Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Sierra TGK

I have a 6.5 Swede that I had assembled a couple of years ago. I have shot a few handloads I had laying around but have not spent much trigger time with it at all. I think I have less than 100 shots on this gun. I am looking to put together a load for it this spring and hoped to give the Sierra Tipped Gameking a shot. I have no expectation of using these on anything but southern whitetails and maybe a pig if opportunity is available.

Being a Swede, velocity range is probably going to be around 2800fps at the muzzle...right in the sweet spot for cup and core bullets so I am not expecting anything too crazy. However, I am wondering if anyone has some more experience with these bullets on game now that these have been out for more than a single hunting season.



Also, I don't want to re-hash the Seafire shot-to-tech-call event.

I cannot speak to the Swede specifically, but I have a ton of experience with the Sierra GameKing. They are my favorite whitetail bullet in .270 or .308. Most deer drop DRT or maybe travel 30 yards if you do your job. Always gives pass through and always leaves a good blood trail.

The Game King and TGK (Tipped Game King) of the OP's question are different items.

My son and family friends have killed two antelope and two deer with 90 grainers in my .243 with a muzzle velocity of around 3025. Shots ranged between about 20 yards and 425ish. Bullet performed beautifully in all four instances. A single bullet for each animal for what what's worth.

Dave

REPORT:

Worked up a load over the summer....muzzle velocity is 2780fps and accuracy was in the 0.5-0.75" range @ 100yds. Hunting opportunities weren't the best for me this season so all I have to report on are two does. Both were about 100yd shots. My Shooter app says impact velocity should have been about 2600fps @ 100yds.

Doe #1 was about 90lbs; bullet entered on the left shoulder and exited through the ribs behind the shoulder on the right side. Entrance was quarter inch sized and the exit was about 1.5" or so. DRT. No pics of this one unfortunately.

Doe #2 was 90lbs (weighed); bullet entered right side a few ribs behind the shoulder and exited left side through the ribs, just clipping the rear edge of the scapula. Entrance was quarter inch sized and the exit was about 2.0". Death run of about 50yds before piling up. Lungs were soup. Pics of entrance / exit below.

While not a very difficult test, I was happy with what I got and plan to use them again this coming fall. I even plan to work up a load for my .25-06 with the new 110gr TMK that Sierra just introduced.

Nice pics! ....I have found these bullets to be very accurate in My .30 cal rifles but I have no practical experience but if they peform on game anything like the regular Gameking bullets they got to be pretty good...I did call the "Bullet Smiths" with a question about impact velocity's and he told me as long as my on game impact velocity was under 3000fps the bullet would perform as advertised. I have no reason to doubt his statement......Good luck.....Hb

I shot a buck straight on at about 40 yards with my 243 AI
Loaded with the 90 grain version in forming loads that are doing 3090 fps.

The bullet entered the neck/body junction and broke his spine then followed along the spine breaking several ribs off and the top of the scapula before it stopped.

The recovered bullet jacket was nicely expanded but it lost the core somewhere along the line. I thought it was great performance considering the impact speed and the amount of bone the bullet met with.

I used this Sierra game changer on a whitetail for my first time this past season. It behaved like a Nosler ballistic tip.

Just saw they now make a .257 110gn. Very good.

Yep! I wrote 110gr TMK in my message above but meant TGK. I had emailed Sierra about a .25 cal option and they just happened to update their website the same day. I am looking forward to trying that one.

I noticed that they've expanded the offerings quite a bit. They now list a 140gr 6.5mm and they even have 175gr .270 cal that is probably geared towards the 6.8 Western release.

Note of advice for .243 shooters - the 6mm is twist dependent.

You guys that have been using these , have you found them to be jump tolerant ?
I just picked up 300 of the .264 140 gr.
Looking to do some load work ups in my Creedmoor

Every time I start with a new bullet, I find the seating depth where they are touching the lands and immediately back off 0.010 or 0.020". Unless I am constrained by my mag box, that's where I start my load work up.

In the 6.5x55 and .264WM that I have loaded these in, I had no need to increase jump since accuracy was great from the start.

Long way of saying I have no experience with this bullet's jump tolerance.

I am stuck with the long lead , short mag box issue.
So .050 -.080 is bout as close as it gets.
Therefore no need to waste effort with bullets that won’t do well with jump

I just managed to also pick up 200 of the 110gr .257 TGK's and will be starting the load work up process with my .25-06 soon.

I'd still be willing to try them regardless of the jump. May be the most accurate load you've ever found. Only one way to find out.

I don't know your load development process...maybe try the 10 shot Satterlee method just so you aren't wasting components.

Run it as a 2 shooter.

1 in the pipe and 1 down below. I do this with my 6mm and several loads.

Not going to have to.
Load work ups with H4350 looked real good
RL17 looked pretty good
RL 16 well it wasn’t meant to be

All at magazine length which is -.050

if they do not work, then the lapua 105 scenars are jump tolerant! So is the 105g Hornady, and both are great deer bullets!