Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game GameKing or Pro-Hunter?

20 yrs ago or a tad more, I wanted to get a new 300WM "bloody", so to speak. I was invited on a Hill Country deer hunt near Llano. It was a 4 deer area, no more than 2 which could be bucks. I had been using Barnes X and Partitions in magnums (or hot wildcats) but since I had just bought the rifle, I had no loads worked up. I thought to myself " I want a bomb, I want it to blow up inside those very small deer. I bought some Federal Blue Box 300WM loaded ( it said on the box) 150gr Sierra Pro Hunter. I shot all 4 deer, none over 60yds. The only buck I I shot through the base of the neck. the does I shot in the lungs. All bullets exited, acted like Partitions! I barely even had any bloodshot meat. It surprised me to all get out. I have seen the SBT come apart, but so did 1 of 2 Hornady 180SP (30-06 Lite Magnum load) on my first cow elk. I shot a medium sized cow later with a handloaded 300SBT, in a .375 H&H. Same thing, just wanted to get it bloody. At 200yds, it blew on through (tight hold behind shoulder, but had an exit of at least 6 inches. It humped up and looked like it was going to run off into this godawful hole nearby. I popped her at the top of the shoulders and down she went. I would say at least 25% of the meat was badly bloodshot. I went to the 270 Failsafe after that.

Any Sierra heavy for caliber bullet in PH or GK works in any hunting condition.

I have killed mature bull elk with both in 30/200's and 28/175's.

Southtexas, Sorry for the late response, I forgot to check back in on this thread. My limited experience with Interbonds is just that, limited and I’m not trying to run down anyone’s preferred bullet. I shot a cow elk at just under 100 yards with my .338wm and a 225gr interbond. When butchering the animal I found the jacket without a trace of lead and as I got deeper into the butchering I found the lead core. If I remember correctly I weighed the 2 pieces and they weighed just north of 160 grains together. Obviously the animal died and it died rather quickly requiring only the original shot to do the job so in that respect I don’t have any complaints regarding bullet “performance”. After seeing the jacket and core separation I decided to do some unscientific experimentation. I soaked a bunch of phone books and shot the Interbonds into the wet medium at 100 yards. 3 of the 4 test rounds had partial to complete jacket/core separation. I used up the rest of my handloaded Interbonds at the range sighting in other friends rifles. I have one left that I use as a comparator for my reloads since it’s just kissing the lands in that rifle. During that same range session I used the same medium to test the 225 TBBC and A-Frame and they were picture perfect mushrooms. I’m not complaining about the Interbonds merely relaying my personal albeit limited experience with them.

Good luck!

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

I would add that I killed one mule deer doe with a 25-06 and the 117 Sierra and I felt it was a pretty tough bullet. I also used the 165 SBT in the old Federal Red Box 30-06 ammo in the 70's. Up close on hogs it did swell, held together just fine. My BIL uses the .308 with the 150gr SBT on East Tx deer and hogs just fine. So, I a big heavy hog is what I call "big game" ( bigger than deer as far as being more solid, heavy muscle & fat plus thick skin which is( usually matted with mud) However, I sure did not like how that 300gr SBT did on that elk, it was only going 2600fps too. I have read where a lot of moose hunting guides use the 200gr SBT in the 30-06, but I have never used it myself. Just "off hand" I don't think I would use any GK when I could use the Pro Hunter, especially on elk/bear/moose. Have a ball though Pard!

Thanks for all your posts on this, Guys. Appreciate it.

Sounds like they have not really changed much from when I tried them many years ago, accurate but a bit lightly-constructed for really bg game.

Ted