Dale Valade

California requires lead-free ammunition for all big game hunting.

I was just out of high school when I first tried monolithic bullets. I had read much in favor of the then-popular Barnes X bullet and so I bought some and worked up a load for my .30-06 with H414 powder. With that load I cleanly took several coyotes and a mule deer buck.

It wasn’t until I went to fill my elk tag that I experienced problems. After shooting my elk four times, the last one being a head shot, I decided whatever one might consider ideal bullet performance to be, those Barnes X bullets were not it.

When I skinned the carcass, the bullet holes seemed to be through and through, with almost no tissue damage like one would expect from a full metal jacket. From there I switched back to traditional Cup and Core and Bonded Core Controlled Expansion bullets of various brands — especially Nosler — all of which performed to my desired expectations. Maybe it was a Monday batch of bullets or the .30-06 simply wasn’t spitting them fast enough for positive expansion, but for whatever reason, that experience had put a bad taste in my mouth towards monolithic bullets.

That was 20 years ago, and things have certainly changed. Barnes at that time was the only bullet company to my knowledge that offered any sort of lead-free hunting bullets. Their designs have improved drastically; today they offer the TSX and TTSX as well as LRX bullets.

The only difference I can detect is that the TSX is a hollowpoint and the TTSX and LRX each have a distinctive blue polymer tip. The TSX and TTSX designs are a hard, deep-penetrating bullet while the LRX is designed a bit softer, for more reliable expansion at the lower velocity thresholds inevitable at long ranges.

Nosler and Hornady, among others, have also released lead-free products. However, they differ in metallurgy from the Barnes in that they are constructed of gilding metal rather than pure copper. The Nosler E-tip and Hornady GMX and new CX designs are just as effective and just as popular.

Last summer a friend bought me a box of the Hornady Superformance factory loads featuring the 130 grain GMX in .270 Winchester caliber. While not as accurate in my Browning BBR as my tailored handloads, they were impressive nonetheless both in accuracy and velocity.

Being as I have shot up nearly the entire box plinking around, it appears I will have to buy some monometal bullets and repair to the loading bench. For whatever reason, I feel like I should give Barnes another shot. Looks like they’re even available at several online outlets. That .270 is going to be going hunting next year loaded with 130 grain Barnes TTSX handloads!

While it’s still optional here, other states like California require big game hunters to use lead-free ammunition. It may be worth looking into, just in case you ever want to hunt there.

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