Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Sierra Gameking HPBT bullets on deer

Sierra Gameking HPBT, 30 cal, 165 grain, out of a 300 WSM, 3100 fps.

Bullets are very scarce around here. I found a box of these bullets and found that they are pretty accurate in my 300 WSM. They're odd looking things with sort of a crimp around the hollow tip but Sierra says they're very good for deer sized game. The BC isn't that great, only about .368. I assume that the weird tip has a lot to do with that. They group pretty well out to 300 yds, anyway.

Has anyone tried them? I'll be using them for deer as our season starts Friday and I can't find anything else here, let alone build another new load.

My favorite bullet in my 308 for deer. I also use the 160 gr in my 7x57 for deer

I killed 8-10 deer and antelope at the same velocity out of a 30-338 years ago. They work very well.

They work very good in my .308 at just under 2700 fps and I used them in my .30-06 at 2800, holding together against bone.

In my .300 WinMag, one blew up when shot into the shoulder of a rather large 8-pointer at 40 yards with a 3150 fps muzzle velocity. The bullet would have probably behaved better if the deer had showed up where he was supposed to, 200 yards across a field, instead of 40 yards behind me.

I'll be hunting open sagebrush hills so the odds are that any shot will be 100 plus, normally in the 100-200 range. I've had 180 gr AB's blow up on elk shoulders so these can't be any worse. Hopefully I'll have a chance to find out.

Rock Chuck, I was a young shooter when this bullet hit the shelves probably in the 60's.. It was THE BULLET for .30 cal. rifles for several years, because it was the first 165 boatail on the market.. I have shot thousands of them over the years..
Some in my old 30-06, but mostly in my old .300 Win. mag. It has shot everything from rockchucks on up.. antelope, deer, elk , moose, caribou etc.. I have shot it at ranges up to 500 yards and gotten excellent groups..
Now there are better designs on the market, but before I retired I bought about 1000 of them.. I am still shooting from that batch.. I imagine when they are gone, I might switch to something else, but they have worked for 50 years for me..
They have never failed me on game.. If you as most shoot behind the shoulder, just have your knife sharp.. You'll need it..
A couple years ago, I shot a big cow elk with a high shoulder shot with this bullet.. It put her down, but not out, a second round was needed, but she could not get up.. For hunting under conditions where that shot is necessary, I have used Accubonds or Partitions of late..

Thanks for the info, guys. For the last 40 years, I've been a fan of Speer Hotcores but I think they've dropped their quality control. I can't get them to shoot nearly as well as they have in the past with my old reliable loads. I've been looking for something else and these Sierras shoot every bit as well as the Hotcores of the past.

Only used in a 308, but the damage is epic. I mean seeing a cloud on the off side and huge holes. Too much damage for me I went back to 165 the BT. I know some claim they are hard or tough but that wasn't my experience. YMMV

Lung shot at about 50 yards, .308 at just under 2700 fps. I wouldn't say the off-side hole was excessively large, but I shot the deer from an elevated position, off-side exit was low in the lungs. Obviously the snow makes it more apparent.

Did you recover it?

Rock Chuck, I would stay clear of the shoulders on an elk.. I think with this bullet a lung shot is best.. I just killed my mulie for this fall with my old .300 one shot about 200 yards. Lung shot.. It did exit, but I think expanded and only part of the jacket exited.. It hit the lower part of the spine an dropped the3x3 in his tracks..

probably didn't find it , he couldn't find the blood trail

This is strictly for deer this time. Sierra recommends the SP instead of the HP for elk. I won't be elk hunting this year. Between a couple goats, geese, chickens and lots of frozen fruit, the 2 freezers won't hold any more than a deer.

Sounds like you are in fine shape for the winter.. Best of luck with the deer.

I shot some small TX whitetail spikes with the 160gr flat base SP and a 7mm RM at 2900fps. I was concerned they wouldn't open well on a small creature, but did the job just fine.
People commented on the HPBT holding together better in case of tougher shots presented, but they killed just fine for me.

In my experience you should be just fine for deer.

Here is the thread were I questioned the smarter people about SGKs
GameKings on Whitetails

It took a while...

My uncle used that bullet in an old 721 30/06 I loaned him to shoot a big old bull caribou this fall. I stuffed the HPBTs over enough H414 to get 2800fps and they shot into an inch and a quarter at 100 which I declared goodnuff.

When the time came the bulls were at 389yds but calm and broadside. I told him where to hold and watched through the scope as he squeezed one off prone over a pack. The bull went down like he'd been struck by lightning and never kicked. The shot had broke both shoulders and everything between them was soup. I had heard that the 165 HPBT was a tough bullet and was a bit surprised to see the damage that it caused, even at reduced velocity. The onside shoulder was nearly unsalvageable due to bloodshot and the offside wasn't too much better, the bullet did exit however and the hole wasn't too awful big, 1 1/2" or so.

I wouldn't have a worry about using them again, even for elk, but I would try my best to stay off the big bones.

I used the 165gr .30 cal. HPGK back in the late 1970's. I stopped using it when Speer came out with their old model Grand Slam. The only bullet I ever used that destroyed more meat than the HPGK was the pre-InterLock Hornady bullets.

I am gonna be using the 165 grain Sierra GameKing BTSP (soft point boat tail) for my upcoming mule deer hunt....they have been shooting well in my 7mm Mag.

I hope you meant the 160 or the 175 SBT . THE 165 is a 30cal. Might have a hard time a squeezing thru your .284 bbl.

Nope - they are 165 grain Sierra GameKings BTSP from Federal Premium for 7mm Mag.........link here:

http://www.federalpremium.com/products/details/rifle.aspx?id=373

You can depend on that weird crimp HPBT to be tougher than it's Sp counterpart, call Sierra, they will tell you so.

I shot them in a 308 and 30/06, VERY accurate bullets.

Ahhh...factory ammo. Thx. Didn't know that. Learn something every day.

The 90gr .25cal is supposed to be the cat's meow. powdr

Factory ammo? I shot some of that back in the 60's. I didn't know they were still making it.

Yea still making it...............shoots like this out of my 7mm Mag:

All I use out of my 270 is the SGK hpbt. I have killed more whitetails than I can count, the majority of which have not gone far at all.

Since the SMPs are pretty much gone from Sierra's line up, it is the HPs are the first bullet I'd reach for in their product line, if I wasn't reaching for their good old Round Noses left in the product line...

Ok, I'm convinced. This morning I pegged this large bodied 3x3 from 130 yds. He was in sagebrush and my only shot was a high shoulder. It put him smartly down but not out. I had to use a kill shot from 5 yds.

The 1st shot did plenty of damage to down him but it didn't explode like what I've seen AB's do many times. The kill shot was another story. My only angle was straight on and right under the chin. It totally blew out one shoulder blade as it exited. I suppose that would be expected from 3100 fps at 5 yds.

Is the picture showing the entrance side or exit side from the high shoulder shot RC?

Congrats on the buck.. Looks like a good freezer filler..

Just loaded up some for my 308 over Big Game powder. 48.5 grns at about 2650, should be perfect for deer, scary accurate

when i was in my 257 Roberts phase of life i shot 90gr. hpbt gamekings and it killed with authority! that was in my ruger m77...then tried them in a 15" encore handgun and had the same result...dead deer (and turkey)

I never had any issues with Sierra bullets on deer be it game kings or even match kings. I ran 100gr SPBT game kings and 100 gr match kings out of a 25-06 about fifteen years ago. Both were damn accurate and deadly on deer. Quite a few DRT's if I remember correctly.

I loaded some up for my buddy this year and he used 1 to take a nice buck. 1 shot 1 kill with good performance. Held together well and made 2 holes. Deer dropped in it's tracks. The bullet in question was the .277 130 gr. HPBT GK. 270 win...The 180gr. Winchester powerpoint (30-06) did more damage on my buck this year than the game king did. Both shots were about 85 yards..

BSA: are you sure? I know Sierra makes a 130gr SPBT GK and a 140GR HPBT GK in 277, but don't recall a 130gr HPBT.

i used them in my 270 but found they did more meat damage (bloodshot) than i liked. probably still have a box or two on the reloading bench.

The 165 gr HPBT in the 30 worked ok for me but I didn't shoot more than a couple of deer with them. I shot enough 120 gr HPBT Sierras on antelope and deer to learn they are great for double lung broad side shots, keep them in the ribs because if you don't they don't hold together busting bones and are damn hard on your eating meat. Magnum Man

MM: I'm so confused! Folks on here swear by the 85gr 6mm HPBTs and the 90gr 257 HPBTs for deer: great penetration, etc. Yet Sierra says they were designed as varmint bullets.

And then, Sierra says the 257, 120gr, is the toughest big game bullet they make in 257.

Weird...

Dang, you are right. These are the lead tipped BTSP. Sorry for the confusion. Well I was confused anyway

I can tell you, the 90gr .257 HPBTs are varmint bullets. I loaded some up in a .25-06 and shot a whitetail once. Most explosive bullet I've ever killed a critter with, and I've shot them with quite a few of the "notorious ones" (Nosler BT, etc.).

I use this exact bullet in my 308. Excellent deer bullet. I've used the 6.5, 130 version in 260 as well. Also excellent results on deer.

Never shot anything bigger than deer with these. I've since gone to 125 NPs in the 260, but the 308 still spits these out every fall with boringly positive results on deer.

Nothing to be confused about they come apart hard when you hit big bones just like most Sierras. As long as you go along in life whacking your deer or goats with dbl lung shots busting only a rib or two you will happy with Sierras ,as they generally are very accurate. When the odd time comes you have a frontal shot that requires the bullet to bust the spine and or shoulder bones still making it thru to the vitals you are going to be unhappy, especially so if you enjoy eating your venison. Other bullets do it better it's that simple with less meat loss period. Sierras are very accurate bullets ,some of the best out there,hold together? some of the worst. Using them taught me the doctrine of aiming for the far shoulder when needing to break a animal down on the spot(because they don't allways make it thru the near one). I don't care for blow up bullets in any brand. I learned about bullet behavior by shooting animals with them, not reading about it on the internet. You should do that too. No offense intended. Magnum Man

That's the exit. While the hole is small and very hard to see, the inside is hashed enough to put him down on the spot.
There are actually 2 exit holes there. The other is on top of the spine from my kill shot. It was straight on just under the chin as he was holding his head up. Good luck finding them.

as i said b4 the165 HPGK in 308destroyed too much meat for me. I've had nothing but good results with the 180 pro hunter in 30-06. YMMV and probably has time to time.

I'd suspect they should be fine, because the matchkings work just fine. And they are not "designed" for hunting.

Cup and core bullets generally leave too much destruction period for my tastes generally... so with the availability of better bullets I simply choose to use those.

No offense taken. I agree. And have done that. And my experience is that Sierra HPBTs are good performers on deer (not counting the 85gr HPBT AND 90 gr HPBT), even on quartering shots ....as long as you don't push them too hard.

Haven't tried to 85 or 90 on big game because their manufacturer calls them varmint bullets, hence the need to gather data via the interweb for them.

I always liked the game kings, never had a problem I have only had 2 bullets that I was not impressed with that way they acted, both did the job! A fellow needed a freezer deer and I grabbed my trusty Carlos, a pre 64 target in a sporter stock 30-06, ammo that day was hornady superformance in 165 gr sst's that were very accurate! A 2 1/2 yr old basket buck ran to me from 300 yards out, about 90 yards out I stood up in a 15 ft tree stand and whistled, the deer turned broad side and slowed to a walk, I hit the deer high in right shoulder, I never had a deer go over so fast in my life, it was like you hit him with a cannon ball, all 4 hooves were straight up, back leg kicked once. I loaded deer and called the fellow who needed him, met him at another friend that was set up to butcher. The darn bullet went off like a hand grenade, it never penetrated rib cage! jacket and lead were every where under hide all the way to cod sack! The only thing I could figure was it was too fast for that kind of jacket. The deer was dead as a hammer so I guess the shock was just too much? The other one I did not like was and old grey box of hornady lt. mags loaded with interbonds, dead very nice buck but he carried the round off 30 yards and was hard to find. The hot load had penciled thru him in and out, Im saying the bullet was to tough and load and or the load was to fast. I got in my truck 3 times, then would tell my self, you know you hit him hard! he had run in a rock pile from and old field that had grown up in 25 yr old scrub oaks. 30 yards max from hit! I am not fussing as both deer were hammer dead, I was just used to the 30 cal bang flop, go down in tracks like a bag of cow feed dead. very best

Winchesterpoor, your dead description is what I am used to with old 100 count 165 bts in the 308. Almost everything else, including same bullet in 300win, leaves me wanting. As before YMMV

165 grain Sierra hollow point game kings have been my standard .308 for both deer and elk for a while. They work great on elk, no problem. I've dumped plenty with it.

Just killed a young buck using the hpbt a couple weeks ago. Works like a charm.

Very accurate too.

Same here. Also use in 30-06. The 160's are an excellent choice in 7 Rem Mag also.

I have used a number of them in 140 gr. .277 on deer over the years with zero problems.

Just took a nice doe this afternoon at 5:40 pm with same bullet in my 30-06. 60 yrd broadside shot. Typical performance...excellent. I'm running less then max. listed load. Shoots sub MOA @ 2860 fps average.

I've used the 90 grain HPBT Gameking from a 257 Roberts on Deer, Mrs. Tide has used the 130 grain HPBT Gameking and I've loaded but not had a chance to pull the trigger on a 140 grain HPBT Gameking from a 270 WSM and a 140 grain HPBT Gameking out of a 7mm/08 on deer.

They work. I don't guess I'd hesitate to use them again.

Let me know how the 140s work in your .270WSM. I have some ready to turn into reloads myself. I wish I had them ready for deer season.

I am shooting up the last few rounds I have loaded for that rifle with 110 grain TTSX's and then more than likely I will give the Sierras a go.

I'm thinking the performance may be a tad different, though.