Quilly

do they open up fairly good on deer?

i was thinking of next year to use them,if they shoot good in my BAR MK II in 30-06sprg that should be in by january.
i heard that since they are a better " controlled " round wiht very little exposed lead tip that it will not deform that much.

Mountain Cur

Hey quilly, let me tell you about my experience with them. I shoot the bearclaws in all three of my deer rifles, a 7 mm mag (140 grn), 30-06 (165 grn), and .300 win mag. (150 grn). I have been using them now for 5 years, and I absolutely love them for my purposes! Here in north central Louisiana where I hunt we have a lot of very thick cutovers. I have several stands with shooting lanes, and one hop off the lane and it's so thick a rabbit would have a hard time! Wich is why I am always aiming for a little high straight through the shoulder shot, because I don't want to have to track one if I can help it, but if one does run, I definitely want an exit wound to make tracking easier. I used to shoot the barnes x, a great bullet, and you're gauranteed an exit wound. Only drawback was that the exit was no bigger than entry, I guess because of the solid copper. But with the bearclaws, they always give me an exit wound, and they have just enough lead in them to where the exit hole is pretty decent. I have averaged 3 rifle deer per year since I started using them and I haven't recovered a bullet yet, and they've performed just as well up close as they do out to 250 yds (the farthest shot I've had to make so far in the last 5 years). To answer your question "do they open up fairly good" I'd say thet most of the time the exit wound is about the size of half dollar, sometimes a little smaller. There's always that trade off of penetration versus expansion, I think the bearclaws balance the equation about as perfectly as any bullet can. Try 'em out I think you'll like them!

Rodsmith

Hey Quilly
why is it that I cannot find these Bear claws in .358 to reload for the Whelen? I would love to get my hands on some in 225 but everywhere I go, no gots! got any sites you know that carry them?

10 Pointers

BarnesX.308

Bear Claws are simply awesome. Believe everything the advertisements tell you. I have shot a few whitetails and a black bear with them and they perform perfectly. I also recovered a bunch of them from our backstop and the expansion is at least 200%. They are also extremely tough. I had an expanded one that had a long, skinny piece of lead coated jacket hanging of one side. You couldn’t bend it with all your might and it wasn’t much thicker than the jacket itself. Imagine that thing just plowing through a deer. Our backstop is saw dust, usually damp, so it’s probably similar to hitting game. I shot Bear Claws in Federal Premium Federal High Energy and handloads. All out of a .30-06. The reason I have been using exclusively Barnes X bullets since 1997 instead of Bear Claws is mostly because of price. They were about $25 for 20 of them 5 years ago. That’s not a loaded cartridge, just the bullet itself. If your using factory, all premium loads are expensive anyway so you might as well go with the Bear Claw. I’d take the High Energy. In a .30-06 they claim 2880fps for a 180gr Bear Claw. That’s the same as factory .300 H&H ballistics. Do yourself a favor and try the Bear Claws on game. You’ll be impressed. By the way – accuracy was excellent out of my rifle.

Scott Meier
White Oak Lodge

Quilly

ROD SMITH...

i don't know of any places to that sell the TBBC's since i don't reload. but they must be out there since federal sells them in their premium line. they do sell the 225gr. bullets in the whelen.

338

My cousin used the 225gr in a .338 and went to africa for plains game and killed all but the wilderbeast with one shot including a giraffe (sp). He also uses the same load here for deer and drops them on the spot here in pa.. Thats a wide range 100lbs to what does a sable, Eland or gireffe weigh 12-1500lb??? They seem to work well fo him. The perfect bullet? ...Bill

445 supermag

To me and its just my opinion its tops as far as bullets go. But you pay for them.

Brian