L. Clement

Anyone had good success with the Barnes Spit-fire MZ 245 g in a TC omega? I wanted to ask before I bought there projectiles since they are 1.00 per shot.

I read on the barnes web site that a number of there products made it out the door with the wrong size sabot included in the bubble package.

I have some barnes pbt 250 g and they do not seem to shoot well.

thanks

gopherfan

I love 'em. But they didn't load well in my omega until I had shot a few cans of powder. Nothing groups better for me andI get 3/4" groups at 50 yards. Two weeks ago I got to see what they could do on a deer. I shot this 135# doe broadside at 50 yards with 100gr 2F triple7. Complete pass through high behind the shoulder. Both lungs, trachea, and major vessles (aorta, vena cava) were destroyed. No evidence of fragmentation at all. The entrance and exit wounds were 1 1/2" in diameter. Somehow, she ran for 50 yards before crashing.

One thing that I experienced with this load (being a very tight load for me) is that it gets even tighter when the temperature drops. I was sighting in this fall (60 degrees) and while hunting (20 degrees) I had to put much more pressure on the rod than was comfortable with.For this reason I am using my backup load (speer gold dot with crushed rib sabot) for the muzzleloader season in december.

Ifyou're gonna spend $1 a shotI highly recommend this bullet vs a powerbelt for the same money. I've seen them (PB) fragment something terrible in deer and just got a report from a friend in Mighigan that he nearly lost an 8 pointer for this exact reason just a few days ago. Hit it in the chest, no exit wound, nothing but shrapnel recovered. Good luck, Tom

L. Clement

Thanks I may give them a try, I have shot close to 100 rounds out of the omega so far so that should be enough to at least try these hopefully.

Thanks for the input very appreciative.

outdoorsmen

used to use these in my knight. shoot 2-3" groups at 100yds. performed great on deer.

L. Clement

I went and got some today so I will try them out soon.
It seems that allot of Knight Owners use them but have only read a few of T/C owners that use them successfully. Some have said they didn’t fit down the boar.

da new guy

i shoot the 285 gr spitfires in my Encore and I won't go back to anything else. I used to use powerbelts but I never got a passthrough. I like two holes...it just makes tracking easier. The wound channels from these bullets (BSF) is incredible. I shot a buck two years ago at 30 yards and had a blood trail that Ray Charles could follow.

But my father is having the same trouble loading the bullets in his Omega. I was wondering if anyone knew what the diameter is on these bullets beause I was thinking of replacing the sabot with a crushrib sabot or a harvester sabot to see if it loades easier for him. I love the bullet and I want him to be able to shoot them as well...

gopherfan

da new guy-

I haven't shot the285gr variety (only the 245 gr spitfire). The diameter is 0.451 for both projectiles. I asssume that the sabots and bullet profile is the same in both. When I first bought my omega I gave up on loading them. I just couldn't get them down the barrel. I ended up trying different sabots (crushed rib & other MMP sabots) and they loaded fine but things went way south on the accuracy. I couldn't even hit the paper consistently at 50 yards. Spitfires have a boat-tail and the ribs for the enclosed yellow sabots are not cut to the base. Essentially, the boat-tail is protected in the base of the sabot. This may not hold true for you but I'm very skeptical that a sabot not designed for a boat-tailed bullet will group well. Fortunately, with more shooting and some barrel cleaning with JB bore polish they load easier now. I took a deer this year and it put two massive holes in it's chest.

What also groups well in my omega is a crushed rib sabot with a 300 gr speer gold dot or hornady XTP if your father is looking for alternatives. I know many folks have had good results with the speer gold dot bullet. SST's are another good option.

Good luck and please report back if you do try some different sabots and get the barnes bullets to group. Tom

cayugad

Many times a new rifle can be helped along (you might say) by getting some J-B Bore Paste and scrubbing the bore with it. Some even go as far as a minor lapp of the barrel.. I used to lapp my new barrels (as taught by an old gunsmith) but stopped that practice until I was certain the barrel needed it. Now I just Bore Paste them real good. Also the Bore Paste is a great way to clean the barrel of suspected plastic, lead, or copper build up.

L. Clement

Well went and shot the spit fires today and got a decent group and then when I was leaving I picked up my hard bound gun case and with out realizing it was not completely closed and my gun when flying out and just had to land scope first on to the only concrete area near me. Of course it had to land there.

Scratched the gun and scope up but worse yet I shot it after that happened and now my POI is high. It didn’t shoot left or right just 4 inches high. So now have to do it all over again.

I don’t think I have ever done something so absentminded when working with fire arms but I guess it was bound to happen.

I was getting nice groups at 50 yards and then moved back to 100 and they opened up but then placed my gun in a led sled with no added weight to help steady and they tightened back up. I guess I am not as steady as I would like which is why I have been practicing so much.

These seem to work in my gun and I didn’t experience the hard push down the boar like other have. Only problem is I like to shoot allot and these are just to expensive to toy with. I still have 6 left so I will go work with them again soon, hope the scope is okay (Nikon Omega)

Nolehoe

Sorry for the really late reply, just now saw this post but they are supposed to be .451


And they work just fine for me.