Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Opinions on GameKing 338 215 Grain

Anyone use them on elk from a 338 Win mag? How was performance?
Any loads ? Thank you!

Not on elk, but on big whitetail. Used my 338-06 AI. I shot from stem to stern on a big MI whitetail once. I walked it up and it presented a quartering away shot. When I fired, it had turned just enough that it went from its left ham to its right shoulder. DRT! It was a mess. I had the whole deer made into sausage. The ONLY deer I've not butchered myself.

I can not blame you.....

I emailed Sierra a question as to whether this should be my "all around go-to bullet" in my 338-06 A-Square cuz it shoots the lights out and has an awesome BC.

Rich Machholz replied, "The 215 .338 GameKing is a solid bullet. It is made from the 250 jacket
trimmed to the appropriate length which results in a jacket that is thicker at the mouth than the 250 grain GameKing."

That pretty much answered my question. I'll go after anything the 338-06 is good for using that bullet.

Cool that says it all.

I always seemed to hear the 215 was somewhat frangible. I bought some to try in my 340 wby but wasn't too concerned when they didn't shoot cause I thought it wouldn't be tough enough.

SO...when the above post said the jacket was really thick on a 215 I had to go tinker with one. I don't have a high speed cutter....my hacksaw didn't do to good either. I held it against my bench grinder grinding from the tip down. WOW...at the tip it's like an x bullet with a thin shaft of lead in it.
Down at the ogive I'd say the jacket is in the .050-.060" range.
Thats REALLY thick compared to alot of bullets I've done this to. If I remember right most cup and core are usually about .030-.040. Of course we don't know about the toughness of the jacket from brand to brand but this sucker held it's own against the grinding wheel.
From what I just saw I'd say it's plenty tough for big game...guess I'll have to try harder on that 340 roy.

It sure wasn't frangable when I shot my buck this year.

338 federal at 175 yards passed from the rear left hip out the front right shoulder... nice clean tunnel just like my 358.

...or if you'd like to get rid of what you have left over I'll take 'em!

When you compare these to the cost of other 338 cal bullets they're tough to beat, particularly those with similar BCs.

Spotshooter, what load did you use in the Fed? The 338 215s shoot very well in my 338-06. I too was told they were a relatively tough bullet.

I never shot a critter with it, but its one of the most, if not the most accurate bullet for 338 I've shot a group with.

Just about anything you can stick in a .338 will work for elk...the GK should be no exception...and they ARE accurate!


Ingwe

IIRC they were flying at around 2650, but it didn't hit any bones until it exited - and yes it diagonaled the deer and still exited. Left a hole around 3" and a 2.5" channel all the way from entrance to exit.

Spot

These are a tough bullet. IIRC, Sierra tells you to drive them at 2700 fps or more. These were intended for .338 Win Mag velocities.

I emailed Sierra about this bullet last week. I've heard they are a little tough for whitetail at 338 Federal velocities. I asked if they would be a good choice for Nilgai in South Texas. I should be able to get 2500-2550 fps out of my Federal. Phillip said the bullet is tough and should perform well on Nilgai and any other CXP3 game out of the Federal. May be a little hard for small Texas whitetails but I have my 257 Roberts for them.

I'm going to jump to Hornady for my 338 Federal.

Those sierra's were a bit hard... but then again I'm getting TSX performance out of a lead cheap bullet !!!

Right on. That's what I like about the 338 Federal and other moderate velocity rounds.

I agree. Just concerned with the separation issues which seem to plague the gamekings.

So if Sierra says shoot them at 2700fps and Spotshooter only shoots them at 2650fps at what range do they become ineffective from either gun? Does the bullet read the headstamp to decide if it needs to perform correctly?
Seems the nagging old comment of "it's engineered for the magnums" always comes up in a discussion related to anything 338 cal. Never comes up in a 7mm or 30 cal discussion, and yet they have a far greater spread of potential velocities from various cartridges.

My 1S in 338 is enroute so we will see if she likes them or the 210 NP's.

Well shot it today with 74 gr of IMR 4350. She did 3040 fps and .7" at 100 yards. Hopefully she will do well on elk. Seems like the Ruger #1S lOVES THIS BULLET.