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.
