MattMan

I'll play. I keep all the bullets I recover if i can. Top Row, Left to Right Two 180 Barnes X, rutting bull elk at 40 yards, 300 Win Mag. Fired into the south end of a wounded north bound bull elk. One recovered from neck and one recovered from front shoulder. This NOT a high percentage shot, and the field dressing is not for the faint of heart. 130 Barnes X, cow elk at 10 yards, 264 Win Mag. Bullet shed every petal and stopped on the ball socket in the offside shoulder. Middle Row, Left to Right 180 Partition, cow elk at 200 yards, 308 Win. Bullet entered the onside ribs and stopped forward of the offside shoulder. 140 Accubond, cow elk, 300 yards, 260 Rem. Bullet entered the onside ribs and smashed the offside shoulder to pieces. 105 CoreLokt, coues buck, 150 yards, 243 Win. Recovered from offside shoulder/neck. Bottom Row, Left to Right 230 Federal Hydra Shok, cow elk, less than 1 yard, 45 ACP. Bullet entered behind left ear, stopped under offside hide. 40 Grain White Value Box Winchester HP, tree squirrel, 40 yards, . Bullet entered chest and stopped in spine. Unknown, .308. Bullet was encapsulated in fatty gristle, partially broken down and corroded, dead center in the backstrap of a cow elk. Best we can figure the cow was shot in the backstrap, likely as a calf, by a bullet exiting a cow standing in front of her. Bullet was maybe 3" under the hide and there was no apparent other damage. We were slicing up straps and found it. FWIW, of all the game we've taken, over a 25 year period, the 6.5mm 140 Nosler Accubond has accounted for more DRT one shot kills than all the others... of course recoil is non-existent with a 260, so shot placement by shooters of both sexes and all ages was STELLAR in every case.

Biggest reason it's a different ballgame is you can't take a 243 or 270 during archery season... An archery elk hunt is a different animal than a late rifle elk tag... different time of year, different habitat, different animal behavior, different hunting pressure, etc... I'd be slammin' the P&Y books with a 243, and would likely hold every world record with my 264 Win Mag or my 6.5-300 RCM if allowed to hunt during ANY regular archery seasons... Prove me wrong by killing a B&C book animal with a bow during a general hunt. That said, my wife and kids have SLAMMED every animal they've shot at during rifle seasons with a 16.5" barreled 260 Remington...

AR in 6.5 Creedmoor.

If you have the ability hand load, a 260 w/ 8" twist. 7-08 if you don't.

That's a toad... and NICE shooting.

Every recovered Barnes I have, except one, is from quartering or longwise shots on elk... seems things haven't changed much with the magic blue tip. Mine look roughly the same as yours, give or take the bands... The exception to the rule was a cow elk shot perfectly broadside at 10 yards with a 130 original X from a 264 win mag... shed every petal and stopped on the ball socket of the offside shoulder. Impact velocity about 3250 fps... give or take... impressive bang-flop nonetheless.

Out of the units you mentioned, the only one I've not hunted is 22... there are bucks over 100" lurking in every unit I've hunted, including 36A.

I'd be interested in the details... shot angle, distance, load, impact velocity, etc... post up pics if you got 'em. Gave up on the boys at Barnes before the magic blue tips of death arrived... but I gotta think if you're recovering them you're shooting shoulders or up the hind end. Easy to say now the TSX won't work below 2k... I'm one of the guys that learned so you could know. The original X at times didn't work @ 3k... depending on lot numbers.

The recognition of error, and pursuit of an avenue to correct it would be a start... maybe even recognizing that the conditions present when an animal is visible are beyond control, but the decision to pull the trigger is not. Barnes was good to me for a long time. Shot EVERY animal harvested for nearly 10 years. Even have a half dozen or so recovered slugs to show for it. Kinda moved back to something that provides some fragmentation in addition to acceptable penetration.

Still waiting for the info...

Pretty easy to call shots when you can see trace in a spotter on a tripod... you should try it. Shot was confirmed after the lion was recovered. An "acquaintance" was called with his dogs once I lost the blood in the rain, after tracking just over 100 yards on my hands and knees, which took over an hour. Guy with dogs and a client found, "shot", and tagged the lion. Impact velocity was just over 1500 fps... I called in someone else to find and tag my lion when I realized I had screwed up.... and I did screw up. AMAX or VLD would have been the ticket.

How about the hunter posts up his rifle, scope, load, and method of holding over for the 520 yard shot? Here or in the other thread I linked will be fine.

Fixed it for ya, Clay.

Medium Range Shooting Here you go. Been up for several months... post up your experience, hits, and misses. Drilled the lion, BTW, as called by the spotter through the scope... and how else would I know the TSX didn't expand unless we saw the carcass after it was recovered? I guess I should have posted up a "success story" so I could get some kudos... quit shooting TSXs right after this hunt, BTW. This thread soured with the first post.

If your son dumped that deer cleanly then I'd say congratulations... If you had to let him shoot 5 times and then track and finish a wounded deer I'd call you a slob. Re-read my posts. I shoot long range all the time. Longest personal kill shot I've made was a lion at 977. One sighter on a rock 75 yards to the right and one shot on the lion. Guess what? It was so far across to the other side we had to drive around the next day to try to recover and lost it in the rain to another hunter we knew with dogs. Barnes TSX failed to expand at low velocity and just penciled through. Longest shot on a deer was 371, bedded buck... shot him in the head, cleanly, from a solid prone position, with ONE shot. No lost deer and no follow up shot. My biggest buck was killed at a whopping 100 yards, after a 3 hour stalk. We could have dumped him several times from 350 to 750. Wife's longest shot was 491, 30 degree incline. Again, one shot to the boiler room and the buck was dead before he hit the ground. We murder block ice from 500 - 1k all the time. Reading the original post I see 3 misses @ 620. One spine shot @ 530, four misses and four poor hits @ 530. Then several finishing shots and a LOST deer. 530, really being medium range, in that distance past point blank range no matter what you shoot, but not far enough to really require any real long range skill, should be a chip shot for anyone who shoots 'long range'. Shooting beyond the range your are capable of cleanly killing the animal is WRONG, no matter the range. For some that's 750, some it's 300. I've witnessed some that have NO business shooting past 150 yards. The original poster was clearly shooting beyond his capable range... the combined kill shot ratio is less than 50%... We had a run in with a chump on our hunt this year that was doing the same thing. Hunted right over the top of us, proceeded to take 14 shots at over 600 yards, and came back with no deer. What happened to ethics and respect for the deer we hunt? Do ethics and respect change with technology and time too?

I have no problem with long range shooting, I and my family shoot long range all the time. I do tire of reading over and over on this forum about multiple shots, misses, wounded and lost deer... at ranges that are chip shots if you really have been practicing... and the only replies being 'great job, nice buck'.

Sorry to be the one to rain on the parade, but taking kids and bangin' away at 500 plus ain't exactly my idea of mentoring... If you have any business shooting that far, it's a one shot deal.

We have a no-A, no-play policy at our house. We expect straight A's and that's what we get from our kids or they don't get to do the fun stuff. Hunting and club team soccer tournaments included... Guess we're kinda softies in a way, since we did cave to our son who argued very convincingly that 89.5% or above rounds up and should count as an A-.

Actually, no. The bag limit used to be two deer per calendar year as long as the second tag was acquired from the leftover pool after the initial draw. You could walk into any regional office and buy leftover OTC tags VERY reliably after the draws. This was before Coues became so popular and they couldn't give the tags away. I'm afraid the golden age of Coues hunts has passed...

Fixed it for you. You need to shop around... NIB 08 ELs can be had for just less than 15 bones.

Still available. If you're gonna send me PMs, make sure your inbox isn't full.

Got two of them. Both are black/black, both come with the boxes and an IC and Mod choke each. One has had the buttstock shortened 1" and an aftermarket pad installed, the trimmed piece and original pad come with it. Both are in excellent condition. $250 for the un-cut one. $225 for the cut one.

Dirty or obstructed barrel. If you look at it, the barrel was blocked in the last inch or so of the barrel. Could have been a faulty first round that stuck in the barrel. BTW, how many of you tape your barrel when hunting in the rain? Taping the muzzle not only keeps water out, but also protects your crown from damage. Rain Obstructed Barrel

Un-cut one still available.... like new and comes with mod and IC chokes. $250

You sure that's not a J104? My 105 had an adjustable mount for the shoulder straps to account for different torso height. J104 is/was fixed position.