Well, your a very small minority (neck shooters) for one. Ones I know, usually its taught to them by someone. Two, you wasted probably 500lbs of elk, with the one you lost. More meat than I have ever wasted with a nice boilerroom shot. You got me beat by a long shot. Guarnteed it starved or died.

See that shot you did to make that first elk pile up at the very risky neck shot. You know the one behind the shoulder. What did it do? Oh, I know it finished the job. Must not have blew up. What did the first shot do? Is the neck that much tougher than behind the shoulder? Oh, another fact to speak for itself.

First off racowboy, its great you shared your experience.I for one encourage thatSo I am not busting on that. I just wanted to find out reasoning for neck shots. Some people swear by em. I know when I was a kid, I got it in my head I like em. But changed over the years.

I have alays been of the opinion I should test my bullets/loads prior to shooting at game. Be it a varmint load or a big game load. For my 30-06 I chose Remington 180 CoreLokt factory loads as a benchmark. Shooting into milk jugs filled with water, the Corelokts would pentrate 6 jugs. Hornady 165 grain Interlocks would penetrate 4 jugs. Hornady 180 Interlocks would pentrate 6 jugs. Nosler 180 grain Partitions would penetrate 10 jugs. Sierra 180 grain GameKings would penetrate 3 jugs. Sierra 180 grain ProHunters penetrate4 jugs. Nosler 180 grain Balistic Tips penetrate 3 jugs. Test range was 25 yards. Increased penetration occurs are further distances, most noticable at 100+ yards.

The interesting facts are what happens to the bullets. Sierra fly apart and end up not retaining much weight. Hornadys are slightly better at staying together. Nosler BTs are a joke, handgrenades stay together better. Corelokts, you know...those cheap-o-flex bullets...stay together as well as Hornadys. Partitions do just what they are advertised to do.

I am keen to test some bonded bullets and see exactly ho well they do. Of course, shooting a whitetail with a 25 cent bullet seems like a bit much (CoreLokts are 9 cents each) until you get some advice like "just watch where you shoot them when your under 50 yards". Having shot many whitetails that have bounced up right under my feet and being in a snap shot situation, I much prefer a bullet I know will burrow in and hurt.

Accuracy is, of course, important. I am a bit anal about accuracy and consider it necessary for my 30-06 to consistantly shoot 1/2 MOA or better. There is no good reason for this, since a 1-1.5 MOA deer rifle is fine. My only excuse is my personal desire to take into the field the very best load/rifle combination I can. I have achieved very good accuracy with Hornady, Nosler, and Sierra bullets. If Remington took a bit more care making Corelokts, they would be a fine bullet.

The true advantage of a premium bullet is not identified when one is able to make a boiler room shot. It is realized when a boiler room shot goes wrong. Even the most careful hunter can have bad luck happen. The animal may move. There could be an unseen obstruction that deviates the flight path of a bullet. You may flinch. Myself, I prefer not to wound game. I respect them enough to think that 25 cents for a bullet isnt too much to pay.

I guess maybe that was a risky shot if you use a poor bullet or are a poor shot. My shooting was right on the money. I also shot a moose with those sierra 180's in 300 mag. Bull was angling away at about 150yrds and I put the bullet right behind the rib cage so it would angle the full lengthof the chest cavity. I did kill that bull but found the bullet did not make it past the liver. Bullet also didn't hit any bone and only penetrated around 6" before dissenigrating. I suppose that sounds like a wonderful performing bullet to you Bigcountry? rwire, save the sierras for groundsquirrels. If your bullet won't take out an elk with a well placed shoulder shot, obviously you got the wrong bullet. There are times when you need to break an animal down.

Man, what are you talking about? You ok?

I was referring to the risky neck shots you take. The gameking has its limitations. I never said they didn't.

But fact is your record speaks for itself. In one evening with your neck shots, you wasted more meat than I have in 23 years. In another evening a proper shot behind the shoulders saved the day for you. These are the facts. It don't get no simpler math. I just don't know how I could break it down any easier for ya.

Ok for the record, are you saying that the 'neck' shot area is harder to penetrate than the lung/heart shot? Are you saying you need more than 6" penetration to kill an animal with your neck shot? I agree if you hit an animal straight in the neck with Glaser Safety slugs, it should kill it. But too many hunters havea brain fart like you did and miss your mark and loose the animal and blame it on solar flairs, mama didn't give them much attention, didn't stay at a holiday inn express, or bullet performance or what ever else they can come up with.

If you consider a neck shot at those ranges risky, you must shoot very poorly. Please take a long walk on a short limb.

Well, not for me thats for sure.I don't know any game in the lastseveral years that were running thru the forestwith no jaw by my hands.But there was an elk out there you lost that might argue you need to go do some target practice. I highly suggest you do some freehand shooting. So you don't waste all that nice meat anymore.

i just have to put this to bed I guess in my limited opinon
ive just used poor judgement in using my game kings, but i guess the proof is in the pudding, every animal ive taken with sierras must have fallen over dead by just hearing the blast of the shot (MUST BE ATLEAST A DOZEN) including the goat, but they just flatt out preform in my 06 weatherby ultra lt.weight, and i might add I always go for the shoulder,
may be this isnt a good bullet for that high speed 300mag but if you look at the pic. of my goat you will see red on his shoulder and oh by the way that was the exit side. so with my poor judgement in all i think ill continue to use the lowley gameking, and was just woundering if your exp. with them is recent or yrs.ago? and by the way those goats are way tougher than any elk ever thought of

So how hard was the hunt Rwire? Bad as they say they can be for those suckers? Do you eat any of it? I had a friend bring me a Ram backstrap and that sucker was strong. You ever did it before? Hunt Goat that is.

I believe and actually know that people including myself put way too much blame on a bullet. Sounds like your doin fine. Gameking will continue to be my deer bullet, thats for sure. People just don't wait for the shot anymore. I have had to let game go before cause they didn't present a good shot. Guides have yelled at me why didn't you shoot thru the brush, or go ahead and take the shot. But when they quarter away from you, you got em. I don't care if you shoot BT, gamekings, prohunters, or SST's.

I usually use partitions, A-Frames, and now accubonds, on moose and stuff.

Gentlemen, There should be no bickering between us. We all have our own opininons on guns, bullets, powders, etc. Bullet manufactures have to compromise alot when it comes to certain cals. The 30 cal probably the most. This same .308, 180 bullet has to perform out of, say a 308 Win and a 300 Weatherby Mag. from ranges point blank to 'way out there'. And don't forget, making a bullet is a mass production process, using different lots of jacket material, core material, and there will be an occasional "faulty" bullet getting out to the public even with a stringent quality control system.
Back in my younger days, my go to rifle for whitetail was a Savage model 110 in .243 Win. Accounting for a bunch of deer, both neck shot and shoulder shot using Hornady 100 bullets. These deer dropped like they were hit in the head with a sledge hammer. All but one. This one took two shots and I later found out through examination that the first bullet totally disentegrated on impact and fragmented running down along the rib cage under the skin. The second bullet however broke both front shoulders causing this running buck to actually flip over when it hit him.
All I am saying is don't judge a bullet from one bad experience. We as individuals can't really condem a bullet based on the limited examples we have. Now, as a group, if we shot a few thousand animals with the Sierra Game Kings and a siginificant number of these bullets gave a less than desireable result, then we could honestly say there is a 'problem' with them.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and these Game Kings have been around a long time, so I guess they may be a pretty good bullet.