I know everyone is sick of my "testimony's" for Barnes, but I still think them to be THE finest hunting bullet in the world. I have shot EVERYTHING I can get my hands on from roughly a half dozen rifles and NOTHING kills as consistantly as the Barnes. I agree, they dont leave "a bloodtrail Stevie Wonder could follow" in most cases, but I hear that often followed by, "but I find the game after a short run". What more do you want?

Whats spectacular is that they typically dont tear up meat either. Why blast a hole in them you can drive a truck through and waste all that meat?

I have 5 seasons of experience with this gun but I will give my closest and farthest examples with my Barnes' from this season so far. In Oct I took an Antelope @ 367 yards with a 150 Triple Shok from my Lazzeroni Warbird. The first shot took him in the liver (just behind the lungs really). I was "breathing hard" and there was a stiff crosswind. He took ten sidesteps and then faced me straight on. So I put one into his left shoulder which penetrated him and exited in front of his right hip. He tried to take a step on that bad leg and went down like Joe Frazier. (MAN them lil dudes can take some killin!)

The closest was just a couple weeks ago on a whitetail doe here in west TN. I put another 150TripleShok from my Warbird in her at the grand range of 39yds, yep 39 NOT 390. Needless to say she went down instantly like Mr. Frazier. The meat damage is minimal. But in my experience with these bullets fired at extreme velocities (they leave my barrel at just a hair under 3800fps) they wont come apart and they ALWAYS exit the animal.

From double shoulder hits too "Texas heartshots" they just zip through the animals and wreak havoc on the vitals they pass through. There is only an extreme amount of bone fragmentation when a shoulder or other large bone is hit (like in the spinal column) but realistically that is because of the extreme velocity at which I am firing them (they are still doin 2800fps @ 400yds). Otherwise they are great for vaporizing them through the lungs or neck!

I put some 180 Triple Shocks in an ol 30/06 of mine this year (Federal Premium Vital Shok) but havent killed with it yet. Where I hunt in west TN we can take 3 does per day (appx a 60 day season) so I will get a chance to see how they do from a more civil cartridge like my ol horse 06.

I have equal praise for Barnes muzzleloader bullets as well,
RA