Jay, I would have preferred that you were a little more specific about what you want to do. Information such as the cartridges, intended targets and, for heavy for caliber bullets, the twist rate of your rifles would help to know if I have any information that might help you. So, here goes.
Since Barnes TSXs and TTSXs are less dense than most bullets the twist rate can be critical. Despite the common misconception that faster twist rates stabilize heavier bullets what we really use faster twist rates for is to stabilize longer bullets. The distinction is important. The Barnes website and manuals have specific advisories regarding the required twist rates for heavy for caliber bullets. If you really want to shoot a heavier Barnes bullet than your rifle wants to shoot well consider the MRX bullet with its tungsten matrix core.
Barnes TSX and TTSX bullets seem to penetrate like other bullets that are a weight class or two heavier. Consider saving your shoulder and avoiding the twist rate issues by starting with a lighter weight class than you might normally try.
Short neck cases or heavy for caliber bullets mean that the bullet is much further into the case than a traditional bullet would be. If you are looking for supercharged velocities that may become an issue due to the reduced powder capacity.
I notice from the responses you’ve already gotten that some folks are referring to the discontinued Barnes X bullet. You can forget about those.
Some of the responses show pictures of the results of shooting into wet newspaper. Unless you plan to hunt wet newspaper they won’t help you either. Barnes TSX, tipped TSX and MRX bullets open from hydraulic pressure and don’t expand well in things like wet newspaper. The “Technical” page of their website has the details. Pay attention, though, to the posts that have real hunting terminal effects info.
Barnes bullets are fairly unique so the load development process may be different from what you are used to. Not better or worse…just different. Again, the “Technical” page has all you need to know.
Some bullet/cartridge combination can really benefit from slightly increased neck tension or crimping. Please see the above paragraph.
Some rifle/bullet combos are quite touchy in terms of the response to the amount of free bore or “jump” from the seated position to the rifling. I’ve never been able to see much difference but enough folks have that I believe that it is a real possibility for you and your rifles. Surprise! The technical page covers that, too.
Now, for where the rubber meets the road. Our farm is in a “shotgun only” area of New York. Two of our neighboring counties are center fire rifle areas. In some areas you can hunt black bear, some not. The deer and bear seasons here are basically concurrent where you can hunt bear. I hunt our muzzle loading season with a Savage smokeless powder rifle.
So, to the Barnes bullets I really use….
My slug gun is a 20 gauge Savage 220 that really likes Federal Premium 3” 5/8 ounce loads with Barnes tipped Expanders. They shoot at or below 1 MOA to about 200 yards. Last deer season I fired five slugs from which hung up five deer. They were from seven yards to around one hundred sixty and all were down in 50 yards or less. While I like that load a whole bunch the deer don't seem anywhere nearly as positive about it.
I recovered one slug that had transited a 170 pound buck from high on his last right rib down to just under his left shoulder at a range of around 80 yards. The slug hit the surface of a gravel farm truck trail and I found it while dragging him to the truck. It had lost a whopping 4 grains which I suspect was mostly the plastic tip. It was a perfectly formed 2x diameter mushroom and, surprisingly, it was as clean as if I had scrubbed it.
After the season my gunsmith asked if he should order me more of the Federal slugs. I told him that I had 11 left so I’d have him re-order in 8 or 9 more deer.
FWIW, he has national reputation for tweaking slug guns and has several patents in the field (he is Dave Klotz from Weedsport, NY, AKA the “Slug Gun Doctor” from DaMar Gunsmiths). He bought a Savage 220 after seeing how mine and others shot. His won’t keep the Federal/Barnes slugs in a 4” group but loves one particular Remington slug. It just goes to show that shooting at the longest potential hunting range is the only acceptable way to work up a load.
I have used 62 and 70 grain .224 TSXs for nuisance deer, shot out of a 1:7 twist .223. I have never had one that was not a clean pass through and a quickly dead deer. I’ve never used these past 150 or so yards. Although I would not use them during the regular season I think that with a disciplined shooter they would do very well. The argument that many folks use about not using .22 center fire cartridges does not hold up well when we are talking about bullets that tend to expand to 2x diameter and retain their weight. That is the same size wound channel as is made by a .45 caliber round ball and they killed a lot of deer. Heck, rifles like that were used to hunt deer nearly to extinction here in NY. The Barnes .224 bullet will penetrate a whole lot further than a .45 round ball, too.
I use both 165 grain Sierra GameKings and 168 grain Barnes TTSXs in my CZ 550 full stocked .308 rifle. Both shoot under 1 MOA when I have my head in the game and the trajectories are within an inch of each other to over 200 yards. I like the ability to use the GKs in areas where I can’t shoot bear and the TTSXs where I can without changing the scope settings. It didn’t take much fiddling with the powder charges to get the trajectories to match up.
With the Savage 10ML II muzzle loader I use both 300 grain .458 Barnes Original semi-spitzer bullets and 275 grain XPB bullets. Both are solid 1 MOA bullets to over 200 yards. I will confess to using Hornady 300 grain non-magnum XTPs most of the time, though. I only use the Barnes bullets when I expect a good chance of a long shot or to see a bear.
My experience in loading a couple of different reduced velocity/recoil loads for others has been that the TSX and TTSX bullets are great candidate for reduced recoil loads. Last year I loaded some 30-06 150 grain TTSX reduced recoil loads for a friend's son to use in a Remington 760. They were clocking around 2200 FPS at 10 feet.
Since they were hunting in quite steep and heavily wooded terrain the lad had been told to keep shooting until the deer was down or out of sight. He took a 70 yard shot at a nice 8 point buck and although later examination showed that one shot would have done the trick he kept cranking them out.
The first shot was broadside and was a clean two lung pass through. The deer stepped forward and the youngster put the second shot through a 6" or so maple tree and right behind the first shot. That bullet did not expand but came to rest just under the skin on the other side of the buck after breaking a rib on the far side. When recovered the deer had splinters imbedded in his hide. The third shot was a pass through quartering rear to front shot after which the deer decided he'd had enough.
I hope some of this helps.
