ENCOREMAN

I was fortunate to have harvested 2 deer last week during the Illinois Muzzleloader deer season, using the 285gr. Barnes Spit-Fire's for the 1st time on deer. Needless to say, I was very impressed with the performance of this bullet. I thought about posting a picture of the damage to the chest cavities, but then decided it might be to graphic for some....including me. Both deer were taken at approx. 60 yds. I spine shot the firstdeer and of course it dropped immediately....no trailing on this one. After field dressing, I found the spine had shattered into two pieces. The wound around the spine was fist sized.
The 2nd doe was shot broadside and it totally destroyed the top 1/3 of the heart. Looking inside the rib cage the entrance hole (1" in dia.)broke one rib and the exit wound was again.... darn near fist sized. The doe ran 25yds. max. before going down, with a blood trail a blind person could have followed.
I'm interested in what other's have experienced using this bullet on game.
I know what bullet I will be using again next year

cayugad

where do you buy them from and how hard are you pushing them? I think I would like to try some of them out of my Knight Disc and Knight Wolvernine. I have been shooting the 250 grain Barnes Expanders with excellent results. I am always looking for a bigger better load...

thanks

ENCOREMAN

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.

TC209x50

I recently purchased the Barnes 245gr. spitfire and love them. You can get them direct from Barnesbullets.com Do a search. When I ordered during the week of T-day if you purchased $50.00 or more shipping was free. I haven't taken game yet but love the BC's and Accuracy. They've got the best bullet for my style of hunting. I would definetly recommened buying there bullet starter though it's made of top quality and if your hunting and dont fire when you remove the bullet it looks the exact same as when it went in. You can also get them from blackpowderbullets.com and they have very good prices as well.

Tahquamenon

I've been wanting to try the Barnes 285 Spitfire as have been hearing good things about it.

Congrats!!!

Tahquamenon

Triple Se7en

This bullet is a repackaged copper-clad Buffalo S.S.B that used to be sold by Buffalo inentire lead.Just prior to Buffalo giving Barnes full distributing rights to the 285 gr, I purchased eight 36-pks of 285 gr. S.S.Bs from Gander Mountain for $9.99 a box.

If you change the plastic sabot to the Harvester brand, your difficult loading will get easier. When that bullet was strictly all Buffalo, all Buffalo shipped were Harvester plastic sabots with the S.S.B/... now copper-clad Spitfire. Barnes prefers to have MMP/Hornady plastic sabots - more difficult to load.

ENCOREMAN

Triple Se7en,
I'm not sure if I'm on the same page as you? The Barnes Spit-Fire bullet is an all 100% Copper Bullet.....not copper clad.

I normally use Harvestor sabots and I've tried them with the Barnes bullets and I noticed very little difference with the amount of pressure needed to get these down the bore.
The Harvestor cruch ribbed sabots did make a difference for me though.

sabotloader

Triple Se7en


T7 as i read the Barnes informationit indicates to me that these bullets, Barnes Spit Fires,are not "copper clad" they are 100% copper. I am trying to understand how you can call them a "copper clad" Bufflalo S.S.B. It looks to me as if Barnes did put some time and investment into producing this bullet for the Barnes family of bullets.

Triple Se7en

Barnes& Buffalo have a joint operating agreement witha few ML bullets. I never read the Spitfire literature - nor shot one. Hard to tell by computer photosif they're all copper or copper-clad. So it appears as though Buffalo allowed Barnes the dies to the SSB 285s & switched itfrom lead to copper.I noticed they did the same with the 40/45 Barnes Expander. It's not shaped anything close to the 45/50 Barnes Expanders in 250 & 300 grain. But it's identical to the old 195 gr. S.S.B 40/45. Those I have.... never knew they were all copper until now.