.30-06 with Barnes 168gr TTSX?

[Wayne Dobbs]

Yes, same can be said about 45acp/hardball

I'm not sure if it's sarcasm or serious

But either way I got a kick out of it because 1) I've shot a lot of things with old cup and core out of 30-06 with great success so I can get on board, and 2) I was late to the TSX/TTSX party but I really appreciate the performance they bring to the old '06.

I still love the ancient Nosler Partition for what that's worth.

I was serious on using a decent 165 and the 4350 load as it's a longtime winner. As for .45 ACP hardball, I think it generally sucks for shooting folks. I know that's likely to get me banned, but I've seen several uses of it, both intentional and not so that were really poor. Two of them, a pair of 14 year old girls, shot by one of their fathers with Remington ball a total of seven times in their chests and abdomens, were sitting on the curb, fully conscious, answering police and paramedic questions.

[WDR]

@WDR. My current 30-06 load is a Barnes 180 gr TTSX with H4350. It leaves my Tikka T3x a little over 2800 fps. It killed everything big and small on my hunt this past August.

IF you like, I have plenty of extra Barnes 180 grain TTSX I can give you if you want to experiment with it. PM me your address if you are interested. I'll send 100 bullets.

Sorry for the delayed response, life has been hectic here.

This is a very gracious offer, and I may send you a PM. Thank you. I need to check the twist rate in my Savage, I believe its 1/10, so those 180's might work too. The only reason I'm shy about 180s, with Barnes in .30-06 is that they seem to like more velocity to get good expansion. Hence my interest in the 168gr version, as I should be able to push them a little faster. It sounds like you've had no issues with performance though, so maybe I shouldn't worry.

I was able to get 200 of the 168gr TTSX bullets for a decent price, and I'm currently on the prowl for some IMR 4064, H4350, or even Winchesters new Staball 6.5 powder, locally. A couple of pounds should do me. I have found some Ramshot Big Game, and Hunter available local already.

I'd really prefer not a change anything, and just use my tried and true load, but the last two years of insanity caught me with my pants down, and I just don't see Nosler pushing out many bullets to reloaders these days. Alliant powders are also rare as hens teeth lately, so I figured maybe it's time to change things up anyway. Switching to a lead free bullet does have some appeal to me, and that usually the Barnes retain close to 100% of their weight. I have successfully used their 70gr TSX from a .223 to harvest a deer before. Penetration was impressive for a .223 to say the least.

I'm not too worried about bulletproof elk, and I'm sure I'll have ammo to hunt with. A friend of mine has used basic 130gr cup and core bullets from a .270 to kill several nice bulls.

[WDR]

WDR:

I have attempted to develop a load using the Barnes 168 TTSX bullet for an professionally accurized Winchester Model 70. Despite changing powders (IMR 4831, RL-19, and IMR 4350), changing primers (Winchester, Federal), changing cases (Winchester and Remington) and doing all the things I normally do (full length sizing, trimming cases, deburring flash holes, varying seating depths etc.) to produce accurate ammunition, I could never get the Barnes 168 grain TTSX to shoot anywhere close to a minute of angle. My rifle reliably shoots Nosler and other bullets into sub minute of angle groups. I did what Barnes suggested by deep cleaning all of the copper out of the bore. It helped but not enough to satisfy me. I am a big fan of Barnes bullets, but I concluded that in this instance, in this rifle with the components mentioned, that my rifle didn't "like" the Barnes bullet. I am in the process of developing loads with other bullets. This isn't a knock against Barnes, just a realization that they don't work in my rifle.

Hope that helps.

Bruce

Thanks for taking the time to respond Bruce. This is a concern of mine, as some guns seem to just not "like" certain bullets, and I've often heard of rifles being picky with Barnes in particular. Hopefully I can find a good load. If I find myself burning powder and primers without results, I'll have to horde the known good ammunition I have already loaded, and make it work.

[Flamingo]

Here is a link to Nosler 180 Accubonds in stock.

[WDR]

Here is a link to Nosler 180 Accubonds in stock.

Thanks for posting this. I actually just ordered some an hour or two ago when I got an email from them, before I noticed this reply. I do have a full pound of RL-19 left, and plenty of BR-2's. I may still try to develop a load with the TTSX bullets as well, so I have options in the future. I'm still prowling for IMR 4064 and H4350 locally.

Now I am under less pressure to find a new load, and can focus on other aspects of my hunt planning.

[WDR]

Minor update: I was able to get some H4350 to stuff under the 168gr TTSX, and I loaded a few up and hit the range today. Initial results have been promising at upper end H3450 data, with shots going into MOA or maybe less. More testing is needed.

The bad news: Some of plastic tips of this lot of TTSX have some pretty severe runout. Some are visually offset, with the very tips not being concentric with the body of the bullet. Some look slightly bent, with a gap near the base of the plastic. In a box of 50 bullets, I found 10-15 with visually detectable runout when rolled along the bench. Maybe 5 of them are pretty bad, the rest marginal. I loaded 30 of the "good" ones for the above test loads that shot decently well. I compared them to some 180gr Accubonds I have, and those have no discernible runout withe same bench top rolling/MkI Eyeball test. I'm fairly certain even the "bad" bullets would be plenty accurate at my preferred (300 and less) hunting ranges, but its enough to possibly put me off the Barnes bullets for now, and I may just go with my tried and true 180gr Accubond load (which also shot MOA today, after I mounted a new Leupold scope on my rifle, and re-zeroed with that load).

I have an e-mail out to Barnes just now, and I'm awaiting their reply.