RE: .243 Sierra Game King
It really depends upon the range that you shoot deer at...
I've tried about a dozen factory loadings on deer...Inside of 200 yards, they all did well...
When hunting in the woods, with shots inside of 75 yards, I'd recommend the 100gr CoreLokts,
the 100gr Hornadys or the 100gr Federal Premium Nosler Partitions...
The 85gr really shines when you could have shots past 200 yards, it will fragment on shots inside
of 50 yards...Sighted in 2 1/2 inches high at 100 yards, it is only about 3 inches low at 300...
I currently am back to using 100gr CoreLokts just because my gun loves them...I'm about 2inches high
at 100, 2 low at 250 and about 6 inches low at 300...A couple of weeks ago, I killed a buck at a ranged 277 yards, I held for a high shoulder shot and hit him in the heart...He did the back leg kick, fell and only went about 30 yards from where he was hit...
Fortunately, my rifle prints the Federal Premium 85gr HPBT 2 1/2 high at 100, so if I anticipate longer shots I can use this as well...
The only problem with using the Federal Premiums now is that they have gone to about $35 bucks a box...When I started using them several years ago they were $15.95 a box...CoreLokts are currently running $15.24 at the local WalMart so I bought 10 boxes of them last year...
The Federal Premium 85gr HPBT is a great whitetail bullet...If a guy only shoots a box a year then cost is no big deal...I used to shoot as many as 10 boxes a year...I just can't justify the extra cost anymore...And frankly, even hunting the larger bean and peanut fields down east, most of us still kill 95% of our deer inside of 200 yards...