Sierra Game Kings Too Soft?

C

Christopher

New member
The recent discussion about the Sierra MK's has me thinking about a wild hog hunt I was on some years back. I had loaded up 180 grain Game Kings for the 30/06 I had loaned to my Dad for this trip. He popped an approximately 100 + lb. hog in the neck broadside at no more than 80 yards. Now I know that pig skin is tough as I've butchered many hogs but the damage was nearly all contained under the hide. Upon skinning I was amazed of the huge rip and tear the neck meat exhibited. When I was processing the animal I noticed that the front leg bone was broken. I first thought that it must have been an old injury but on examining the break it was fresh. Then I noticed a sizable hunk of lead lying next to the bone under the muscle. It must have been a portion of the lead core of the bullet that traveled through the neck down to the foreleg with enough force to snap it. I've seen fragile varmint bullets perform such when hitting say a groundhog in the chest with a standing/facing shot and the fragmentation sends particles to the back legs between the meat and hide. Yet, this was a far larger fragment in comparison to those from the SXSP's size for size. Have any of you experienced this type of perfomance from the Game Kings under typical hunting conditions? Makes me wonder what would happen if it were an elk with a quartering away shot.
 
My one experience with Sierra Game Kings was with the 120 grain version out of my wife's .257 Roberts. This is a fairly mild cartridge, particularly with the heavier 120 grain bullet, so I expected decent performance on small/medium game like deer. The GK shot very well in the rifle, so I loaded up a bunch for deer season. She shot a small 3X4 muley that was slightly quartering away at 109 yards. The bullet hit a rib on the way in and basically vaporized. Luckily, there was no other bone in the way and the bullet pieces shredded the lungs, killing the buck rather quickly. However, had there been larger bone (e.g. shoulder) or heavier material (e.g. sharply quartering shot through the paunch), I don't think the bullet would have gotten the job done. We switched to Hornady Interlocks and have had good luck with them. She also used a 100 grain BT on her antelope with pretty good results.

Based on my recent experience with 100 grain Barnes TSXs in my .257AI though, I may swith her rifle over to these bullets too. Seems like more and more of our hunting rifles (the family) are moving towards TSXs for general hunting use.
 
After shooting 30+ big-game animals including antelope, boar & muledeer with my .270 shooting 130 gr. Sierra Gamekings I'd say they work very well as all were one shot kills. I did however experiance jacket/core separations and alot of bloodshot meat. I shoot Hornady bullets from my larger bore rifles and still get the one shot kills without as much bloodshot meat. That said, the Sierras are generally more accurate out of any given rifle that I own.
 
I too have Killed 4 elk with the sierra game king 150 gr. Each time they worked like a bullet should. However, after reading an article about them separating like Weasle stated, I switched to partitions.

Damn Weasle!! ALL one shot kills....WOW!!! I need you to teach me how to shoot!!!!

LOL....good luck one and all!!!

C
 
Before deer season opened I had two reliable sources tell me that Gamekings, although accurate, have a reputation for core/jacket separation when used on medium to large sized game. I've shot two bucks with 130 gr. 270 SPs, and one bullet performed well, the other adequate. I switched to swifts. I'm sold on the bonded bullets.
 
The only GameKings I've ever had any concerns with are the 140gr 7mms when fired from a 7mm Rem mag at fairly short range. I've shot two deer in the neck with those, both at less than 40yds and both shots hit the spine in the neck. Both shots had serious fragmentation (found one jacket against the hide) and one nearly took the deer's head off (not an exaggeration). They seem to work fine on longer range shots or shots into the heart/lung area. I now stick to the 160gr GKs if I expect short range shots.

As for the 30cal 180ge GKs, I've had good luck wth them and I even use them in my 300RUM for whitetail. Of course I know whitetail aren't really all that tough, but my RUM pushes them a heck of a lot faster (over 3250fps) than an '06. When I first decided to use them in the RUM I was kinda concerned about that much velocity on a close range shot. So, I did a highly unscientific penetration test. I shot three water-filled plastic gallon milk jugs at 50yds. The jugs were set in a straight line with about 6-8" between each jug to prevent the impact in one from busting another. The shot went trhough all three with no sign of anything that would be problematic and impacted into the hillside behind the jugs. Just a couple months later I used the RUM/180gr GK combo to take the deer pictured on my site (link in sig) with a qaurtering away shot at a hair over 50yds. The bullet took out 3 ribs on the way in, damaged the heart and both lungs, broke 2 ribs on the opposite side and exited directly through the shoulder. There was no sign of fragmentation, just a very nice wound channel that bled profusely and a deer that took three leaps and nosed into the ground.
 
I shot a whitetail doe the other day, using 165gr hornady interlock out of a .300 mag, hit her right where the neck and chest start no exit hole. When i was skinning her out i found peices of the lead in the oppestie sholder and in the chest, is there somthing wrong with that, or is that what there ar sposed to do. The shot was about 35-40yds.
 
Wis_S.S.,
No, they are not supposed to do that. The 300 Mag. is pretty fast and 35-40 yards is short so the impact velocity will test any good bullet. That is why premium bullets have become so popular. But, anyway, your doe and my Dad's pig both bit the dust toot sweet and that is what they are supposed to do.
Thanks for the replys, gentlemen. I still have a box or so of these loaded up and would not have a problem using them on deer but for an Elk hunt I would definetly opt for the Nosler Partitions or the like.
 
I have been shooting Sierra gameking bullets for over 30 years and have been hearing how bad they were for about the same time. My response is always the same, "if they are so bad, why are they so popular"? In my humble opinion, when a problem occurs it is usually due to improper use. By that I mean, all of the bullets manufactured today are designed for a specific use. If they are used for a different application, they will not perform as they were intended. Have I ever had bullet seperation from a Sierra Gameking? Absolutely. I once shot a large muledeer at about 30 yards with a 160 gr Sierra SPBT from a 7mm Remington Mag right on the shoulder bone and literally destroyed one side of the deer, the bullet came completely apart and never penetrated the other side. That bullet was never designed to preform at that range, so how could I say the 160 gr Sierra bullet isn't the right choice for mule deer?
If I was to examine a hunting bullet from any caliber/cartridge, it would go something like this. You have just shot at a particular game animal, 1st> did you hit where you were aiming? Yes, then the bullet was accurate. 2nd> Were you able to recover the game with a minimal effort? Yes, then the bullet preformed as it was supposed to. It doesn't matter if the bullet came apart or formed a perfect mushroom, it did what you brought it there to do.
 
I use the 180 grain Game Kings from my .30-06 at 2,743 fps with great accuracy and terminal performance on whitetails. I've spoken with the Sierra Tech people about this bullet and they tell me it'll work great from the 06' for game up to and including elk and black bear. After seeing how it performs on whitetail I'd say......MAYBE. I think it'd do a fine job on the classic broadside lung shot. Raking shots or busting heavy bone would probably find me wanting a stronger bullet.
 
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