Any Concerns with Barnes Vortx Terminal Performance on Elk?

[BCD]

I'm looking at using the 165 Grain TSX. Are there any concerns with terminal performance and will they pass through a shoulder?

Thanks!!

 

[Forest]

Out of a 30cal magnum a 165 is dynamite. No slouch out of a 308 or 3006 either

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[AK Troutbum]

I've never killed a elk, but I've used the 165's out of a .300wsm with great success on brown bear, moose, goats, deer and sheep. I like the TSX, but the TTSX is my favorite bullet to use in all my rifles, mainly because they group so well, and I've had great results using them. I wouldn't want to use them to break down the shoulder of anything that I'm planning on eating though, too much meat loss IMO.

 

[Rky Mtn Farmer]

I have killed one elk, a couple antelope and a deer with the Barnes TTSX 180gr out of my 300wm. What makes Barnes and other monolithic bullets good is their weight retention, which translates into penetration. When a monolithic bullet hits bone it will hold together much better instead of exploding like most lead bullets. With all four animals, I saw great terminal performance, and none went more then a few yards.

However there are a couple things to think about when using Barnes. Barnes bullets are 100% copper making them softer then most jacketed bullets that use a gilding metal (95% copper and 5% zinc). This will cause greater copper fouling in your barrel. This can be a real pain to clean, and if not cleaned will effect your accuracy. I figured this out the hard way.

The other thing to keep in mind is impact velocity, all monolithic bullets require greater velocity to mushroom then lead bullets. If I remember correctly around 1800fps is the slowest impact velocity Barnes recommends, but faster is always better. When doing load development with a monolithic bullet I will set my effective range based on when the bullet slows to about 2100fps. I set it at 2100fps to have confidence in the bullets performance. With my 300wm, that’s a little over 500 yards and with my 308, it’s about 350 yards.

Hope that makes sense.

 

[Mule3006Elk]

The other thing to keep in mind is impact velocity, all monolithic bullets require greater velocity to mushroom then lead bullets. If I remember correctly around 1800fps is the slowest impact velocity Barnes recommends, but faster is always better. When doing load development with a monolithic bullet I will set my effective range based on when the bullet slows to about 2100fps. I set it at 2100fps to have confidence in the bullets performance. With my 300wm, that’s a little over 500 yards and with my 308, it’s about 350 yards.

Hope that makes sense.
[/QUOTE]

Similar I call it quits at 2200 fps for Barnes TTSX.

 

[AkMtnRunner]

Yep, just make sure impact velocity is still decent and it should perform very well and out penetrate bonded lead bullets. I will also suggest being careful about too high of velocity through meat. The thing about these bullets is they maintain higher velocity through the animal and can cause a lot of blood shot. At least that is my theory of why the lungs and heart often turn to soup.