Sierra Gameking bullets
 

Can anybody give me a little info on Sierra gameking bullets. like how they worked for you on deer. I had a post on accubonds and Barnes for my 7mm08 on here and got alot of good info.Received a reloading catalog in the mail and has the sierra bullets in it. Got me curious. Any info will help thanks.

sierra's are normaly a bit tougher than speer and hornadys and the like so they don't expand quite as well.
RR

OK thanks for the info. I seen the speer bullets in there too. Never heard of them. I hunt here in Georgia and most of my shots are inside of 100 yrd and longest wld be 150 so wasn't sure if it was a good choice

I would recommend the 120 nosler ballistic tip, or the 120 gr hornady spire point, or if its available a 120 gr hornady SST, all great bullets for average sized whitetails at the velocities of the 7mm/08, the sst will expand a bit more but won't be overly destructive, I would stay off heavy bone when possible at very short range.
RR

I've used 117 grain Sierra GameKing bullets for over 30 years in my .257 Ackley for a variety of game from prairie dogs to elk. This has been my primary rifle and bullet combination for mule and whitetail deer and pronghorn antelope, but I have also used them on a number of bighorn and Dall sheep hunts.

I also had good performance with 180 grain GameKing bullets from a .30-06 on quite a few elk.

These bullets produced good internal wound channels, and most of the bullets completely passed through most of the animals up through the size of caribou.

I've used the 140gr. HPBT game kings in my 7mm08 with good results. I switched to Hornady 120gr. when I got a great deal on several thousand and they tested fine in my rifles.
I still use the 85gr. HPBT in my 243 with great results on deer, coyotes, whistle pigs and stuff in between.


:D Al

Maybe this will help some BC I forgot to mention. Shots will be 150 yrds and closer

"Back in the day" when I began hunting (1985), that was just the beginning of the "premium ammo" offerings by the big ammo makers. After a year of CoreLokts and Winnies I bought a box of 165 Sierra boattails by Federal Premium for my 30-06. They were scary accurate and honestly I never lost an animal with them. I also shot a buck once at less than 10yds right up the wazoo "TX heartshot" as I stalked/snuck quietly into a sage clearing inside a pine thicket. It was FULL of deer and that lil buck was the first buck I saw so he got the crosshairs. He fell so quick I never saw him drop. The bullet didn't exit but the deer didn't take a step so you can't argue it didn't do its job!

Then a year or so later they offered the Nosler Partition and I went to those, with similar results. Then I guess within the next year or two (by the end of the 80s) I began handloading so I played with alot of different bullets and used them on deer across the 3 states I regularly hunted (TN, MS & MO). By the mid-90s I was sold on the Barnes X-bullets and have rarely strayed since. But that's not to say the Sierra's aren't great bullets. They've always been known as scary accurate and short of full length penetration shots, they'll likely reach the boiler room of most deer at most sane distances and they are usually easy to find and not as pricey as other premium bullets.

Like most other cup & core types, just keep with the heavier offerings if you are going to be firing them at top velocities and you should be ok. I'd not recommend the 150grn cup & cores for 30-06 or faster 30s on deer but I likewise realize MILLIONS of deer have been killed by such a combo. (You CAN drop down in weight, even to 130s when you start talking about prems like Xbullets, Bitterroots, Accubonds etc...) In your 7-08 the 140 would be ok and the 150 even better IMHO.

I can't speak for the gamekings because I've never used them. On the other hand I've shot the Sierra flat base Pro Hunter spritzers and the Speer Hot Cor spitzers for many years with great results on deer. My favorite two bullets for my 25.06 are the Sierra 117gr PH and the Speer 120gr Hot Cor. Both these bullets are very accurate in my rifle and their on game performance has been excellent for me. My daughter shoots the Sierra 120gr PH in her 260 and my son shoots the 150gr in his .308 with equal results.

I've used Sierra Game Kings successfully for years out of my 30-06. I use the 180 grain version and have killed several whitetail and just last week used them on a bull moose. These bullets have never failed me and consider them a very good and accurate design for any NA game animal.

I have also used the game king for years in my 30-06 (150 gr) and .270 (130). I have taken many deer with them. They are accurate and the deer die when hit. I went with game kings simply because I picked up a half box at a tag sale and found that my rifle liked them. They work for me but this is not to say another bullet would not work as well. I suspect that all modern hunting bullets work pretty well. Just choose the one that your rifle likes and you are ready to go. Don't agonize over the decision.

I used 180 grain GKs in my .300 WM for many years, but IMHO they expanded too quickly, i.e., I rarely got an exit hole (which I like because it leaves more blood on the ground).

Five years ago I switched to Accubonds and have never looked back.

Buddy of mine took out a grizzly in his pasture with a 250 grain game king from his back porch with his 340 Wby. One shot done deal. They work great. The Speer is also a great bullet.

I agree with you to a point BTM. I shot a bull moose a couple weeks ago with 180 gr GKs out of my 30-06. The first shot was a frontal shot and the second and third were broad side. The 2 broadside shots were complete pass throughs taking out the lungs. The first shot entered high in the chest and from what I could tell, fragmented, the core lodging in the left back strap, and from what I could tell, a large piece taking out the left lung, traveling down the body cavity slicing through the liver and diaphram and ripping open the stomach then exiting out the belly. It acted about like that mystery bullet that killed JFK!!

LOL!!! Never heard that term before. Thanks for the laugh.

Sierra Game Kings (and Pro Hunters; GK's are boat tails, PH's are flat-based versions) are notoriously accurate, and work just fine for deer, pronghorn all the way up through elk and moose. The trick to Game Kings (and Pro Hunters) are to keep impact velocities under 3,000 fps. Above that speed, as someone else pointed out, bullets tend to come apart, shed their cores, limiting penetration. As a rule of thumb, if you're shooting a magnum caliber, premiums are never a bad idea. For standard caliber, they aren't necessary. All in all, I suppose it boils down to what your rifle prefers and shoots best with.

Exactly what j23 said! Very well stated!!

I've used the 165 gr SBT for years. Never had a problem with it.

I've used 165 gr GKs in .30-06 and 300 gr GKs in .375. Will they kill an animal? Absolutely.

At typical impact velocities between 2500-2700 fps I've never NOT had one disintegrate. They're accurate and they do kill, but I prefer not picking fragments of jackets and cores from my venison.

I've only shot one whitetail @ a little over 60yds w/ a 243 and a 100g SGK. Didn't recover the bullet, results were about a 40yd death run and one dead deer.
Now ive read more than a few times where folks seem to feel that the pro-hunter is a tougher bullet than the gameking........any thoughts on that?

The Pro Hunter tends to hold together better because of the flat based design from what I have seen. Both are great but I have seen more jackets shed with the boatailed Gameking.

The 160 grain Gameking pushed to 2600 fps was a favorite in my 7x57. However that velocity seemed to give good bullet performance with just about any bullet.

I have shot game with GameKings in 224, 243, 264, 284,308, 358 and 375 At impact velocities from 2000 to 2900 they have been perfect. Like all lead-cored bullets they leave a trail of small fragments in the wound channel, but clearly keep over 40% of their weight. Bone may make them lose a jacket here or there, but I've never had a critter go more than 100yds. A much underrated GameKing is the .308 165 gr hollow point (not the MatchKing), which appears to be tougher than it's soft point sibling; wound channels (at impact velocities up to 2900 fps) are comparable to a Nosler partition. It is not a sexy looking bullet, but I have always been happy with it's performance and have been loading it to a MV of 2680 fps in my wife's 308 for over 35 years.

I've been shooting Speer 165gr BTSP out of a 300 wm with the velocity going 3260fps for over 20 years and they have never shed a jacket yet. Granted that's on the few that I have collected at close range, most of them are exiting with a nickel to quarter size hole. At longer ranges I personally feel it is a perfect bullet for opening and creating the THUMP. The speer is similiar to the sierra in design so I say lead is still the way to go.