Barnes 290 T-EZ Repeat

This morning the bullet was once again shot through carpet, plywood, and into water jugs. However this time the plywood was cut in half, thus was thinner than it was in the first test. Range was 25 yard. Powder charge was 80g Blackhorn.





















The photo shows the jugs arranged as they were before the shot. The first jug is toasted; the second jug has a big split out the side, and is destroyed. The third, and fourth jugs have a hole in, and a hole out. The fifth jug has a hole in, and is where the bullet stopped.

:applause:
There is the good ole Barnes we are used too! Now I can go back to sleeping easy at night and not worrying about my preferred hunting load.

Thanks for testing this again Ron. Im going to stop wondering about that first test and chalk it up to a freak 1 in a million thing

What happened over time, and test, is we ran out of the shelving we started with, which was used in front of the jugs. The shelving was given us by the lady, instead of her tossing it. When it was gone, it was replaced by some thicker plywood found out in the garden shed. Right away, it seemed the thicker stuff, skewed the results, and another test or two, revealed it did indeed. The thicker plywood was re-sawn, and now is about the same thickness as the original shelving.

It may be some material will have to be purchased, but for now the goal is to use up what is laying around here. Hopefully, hunting season will start, before we run out of scrap plywood.

what was the retained weight of the bullet?

Thank you for your time.

287.5 grain.

Most Barnes bullets retain their weight. Like all the weight of the copper minus the weight of the plastic tip; thereabouts.

That is a thing of beauty! I'd love to know the minimum velocity required to make these bullets open up....

The beauty of a perfectly mushroomed Barnes bullet!! Thanks for the re-test!

bow_hunter44 said:

I'd love to know the minimum velocity required to make these bullets open up....

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Guess 1100 fps

I started using Barnes 20 years ago because my butcher put all the bullets she recovered into a pan on the counter. All of the Barnes bullets looked just like this one.

I thought one of the big advantages of Barnes is they retain all their weight for a pass through? I wouldn't be happy seeing any in the butchers pan.

Muley Hunter said:

I thought one of the big advantages of Barnes is they retain all their weight for a pass through? I wouldn't be happy seeing any in the butchers pan.

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Does every bullet shot into game always pass through??? Of course not. You know better...............

Yeah, that's true. Some hunters aim for shoulder shots. Another senior moment.

And sometimes there just isn't a pass through. I once shot a mule deer with a 338 Win Mag. Not an end to end shot or anything. The bullet was on the far side, against the hide. How in the name of common sense that deer caught that bullet is way beyond me!

250 gr T-EZ that took a nice buck at 45/50 yards using a CVA MR & 2 pellets of T7. Fired bullet weighs 246 gr.

All Barnes deer bullet recoveries.

Some were shotgun slugs and some muzzy bullets. Bottom right is a Thor. The really deformed one passed through deer and lodged in an oak tree. Went back a week latter and got it out of the tree with an hatchet. Most deer bullets will keep on going. A friend recovered a bullet one day laying on the ground just beyond where the deer was when the bullet made impact. What's not to like??

Muley Hunter said:

I thought one of the big advantages of Barnes is they retain all their weight for a pass through? I wouldn't be happy seeing any in the butchers pan.

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I think in general, bullets that always completely pass through are the ones that don't expand very well. Penetration is great, and both enter/exit holes can be a good thing for blood trails. But it also usually means max tissue damage and shock value was not achieved. I know this point is arguable, But I would personally rather have a single blood drain hole along with maximum internal damage and shock. I think it's the most lethal combination. I'm never disappointed to find a well expanded bullet on the inside of the hide opposite the entry point. It's what I actually hope to see. There might not be quite as much external blood, but there will be enough to follow, and the animal is less likely to go far before expiring. Every one of the 290 grain Barnes T-EZ's I've shot into elk performed in this exact manner. The off-side hide caught the perfectly expanded bullet, and the elk expired very quickly. I haven't shot one of these into a deer yet, but I would suspect complete pass-through's might be more common on those. When the Barnes peels back like a banana, the pedals become like a small archery broadhead, cutting and slicing all the way through and creating a very large wound channel. Very efficient little killing projectiles, plus no chance of contaminating any meat with lead particles. Those are the real advantages of the Barnes, in my opinion.

I just picked up a couple of packs of Barnes 50 cal Spitfire TMZ, all copper, plastic tip, boat tail in a yellow sabot. Wonder if is the same product?

rusticbob said:

I just picked up a couple of packs of Barnes 50 cal Spitfire TMZ, all copper, plastic tip, boat tail in a yellow sabot. Wonder if is the same product?

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Yes

like.2.fly said:

I think in general, bullets that always completely pass through are the ones that don't expand very well. Penetration is great, and both enter/exit holes can be a good thing for blood trails. But it also usually means max tissue damage and shock value was not achieved. I know this point is arguable, ...........................

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Well lets just call it debatable instead.
I am 100% the opposite, wanting entry and exits along with proper shot placement. Two holes have always been better than one. Why on earth would you believe a bullet that passes through didn't expand? Must be some old hunting camp story..............
There are a ton of videos showing quite the opposite, including videos from Barnes.

I have shot a few whitetails the past couple of years with the 290 TEZ's out of my smokeless Encore. Most were quartering toward me shots. All deer folded where they stood. Two holes , no bullets recovered. Very little meat damage due to no grenade-ing of bullet. Great performance so far. I like them.