Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Who’s a fan of the hpbt gamekings

243 270 30 cal

i have used the 165 grain .308 0n deer...they all promply died

Honorable mention for #2140. They shoot very well in every 30 cal rifle I've ever tried them in. Never drew blood with one though.

I slew a bunch of deer with the Sierra HPBT Gameking, they did a fine job started out at 2700 to 2800 fps.

Accurate, but probably not the best choice for 300+ yard shooting because of BC, but inside of that, a damn good bullet.

Have shot a few with the 30 cal flavor big exits on bone impacts.Reload for the fil in the 270 with 140s his reports are impressive been wondering about the 85s in the 243 Sonofmine shoots

For me they are too tough out of a 243/6mm.

85 grain SPT Sierra Varminter is a good bit softer.

I am a soft bullet fan on deer though.

Another damn fine deer bullet from a 243 is the 100 grain SBT Gameking. Doubt you have many if any leave tracks from where they are shot.

But, but, but, their BCs are WAY below .600, so they can't be any good!

Most of our shots are -100yds. Half or more are under 50yds. Our main meat makers are 65gr out of .223, 140gr .284’s out of 7-08, 165gr out of .30-06 and .308, 225gr out of .35 Whelen AI, and 85gr HPBT out of .243.
Gamekings are accurate and do the job at the distance and speeds we use them.

85 gr - 243
160 gr - 7 Rem Mag
165 gr - 3006

I like em!

The Sierra boat tails are a bit of mixed bag it seems. Some are soft or brittle, some tougher. That GK 85gr HPBT #1530 is a lot tougher than you'd think it would be for what it is, in my experience. Good bullet for deer at reasonable velocities. I don't think you'd be disappointed if that's the route you went for your sons 243.

We’re gonna try some see what happens👍

165gr 308s are the only ones tried.
Some here report great results, even with magnums. I don't think they
are lying, but my results (and maybe expectations) were different.

I'm a softer bullet guy, I do not like hunting after I shoot.
Those bullets were just too much of a good thing, from a 20" 308.
Killed around 8 deer with them, most body shots. None went more than a couple feet
from where they were shot. Most dropped. On quite a few I saw a cloud of hair and
mist fly from the off side. Fist to double fist exits. Exits were common, as was destruction of a bunch of whatever was neat the bullet path.

I've shot a bunch of the 85 grain Sierra HPBT Gamekings in various 243's. Loaded with about 45 grains of W760, it's shot very accurate in EVERY 243 I've tried it in, with the rifles all being Remington 700's. I've killed a bunch of coyotes with the bullet, and a few deer. For deer, I prefer either a 95 or 100 grain bullet, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with the 85 grain Sierra. If I could only have one bullet to use in a 243, it would be the one I'd choose.

I shot that 140 in a 270Win for a couple of seasons. Big, gnarly exits were the norm. Not grenade-like or anything, but they were very effective on average whitetails. Generally exited.

Another reason to like Sierras in general, is the fact that any particular model # of a bullet will have it being exactly the same whether it was made recently or 30 or more years ago. Try that with other manufacturers!

More than a few times after my supply of bullets was exhausted and I purchased the "same" bullet only to chase my tail trying to figure out why the gun stopped shooting. Called the manufacturer to hear oh yea we changed the bullet!!!!

The 225 from the 358 or Whelen is pure good stuff. It expands wide and man if they move from the impact the blood trails are horror movie like.

I stopped using them on deer after I had four of them disintegrate on contact, 2x 85 grain 0.243" and 2x 90 grain 0.257". Both bullet made great groups, but after those failures I decided that, for me, there were better choices. I still load them for shooting coyotes, like I said, they make great groups, but moved over to ABs and Partitions for shooting deer with my 0.243" and 0.257" bore rifles.

Lots of folks swear by them and for many years I did too, but decided that there are many other component bullet options out there worth consideration. As with many things, YMMV.

I wish to hell I could find some 7mm 140gr Sierras; they work very well in 7 x 57.

I'm not a fan of HP's of anykind. Years ago shot some into pile of newspaper and everyone of them hat the tip close up and bent! The tip closing is a concern with Winchester and their mono bullet. They claim that is a reason they went to a plastic tip in them. J.J. Hack had concerns about that with monolithic bullet's in Africa, plastic tip solved the problem. But for simply shooting paper, they sure are accurate!

HP Gamekings have a larger HP than a match bullet or the small HP on a mono.