Copper mushroom

[hank4elk]

I do not load my own ,but I have recovered several Barnes TSX that resemble those. I switched to Nosler AB's after Fed stopped making rounds with Barnes. Recovered one AB and it is very similar to Barnes ,with the usual lead core flattening more & losing a petal.
My rifle loves the Barnes bullets & AB's more. Bit more umf too. It's also the only tipped bullet I have used that I did not have to reset the tip before loading.All the others have had crooked tips out of the box.
Might try Barnes ammo if I can find them in TSX.

 

[GlockZ]

the nice thing about solid copper bullets is that i have found that one can get away with a lighter bullet when compared to a lead bullet. my -06 loves the TTSX in 168, and as of yet have not recovered any. my furthest shot so far has been 243yds., which out on the east coast is long distance. yes i know thats sad. my 243 with the 80gr. TTSX does more damage than a 95 or 100 grain bullet, and appears to put down an animal a bit faster. this is just my experience.

 

[marksjeep]

Here's a few I've recovered. All are 145 Barnes LRX out of 280AI, 3050 FPS crono'd 15 feet from the muzzle. My experience with these bullets has been very good. I load "light for caliber" with copper to keep velocities high, hence the 145 out of my 280. Weight retention is obviously good, which I believe allows you to get away with a lighter bullet as the percentage of retained mass is higher, resulting in better penetration and terminal performance than an equivalent or even heavier cup/core lead bullet. The one drawback I have observed is that you need moderate to fast twist barrels. Copper is less dense than lead and the equivalent weight bullets are longer. This results in good BC's, but may also require faster twists to stabilize.

2016 cow elk quartering-to shot, 75 yards. Penetrated front shoulder, passed thru cavity, recovered in opposite hind quarter just under the hide. 3 of the "petals" broke off, 2 of them were recovered immediately adjacent to the slug. This is the only one that I have recovered where the petals broke off.



Another recovered Barnes. It weighed in at 141/145 grains.



3 more barnes, recovered from shiras bull moose. All were on far side just under the hide, approximately 100 yard shot.

 

[Gerald Martin]

Please correct me if I am wrong, but are you supposed to use a lighter weight copper bullet than you would with a lead bullet to get the velocity higher? I seem to think that I heard that someplace.

You are correct.

 

[drycanyon]

I have been loading the 110gr tsx in 270 win and 270 wsm with impressive results. Only two recovered out of a dozen or so deer and elk. Close range fontal shot on raghorn bull traveled 3/4 the length of the bull and recovered under skin just in front of the rear quarter. Didn't weigh it but appeared to be all there. Only other recovery was hard quartering away buck hit right in front of hip with recovery in brisket, also appeared to have retained nearly all its weight. If memory serves me we were getting 3200fps with the 270 win and nearly 3500fps with the wsm. I can't comment on how they would perform at lower velocity, all shots have been inside 200yds.

 

[Bigjav]

I've been using lead free since we were forced to because of the condor preservation act here in California and my experience hasn't been good. It looks like based on your picture they're good in heavy tough animals like elk but I feel they don't expand as well as traditional bullets in smaller animals like deer

 

[Mthuntinfool]

I've been using lead free since we were forced to because of the condor preservation act here in California and my experience hasn't been good. It looks like based on your picture they're good in heavy tough animals like elk but I feel they don't expand as well as traditional bullets in smaller animals like deer

With copper, a lighter bullet at a higher velocity will perform the same as a heavier lead core bullet. At least from the reading I did on the topic. That might help your results.
Tanner

 

[mrasm282]

I've been using lead free since we were forced to because of the condor preservation act here in California and my experience hasn't been good. It looks like based on your picture they're good in heavy tough animals like elk but I feel they don't expand as well as traditional bullets in smaller animals like deer

I have shot numerous whitetail with the 150 grain 30.06 Hornady gmx at ranges from 15 to 130ish yards. None of them went more than 40 yards. Plus, I don't have to eat lead. Win-win.