I took this 8 point a few weeks ago, and gave the body away to a poor family for the meat and asked them to bring me any bullet recovered.


The son of the family dropped back by and handed me the recovered round,.  It is from the Federal premium 308 load with the TSX 165gr.  hollow point


The deer was shot  from a distance of 247 yards and was a spine shot.   Gun is the one pictured in link with 16 inch barrel

http://looserounds.com/2014/11/16/deer-hunting-with-the-colt901-m-a-r-c-modular-carbine/


The round was found after cutting the spine and breaking the vertebra.  I was more than a little surprised on  how little it seemingly expanded. The realized it had not traveled through much meat. Just hit the spine and lodged in it.   556 and TSX usually are spectacular in my experience.   Pictured here is the bullet for those interested

would really like to hear everyone else experience with the 30 caliber TSX or any TSX really.

I just saw that in face book

Short 16 inch barrel reduces velocity plus long range shot. The bullet was probably at the low end if it's expansion velocity.

^ This. TSX's need a little speed to open up.

 

As the others posted, too much bullet and not enough speed. I have used 10+ x bullets on deer and elk. Everyone of those animals expired fast. One cow was shot with a 140 tsx out of a 7-08 at 325yds. That was pushing the limits of that bullet yet the cow took one step backwards and fell over dead. We never did find the bullet.

As others have said, go with a little lighter bullet than you'd usually use when shooting that x-bullet.

This was a bullet recovered from the far shoulder, just under the hide, on a 200 yard shot on a mule deer.

300 Win Mag, 165 grain x-bullet.

Looks like a damn picture out of their catalog.....

I am well aware of the velocity requirement of the TSX. And I am not interested in using a lighter bullet or needing advice on what I should do fellas

I guess I was not clear.  I was not asking anyone about why it did or did not do something. I even wrote that , even if it had  velocity it needed, it moved through very little medium to work its charm... and stopped in the spine.  


I was showing it to those interested and mentioned it was surprised when I first saw it,. Not asking for an explanation

I was hoping other would share their pictures and stories.  nothing more

I have not seen it or experienced it with a TSX or TTSX first hand. I've only read it on other forums of a tsx/ttsx not opening, even in the "advised" speeds. The orig barnes had issues years ago, and it was resolved.

Here's a recovered 150gr .308 . Hornady American Whitetail round I shot into a doe at 50 yards a few weeks ago.

Had a kill this year with a 180 gr TTSX in 300 win mag, factory Barnes ammo.  Shot was at 375 yds and hit the spine, it was higher than I wanted but the buck was running and had to lead and adjust for distance on the fly.  Bullet was not recovered due to the round going in and out, but the wound and damage was pretty bad with spine fully severed.

I was using TSX 168's out of a 11.5" barrel.  First deer did what he was suppose to do. Second deer dropped like a rock upon approach he tried to crawl off.  great blood trail backed out thought he would die over night ended up loosing the deer.  I was incredibly upset.  The first deer must have just fractured some shoulder into lungs I wish i had payed attention at the time.  I was too excite really nice buck.

Set out 2 days later to see if it was the bullet or the deer.  Being this was a semi untested load.  Sure enough shot the next deer he dropped but he tried to crawl.  I pumped 1 more into him.  After recovering both projectiles it was clear they were not opening.  Talked with Barns went back to a 150 and used a 30-30 open projectile just could't get it to feed properly in the semi I was feeding it through.  I was disappointed with the barns in the small dwell time.  I had had great results in anything down to a 18" barrel at that time.  Somewhat of a bummer.

Finally went back to the old stand by's Nossler ballistic tips.  kept it at 150 gr. pushed it with 50gr of BL-C2 and got up to 2490ps. Yes, there are pressure signs, but it is swacking deer left and right again.

You are using a tough bullet, with known deep-penetrating properties, out of a short barrel, at long ranges.  This kind of performance should be expected at under these conditions...  If you take a bullet designed for magnums and other large capacity cases, and build for high impact speeds, and then shoot it a low speeds, it won't expand.

Your 16" barrel is likely going to give you something like 2500, maybe 2600 fps at the muzzle.  16" barrels give up a lot.  At nearly 300 yards it's only poking along at about 2000 fps.  It isn't enough to really expand well.  If you want to shoot deer at low velocities and extended ranges, you'd better get a softer, more rapidly expanding bullet like a Nosler Ballstic tip.  It will expand right down to 1600 fps.

We recovered a .308" TSX fired from a .300WSM on a raking shot into a whitetail a couple weeks back. Not completely sure of the TSX bullet weight but think it was a 150GR. Range was only a hundred yards or so. The TSX went thru several ribs which actually bent the bullet slightly. It penetrated the rib cage into body cavity then changed direction traveling just under the rib cage doing very little damage to the internals. The TSX was found under the hide in the hide quarter on the same side as the entrance wound. The deer took off running so the well-experienced shooter put the second round in the deer's neck sealing the deal. Bottom line: The first TSX bullet did not expand at all. With the closed/bent tip, that TSX bullet performed like a non-fragmenting FMJ. I have been using TSX bullets for years with excellent results but have read about TSX bullets occasionally not expanding. Now I have actually seen one removed from a game-shot.

I do not have the actual .308" 150GR. TSX bullet discussed above but it was a virtual twin to the 5.56MM 62GR. TSX pictured below between the (2) unfired TSX bullets. This 62GR. TSX went thru a small oak tee before keyholing into a buck's spine as he chased a couple does. The big mother on the bottom is a recovered .45" 250GR. TSX recovered from a raking shot on a whitetail which performed as expected. All the other broadside shots I have taken on whitetail with TSX bullets resulted in the bullet expanding/passing thru and a quick humane kill.

I know OP is not wanting us to criticize his choice of bullet weight, but that is his problem, rather than it being a TSX.  That short barrel and almost 300 yard distance simply led to velocity too low for reliable expansion.

I hunt with Barnes TSX and  TTSX bullets almost exclusively.  Most of my whitetail deer hunting is with a .280 Remington.  I purposefully drop down to the 120 grain TTSX at about 3,200 fps from a 24" barrel.  That combination is very flat shooting (.411 BC) and the bullet expands well at long range.  I am rarely able to recover bullets, as they exit even if I hit the shoulder, but the wound channels are impressive.

These bullets need more velocity.  In a short barreled 308 I would go no heavier than 150 grain with monolithic Barnes bullets.  The 130 TTSX would have been a better choice in that particular rifle.

I know I use the 85 grain tsx in 243 and it kills like crazy on hogs and whitetails, like others have said go down in weight to jack the speed up some.

It hit a hard bone and why would it expane it did not go though  flesh

OP,
   Do you know the approx. or actual  MV of the factory 308 165GR. TSX load in your 16" barrel? As stated above, TSX/TTSX bullets need a certain amount of velocity to expand. The 150-180GR. .308" TSX/TTSX bullets needed approx. 1500-1800 FPS to start expanding in Barnes water-shot tests. The 110GR. TSX/TTSX only needed approx. 1350 FPS. But you want the TSX/TTSX bullet to strike with at least 200 FPS over minimum to get near full 2X expansion. Problem is the lighter bullets shed velocity much quicker than heavier bullets of the same design when shooting at longer ranges. This always makes TSX/TTSX bullet weight selection somewhat of a balancing act while taking into consideration all the variables: game type, caliber, barrel length/bullet velocity, intended range, etc.

Water-Shot Expansion Test: Barnes water-shot testing showed the minimum expansion velocity of the 180GR. TTSX to be 1800 FPS.

This



Flesh is needed for expansion.  



 

If I used TSX bullets I would go down in weight from a cup and core bullet. I shoot a 165 grain hornady for deer and bear, in a TSX I would drop back to 150 or even 130 grain.  Especially in a short barreled 308 which is what I have(ruger GSR).

Last year I shot two deer with 70gr TSX .223 rounds. One was from my 24" heavy barrel 1:8 twist. It definitely did it's job. The second doe I shot , in my lack of judgement, used the same round from a 16" 1:9. It keyholed, but somehow traveled up the deers neck and ripped open a line under the deers "chin". I got lucky there that it killed it, though the deer did a 2-3 minute death roll. Both had blood every where.

This year I have been using 150gr tipped TSX with a 16" .308. I shot at one, swore I should of hit it, found no blood, never found anything. Second deer I hit, but could find no blood around where I shot it at. It was standing in the middle of the road (private road, dirt, through hunting club, not a public road) but I found no blood in the road, or on the side of the road. I found it 30 yards off the road dead but was surprised at the lack of blood I found. The entrance wound was hard to find, no blood at all, about the size of a .22LR bullet. The exit was around a dime size hole so I guess it did expand but the lack of blood concerned me.

Shot a third, didn't find anything either. I'll admit I may have missed this one as it was a 100 yard shot between two trees but it just bothers me I keep shooting at deer and finding no blood at all. Either I developed a flinch or they just aren't performing the same as I expected.  I don't have my 24" 1:8 .223 any more but I may switch back to my 16" AR with 62gr TSX.