Hunter 257W
Well-Known Member
I had another chance to test the Barnes TTSX at longer range where velocity has started to drop on December 20. Just now getting around to reporting. I got this 1 1/2 yr old buck, which I thought was a doe at the time, at 290 + yards using the 100 grain .257 TTSX in the 257 Weatherby loaded with 72 grains of IMR 7828. It chronographs at 3,590 in my rifle. The deer was slightly quartering away from me so that it hit about 8" behind the shoulder and exited just behind the offside shoulder. The bullet entered between two ribs so had a minimum of resistance to start expansion, but centered a rib on exiting. Both lungs were hit but too high for the heart. Performance and expansion were identical to a 300 yard deer I shot a few years ago with the same load where a rib was hit directly to initiate expansion. Exit hole was about an inch in the hide for both deer. I've gotten the same wound channel in deer shot at 30 yards with the TTSX also. For high velocity cartridges such as this, this bullet is truly superior as it allows good killing performance without leaving a big pile of blood shot meat when impact velocity is high yet gives the same performance at long range. I didn't lose a bit of shoulder meat on this deer even on the offside shoulder where the bullet passed just behind.
At 1st I was having trouble finding a blood trail but part of that was due to the fact that I was walking into the sun and the glare was giving me fits trying to see fine detail on the ground. There wasn't a lot of blood for 25 or so yards but after that it looked like somebody had sloshed a bucket full for the next 50 yards. The deer did run somewhat further than normal going 75 to 80 yards. At the shot, I instantly heard that loud THUMP of bullet impact (I love that "no time delay" impact with such high velocity cartridges) and the deer kicked it's back legs way up in the air, stumbled and took off behind a little rise in the field and I lost sight of it. Even as I was starting to have doubts about the shot while searching for the blood trail, I knew that THUMP was a solid hit on meat so kept searching for blood till I found it. I'm still amazed at how these hard bullets can open up and perform well at such a wide range of impact velocities. As much as I;d like to try the Nosler Accubond in the 257W, I have a couple hundred of the TTSX's and can't see changing my load.
At 1st I was having trouble finding a blood trail but part of that was due to the fact that I was walking into the sun and the glare was giving me fits trying to see fine detail on the ground. There wasn't a lot of blood for 25 or so yards but after that it looked like somebody had sloshed a bucket full for the next 50 yards. The deer did run somewhat further than normal going 75 to 80 yards. At the shot, I instantly heard that loud THUMP of bullet impact (I love that "no time delay" impact with such high velocity cartridges) and the deer kicked it's back legs way up in the air, stumbled and took off behind a little rise in the field and I lost sight of it. Even as I was starting to have doubts about the shot while searching for the blood trail, I knew that THUMP was a solid hit on meat so kept searching for blood till I found it. I'm still amazed at how these hard bullets can open up and perform well at such a wide range of impact velocities. As much as I;d like to try the Nosler Accubond in the 257W, I have a couple hundred of the TTSX's and can't see changing my load.