barnes T-EZ bullets

[cougkilr]

I’ve been using the Barnes 290 TEZ’s the last couple years, I am going to try out the 209 setup in my Traditions Evolution. I’ve always used 100 grains of pellets but am wondering about bumping it up to 150. Is 150 grains overkill or will that give me better penetration? This will be for elk hunting. Thanks for the help!

150gr of what?   It all depends on what you want and your particular rifle prefers.   My buddy has a Traditions and it wont take more than 100gr of BH209 before it is really hard to open.  But 110 of 3F it opens fine.   My Bighorn prefers 120gr of BH209 and it pushes the 290 at 2000fps average.  Any increased velocity will increase your penetration.  I determine what I want based on accuracy and velocity and find the fastest and most accurate load for my rifle.  Yes, it requires lots of shooting but it works for me.

150 grains of Pyrodex 50/50 pellets is what I was wondering about.

[flyfishWA]

I used them on my deer on saturday and The bullet blasted right through it, left a huge hole with a great blood trail.

[bkaech]

I’ve been using the Barnes 290 TEZ’s the last couple years, I am going to try out the 209 setup in my Traditions Evolution. I’ve always used 100 grains of pellets but am wondering about bumping it up to 150. Is 150 grains overkill or will that give me better penetration? This will be for elk hunting. Thanks for the help!

150grains of Pyrodex is NOT overkill, not for elk. That's what I use in my CVA Optima, with 290gr Barnes TEZ. Got 3 bulls in 5 years of muzzy hunting. I would use as much powder as is safe in your rifle as long as it doesn't kill accuracy. Some rifle and load combinations are much more accurate with a little less powder, thats the fun part, thats what summer is for, shooting and tinkering and perfecting your load.

[Dmulcahy]

Double lung on my 5x5 bull during this years muzzy season. Found on opposite side skin.

[WSU]

I killed a bull at roughly 140-150 yards this year.  Load was 100 gr of 777 and a 290 t-ez.  The bullet went through both legs, both lungs, and exploded the heart.  Bull went about 5 steps and did cartwheels, and the bullet looked exactly like Dmulcahy's.  My bullet was also under the skin on the far side.

[johnnyaustin44]

Recovered two bullets from bulls this year. Both look identical. Weighed one and it tipped at 288 grains. Not too shabby. Both bullets went through shoulder and heart. Right against the skin on both. Woulda had a third but it didn’t touch anything but soft tissue and lungs. Blew through the whole bull and dropped him right there. All 290 grain Barnes on top of 100grns of blue mz. I think the crew is pretty satisfied with these results.

[reelamin]

Recovered two bullets from bulls this year. Both look identical. Weighed one and it tipped at 288 grains. Not too shabby. Both bullets went through shoulder and heart. Right against the skin on both. Woulda had a third but it didn’t touch anything but soft tissue and lungs. Blew through the whole bull and dropped him right there. All 290 grain Barnes on top of 100grns of blue mz. I think the crew is pretty satisfied with these results.

At what distances please?

[coachcw]

i was having issues with the tmz loading so i went in to the ammo shop in CleElum  . the guy said well get the tez , i said whats different ? he said they are ez lol. I ran them with two 777 pellets and the 250's shot nine times in a row without cleaning and the last went down as easy as the first . I probably could have shot a few more times . thats with 209 ignition out of a ultra light.

[KNOPHISH]

2 pics of mushroomed bullets from kills but I don't see any blood, guts or hair on em. Is this typical or did you clean them off?

[huntnnw]

I’ve been using the Barnes 290 TEZ’s the last couple years, I am going to try out the 209 setup in my Traditions Evolution. I’ve always used 100 grains of pellets but am wondering about bumping it up to 150. Is 150 grains overkill or will that give me better penetration? This will be for elk hunting. Thanks for the help!

150grains of Pyrodex is NOT overkill, not for elk. That's what I use in my CVA Optima, with 290gr Barnes TEZ. Got 3 bulls in 5 years of muzzy hunting. I would use as much powder as is safe in your rifle as long as it doesn't kill accuracy. Some rifle and load combinations are much more accurate with a little less powder, thats the fun part, thats what summer is for, shooting and tinkering and perfecting your load.

i have the same gun and tried 100gr of Blackhorn and will not group with those bullets.I ended up shooting 85 gr of that powder with excellent groups

[johnnyaustin44]

Recovered two bullets from bulls this year. Both look identical. Weighed one and it tipped at 288 grains. Not too shabby. Both bullets went through shoulder and heart. Right against the skin on both. Woulda had a third but it didn’t touch anything but soft tissue and lungs. Blew through the whole bull and dropped him right there. All 290 grain Barnes on top of 100grns of blue mz. I think the crew is pretty satisfied with these results.

At what distances please?

95 on the first, 135 on the second, the non recovers one was about 75.

[Damnimissed]

I killed a bull this year with 290gr T-EZ over 100gr of Blackhorn at about 80yds. It was a perfect shot behind the shoulder, double lung pass-through. He walked maybe 10yds and piled up.

[usmc74]

2 pics of mushroomed bullets from kills but I don't see any blood, guts or hair on em. Is this typical or did you clean them off?

I cleaned mine off before I took my picture 4 years ago.  And it was full of meat under those curls

[cougkilr]

Thanks for all of the information, I ended up going with 150 grains of 777 pellets and the 290 grain TEZ's. I killed a 5x5 bull this year, found the bullet on the far side just inside the hide. He stumbled about 30 yards and piled up. The bullet on the bottom in the photo is from this year and the top one was from a couple years back using a 290 TMZ and 100 grains of 777 pellets.