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Thanks all.

Continuing on with this discussion on the Barnes bullets.

As mentioned above, I used Barnes TSX bullets in handloads.

Here is the entrance hole on my bear. Point of in impact was above the point of the shoulder. That hole is about 1/2 inch in diameter.

Here is the exit hole. It was about the size of a US half dollar or a British crown. It's big.

This bear left a massive blood trail that could seen from point of impact to where the bear dropped about 20 or 30 yards or so. When we loaded this bear up on the ATV Sled there was a huge pool of bloods under it.

After the Guides skinned the beat out, I asked them to slit between the ribs to see if I had hit the heart. The bullet struck an artery right where it attached to the heart. On impact the bullet struck a rib and blasted a section of rib bone about an inch long out. The splinters of the rib bone penetrated and were sticking in the heart.

The guides made two comments. First they noticed there was very little blood in the chest cavity. This bear bleed out very quickly. From shoot to its fall and one final thrash was less than a Minute. Well less.

The second thing the guides commented on was the lack of blood shot meat. One guide said when he saw what I was using to hunt, he was expecting a mess.

I have now shot three animals with this rifle; whitetail deer, feral hog and this bear.

The hog dropped in its tracks. No wound analysis, all I wanted was a dead hog. But it did have big hole in and out.

The deer, a doe was shot right the through the ribs, a big hole entrance and bigger hole exit. The heart was destroyed. She left a good blood trail easy to follow and ran about 60 years before dropping. There was very little chest cavity blood when dressed. But most important no blood shot meat.

Take a look at my bear exit hole above. That is not bloodshot fat around the hole, it is rather blood wash, as the blood flowed out.

My son's results with his 30 cal TTSX bullets was similar. to mine, just smaller.

The largest bear taken in our session was shot with a 270. I don't know what bullet he used. The hunter saw the bear run and fall down after the shot. When the guides got there they found where the bear went down leaving a small spot of blood, but no bear and no blood trail. As it was dark, everyone backed out. They located the bear the next morning, It had circled around the stand and was found in deep brush 100 yards behind the stand and in the opposite direction from where the bear was last seen

When the guides were getting ready to skin the bear I saw the entrance wound. It was smaller than my little finger.

Here is the exit wound. First thought gut shot. But when the guides were through skinning this tissue was just a big chunk of fat and the bear was liver shot, the stomach was not touched.

Bigger is better not overkill.

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DD, Ret.

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