Sierra Gamekings.
 

Has anyone on here had any trouble with the 180 Gr. Gamekings shedding their jackets?

I went on a hunt the otherday and I was useing my 300 Win. Mag loaded with the 180 gr. Sierra Gamekings. I put two rounds in a Oryx ( Shoulder Shot) and ended up haveing to use my 338 RUM to put the animal down with a third shot.

While capeing the animal I found the two 300 rounds in the vital area , but they were just the jackets.

I have never had any trouble with other bullets shedding their jackets before this.
I was just woundering if this was a common problem with the Gamekings, Or if this is a fluke with the box of bullets that I have?

Thanks for any info that you might be able to help me with.
hunter338

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

I would not use Sierra bullets for anything tougher than medium game. Sierra's are a very accurate bullet, but do not have enough integrity for big heavy game. Good luck.

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

never knew anyone who carried 2 rifles while hunting, the weight of one rifle is enough to lug around............unless you were hunting from your vehicle???? that portion of your post seemed odd to me.....

which gamekings were you using?? the BTSP or the BTHP? and what range were your shots at???

I think on a Oryx especially with a shoulder shot, I would have used either a nosler partition or a trophy bonded bear claw.....

Sierra gamekings are good bullets just not controlled expansion bullets likes partitions or TB bear claws are. The only animals I would use gameking bullets on wether it be the BTSP or BTHP, would be large midwestern deer or smaller. think of the gamekings as high quality winchester power point, Ive never experienced jacket seperation with gamekings yet but have with core lokts at close range and power points at longer shots and close shots.

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

No I wasnt hunting from my truck.

We were horseback, ( A friend and myself) he was useing the 338 RUM. I was useing the 300 Win. Mag.

I loaded the BTSP bullets, the range was around 150 yards. This was the first time that I have tried the bullets. A friend of mine has praised these bullets for years, so I gave them a try.

I normally use a Swift A-Frame out of both the 300 and the 338. Which I ended up useing to put the animal down with.

You are right in the saying that they are very accurate. But Not enough bullet for this type of game.

Thanks
hunter338

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

Lately Sierra has been putting out ads in some of the magazines touting their accuracy and retention weight. They are comparing themselves with some of the bonded bullets or premium bullets in their charts. I think it is BS. I have heard good things of the 338 game king 250 grain bullet I think the Jacket is a little light in the smaller calibers. Had that Oryx been at 350 yards you probably wouldn't have noticed a problem. I would say A Frames are the best big game bullet out there without hesitation.

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

I can see that happening with an animal like that. I love Sierra for Deer, prong, varmiting, but won't use em in my 300RUM for moose and wouldn't for elk. I have seen them come apart in deer with a quartering to me shoulder shot. Deer fell like a hammer. I am kinda thinking a accubond or scirroco would have done the same thing with a shoulder shot. Maybe not shed its jacket but mushroomed out to a pancake. The A-Frame, Barnes, TBBC, failsafe, and partition I believe would have did the job at hand better.

I was talking to Paul Box the other day suggesting a bonded bullet. He's a Sierra Tech guy. Nice guy. He went on giving me that whole talk about they wanted to see if they were missing something with new bonded bullets and all, so they did that tests that they advertise, and found out it was all hype. I believe it in comparing the bullets they did, like the accubond and the tests they did. But you know the outcome to a A-Frame or even partition. Not sure if they did a partition. But their tests wasn't realistic. This whole wet paper crap, just isn't enough. Put shoulder bone in there. Put some fure on it. Why not spend the funds and do the test on a real medium, like cattle.

Then you would see who does what.

I will continue to use them on deer. But over that, barnes the bullet for me.

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

Yep if you talk to any Sierra Tech guy they swear their bullets are the greatest bullets ever designed. They are high quality that is for sure but I would be reluctant to use them in Magnums unless 338 and above.

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

I used the 250g gamekings in 338 about 10 years ago and was so disappointed, I have not used them since. I had a load with muzzle velocity of 2800fps that regularly shot into .75 moa. Although very accurate, the performance was incosistent. I shot a cow elk through the lungs and the bullet did not look like it opened up at all. Exit wound was just about dime sized, as was the hole through the lungs. Damn thing ran 250 yards. I'd of been in real trouble had there not been snow on the ground. Any partition in 33 would have left a racquet ball sized exit wound, and the animal would have not gone more than 30 yds in my experience. As I recall, I also had expansion problems on a big mule deer buck shot through the shoulders with the same bullet. I called Sierra and was informed that they had a batch of bullets that were a little hard! The reputation of the lesser weight/size gamekings is as a soft bullet--something that's not helpful for large big game or magnum velocities. Unfortunately, my experience with the 250 was they were far too hard--like shooting fmj. I would love to see sierra perfect a bonded bullet--Sierra accuracy with controlled expansion would be a real winner for everyone!

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

Elkaddict..hmm now your making me wonder about the 338 Gk's. Maybe there was a batch that wasn't up to snuff during that time period. I pretty much thought that any 338 bullet 200 grains and above was an Elk bullet. Still one experience like that could make one turn off on a particular brand and understandingly so. I feel the same way towards Hornady 7mm 162 grain BT's l

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

Yep, a few years back I shot a whitetail with a 270, 150 grain Sierre Game King Premium Federal. It was a clean shot but the deer still ran at lest 300 yards in an open field, when dressing it there was adequate damage to the heart and lungs but we found the copper casing in the skin at the small exit would and no lead and it looked like it mushroomed funny to one side.

After that I switched to Winchester Supreme Partition Gold's in a 150 and out of a handful of animals I only recovered one bullet and it shroomed perfectly however the bullet lost the rear lead core. That 5x6 elk took 7 steps after that one shot and went to ground. I was impressed with what the partition did.

My buddy and I are now going to load up 140 Barnes X triple shocks, my first reloading experience but he's done it for 16 years.. Look forward to next fall.

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

Thats a new one to me. If you had that much damage to the heart, then it shouldn't have went no 300yards. Sounds to me that was a super deer.

I have shot dozens of deer with them and 130gr, and have yet to see anything like that. Shoot when I was a kid, I shot a deer with a 303brit and armor piecing and penciled thru, and he only made it 100 yards. I guess theres all sorts of things I have never seen before.

With velocities below 2800fps, I always thought it was a ideal deer bullet.

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

Waaay back when Sierra came out with there 338-250 grain bullet, i quickly ordered some in. First caribou i shot with them, i could see they were too soft!! A few more animials, and i put them aside for use on deer!!!

Soon after that, Sierra told me they had beefed up the jacket, so i bought a box of the new production ones, and they were tougher!! Too tough for me, and on anything but a big animial where you needed a lot of penetration, they didn't work well... There "window of use" is too narrow for me, i'll stick with NP's!!

Another time i shot a caribou with a 30 cal. 220 RN that was faceing me at 150 yards. It dropped in it's tracks with a center chest hit, but the bullet blew all to bits, and the caribou brisket looked like it had been hit with a bomb!!!

Sad performance, as we was carrying that gun/load to shoot a big brown bear, that was hanging around the hunting area!!! Good thing we didn't catch up with him!

Like everyone says, VERY accurate bullets, but not my first choise for a "big game" bullet!!

Drilling Man

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

So, you’ve never duplicated the exact details of this particular hunt and kill. Wow, how unusual…

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

Well I am glad that I am not the onlyone here that has had a bad experiance with these bullets.

It would be nice if they would make a bonded type bullet that would hold up to the mag cals. Something along the lines of the Accubond or the Interbond. Becouse I have rarely found a bullet that groups so well out of my 300 mag. The only other bullet that I have used that does group well are the Horn. 180 gr. SP.

Well I know now.

Thanks again.
hunter338

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

I have only had one deer run further then 300 yards after being shot, it was a badly judged quartering shot at 175+ yards Now days I wouldnt take that shot, but then it was my very first deer I have ever shot at, i managed to track and recover it. Most of my deer kills have either been close range neck shots or lung shots at further range. Neck shots they dropped like a rock, the furthest I had a deer run with a lung shot was around 100 yards or so, the last deer i shot before I left missouri I put a 150 grain core lokt out of my 308 clean through a nice bucks heart at about 20-25 yards it took off running made it about 15 yards then did a nose dive into the ground and flip over rear end over head and flopped over on its side. when I field dressed it there was nothing left of its heart where the heart should have been it looked liked can of chunky tomatoe soup exploded inside its chest its lungs were pretty trashed too. If a deer had adequate damage to its lungs and heart it wouldn't have run 300 yards.

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

You know I like you. Your a funny guy with a sense of humor or sarcasm.

What I was trying to explain is your situation sounds highly unusual to me. And probably to alot of people. Kinda like a fish story that you let go.

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

Oops, I see your from calgary. Now it makes sense to me now. I had three guys working for me from there. I totally understand now.

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

Not fish story, this one didn’t get away and he wasn’t a wall hanger, but a freezer friendly 3x3..

I certainly did expect a different response from my post concerning the game kings and how far the deer ran. I fully expect a forum beating for not using a magnum on whitetails.

People I hunt with are ranchers with far too many years of hunting experience with a great number of days per year as well and nothing surprises them anymore. My buddy was with me when I shot whitetail300, I used his shoulder as a rest, what are friends for… And after the whitetail went down he said “Crazy bastards don’t want to die” and shared a similar story with me.



Are you refering to this? www.albertadistillers.com

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

Ah yes that would deffinately explain it, those far north whitetails look like clydesdales with anlers. You would almost think with shots more then 200 yards you would need atleast a 338 win mag at the minimum.

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

Well, they were always on the sause thats for sure. What I am referring too, is they always had some crazy story. Kept me laughing that was for sure. Mostly about indians. Never heard so many indian jokes.

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

As consistantly as death and taxes!

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

Holy cow, pop, you dug this up from over one year ago.

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

What can I say I am allergic to crappy bullets.

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

Man, I thought oldelk was back, untill I looked at the date!:D

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

I've never had a Sierra bullet shed it's jacket, and I've never had a deer complain about me shooting it with a Sierra. Never had a deer run far since I stoped using 00 buckshot many years ago. And I've never had a Sierra tech try to push their products on me when I asked them about another brand bullet. To the contrary I was told that the Speer 70 grn .224 bullet was the best on the market if I was to use them on whitetails. You guys must use a different Tech line than I do. And if you didn't try to get 3500 fps from all your bullets they wouldn't blow up and shed jackets so bad .By the way the bullets in the infamous comparison test was sierra 165 gk, speer trophy bonded 165gr, hornady 165gr interbond, swift 165gr scirroco ,and nosler 180 gr accubond. I think if the test was rigged or flawed in any way they would have been sewed many times by now,it's just to easy to duplicate. The test was done at 308 win volicities,not 30-378

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

I think an important thing to remember here is that we are not talking about a premium bonded bullet here. I use a 243 with hornady interlock 100 grainers for whitetail but I keep the velocityunder fps. That is about the cieling speed for a non bonded bullet according to my experiences. Now, My mistake this last year was using nosler ballistic tips (not bonded) past 2800 fps in 165 grains with my 30-06. The bullet completly came apart. They were about 2950 fps. Too fast for that bullet. I am going bonded only with my 06 from now on. EJ

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

I had some 165's bt's do a hand grenade imitation also ej. These were Fed premiums at close range 25-30 yards.

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

Not just the 180's but almost every Gameking out there. I think if it wasn't for their target and varmint bullets they would be out of business. Really crappy bullets![>:]

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

Read the fine print on that ad!!!! They are tested at 200 yds with a muzzle velocity of only 2650 fps. OK so they do great from a 308 Win...who cares. Like I said crappy game bullets period! My buddy shot a calf elk at 200 yds with that 338/250 gr. Game apart like a snowball on a brick wall.

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

Hey doe dumper, I am switching to the 95 or 100 grain nos partition in my 243 just because of all of the disentegration I have been dealing with. I think the only reason I got good performance out of that hornady interlock is because I took the shot at 160 yards. It definatly lost some momentum by 160 yards, enough to keep that interlock from exploding! EJ

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

I've had real good luck with the pro hunters in my 8mm Mauser on WTD. The game kings are boat tail and my Mauser hates them all! Regards, Rick.

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

What did you guys do before the premium bonded bullets came along! Here in Alabama we were killing game long before this new stuff came out. Although we tend to rely on bullet placement rather than 4000 lbs of muzzle energy.

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

We used something other than Sierra and just hunted....even the core lokts seem to perform better.



EJ I have always heard good about the Interlocks, I have a box to load for the 7-08 but havent got around to trying them yet.

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

10-4,:D:D:D:D

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

Let's see. I used Hornadies (intelocks) and Noslers. Now one canargue that that Partitions are Premiums...and they are. However they have been around since 2 decades before my birth

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

Good bullets, but too soft in a fast caliber, in a magnum you need a harder bullet, maybe a bonded one.

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

I know the noslers are good bullets, the partitions in particular, unfortunatly I dont have a rifle that will group them at all. One day when I get all my computer stuff working I'll post a picture of my reloading room, along with my supplies and you can see I have a good inventory of bullets and powder and tools. When I suggest a certain brand, It's because it works for me, not because I think there is something wrong with what you use. sometimes I will cut something down on these post but It's strictly ment as fun, never to upset someone.

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

Game Kings sure seem to shed the jackets. A guy the other day showed me a bunch of the jackets that he recovered from Whitetails. The Pro-Hunter is a tougher bullet and I have used many weights of them for all kinds of hunting. On a simular note, he showed me several recovered Speer Mag Tips that were tight in the jackets and mushroomed perfectly. This was impressive as all the bullets that he had recovered were fired from a 30-30 T/C G2. One Speer was recovered from a Caribou that he dropped at about 225 yards. These are just starting out at 2100 fps and I couldn't believe that the Game Kings shed their jackets at these velocities. The Game kings were BT's I believe.

The Mag tips are 150 grain. The expansion was about the same on some that he recovered from a 308 so evidently the Speer Mag tip performs well at a wide range of velocities. Has anyone else had expierence with the Mag-Tips?

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

If you are familiar with Edward A. Matunas; the Speer Mag Tip was a bullet he highly recommended in quite a few different calibers. I never tried them personally, but have had great terminal performance out of the heavier weight Speer Grand Slam bullets.

RE: Sierra Gamekings.
 

You said a mouthful brother. Nowhere near premium!:D