I shot this 150 pound hog at 225 yards with a handloaded Barnes 70 grain Copper TSX bullet yesterday and recovered the bullet under his skin on the far side when I dressed him out, it definitely worked very well.
Bullet entered behind his elbow and blew out his lungs, he made it about 25 feet and DRT. 
Nice! Performed as advertised.
C4
I have not weighed that slug yet but I bet it retained at least 99% of the original weight of 70 grains.
Seems kind of strange that those petals were not torn off since they were spinning about 300,00 rpms when they entered that hog?
I wonder if the load would be too long to fit in a AR mag. I hate doing up compressed loads, they scare me. I run Barnes in my .270 and love’em.-WW
It is not too long for a MagPul AR15 magazine and the powder (Hodgdon BLC-2) was not compressed.
You load the round up to flush with the highest ring on the slug.
Not a problem, although this is the longest bullet that I have ever used.
I took out my micrometer and measured the length of some of the different .224 slugs I’ve been using just to see how long the copper Barnes TSX really is, here are the results:
Barnes TSX 70 grain - 1.040"
Hornady Match 75 grain - 0.992"
Sierra MatchKing 77 grain - 0.985
Nosler Competition 77 grain - 0.982
Barnes TSX 62 grain - 0.945
Nosler 69 grain - 0.900
Sierra 69 grain 0.890
As you can see, the Barnes are the longest slugs on the market that will run in an AR magazine.
No problem loading this bullet to mag-able length, Black Hills and Asym both do it. I have shot it from a 1-8 twist and it was stable, but I’m told and I believe that it will be more accurate in a 7. Have also shot it in a 9 and even a 10 twist. To my surprise it did not keyhole with the 10 twist but accuracy was not good.
(Edited 7/12/12)
This is a mis statement-- I was thinking of something else. I found the targets from the above test and they 70 grainers DID yaw at 25 yards from 9 and 10 twist barrels.
Thanks a million for the info gentleman. Looks like I’m headed to the store. I have a 1-8 twist so should be fun. I’ve been using the Nosler 77’s and Hornady 68’s. I figured the Barnes would be a long one so I’m thankfull someone else tried a few. Thanks again. -WW
The slug weighs 69.9 grains, cannot beat that! :D:dance3:
Shit it could have weighed that before the shot. I would say 100% weight retention and 100% expansion. Very impressive bullets arnt they.
Yes, simply amazing bullet performance.
What would you say is the effective range (for hunting) of this round out of a 16" barrel?
225 yards is my maximum effective range.
Nice shot and outstanding performance on that bullet. It’s not just bullet weight that counts, it’s CONSTRUCTION. These solid bullets are nearly impossible to beat when it comes to maximum performance in expanding bullets. They hold together and give you every inch of penetration possible for larger animals. A tough 64gr bullet will outpenetrate a lightly constructed 77gr target bullet for example.
Looks like an albino hog. Kudos to Barnes’ excellent work indeed.
That just sold me.
I’ve been looking for some good bullets to load for some hunting rounds for a while. Retaining that much weight is VERY impressive. Looks like I’ll be calling up midway in a minute.
That is perfect expansion and very, very good retention for the bullet/velecity from a 5.56.
Looks like I have yet another projectile to play with.:D:D:D
Thanks for posting this. I’ve really been looking at this bullet for my 1:8 twisted AR. I wanted something with a little more weight behind it for the hogs. I’m glad you recovered it so I could see how it performed.
The Olight M-20 Crimson puts 225 pounds of fresh boar BACON on the table tonight!
Barnes 70 grain TSX @ 225 yards DRT.
Nice! Where did you hit the big porker?
This time I hit him right behind the shoulder in the ribcage but I can see a large exit wound mid-belly right in front of his wanker where the slug came out downwards, must have been deflected on some bone somewhere…you can see the exit wound right above the red light beam in the lower grapple photo…