I am finally getting back into guns a bit (my youngest son has the bug, and I have to try to keep up with technology.) A few years back, I bought some Barnes X bullets (95 gr. 6mm), (165 gr. 30 cal) figuring they were the future and a good basis for a true all round load for our .243, .308 and 06. I know they don't shoot all that well out of the .243, haven't tried them out of the .30s. Now I see that the Barnes all coppers are running grooves to lessen pressure. Have the older Xs been a problem? Looking at the newer bullets, the Hornady SSTs look good and reviews seem excellent. Currently loading 100 gr. Sierras for the .243 and 150 Hornady spire points for the .30s. Any suggestions to maximize performance? I know by developing loads and chronographing that I can get right around 3000 fps. with 165s in the /06, so I think that should be my all round bullet weight for that, maybe 150s for the .308. Any ideas, suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.
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Like you I gave the original x-bullets a whirl, I decided to try them in my varous 7mm's, so I bought 120,130,140 gr tried them in a 7mm/08, 280, 7mm rem mag and a 7mm stw, they took a couple decent shooting rifles (7mm/08 and 280) and two very good shooting rifles to a new level of in-accuracies, nothin I had liked them, contacted Randy Brooks, was told to clean every spec of copper from my barrels and get a barnes manual and use they're loads and methods, so I bought a foul out, cooked my barrels clean, bought a manual and followed the reccomended loads, got the same results, so after spending alot of time and over 200 bucks I gave up in disgust. I've tried the sst's but I get better overall accuracy with noslers, so its BT's and accubonds for me, with a few bergers and a-max's mixed in.
RR
Seeing some of your posts, I know that you must be very particular about bullets, so I appreciate the feedback. Ballistic tips are kinda explosive when it comes to expansion aren't they?
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they used to be, but now todays ballistic tips are the exact same make-up as the old nosler solid base boattail, except they have a polymer tip, personaly I run 140 BT's at 3550 fps out of my 7mm STW and have taken 18 or 19 bucks and a bear with them, haven't had one fail yet, I do stay off the shoulder on the close shots.
In standard cartridges the BT's do very well if you stay off the center shoulder at very close range
RR
I ran the original X for a while, decent accuracy but good on game. I've done the TSX thing for a while and they are a great bullet, just expensive and not that great of BC. Now I'm running Bergers, AccuBonds, and those cheap PowerMax Bonded (which are proven to be an excellent cheap round)...
Never shot SST's, but had a friend shoot them for a while. Great accuracy, but horrible results on deer. Didn't penetrate at all! One blew up on the front shoulder, the other blew up on the neck, neither penetrated at all! Out of a 30-06 so not a high velocity round either...this was coming from him, I never saw the deer, but have no reason not to believe him.
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I have found Ballistic Tips a little to explosive for me, years ago I almost lost a deer that I shot with a 25-06 using 120gr. B.T.'s. The bullet pretty much blew up, left a huge hole on the intrance side of the deer. I was very disappointed with the bullets performance, needless to say I have not used them since. My brother did however use them with alot of sucsess in a 7x57 Mauser. So I would say as long as you are not pushing a lot of velocity they are probably a good bullet, but get up arround 3000 fps, use something else. JMO.
nosler never made a 120 gr BT in .257, from my experience, you'd be hard pressed to find a better deer bullet that a 115 gr BT at 3000 fps, I've shot a dozen deer with them, tried every angle possible, haven't recovered a bullet yet.
RR
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Last edited by Ridge Runner; 01-30-2011 at 12:12 PM.
nosler never made a 120 gr BT in .257, from my experience, you'd be hard pressed to find a better deer bullet that a 115 gr BT at 3000 fps, I've shot a dozen deer with them, tried every angle possible, haven't recovered a bullet yet.
RR
My bad, it was a 115gr. BT. like I said it was years ago.
shoot what ever your rifle likes, Hornady,speer, nosler,barnes.
I have shot at least one type of bullet from the above mentioned manufacturers and have had good and bad results dependent on what my gun likes. One of my guns love the hornady and hate the nosler and visa versa. if you are just going after deer the cup and core as well as the bonded hornadys work great.
Hornady SST, Barnes, or "regular" bullets?
