lot of hunters (It was a non-scientific poll). The general consensus was that many of the animals should have gone right down but kept going instead.

 

[NatureDriven]

I have killed two pigs using Winchester's new E-tip copper bullets chambered in .300WSM. One pig was out about 270yds and it died about 20 yards from the shot. The second pig was about 60 yards out and it dropped in its tracks. I have full confidence in this bullet.

 

[Mntngoat]

No surprise there. anyone read the responses on AZ's site.

http://www.azgfd.gov/w_c/documents/AmmoSur...2-23-06_000.pdf


ML

 

[Speckmisser]

Interesting results.

 

[bmtoth]

the pig i shot in my earlier post dropped when i used a non copper bullet. while there, one other hunter shot a 120 pound sow from 60 yards twice to kill it. the first shot was in the upper gut. but i have seen sows drop before getting shot in the gut with a regular bullet.

 

[MJB]

I've been using the TSX and XLC since Febuary on pigs. The TSX/XLC does pass through with little meat loss. You have to think about it like bow hunting. Visualize the wound channel like the path of the arrow.(Again shot placement is very important) Lead does a great job on organ tissue and can save a bad or a little off shot.
Try the Tipped TSX I've seen one pig killed with it and It left a nice hole. I'm using that bullet on Tejon next year.

 

[Gyopo]

My brother and I used the TSXs about a month ago on 3 hogs, and our results were quite good.
1 shot put all the hogs down w/in a short distance.
I was pleasantly surprised. Except for the cost of the bullets.
The boar my brother shot pretty much took a couple steps and tumbled over.
the first pig I shot was uphill angling away from me, and it went down in about 10 yards.
The farthest a pig ran may have been about 40 yds, and then tumbled over in a cloud of dust.

I know that sometimes w/the big cartridges the smaller animals don't offer enough resistance to open the bullets.

 

[slowpoke]

I have had pretty good results with the 165 Gr TSX in the 30-06. Two hogs, two deer and one elk and no complaints, but now with this post I'm slightly concerned about taking them to Wyoming after hearing about Hitechhunter and Hatchet 1's results. It sounds like both of you do more shooting every year than I do in five. This is the last blacktail from just over 300 yards (and yes I know it wasn't a perfect shot, but it went down pronto)[attachment=54540:tsx_165.JPG]

 

[Hitechhunter]

I double lunged a blacktail at 30 yards a couple of years ago with the Barnes X bullet, the thing just kept walking without even a flinch! Just to be sure I hit it, I put a second shot in it and it went down.

A few guys on the hunt (jokingly) said they were going to hide a lead bullet in their pocket.

 

[bpnclark]

The only two times I have loaded Barnes Bullets was for my African trip (300 Win Mag 180 grn) and my father’s elk hunt (30-378 Wby 180 grn).

6 animals shot in Africa. 5 were complete pass-throughs with no blood trial to follow. I shot my Red Hartebeest over +200 yards. You could hear the ricochets when they left the body. The warthog was the only animal that didn’t have a pass-though, but the bullet traveled almost the whole length of its body and ended up in a shoulder. All other animals had a little exit wound and it seemed like the bullets just went right through them. Like arrow with a field tip.

My father shot an elk at 300 yards. Same results. The snow didn’t even come off its back when it was hit. He shot it three times. He couldn’t tell if he was missing or hitting it. Bull just stood there and died. 3 little holes in and 3 little holes out.

Barnes Bullets are no longer loaded at my house. We don’t hunt South of Hwy 4 anymore so the lead band doesn’t apply (yet).

 

[hatchet1]

slowpoke, they may work for you in your particular scenerio, but i gotta stick to the
shear numbers of animals harvested in my presence, the copper bullets are terrible!

if you can shoot lead in wyoming{which you can}do it!! dont let that buck of a lifetime
run off with a pin hole in its pocket, put um down

im off to wyoming come oct.15th.
i'll be shootin the lead for sure!! anyways,just my opinion,and good luck in wyoming

 

[slowpoke]

Thank you for the suggestion. Your opinion is valued so I picked up some AccuBonds. Both my primary rifle and backup rifle are dialed in. I got two doe antelope tags and thought they may be a little light skinned for the TSX’s anyways. Please don’t tell me AccuBonds suck too. Best of luck to you in Wyoming

 

[Speckmisser]

Slowpoke, those Accubonds ROCK!

You won't be sorry.

 

[myfriendis410]

I have my concerns as well, but so far my actual experience has been more favorable. My hunting partner has killed four blacktails in three years with his muzzleloader and the Barnes TMZ. One stumbled about twenty yards but the others went down in their tracks. Exit wounds weren't huge, but neither have some of my Accubond hits. (My favorite bullet) I have killed hogs with my 7mm RM/160 gr. TSX and my .300 WM/200 gr. TSX and no complaints. Both hogs dropped and stayed down. These were killed at 150 and 190 yards respectively. The .300 WM bullet was recovered after breaking both front legs, two ribs and one gristle plate. Weighed 199.5 gr. Shot a muley last year with this same load and it stumbled about thirty feet.

I do prefer my Accubonds.

The Barnes have worked for me so far. No real complaints, other than some degree of accuracy lost in the centerfire rifles. The muzzleloader shoot them lights out! I would prefer my bolt guns to shoot under 1/2", but 3/4-1" is acceptable.

 

[AZ Jim]

My family's experience with the Barnes copper has been positive. Found them to be extremely accurate. Under a 3/4 inch group at 100 yards. My son used them on his doe hunt for juniors in the Kaibab. It was part of the Condor free ammo program. We used the 130 grn. .270 bullets in TSX. Bullet placement was great and the doe dropped in her tracks. That being said the same could have been achieved with lead.

Would I use them again ?..... Yes, until I have a bad experience. The bullet I really want to see perform is the Barnes MRX, and the new lead core Winchester Supreme Elite XP3. I would like to compare the performance. Anybody have real world experiece with either of these two?

 

[huntley]

I've had positive experience with the TSX in my .300 WSM. I've taken three deer, 1 antelope, and 1 coyote and performance was as good or better than I've seen with lead. I've seen one other hog and one other deer taken with a 30'06 and they simply fell over when hit. It might be that the copper is less forgiving of bad shot placement. All of the above shots were fairly well placed.
Accuracy has been very good and has exceeded that of the Nosler partitions and Accu Bonds I was shooting.