Pistol X Bullets

Today, Barnes' original bullet remains legendary for its performance on dangerous game. Riflemen worldwide continue to depend on its famed reliability for hunting everything from North American deer and elk to Africa's largest beasts.

In, 1989, Barnes introduced yet another original bullet design--the revolutionary Barnes X-Bullet. Like Fred Barnes, Randy Brooks (owner and operator of Barnes Bullets since 1974) is an experienced hunter who found a way to produce a bullet that would outperform all other available designs.

Randy had long relied on the original Barnes Bullets his company produced. After all, it was a time-proven design that expanded reliably and could be counted on to retain from 70 to 90 percent of its original weight. It gave excellent performance afield, and the world's most experienced hunters swore by it.

Then, while hunting in Alaska, Randy thought of a way to make a bullet that would be even more deadly and reliable. Instead of marrying a copper jacket to a soft lead core, he would make his new bullet from solid copper. The bullet would be heat treated to give it special toughness. A deep, slender cavity in the forward section would allow the nose of the bullet to peel back on impact.

The unique one-piece design would completely eliminate separation of the jacket from the lead core-long the bugaboo of conventional bullets. Because the new bullet could be counted on to hold together, it should retain nearly all its original weight and penetrate much deeper than conventional designs. Instead of mushrooming like a conventional jacketed bullet, the nose of the new bullet would evenly peel back into four separate petals. Viewed head-on, these petals would form an "X," giving the X-Bullet its name.

The new bullet sounded good in theory, but theories must be proven. When Randy returned home from his hunt, he made the first prototypes by hand. Different weights and configurations were tested, and the new bullet was gradually improved and refined. Finally, Randy was ready to try the X-Bullet in the field--the ultimate proving ground. An Alaskan brown bear was taken with a 270-grain solid copper X-Bullet fired from a .375 H&H Magnum rifle. The new bullet performed perfectly.

After additional testing an refinement, the X-Bullet was ready to market. Introduced in 1989 the Barnes X-Bullet represented a radically different approach to hunting bullet design.

At first, shooters were skeptical--but as more and more experienced hunters began using the new bullet afield, skepticism quickly changed to wide-eyed enthusiasm. It has become the most talked-about hunting bullet design in recent history.

In the thirteen years it has been in production, the X-Bullet has taken thousands of head of game. Everything from 20-pound Dik Dik to rhino and African elephant have fallen to the solid copper bullet with the deadly banana-peel nose. The vast majority of hunters using the Barnes X-Bullet report almost instantaneous one-shot kills.