[unclepaddy]

Here's a photo of a 130 grain Barnes X bullet shot out of a .300 Ultra-Mag. My Brother-in-law shot this at nearly point blank range into the chest of a very large mule deer last year in Montana.
It made it all the way through and caught in the skin of the rump. Not only are all the petals missing, but the bullet shank itself has a very noticeable amount of expansion and deformation on the front. According to the book data, this was flying at about 3900 FPS. What a spectacular impact. He noted a very dramatic "bang-flop".

 

[MikeG]

Yeah I'll say. Wow. Holy decelleration, Batman!

 

[Nalgi]

did you weigh it? what % retained weight?

 

[GMFWoodchuck]

It worked. The deer is dead.

 

[roverboy]

Yeah the X bullets are tough. They'll take about anything.

 

[243dave]

Back in the mid 90's I killed a couple of deer with 45gr barnes X's from a 22-250 running about 3900fps. The one kill that really impressed me was when I shot a large doe at less than 10 yards, DRT. Believe it or not I called her in with a turkey call, anyway, I shot her thru both shoulders and recovered the X-bullet on the far side hide. It mushroomed perfectly without shearing off the petals. After skinning it out I could shove my knife, handle and all, all the way thru the deer. I think this is impressive performance for a 45gr .224 caliber bullet traveling at 3900 fps at very close range.

 

[unclepaddy]

did you weigh it? what % retained weight?

We did weigh it and IIRC it was 89 grains.

 

[hntfsh]

dead deer,nearly penetrated the length of it.I'd say it perform rather well.IT looks like some of the hardcast I shoot into wood.

 

[bsn]

It took me a long time to warm up to the Barnes bullets, but after trying them in numerous rifles and calibers its hard to find fault with them. In very powerful or fast calibers you get consistant performance with no excessive destruction at both point blank or long distance. In marginal cartridges you get deeper penetration than standard cup and core bullets. The only drawback is the $$$.

 

[Ole1830]

I've killed most of my game with Barnes bullets.

Now a days I stick with the bigger calibers, so I don't need that level of performance from my bullets anymore.