There's a video put out by barns about there bullets and how they work kinda of interesting it's on YouTube. After watching I'm under standing the mixed results. The just of the viedo is they are design to work with Hydraulick shock not hydrostatic shock like lead core bullets. What I gathered was shoot for the ribs not the shoulder. But watch for your salfe.

The terms "hydraulic shock" and "hydrostatic shock" have been used for decades in reference to bullet performance on flesh or animal tissue.  In this context they are used to describe the same thing. They are based on the fact that a liquid cannot be compressed so that when a moving object contacts a liquid, the liquid is displaced.  Since the greatest percentage of animal tissue is liquid, hydraulic shock is a large factor in the trauma and tissue damage that results from a bullet hitting an animal

In true physics, the term "hydrostatic shock" is a misnomer, as "static" refers to bodies having no motion, or bodies being at rest.

" Shoot for the ribs not the shoulder."  Especially if you want to eat the animal that you are shooting.

A couple of years ago, I shot my first elk with my new .300 Weatherby and a TSX bullet.  I correctly put the 168 gr TSX bullet just behind the bulls shoulder.  It zipped between his ribs, through his lungs, between his ribs on the other side, and out into the forest.  He turned around, took 3 steps, and fell dead. 

After many years of killing elk with Nosler Partition bullets that left very large areas of bloodshot tissue in the ribcages, I was so impressed with the minor amount of meat lost on that elk that I took pictures of the TSX entrance and exit wounds and posted those pictures on several hunting forums.  Other hunters posted statements like "you can eat right up to the hole that a TSX makes," which was pretty much true with my "behind the shoulder" shot.

So opening morning of elk season this past October I spot this 5 point bull feeding on the hill above me.  He was just inside some private land that I didn't have permission to hunt on.  When he fed behind some trees, I headed up the hill to a couple of trees where I hoped to ambush him when he came out of the trees and off the private land.

Just as I got to my ambush point, I looked up and he's standing broadside, on my side of the fence, looking at me.  As I take a couple of deep breaths and try to steady my crosshairs, he turns, steps over the fence and disappears back into the private land.

Just before sunset, I went back to that hill and there he was feeding in an opening, about 30 yards on the side of the fence that I can hunt on.  I again quickly climbed up the hill and when I got to my ambush point, he's still standing there about 175 yards away, quartering to me.

I've killed enough elk that I should have known better, but I've also hunted Africa numerous times and had my PH say "Hold on his shoulder," and my last elk shot with a TSX bullet destroyed very little meat, and other people said "you can eat right up to the bullet hole," and I didn't want to shoot and have him die on the private land, and ...... so I held on the center of his near shoulder and squeezed the trigger.

My 168 gr TTSX bullet hit exactly where I aimed, and the bull dropped in his tracks.

However, inside the elk, the bullet had hit the shoulder blade in the middle of the narrowest part, shattering it in half.  Then it went through a rib bone before entering the chest cavity.  It did go through both lungs, then it went through another rib when it left the cavity, and it stopped just under the skin right behind the off shoulder.

The wound cavity through the shoulder was large enough that I could put my fist through it.  It also had a number of various sized bone chips from the shoulder blade in it.  The meat for 6-8" around the hole was so bloodshot that it was almost black.  Also most of the loose space between the muscles in the near shoulder and almost all of the near ribcage and up into the neck was filled with thick bloodshot jell.  I lost at least a quarter of the meat from that shoulder and ribcage. 

The results of the hydraulic shock from that 168 grain TTSX bullet on that elk was as large or larger than what I have ever seen on any other elk.

 

I've shot several dozen animals (deer, antelope, sheep) with my .257 Ackley, most with 117 gr Sierra GameKing bullets.  Most of the bullets completely passed through the animals, but I found 4 in my recovered bullet box.  All had expanded to at least double their caliber diameter.

I've only shot two animals with that rifle and 115 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip bullets.  Both were complete pass throughs on pronghorn antelope.  Both animals were DRT but there were no bullets left to examine.

It's copper what do you expect?! Stick with Nosler Accubond bullets or Nosler Partitions and you won't have any problems on Elk or any critter.  I hate the TSX bullet as they don't expand much if any!

I shoot 160 gr Accubonds in my 7mm RM.  I used them on one African plains game hunt and killed 5 animals with them.  Every time the skinners would open up one of my animals, my PH (who also shot a 7mm RM) would comment on the large wound channel that the Accubond had made.  I also used them on a couple of caribou and a musk ox in northern Canada and on a Montana elk.  I have yet to recover an Accubond, but they have all performed well for me.

For 20 some years I hunted with 180 gr Nosler Partitions handloaded at 2995 fps from my .30 Gibbs.  I killed an elk just about every year plus a couple of Shiras moose with them.  They also performed very well, and I would often find the back half of bullet just under the skin on the off side of the animal.

Here's some of the 180 gr Partitions that I recovered from elk that I shot.  The expanded diameters are about the same as the expanded TTSX bullets shown in my post above.  All of the Barnes bullets shown in my above post expanded to at least twice their original diameters.  Four of those Barnes bullets also retained 99% plus of their original weight.



I have also killed scores of animals with standard cup and core bullets like Sierra GameKings.  All of these bullets worked as they killed the animals that were shot with them.  The only bullets that I have had fail to work were the ones that I failed to put into the right place.

... I'm curious what a mercury recoil reducer would do for it because the muzzle still jumps...

Like I posted above, I have a mercury or mechanical reducer in 3 of my shotguns and 2 of my rifles.  I know the 2 in my rifles are mechanical, and at least one in the shotguns is mercury.  I don't know if one is better than the other.  They each weigh about 8 oz, and just the added weight absorbs some of the recoil.  They also each noticeably reduce the felt recoil.

I do still have some muzzle jump in my .300 Wby and my .375 RUM, but their recoil is not bad.  My Skeet and Trap doubles gun is a Browning Citori that has Pro Ported barrels and a recoil reducer in the stock.  With 7/8 oz 12 gauge loads, there is virtually no muzzle jump.  I enjoy breaking station 7 Skeet doubles just as fast as I can pull the trigger twice.

Great bucks.  Congratulations

After about 40 years of hunting elk, my new favorite elk rifle is my .300 Weatherby Vanguard.

My .300 Weatherby Vanguard shoots 3-shot moa groups with 168 and 180 gr TSX bullets.  It shoots 168 gr TTSX bullets a little better.

The 10 North American and African big game animals that I have shot with this rifle were all one shot DRT kills those bullets.

I only shoot handloads.

My favorite elk rifle now is my .300 Weatherby shooting 168 gr TTSX bullets.  Before I got my .300 Bee most of the elk and the two moose that I shot were with my .30 Gibbs shooting 180 gr Nosler Partitions.  Those bullets were shot at approximately .300 Win velocities, and most of the elk and both of the moose were one shot kills.

The key to successful elk hunting is being able to put a well constructed bullet into the heart/lungs of the animal.  This is accomplished with a lot of shooting practice, and you must not be afraid of your rifle.  I average shooting at least a box of shells a month, all year, through my .300 Weatherby at targets out to 440 yds.