Thread: Bullet Performance on game

Originally Posted by zeropak

That's pretty impressive performance from what I assume is a .224 projectile. I seems the Barnes bullets have great
reputation form opening up nicely and then holding together for good penetration. It looks to me like the monolithic (all copper) projectiles in general are as close to the optimum hunting bullet as you can get.

Barnes are pretty good but I don’t know if they are the optimum hunting bullet. They expand consistently into a 4 petal shape which does a lot of damage, and penetrate exceptionally well (normally exit and have high weight retention). They’re a good all rounder and a very good option if you are using a small caliber e.g. meat hunting with a 223, or bush hunting red stags in the roar with a 243

Where the Barnes falls over is that their BCs aren’t that flash compared to an optimised lead core projectile of the same weight. BC is fairly irrelevant for the type of hunting I do but it definitely matters at extended ranges when there’s a bit of wind about. The LRX range have better BCs but they are very long for their weight and need a fast twist, and may not stabilise in some factory rifles. Also, there is a view that the Barnes won’t drop deer hit in the chest with quite the same authority as a frangible lead core bullet; probably right but I can’t imagine a deer going far when a mushroom shaped piece of copper with 4 sharp petals has punched through it

The optimum hunting bullet is probably one of the new generation bonded lead core bullets like the eld-x, which have very high BCs and are designed to give consistency terminal performance from point blank to way out there (theoretically)