Water testing the Hornady SST and Nosler Ballistic Tip against the Barnes TTSX.. Watch how the bullets smash through the water containers and which bullet you would choose for deer hunting or perhaps not based on the results!
Great video and honest analysis! I’ve had great success with NOSLER Partition bullets especially in my 30’06 handloads. At close range these pass through deer but a frontal shot on a Maine buck several years ago did come apart and I had to shoot that buck two more times! Bullet retention was around 55%.
With all the options available, I've used many of them in over thirty-plus years of handloading. I find the complete line of Nosler bullets to my liking. The Ballistic Tips bullets were what I learned to handload with. The Partition and AccuBond LR are my bullets of choice these days.
Great video! I've used both unbonded rapid expansion bullets (SST) and controlled expansion penetration bullets (TTSX) on WT deer. In my experience the Barnes TTSX have superior terminal ballistics in terms of cleaner, faster kills plus less meat loss. Also the TTSX can penetrate heavy bones on large moose at long ranges and still wreck the vitals and still produce an exit wound. Exit wounds are crucial for producing a reliable blood trail for tracking and recovering game. I would never use SST or Nosler BT or the like on larger game with heavy shoulder bones. Also to have success with any bullet choice always limit your maximum range to ensure the bullet velocity stays above the minimum velocity for reliable expansion. Also the rule of thumb I use is 1400ftlbs min. energy for moose and elk and 1000ftlbs min. energy for deer. If you can't exceed ur velocity and energy minimums, stalk more and get closer. Cheers!
Personally, I've used Hornady SST 150gr and InterLock 180gr with pretty good results in my .308 on Gemsbok. I'm now using AccuBond 165gr and had really good results first time out with them. Bullet stopped under the hide on the other side after breaking the front leg and severing the important arteries over the heart.
Had the opposite experience. I wanted to like the copper bullets because I heard they had less meat damage while still being effective and left no lead fragments in meat. So I hand loaded some 80gr ttsx in a 257wby going 3800 fps and some 160gr ttsx for a 340 wby, and 142gr in a 7x61. They all performed very poorly on game. I nearly lost a nice buck I shot at 325 yards with the 257. Perfect shot but zero blood and the deer ran 2-300 yards. The bullet did not expand despite having an impact velocity of around 2800fps. I lost a 400 pound bear shot with the 340 at only 100 yards off a steady rest. It ran about 500 yards before crossing a river and climbing a cliff on the other side. Same story for other animals shot with copper. Next year had a similar shot on a bear with the 340 but used 210gr partitions and it dropped right there. A good bonded or partition style bullet is far superior.
@@Nick-sx6jm That is unfortunate!… definitely use what works best for you!… For us the barnes have worked splendidly on the moose and deer we have harvested and every barnes bullet we have ever recovered was fully expanded with full weight retention. Bonded bullets and partitions are also great. It is nice that we have so many choices. Cheers
@Nick-sx6jm so far 120 grain barrns bullets have worked amazing for me out to 350 yards they have often dropped deer on the spot like you have found the off switch, speed is the key as the ranges become longer and the velocity less I prefer bonded bullets. In all honesty most of my deer are shot inside 200 yards and often within 50 yards, my longest shot on a deer so far is 480 meters, if you can get closer and are going to have to recover the animals anyway it doesn't make a lot of sense to make a shot more risky and difficult than it needs to be especially from a ethical standpoint.
My wife and I have been running copper out here in Montana for a few years now. We’ve tagged three using Hornady’s 139 gr GMX out of their superformance line in the 7mm-08 REM. All have practically dropped in their tracks. Longest shot so far has been 311 yards, and it dropped a nice mule deer in its tracks and left a pretty solid exit wound.
Nosler and Barnes have always been my favorite bullets for taking game . Nosler Partition , and Accubond are no questions asked my favorite . Barnes TSX and TTSX hit game extremely hard . Nosler E-Tip is on par with TTSX . Federal Premium TLR Edge and Nosler Accubond Long Range are probably the best longer range game bullets on the planet . I'm not really fan of the Hornady ELDX but I will use 103g ELDX for 6mm. That 103g ELDX does an amazing job taken whitetail deer and Hoggs in the USA . 6mm , 308 and 300 WSM are my 3 favorite cartridges to use for all my hunting needs..
Barnes X bullets are one of the best hunting bullets ever made if not the absolute best! I like a bullet exiting the far side it leaves a huge blood trail a blind man can trail.
Well done. Thank you. Good test & results. Good information. The data, experience & perspective is quite helpful. Any of the 3 would be effective on most medium (whitetail) and some larger(elk/red) game. The fear of grenading doesn't discourage me. The "loss" of mass or low weight retention isn't a "bad" thing. The bullet is doing it's job in the area it needs to the most. Jacket core separation isn't a terrible failure either. Appreciate the spirit of the vid and content. Subscribed.
Nosler Accubond does a great job in all my 30 cals. 300wm 300 wby mag, 308. Never had core separation. When it hits it hits extremely hard! Good clean humane kill. That's the most important thing quick kill.
Copper bullet worked well. Petals open and cause initial massive damage, petal shedding causes more damage, then a penetrating slug continues through the tuff stuff. Not a bad way to roll.
Great video! I'm a 7mm Rem Mag user myself and use the SST bullets with zero issues with whitetail here in the states. Just FYI, lol,, you know the letter T actually makes a sound when using it with words! Haha, just picking with ya! My family actually came over from Lanarkshire, What's know known as the Glasgow region of Scottland
Nice projectile comparison The thing that stands out is lead fragments, I will assume that the deer your hunting will be harvested for meat and as such the high lead fragments may ruin a lot of usable meat. Guessing the Barnes would do a great job if put in correct spot That said the potential ricochet issue of the Barnes projectile could create problems especially for livestock.
I'm a huge fan of the 7mm's... I own a 7mm Rem Mag, 280AI, and 28 Nosler. Personally I don't like a bullet that breaks apart I want a bullet that expands and retains as much weight as possible so that it'll drive deep through that front shoulder and out the other side. I only shoot the SST's when hunting hogs at night everything else I shoot the Barnes TTSX/LRX, Swift Sirocco 2, Nosler Accubond/ABLR, and Speer Gold Dots. I took a monster bull moose with my 280AI and the 140gr Barnes TTSX at just under 400 yards 3 or 4 years ago and that was the only TTSX bullet I've ever recovered and it only lost 15grs after that I was a believer. I've never tried the 120gr TTSX in any of my 7mm's but now that I've seen this I'm going to that's good performance.
I have never had a whitetail move any direction other than straight down with the SST in 25-06. The ballistic tips all ran about 50 feet. Monolithic bullets always ended up with a tracking job .
Great video/rewiew. Personally I use SST's in 308. Works every time. It really boils down to shot placement. I think you have more wiggle rom by using SST's ahead of TTSX, but that's me. As mentioned by you the TTSX need alot of horsepower to work as intended. Maybe it works in the 7RM Enough of that........thumbs up and greetings from one of your subscribers in Norway 🇳🇴
Great video, thank you. I’m planning on getting a .260 shortly and working up a load for use on deer with the ttsx, personally I wouldn’t want all the lead fragmentation inside the carcass.
I have a 99 Savage I re-barreled to .260 Remington.. I use Remington Corlokt factory ammo. The first deer I shot with it was broadside and there was pieces of lung laying where I hit the deer. It went about 15 yards, flat out to dead. I try to use Corlokt bullets when I reload. Unless you are using a real "barrel burner" there is no need to use anything but cup and core bullets.
@@oldgoat1890 Hmm personally I disagree on that. I use my .308 for Warthogs and Gemsbok - I'd never want to use Core-Lokt on Gemsbok, so I'll leave them out of the equation. My experience with the 180gr Core-Lokt RNSP was a very good group at 100, but the performance on Warthogs was seriously lacking. It worked 'as intended', but even then, I had Warthogs run for up to 30seconds.. compare that to the Hornady Superformance 150gr SST that I used - more often than not, the Warthog would drop in it's tracks to a heart/lung shot and the furthest I've ever seen one run from an SST was about 50m, which is still less than 10 seconds. I've also used them on Gemsbok with great effect. Now.. bullet choice is everyone's own personal choice, but man.. my experience with Core-Lokt has been very disappointing. Personally, I am now using Nosler AccuBond 165gr. First experience with them was on a Gemsbok - never had one go such a short distance to a Lung shot that also severed the Arteries.
This sounds like a great setup to me. I will say, I used the Hornady Superformance 150gr SST in my .308 for quite a while on Warthogs and Gemsbok down here in Africa. The only SST I ever managed to recover was on a frontal neck shot, with the bullet stopping along the spine. Perfect mushroom, but I did have a separation of the core and jacket. Both were extremely flat as well, but that thing was going over 2800fps on impact. I'm sure any fragments can help with getting an animal down quicker, but I agree with you. The idea of 20gr+ of lead fragments in the carcass is not particularly great. You won't go wrong with Barnes.
Good video. Thanks. Personnally, I prefer the Barnes (oe Nosler Partition, or Swift A-Frame, or any of the bonded bullets) because I prefer a bullet that does not leave as many fragments, that will spoil more meat. And I prefer a buller that will pass trough the animal. I don't believe in the "energy dumping" theory. As for the recochet, where I hunt, (in Canada) there are no other hunters close to me...
Here in Mississippi we have dense cover and prefer pass thru shots for possible blood trailing if necessary. I used both Hornady & Nosler but recently chaneged over to Barnes TSX .excellent performance and on few occasions when shot placement off blood trailing was easy due to pass thru and rapid blood loss
In my 18 308 i use 165 ttsx getting 2600 fps and 175 lrx in my 300 winmag limited to my 1 in 11 twist in 300. If you have the twist rate 168 barnes lrx works very well
I have used Barnes 168 .308 win on elk and they have nearly gone through rest on the far rib cage, only lost one petal at 200yrds. They work as advertised. You really want a hole on both sides of the animal so you get a blood trail. If you was worried about a ricochet from the ground on the other side of your deer you shoulfd not be shooting.
really good vid mate im thinking of trying the barnes on roe in the borders at pretty close ranges up to 120yds do you think they would be a good choice? in my .270
I understand why some places don't allow the use of a lead bullet. At the same time your video shows a major problem with a solid copper bullet. The answer used in the USA is the use of a fully bonded bullet which holds onto the jacket and retains almost 100% of its weight. Where the solid copper bullets retain there weight they lack the expansion of a fully bonded lead bullet. In hunting you want to kill the animal at the spot of impact and not have it run off to die. This is a problem if the bullet doesn't expand well and dump all the energy in the animal. You also made a good point about where that solid copper bullet is going to go after leaving the animal. Nosler makes wonderful fully bonded bullets along with the Gold Dot bullet line produced by Speer. Both of these bullets retain almost 100% of their weight and what is lost will be found inside the animal. I find that in hunting a humane kill should be of the highest importance! Having your game run off after being shot is not humane. I think that the solid bonded bullet is a good middle ground for the environment and the animal. I did enjoy your video and look forward to seeing more of your videos in the future.
Good video Paul. I’m not sure that your representation of weight retention is correct as you should only record the mass of the largest fragment. For the Hornady this may be either the core or the jacket but not both. If you follow through with your logic every bullet would have 100% weight retention as all the tiny fragments should be found and included in the weighing. Can I also ask what velocity each of these bullets were fired at and the range. Thanks
yes, velocity at muzzle is in the video as a subtitle when shooting jut before each shot. The weight retention of the bullets was based on the main bit left over excluding the bits broke off. I counted the core and jacket of the sst because they were together and had done all the hard work before separating right at the end. With the barnes I excluded the petals because they had sheered off .
Incredibly light bullets for a 7 mag. I expected nothing less than fragmentation. In the states we use heavier. 175gr for my 7 mm and nothing takes a step when shot.
I agree that heavier really is better in the 7MM Rem Mag. I’ve shot many a mulie with this cartridge and two antelope as well. I’ve found 160 partitions or Accubonds work the best. Of course a good 280 Remington is as much as you need for antelope.
Curious why you didnt go with a 30-06 or 300wm instead for reloading purpose? You wouldn't of have had to buy more new bullets amd gotten the speed that you wanted.
always loved the 308 as a deer calibre shooting lead core bullets and with a .30 cal already I wanted the 7mm rem mag to shoot lead free because it had much higher muzzle velocity in lighter bullets but then could shoot much heavier options too with much more energy than that 308 overall.
Your velocities seem a little low for the 7 rem mag. You can easily get 2900 + fps velocity out of the .280 rem with the 140s. Try cranking them up to 3200 - 3300 fps out of your rem mag and I guarantee that you will not want to shoot anything else.
well, should do ok but the Blackout is a bit slower than most of the .30 cal family. The 125gr SST has a pretty decent velocity in .300 Blackout and should perform well at closer ranges under 100m but is certainly fairly loopy past that!
Thats stupid. SST'S blow up on the ribs and do shattering damage to vitals instantly. They rarely exit. High shoulder? 1/2 lb. of meat from 1 shoulder blade lost.🙏
@@reddawng43x91 I just purchased 170 Nosler BT bullets for my 6.8 Western. Using with H4831sc I had some great groups. These ballistic tip bullets are more deer bullets than for elk or moose. I like the 175 Nosler Accubond as well for accuracy. They are for larger game like elk and moose.
Great video. I love solid copper, but I think you are using too much gun. A moose rifle on a roe deer? 6.5 Grendel, 7mm-08, 243, or my favorite the old 250 Savage is all that is necessary for deer up to 300 lbs. I use an 80 gr TTSX for white tail.
@@garethbryson I've shot them up at 3,400 fps at muzzle but backed off and dropped down to 3,150 fps which seemed best for my rifle. Your .270 will sweatly run 110gr Barnes at 3,300 all day but might find slightly slower is smoother.
"Yum, that pile of pulverized and powdered lead in the bottom of the jug looked absolutely delicious. I wonder how best to cook it? Anyone have any good recipes for lead?" Thanks for the vid.
@letshuntdinner IMHO, the 120 gr TTSX is to light for 7 mag velocities. They work great in the 7-08. My experience loading these puppies for hunting suggests to load em fast. If you want to slow em down, step up in weight. Or vice-versa if you want to speed em up. Our biggest concern with bullets such as this is their low-speed performance. At what velocity do they turn into a target bullet. We are still working on their maximum hunting range potential, where the breakoff point is.
It makes no sense when measuring weight retention to add in some of the bits that separated. The retained weight should be of the heaviest single piece by itself. Cheers!
I’ll take the nosler all day ! Hell , if u wanna compare the ttsx then compare it to the nosler accubond! The accubond is the most accurate most penetrating round that actually expands to a mushroom like a cup n core period
Bottom Line, if you like eating micro bits of lead in your meat, use the sst or ballistic tip if you like clean meat use the TTSX you do NOT need a bullet to fragment to kill a deer!!!!!!! you need a bullet that opens and goes through a animal leaving two holes they bleed faster ,better and if you have to track one in the rain you will like the better blood trail those pedals opened up are like a modern Broadhead over imagine the damage to tissue as it spins through a animal bone or no bone... after all we are all just a bag of water drain the water and we are done same with all the critters.
@@Geekygordon it's going to bleed the same amount no matter if it passes through 100% or passes through 99% and gets stuck in the hide. Only difference is external bleeding or internal but it's still going to bleed the exact same.
I use TTSX projectiles in my 6mm rem, 257 Roberts, 6.5 x 55 swede and all penetrate fully, do a lot of damage. The deer have never moved more that a few meters. TTSX all the way.
130 ttsx out of a 308 is a hammer. I own a 7mag and a 308 amongst others. And the 7 mag sits in the safe most of the time. If you cannot kill it with 130 ttsx or 124 hammer at 3100-3200 fps. You shouldnt be shooting at it in my opinion
I'm sorry, but the Nosler BT and the Hornady SST bullets are terrible hunting choices. Cup and Core design fragment with limited penetration. I've used them on whitetails, mule deer, elk, wild boar and predators. The lack of penetration, much less pass through, fails to leave blood letting wounds that allow for easy tracking. Accubond, Interlock and Partition bullets provide far superior terminal performance.
Well, if you're reloading them and drive them too fast then they break up as with pretty much every standard jacketed lead core bullet. I have shot with SST and BT as a deer control contractor with over a thousand deer taken using these options and when they are shot in factory loads or optimum velocity reloads they are exceptional. I've certainly shot a lot of red deer which are mule deer size without any concerns regarding bullet performance. The sst and bt didn't break up in the test both with around 60% weight retention shot at 7mm rem mag velocity. That's is pretty much my experience on deer.
weight retention isn't a good thing on medium game, sure if you're shooting elephant or buff in the head then you want tough bullets with deep penetration but for chest shooting deer you need a bullet that delivers energy with good organ damage resulting in fast bleed outs so shorter runs
@@letshuntdinner I used to all the time. And the ignorant refuse to acknowledge...so I just throw my $.02 when I can and usually the ones with any sort of common sense and logic walk away with knowledge.
well, the winchester and remington options you mention are fine but certainly not better if you want to shoot reliable budget soft point bullets but if you put them on target against the ones mentioned in the video with a bit of distance you can see why those premium bullets cost that little bit extra.
@@workct4102 after thousands of deer shot professionally I can say with certainty that while the options you suggest work fine and I've used both over the years they wouldn't be in my top 5 picks. There's nothing special about their design or performance that makes them stand out. At the end of the day they're both budget ammo choices.
In watching your video I can't help but notice your velocities are way down on that 7MM Mag for those weight of bullets. You should be doing over 200fps faster than your showing. What powders are you using and what grain charges for each bullet. I've been a Ballastician for over 50+ years. I have developed many many rounds and powder combinations of several dozen caliber rifles and hand guns in that time frame. I know what works and what doesn't especially for the 7MM Mag.
