Cool deal. Thanks for the write up and specifics on your setup. 300 pounds of meat should give you plenty of fodder for trying new recipes.

For general purpose hunting inside 500-600 yards I love the .308 TTSX. I launch 180s from my Ruger All-Weather .300 at 2975 mv and have zero complaints on performance the last several years I have been using them. I just try to keep impact velocity over 2000 fps (which for my rifle is almost 600 yards) and have never had a problem with terminal performance with game harvested from 75-465 yards. I did recover one out of bull elk I killed in 2017. Picture perfect mushroom and with a little blood and hair it was right at 180 grains, essentially 100% weight retention minus the pretty blue tip. It was under the hide on the offside from a broadside shot through the ribs and the impact would have been around 300 yards and close to 2450 fps. Pretty shocked it didn't exit.

I have not recovered any others out of deer, bear, or several other elk. One bull had been hit but we weren't sure how well so I took a going away follow up shot that entered above the bulls hip and traveled the length of the animal. When we quartered it (gutless method), there was bloodshot meet clear up near his neck. That is a lot of penetration and the bull went down quick with that shot. I honestly don't know if it exited as it was dark, we had two bulls down and I wasn't interested in a necropsy

My kids have killed a pile of stuff with the little 85 TSX in a couple different .243s. Not a long range bullet at all but plenty adequate for big game inside 250-300 yards depending on your muzzle velocity. My kids shoot stubby little youth rifles and just can't squeak many fps out of them. It has proven to be a very fur friendly bullet as well with solid chest hits.

Again, nice job and thanks for the details on your setup and the hunt!

I'm definitely going to try some new recipes.

I was of the impression as long as the bullet was over 1800 fps a Barnes bullet would open. Do you use 2000 to be on the safe side?

I'm wanting to work up a load for my 22-250 using a 52 grain Barnes TSX. Wanting to use it on Missouri whitetail and coyotes. I imagine for coyotes there will always be two holes, just curious how big that second hole will average.

Great job... what state did you hunt in?

How much of an education I get from Trapperman!

Thanks folks

For all the euphoria for the 308 and other light cartridges on buffalo, the buffalo listed were not adult males and the other was a female. The bullets utilized and loads were specially put together and none of them went through a ball joint. The Barnes is designed for shots that end up in leg bones, but in the dynamics of shooting, a fraction of an inch either side could have deflected this bullet to areas which were non lethal.
These same loads on mature bull buffalo may have resulted in a broken leg, little lung damage and running after a buffalo all day filling it with lead.
I have been on buffalo hunts and studied their effects. While category observations are not the end all, I have seen a 30.06 put down a cow and she was still quivering while a 7 mm mag put down a cow and she did not move. The factors there are bullet placement, bullet and energy transfer. I have witnessed a 300 magnum put down a bull buffalo which then had an idiot blazing away at the dying animal with a Colt 45 to finish it off.
People get blinders on when it comes to reading about bullet loads. They see 308 and they think a Russian or a Remington PSP will suffice, when it will not. I still prefer big heavy wads of lead moving slow. I am planning a future hunt with an 1874 Remington Rolling Block in the 12.7 Swedish cartridge based on the 50 70. I still want to acquire the 9.3 German that Osa Johnson used in her exploits in Africa shooting lions. That is a beautiful hunting cartridge for heavy game with moderate recoil.
I focus on the reality of guns and loads because as a child I believed all the gun articles in how the 243 Winchester was a deer killer. I was using Winchester 100 PSP on a mature 4 point (western count) and I messed up the first shot. The shots that followed, one blew up on the shoulder, and the only shot presented last was the Texas Jugular which failed to penetrate to the spine. I loved that 243 as it was in a 600 Remington Mohawk and it was a tack driver out to 400 yards, but with factory loads of the time it was not a mature northern whitetail load.
I am pleased the gun and load turned out, but for those who read 308 and their next mantra is the 308 is a buffalo killing machine to all of their friends children, remember those were designed loads and not more affordable deer hunting loads on small deer.
And no I am not of the 308 fan club, because I am of the era when the 308 was still NATO, was poorly loaded and had problems even with deer as numbers of hunters discovered. The 308 becoming a versatile light hunting load for large game is recent as is the 9 mm finally having acceptable bullets placed into it.

To say a .308 with a 150 plus grain bullet is a "light load", is a stretch. Yes bullets matter, but the .308 is not a light load. A .243 is a light load, a .223 is a light load, a 110 grain from a 30 06 is a light load.


A .308 is sufficient and then some for most any game animal in North America, excepting maybe the dangerous bears.

I used 2000 to be safe. Probably fine at 1800, especially with a TTSX, but too many stories of monos penciling through so I try to hedge my bet. With the .300 it is never really an issue at the ranges I typically target game. Would be with a .308.

Be sure you have an adequate twist on your .22-250 to stabilize the 52 TSX. Can't speak for exits with that bullet but broadside coyotes shot with an 85 TSX tend to give caliber size entrance and quarter size exits. Usually nice, round and easy to sew up. Not like some of the train wrecks I see with varmint bullets that were "supposed" to stay inside the carcass. Like anything, stay out of the neck, spine and big bones and you will be a lot happier with the result. I have some 45 TSX loaded for my wife's .22-250 but never have tested them on fur yet.

Pat, on the coyotes with the 22-250 and the 53 grain TSX, exit about the size of a dime

Thanks, that's pretty manageable. Sounds like a good whitetail/coyote load. I've never met a deer that did well with dime sized holes in the vitals.

I appreciate the countering opinion. I would counter the bullet very much broke through the bone (humerus) and kept going. Couldn't any bullet of any diameter/make glace off a bone and then not be lethal?

It will liquefy a deer or hogs lungs before it exits. Wicked caliber.