Got 3 deer, 2 does and a spike with my 6.8 over the last 2 days, 2 deer, also got a doe and a 9pt with my Sako 270, all at friend's place near Star, TX (about 2hrs north of Austin)
6.8:
the Barnes 110TTSX jacks them up big time and it's lights out.
2 were shot while out spot and stalk hunting, both shot about 125 yards out and had to take fairly quick shots.
entrance wound was caliber sized and under the skin a fist sized cavity with a nickel sized exit wound. one shot just in front of the shoulder quartering towards me, exit wound far side back of shoulder, other through the shoulder and exit far side shoulder
both ran about 30 yards and were lights out
3rd was shot straight on at 75 yards in the neck, drop, done, quivered for a few minutes and that was it. Punched through the neck and exited, was quite easy to cut the head off at that spot
Sako 270 with handloaded Hornady 130g Interlock
shot a doe at about 150 yards, through the heart, instant, just fell over and never quivered, bullet came apart far side exit, tennis ball size area.
shot a nice 9 pt buck this morning, we were about to leave and decided to take a run through the perimeter of the ranch and had the gun ready "just in case"
saw some does running and then 2 bucks behind them, stopped the truck, gun ready...
my dad tooted the truck horn, it stopped, looked my way and WHACK! 270 hit him in the shoulder a little over a hundred yards, and no exit wound, ran maybe 30 yards and zero movement
Bullet came apart obviously like above, heart / lungs were just annihilated.
my take on both guns and bullets:
both absolutely worked as deer were dead, dead, dead and fast.
Some people would complain about the 130 interlock coming apart, but I can't argue with the terminal performance, would switch to a tougher bullet if going after bigger game and if pursuing mainly hogs with the 270 and if I really expected close in shots I would probably opt for a Barnes provided I could get them to shoot well.
with the 6.8 and the Barnes TTSX, worked as advertized and I am 100% confident with either gun.
the
very best part was 2 days spent with my dad hunting, just the two of us out in the woods, hunting, talking, watching deer and just enjoying our time together.
PIX:
pix
9 point taken with Sako 270
2 via 6.8
entrance wound via 6.8, just in front of shoulder, hide had caliber sized hole, under skin was a fist sized hole:
first time I have shot anything with Barnes
very impressed
entrance wound on the hide was just caliber sized, then a massive cavity and trauma, exit wound was about the size of a nickel
super dave, my middle child, first time he has seen a deer upclose
the two other deer didn't bother with pix
