Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Sierra Game-King Lovers...

A little ways back Sierra told me that BT's fail coz they're drivin to fast at close range.... use flat base.

In the Juenke Sierra bullets prove why they are relied upon for accuracy testing so often. Only the old screw machine Nosler Partitions have reliably beaten the Sierras... It is still the first bullet/brand I go to to determine the full potential of a new rifle.

The 180gr SPH in 308 is the bullet of choice for a custom 300WM I have hunted with a bunch... I do not like the excess meat damage, but man does it shoot!

accuracy used to be an issue for me, but then on the other hand I thought I had to push the envolope with high velocity to hunt. My father in law had me going down that road..."you gotta use the hunting load they publish", until I read other reviews of people bashing sierra and saying they're too soft of a bullet or they "failed"... They never list enough details to show how it failed. Then I asked sierra why that is.. "how" they fail and that was thier answer. They ought to know, wouldn't they?

I swapped for a 30 06 yesterday. I'm gonna try 150 Gamekings in it first. The do really well in my 308 and Garand.

Holy thread resurrection...

7x57 with 160 gr
243 with 85 gr hp

Hanco is an avid resurrector.

Looks like this one is on a 4 year cycle. 2009, 2013, 2017

If your gun won't shoot Sierra's then it prolly won't shoot anything. I have never owned a rifle that would not shoot them well. YMMV

I recently shot some 165 gr. HPBT Gamekings out of my 3006. Very first load I tried shot less than 3/4 group at a hundy. These are supposed to have the tougher jackets so I am going to give them a try this year.

Drug home an old pristine ADL 270 a while back. Threw together some 150 Game kings I had on hand over some 7828. Put five under a nickel. Can't complain.

+1

I like the Prohunters even better.

Pro-hunters, like SP Interlocks, will often shoot well more easily than Gamekings in plain ol' factory rifles IME.

SInce its resurrected.... i"ll repeat... worst bullet for consistent perfromance I've ever used. ANd I've used quite a few of them playing around, especially on pigs and deer since neither is hard to kill.

I"ll never pick them as a first choice. I may pick them for cheaper than barnes and to just have a couple hundred around for spares... but performance has been everythign from not opening much if any, to perfect, to blowing stuff up.... and no rhyme or reason at all.

Nosler solid base had more reliable performance than these game kings. They are accurate though....

Well, as long it's near the top I'll just mention that I'd never use the 215gn .338 GK on anything. In multiple attempts I couldn't get them to open on dry magazines at 338-06 muzzle velocity. Weirdest thing...

While I use Sierra 200g in my .375 Winchester, that is the only place I use them. Like rost495, I prefer bonded and monos, North Fork SS, Nosler AccuBond and Barnes TTSX to be specific.

Shooting various cup-and-core bullets through water jugs with a paper witness target a foot or so beyond demonstrated pretty conclusively that cup-and-core bullets at close range tend to come apart and pepper the background with tiny pieces of lead shrapnel. A TTSX through the water jug put two holes in the witness paper – one that looked like a 3-leaf clover and one made by the 4th petal that had broken off.

Contrary to saddlesore’s description of load development, I long ago started using a much more conservative method. First I load 10 bullets over 0.5g powder increments. Each test load gets chrono’d and the point of impact gets recorded. Then I compare the POIs and look for a group of consecutive shots that produced a small group. Picking a middle load out of such a group has generally produced very good results when more were loaded for a second range session. Instead of a couple boxes of $40 bullets ($80 total), I’m often done with using only about $20 worth of bullets. For practice I develop cup-and-core loads that shoot more or less to the same POI as the premium bullets. Before hunting season I will verify POI and drop at extended ranges but even if I shoot up 20 of the premium loads (which would be rare unless there is a problem) , my total cost is still generally less than what non-handloaders would pay for factory ammo in similar quantities.


This photo has been shown before but it demonstrates why I like North Fork bullets. Ranges were 25, 140 and 500 yards.

Care to take a guess as to which was which?

You and I need to have a beer sometime. LOL

I can give you a brief comparison test of SGK vs Trophy Bonded bullets on the same animal.

The .338WM SGK 250 gr "junk load" (that I just threw together to get rid of about 30 bullets that came with the rifle - due to their poor reputation) loaded one grain under book max, proved to be the most accurate load I've found for that rifle - hovers a small +/- 1" at 200 yards, 3 shot groups. dunno what they would do 5 shots, haven't tried it. I suspect the same, with the free-float barrel. I did write that load down, but haven't loaded any more. Heck, I haven't even shot the rifle in over 8 years... but I still have 3 rounds of that loading left! And won't hesitate to use them at any range to 500 yards. I've never chronographed a load in my life and see no need to start now. Whatever the book values are sound close enough for good. But they were just too good to waste on paper.

I've used that SGK round just once, on a yearling moose of roughly 600-650 pounds that was determined not to go down. Of the more than 20 moose I've killed, he died the hardest - likely due to adreniline- he was leaving when I started shooting.

The first factory ammo Fed. Trophy Bonded Bullet went through both shoulder blades, at about 120 yards when he stopped momentarily and turned broadside to look back (paced off months later over the ice after the lake froze over). It staggered and turned the bull slightly, without knocking him down. Surprise! The second TBB broke a front leg knee, staggerd him again, and turned him butt-end on. (oops). But it isn't easy to make standing, off-hand shots through a screen of alder leaves while standing on a crumbling birch log 3 feet off the ground, even with a sling wrap around the arm. (This is sometimes referred to as a "field position"..... . )

At that point he headed for the tree line, 20 yards farther off, going dead away. Yeah, a Texas heart shot would have worked with those TBB's, but I waited until he turned a bit. The third TBB just creased the front of his thigh, and exited the same hole as the first shot did in the far shoulder blade, passing diagonally through the entire body cavity on the way. He was still going, but getting a pretty shakey, when my hand-loaded SGK took him broadside about 4 inches higher than the very first shot, and flattened him right at the edge of heavy timber/brush. He probably didn't have another 5 yards in him anyway. Excluding the knee-capper, the three exit holes were covered by the palm of my hand. All were exits, no fragments found. The SGK exit was about twice the size of the doubled TBB holes, which near as I could tell, overlapped each other by about half. The doubled TBB hole was about quarter size, The single SGK, 50 cent piece sized. I kept that bullet-pocked far-side shoulder blade as a "trophy". I was impressed by the penetration of the TBB, without apparently losing much if any of it's weight, or creating a huge exit wound even after complete penetration of a good 3 feet of intestine, paunch, and chest cavity. (Messy dress-out!)

One shot does not a trend make, but I would not hesitate to load up a bunch of SGK again had I a need for a long range .338WM load. I am saving those last 3 if I ever need to make a 500 yard shot on a moose. They are the other "half" of my moose loads currently in stock. Using the same components, I later junk- loaded 40 Hornady RN 250's. ( these also came with the rifle- it was 10 years before I got around to "getting rid" of both of those unwanted bullets by throwing together un-worked up "junk-loads". )

Those Hornady RN loads are ugly things! - I was just going to use them for practice - until THEY went MOA! At 100 yards, the SGK loads print almost 3 inches higher than the Hornady RN, zeroed 2 inches high at 100. I've killed more than 20 moose now, farthest at 160, and only, I think 3- over 100. I really need that kind of accuracy....... . And I've sworn off practice for practice sake anyway. I'm not going into combat.

I'm afraid those 26 really ugly RN I have left are going to turn out to be my life-time supply of moose loads, as little as I shoot for moose- generally just 3 or 4 times a hunt when using that rifle. Once to check sight-in. Once to drop the moose. Once for an insurance shot from a few yards out. They work too. But then taking the top of a bull's skull off at 30 yards, most anything will.

GameKings have worked great for me on elk and mule deer. Great penetration and exit holes.

My last kill was a large mule deer at 580 yards. The 7mm 175 GK hit him in the front and penetrated
all the way through him including his gut, bullet entered the front left shoulder and exited his right ham.

I wouldn't hesitate to use them (heavy for caliber) on a trophy bull elk hunt.