cayugad,
My local gun dealer has been able to get the 285gr. Barnes SF's for me. I had to wait quite awhile the 1st time I ordered them, but that was right after Barnes introduced them to the market. Lately my gun dealer has been able to get them inabout a week. I'm pretty sure I placed an order through Natchez or Mid-South and they had them in stock.
The 285 Barnes has been one of my most accurate bullets to date. They're not quite as good in the accuracy dept for me as the 289 Remington Copper Solids, but at least they're available.
I still have a little over 50 rounds of the 289gr. Remington Copper Solids and I just about used them this fall, but I wanted to give the 285 Barnes a try and I'm glad I did.
They do go down the barrel hard, but I run a pre-lubed patch of T/C Natural Lube 1000 down the bore 1stand it makes the loading much easier. My accuracy improves using the pre-lubed bore butter patches between shots. I always spit patch between each shot, followed by a dry patch and then the pre-lubed patch. I use this same patch in a 5 shot group, using a different spot on the loading jag each time. This spring when it warms up,I want to give the crush ribbed sabots a work out with this bullet.
The load I used in my Omega was 110gr. Triple 7 ffg. I've harvested close to 100 deer in my short lifetime and the damage I saw from the 285 Spit-Fires beats all....including some I've taken with centerfire rifles.
I don't think I'd want to hit one outside the lung area using this bullet, because I'd be afraid of loosing a lot of meat. IMO
If you ever get a chance to shoot the 285 Barnes, I'd be interested in your feedback.