Barnes Solids

[Sourdough]

Any one load the Barnes Solids?  How are they for longer ranges.  Do they seem to be as accurate as say a hollow point boat tail? 

[NONYA]

the Barnes triple shocks are.

[Reed1911]

Solids work very well in all the calibers I have used them in ( 7-8 cals .22 up to .458). Solids are intended for one purpose only and that is penetration. Most likely you will have better luck with a different bullet for accuracy, not to say they are not accurate, but that is not, nor was it ever, the main consideration. On longer ranges they will perform as well as their lead counterparts weight for weight, but you'll be able to get a heavier bullet that is the same length (or shorter) and have better performance at the longer ranges. You have to remember that they are pretty long for weight as they are solid brass.

[NONYA]

Barnes triple shock are solid copper that expand and penetrate better than any hunting bullet i have loaded 99.9% weight retention after transversing a deer front to back.

[Reed1911]

The triple shocks are not solids! They are all copper, and yes they perform excellent, but that is not what he was asking about. The Barnes solids are excatly that, solid brass in various shapes (FN, RN, SP, ect...)

[NONYA]

They penetrate damn near as well as a sloid so why not consider them?In my opinion they are better than a standard solid because the penetrate and expand some.

[Don Fischer]

Reed 1911,

Weren't the origional Barnes solids a lead core with the lead inserted thru the base of heavy copper tubing? Do they even make them anymore?

[Reed1911]

They penetrate damn near as well as a sloid so why not consider them?In my opinion they are better than a standard solid because the penetrate and expand some.

It all depends on what you are shooting and what the objective is. Solids are meant to only penetrate and certain circumstances or animals dictate that all your expansion is taken by the caliber, what I mean is that if you want a bigger hole use a bigger caliber and only depend on the bullet to reach the vitals.

Weren't the origional Barnes solids a lead core with the lead inserted thru the base of heavy copper tubing? Do they even make them anymore?

Yes they sure were, I'm not sure that they do, I've not received any in my latest orders, they have all been turned brass. Likely it is less expensive now to go that route for them. Not sure there is any real gain, I do know some solids are brass covered tungsten for the added weight (woodleigh I believe), though I have no experience with them.

[Sourdough]

The object is penetration with NO expansion, zip, zero, nada.  Want to start selling wolf and cayote pelts, so I need to stop blowing them in half.  But I still want to be able to hit them out to 500 and 600 yards.

[Reed1911]

Then the solid is what you want, or move to a very light thin skined small cal bullet. It will really depend on the size and distance, but a lot of folks use the .14 and .17 at high velocity for a single small entry hole and complete energy dump inside the animal.

[silenttracker]

I use Barnes solids in my .270 WSM for "Dogs" and they go in little and come out little! Only one problem, if you get a slightly off hit you'll be tracking for miles in the snow, or not at all during the "Brown" time.  Does save pelts, but blood trail is just droplets until they bleed out.

[The Sodbuster]

According to Midway's 2007 catalog, Barnes solids are not lead core.  Nearly all are flat nosed.  I would have expected them primarily in the larger, dangerous-game calibers, but they're offered in nearly all calibers.  A box of 50 in .308 caliber (165gr) solids costs $25.

[Sourdough]

I've done a little research now.  They are solid brass, no lead.  The large calibers are round nosed, the rest are spire point.  I'm a little unhappy about the weight.   I weighed out two boxes, and they were off + or - 2 grains.  Say a box of 50gr .223 bullets, I had them weighing from 48.7 to 51.9 grains.  That is not very consistant to me.