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

Well I'm watching rainman, so I can buy that funky machine put it together and become the bullet whisperer. Anyhow pass me the hornady ELD X if you are shooting past 300yds please..

I used the 100gr Pro-Hunter in my 243 Win back in the 80's. Yes, they were very accurate at my ranges, but too many of them came apart on WI whitetails. No science, no parallax issues, just observation. They came apart on little deer, they came apart on big deer, I have a collection of separated bullets. I'm a hunter, and only care about hunting. I switched to Barnes and have never looked back. When you look at the overall expense of a hunting trip, bullets/ammo are the cheapest component. My bullet choice for hunting wouldn't be anything Sierra, but that's only my decision for me.

Been watching this thread with keen interest. My observations line up very well with the majority here. I used 0.308 cal 180 GK last year in my 308 to take an elk and several deer. I opined that I thought I should get complete penetration on apparent broadside deer at 308 vels with the GK. You'd have thought I committed the ultimate sin and was called BS by at least one person who is conspiciosly absent on this thread. Funny how people can have different results.

FWIW I've seen complete penetration with the 30 cal, 180 PH from 308 and 30-06 on deer. I beleive them to be 'harder' than the GK. Too bad they quit making them.

OK, I see what you're getting at with my use of the word "transonic", and see where I was confusing. When I said "still is transonic", I should have just said something to the effect of "above the speed of sound".

This physics stuff makes my head hurt. I think I'll just go blast prairie dogs instead of playing Steven Hawking.

Thanks for the explanation.

Very true, and this thread is a prime example.

Maybe it's how we load our rounds vs others, each individual's definition of "good" performance, how we hold our rifles, or some other seemingly non-related factor.

I've also been watching with great interest and glad you weighed in on the 30 cal 180 pro-hunter. Hope some more folks do as well because most are talking about the Game Kings. I have to wonder if there was a period where Sierra produced weak bullets (soft cores or thin jackets) based on some of these reports. And if so, whether they quietly made any adjustments.

Sierra shows 30 cal 180 gr Pro-Hunters on their website and MidwayUSA shows them to be in stock/available.

Another interesting thing I noticed is MidwayUSA shows Sierra 6th Edition Reloading Manual, but neither Sierra nor Amazon do. I checked because unlike other manual producers, they hadn't updated the 5th edition for a very long time.

I'm a fan. Especially of the PH's. Used in both 6.5 and 7mm, and they kill stuff. Great value.

The 180 Pro-Hunter is my 30-06 bullet.
Half hearted attempt to load for a 760.
Had a half box of 180's, dumped in 58 gr. H4831.

Good enough, them stupid pumps don't shoot, I don't even like the 30-06.

Easy 1" 3 shot groups, anytime.

Still don't like pumps, but those bullets have killed several deer with one shot.
Only one needed more, placement issues, not the bullets fault.

Have never seen a fired one, they fled the scene.

Those bullets, the'06, and 760's, learned something.
And have respect for all three.

Have used the 165 hollow point GK, in a 308.
Some claim they hang together, I have only found 1 in about 10 deer.
They were the most effective bullets I have ever used.
But the damage was unreal.
A cloud blowing out the far side was not unusual, double fist exit holes weren't either.
A hit in a shoulder, destroyed that shoulder. With a 20" barreled 308!
Ballistic Tips replaced those.

I’m a fan of the Prohunter bullets, I shoot 65 gr in 223 and 110 in my 6.8, 1 shot will work with either on deer and pigs.

Funny you mention that...my brother had an acubond fail to exit a whitetail this last year at 85 yards. A 180 fired from a 300 weatherby!

Pretty disappointing

Our game up here is much bigger than what most of you would be hunting down South. Accubonds have been called Accubombs by a few guys up here.

Ted

Never an issue with Accubond's here, they are one of the best all around bullets out there.

I have seen them used on bears, big and small, deer, caribou, moose, and bison. I have never seen an exit wound. That would include four broadside 300gr from a 375H&H in a very large brown bear. I have seen a whole bunch of 270gr X bullets in brown bears without catching a single bullet. And many of the Xs were full length.

I simply don't believe you. There are other reasons you don't like Nosler and slam them at almost any opportunity. I have only caught a couple in my time and have used them on moose, bear, deer and goats. I bet you saw quick kills with them unlike the 25-06 bear with TSX bullets that ran 200 yards but you still seem to think that was excellent performance. I'm not a Barnes hater by any means just pointing out something that makes no sense at all. There are other who have pointed out to you that they have seen your favourite bullet caught in game animals more than Accubond's. For some bizarre reason exit wounds seem to be more important to you than how quickly a bullet kills. If you don't like them that's fine but your reasoning is flawed.

Seen a few Accubonds caught in elk after smashing alot of bone, but honestly the elk went nowhere. Been using a few more TTSX's recently and they seem to work fine as well, but I haven't ever really any trouble with Accubonds and probably prefer them to Partitions at this point due to them usually being a bit more accurate for me on average.

I used the 130 GK in a Browning 270 for Texas muleys one year. Shot a nice 10 point in the neck and he dropped like a hammer. The bullet completely came apart and I found parts of the jacket between his shoulder blades on top of the back just underneath the skin. This was in about 1990 and I haven't used Sierra's since. Now I use the 140 gr. Hornady BTSP in my 270.

My only experience with the Accubond is in my 7/08, a Remington 700 CDL. My load was super accurate and I used the rifle to take a large hog at about 60 yards and a nice west Texas whitetail at 302 yards. The hog went boom-whop-thud, the whitetail got heart shot, spun around once, then staggered and fell. I found neither bullet.

For the longest time I shot a Remington 700 Ti in 7MM RSAUM and handloaded the Barnes 140 TTSX with 59.5 grains of IMR 4350 and average 3050 FPS. I have no idea how many critters I've killed with that combination, but none ever took a step. I never found a bullet either.

I'm currently working with the Accubond and the Scirocco in 6.5 Swede and 6.5 PRC. I'm getting good accuracy, but I think I can get better.

A brown bear hit through the heart once from each side IS going to run a long ways, regardless the bullet used. The fact it made it across an avalanche chute is far from a surprise and a 30 caliber rifle would have produced nearly identical results.

As far as not believing me on Accubonds there are several posters here that shot those bullets and in order for me to have seen them it had to be someone else shooting as I have never shot an Accubond at a game animal. And likely never will.

My "beef" with Nosler if you want to call it that is pretty simple. They produce what they call a premium bullet at premium prices. I find it works about like any other cup and core bullet of modest construction. When I shot Nosler bullets I caught a ton of them. I used them for many years. There are a number of "cheap" brands I have used a lot of and never found a real difference between them and Partitions.

I do insist on exit wounds for two reasons. When animals have just an entrance hole bleeding is slowed. Add a second hole and the advantage of tissues being laid pretty much in line with the exit, which is generally larger, seriously increases the bleeding. I want the blood trail if needed and the simple fact is more bleeding means quicker death. If you hunt in a rain forest a bit the need will be obvious.

I do hunt in a rain forest actually and like exit wounds if possible but I also like quick kills which Accubond's typically give with minimal trailing an animal. I bet you found those recovered bullets in dead animals and I bet they expired quickly in general given good bullet placement. Actually other than one 375 250 gr Barnes X not opening up on a bear and shooting it a second time (with an Accubond ironically and it was lights out instantly) pretty much all bullets used have done their job well. I'll keep on using the Nosler bullets plus Barnes, Speer, Hornady, Sierra, Woodleigh etc because it's fun to experiment. I like the Barnes TTSX but still think twice about the TSX and that small hollow point after that X bullet not opening that actually had a big hollow point.

I hope the 6.5 130gr Gamechangers hold up on game, they shoot excellent and the price is right.

Why limit yourself to those two options?