I'm not going to say anything bad about Barnes. They are a great company with great customer service.
I'm going to let the pictures do all of my negative talking. A picture is worth a thousand words.
Left to right:
#1) 450 Grain, .458 TSX. 110 yard frontal chest shot on a Giraffe from a .458 Lott. This one looks just like all the ads. Perfect X.
#2) 450 grain, .458 TSX. 80 yard up-the-tail-pipe finisher shot on a Blue Wildebeeste from the same .458 Lott. 71% wieght retention. It also didn't expand nearly as far as #1.
#3) 300 grain .375 TSX. 50 yard quartering too me shot on a Cape Buffalo from a .375 H&H. Hmmm......I never seen one do that in a magazine article, or balistic gelitan....??????
#4) 300 grain .375 TSX. 180ish yard quartering away shot on a Kudu from a .375 H&H. OK....??? What a coincedence, Huh....
#5) 300 grain .375 TSX. 200ish yard broadside shoulder shot on the same Kudu from the same rifle as #4. I guess you can call that opening.
I had quite a few other experiences with them not opening. There were no obstructions between muzzle and animal that the bullet impacted.
I'm lucky enough to have had all of these shots captured on video if any body cares to call me a liar.
My oppinion on them is,- Accuracy and penetration were unbelievably exellent at worst. Expansion and wieght retention is unbelievably unreliable at best.
I strongly suggest as far as a hunting bullet goes, Swift A-Frame's are near flawless(excluding accuracy. Every rifle bore is different).
This is a 160 Grain .284 Swift A-Frame. 130ish yard frontal chest follow up shot on a mature bull elk from a 7mm Rem. Mag. The bullet entered on the starboard side of where his wind pipe entered the chest cavity. It was recovered in his port side hind quarter. The only thing that slowed it down was his leg bone. Weight retention is 94%
This is the picture of the hind quarter the slug was recovered in. The point of the knife is the wound channel.
All factors aside, put the bullet in the bread basket and it doesn't matter what you shoot.
Happy hunting,
Todd