Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Mule deer bullet

I have some Sierra 160 gr TMK bullets loaded up in my 7mm WSM that I use for shooting steel. Will they work for Nevada Mule deer ?

yes

Getting pretty verbose in your old age, huh?

I have never used match or target bullets for shooting larger animals, but there are plenty of stories on the internet of people successfully doing it. But why don't we ask Sierra what they think?

MatchKing Bullets: This is the classification for Sierra's pre-eminent target bullets. The driving motivation for the design of each MatchKing bullet is accuracy. These bullets have very thin jackets drawn to an exacting concentricity standard of 0.0003 in maximum variation, and their weight is held to within ± 0.3 grain. All MatchKing have a hollow point design with a very small meplat for high ballistic coefficient. The majority of these bullets have a boat tail shape to further minimize drag and improve ballistic coefficient. They are manufactured to the very highest quality standards. Their accuracy has been acclaimed worldwide, and they have been used to win more target competitions than all target bullets from other manufacturers combined. While they are recognized around the world for record-setting accuracy, MatchKing® and Tipped MatchKing® bullets are not recommended for most hunting applications.

I asked Sierra about this once. I was told that to get true bullet expansion, the impact velocity needs to be about 2400 fps. The other problem is they tend to tumble on impact. Both of these characteristic lead to erratic bullet performance.
Mule Deer are easily to kill, even with a bad hit provided you use a bullet that opens rapidly upon impact. I've learned the hard way that this is very important if you make a bad hit on a running buck of your dreams.
There are lots of excellent game bullets out there that perform quite well in the 7 Mags. E

I will never understand the infatuation with bullets like this for big game hunting. I'm not going to sit here and say they won't work, as many have proven that they will. My pea brain says as long as we have proven, reliable hunting bullets like partitions, AB's, BT's, Interlokts, game kings, etc, why bother with these exploding type bullets? Most mule deer are killed under 250 yds anyway I'd bet.

For mulies, you just need a bullet that's accurate in your gun and that will expand a little on impact. Explosions are not necessary. Premium bullets are not necessary at all unless your gun won't shoot standards well. I've killed a truck load of mulies with Speer Hotcores.

For years my favorite bullet was the 165 gr. Sierra HPBT.. I used it my my .300 and .30-06.. The 160 in 7mm is another fav.. Rock Chuck made clear what is needed... I have a couple pals who are 7mm addicts.. They found one or two match bullets from Sierra that did NOT expand...

Well I went out and bought some Hornady ELD-X bullets. Now how do I get a deer to cooperate for bullet testing ?

Buy 'em dinner and get 'em drunk. A little jewelry wouldn't hurt.

Actually, got a box for my .243 as well. After my nap, I'm going to stuff some over some RL26. Alliant data puts them at close to 3100, and my gun's got a 26" barrel, so that should be doable. Also have a bunch of e-tips and some Accubonds. The accuracy winner goes hunting, at least for the first round.

I always thought of the 165gr .308 Gamekings as match bullets with the tips cut off, but they're supposed to have a thick base and maybe a harder core. They sure make a hole, even at 2700 or thereabouts.

There are about 20 pages on here singing the praises of Lapua Scenar bullets in all calibers. Kill like lightening bolts, the Hammer of Thor and black mambas combined. How do they differ from SMKs?

Think of the 165 gr hpbt bullet as ballistic tip more than a target bullet with no tip. My experience has shown good terminal performance at 308 velocities, but very explosive when impact velocities are above 308 muzzle velocities.
I quit shooting them in my 300WM, when I nearly lost a doe that was shot at 50 yards, lost due to no blood trail and extremely thick brush. Found her within 100 yards of where she was standing but it took 3 hours and a semi circular search pattern.

A good friend works for Sierra on their ask the expert phone line, ........ the SMK/TMK is designed to fly thru the air and hit the target, it's not designed for consistent terminal performance, because you don't NEED terminal performance on a target.

Trapr

They'll work great. Expect rapid, expansion and fragmentation, with most exiting on a broadside shots.

Mule Deer at 303 yards with a 77gr TMK from a 223. Slightly quartering to, bullet traveled from just behind the left leg to behind the opposite last rib.








Just over 100 yards. 77gr TMK from a 223. Destroyed onside leg, and again traveled to the opposite last rib.





Both bucks slid on their faces downhill about ten feet.










It's not an infatuation. I greatly prefer the wound channels caused by bullet such as TMK, A-Max, ELD-M, Berger, etc. to those you mention. There is no magic with bullets. If Nosler came out tomorrow and stated that the Accubond was now a match bullet and they don't recommend them for hunting, would you stop using them?

I shot 23,000 match bullets last year out of 5.56/223's, a tick over 9,000 out of 308's, a couple thousand 300WM and 338's, etc. They have reduced wind drift even at shorter ranges, and retain more impact velocity compared to "hunting" bullets. I know what they do to living things, they work, so the real question is- why wouldn't I use them?

Well, you get 'em on the ground, that's for sure, but I avoid exits like that as there's nothing that excites me about that kind of performance. My stuff works too, but ain't as messy.

Wouldn't want a deer kill to become messy. That'd be awful.




Travis

7mm 168 VLDH



7mm 160 Partition


No wonder everyone tries to emulate a partition.

No doubt. I can understand completely someone wanting less damage. I think the biggest thing is for people to realize that nearly ALL bullets- match and hunting- ARE tested for terminal performance. The fact that a manufacturer doesn't state that they are for hunting, may have less to do with them not being suited for it than some think...


One of the things I like about bullets like the TMK, is that it allows me to drop back to the 223 and still maintain the tissue damage that I want. I have and do kill with .22 cal bullets like the TSX, but they produce narrower wound channels than I like, resulting in more runners. Also they are so dependent upon velocity that I find them really good for 200+/- yards or so. That 77gr TMK I have no issue with at 600 yards even on big deer.

Very impressive photos! Thanks........you got me really thinking......fascinating. Thanks again for sharing.

I'll stick with the manufacturers recommendation on this. I use varmint bullets on varmints, target bullets for dedicated target shooting and medium game bullets for medium game. Oddly, that's what the manufacturers recommend. I can't see any reason whatsoever to use target bullets on medium game animals.

Yep.