The guy who ran the operation where I hunted in RSA was very convinced on the Barnes bullets. He is a
really observant guy and hunts pretty much every day with clients and sees huge quantities of game shot
with every kind of bullet there is. He is really sold on Barnes - for African plains game. The kudu is about like
a slab sided, long legged elk. Impala and blesbok are like small white tails, maybe 100-120 lbs. Wildebeest is
maybe moose sized body. He has watched the Barnes on all and like it and the Nosler partitions, which is
what I was using in my 7x57.
I had tried out the old blue coated Barnes X without anything to be excited about. I asked before I went if there was
anything I could bring, since I know that some stuff which is easy to get here, and affordable, like Leu scopes are hard to get
and very much more expensive in South Africa. His local contact said to get some 7x57 ammo with Barnes bullets
if I could find it. Told him none commercially available. I grabbed a box of 140 TSX 'triple shock" because I liked
the (then) new grooves, seems necessary in a solid Cu bullet. First load I tried was spectacular. My Ruger 7x57 is
a bit of a picky thing, but it put the first try, "middle of the road" load 50.0 IMR 4831, half way between starting and
max because it was somebody else's rifle. This one shot about 1.25 at 200 yds right off. Peter (safari outfit owner)
was extremely pleased, said it was by far the most accurate ammo he had ever had for his nice custom 7x57
on a military Mauser 98 action.
Another hunter and his wife going to hunt the same place asked me to make them some ammo. They tried samples
of 140 TSX and 175 Horn RN which had proved excellent in my Ruger. His wife used an identical Ruger 7x57 to mine.
She chose the 175s and dropped 6 animals with 6 shots. Her husband wanted a TSX load, and the best I had in
my Sav 110 .30-06 was 165 TSX over 59.0 RL19, new RP brass, CCI200 primer, LOA=3.300. This load did just
a touch under 1" at 100 for three shots for me, three is all I test with hunting rifles. He liked it, too.
Peter (RSA hunting owner) took a kudu with one shot, broke both shoulders and was found under the hide on the far side, the first day,
backing up an incompetent client. He showed me the bullet. Looked just like the ad pix, except had lost part of
one petal, on the bones, I guess. He shot several other animals while I was there, was very pleased, wanted more
ammo, not possible, unfortunately, can't ship ammo into RSA.
In any case, if you are going jbullet, I can recommend the TSX and the loads above as safe and accurate in several
rifles. Since you said you didn't have RL powders, try 50.0 4064 under that 165 TSX, all other
stuff the same. That wasn't as accurate in my Savage as the RL-19 load but was fairly good.
Bill