Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Sierra 165gr 30 cal Bonded Gameking (I think)

Today I received what I think are blems of an as of yet unreleased Sierra tipped bonded hunting bullet.

I saw this box of 500 "Bonded Polymer Tipped" 30 cal seconds on PV about a week ago when what looked suspiciously like a Sierra pattern UPC:

https://www.powdervalley.com/produc...-grain-bonded-polymer-tipped-box-of-500/

Curiosity got the better of me after a few days because no such bullet exists on the market, so I ordered a box to check out. Upon receiving them this evening and comparing them with the 165gr Sierra TGKs I had previously bought from PV, I have to say it certainly appears that they are a bonded version of the TGK. Here are some pictures I took of the boxes and bullets (TGK on the left), I assume "BGK" must stand for "Bonded GameKing". I also hack sawed one in half as best I could and can't pry the core out, so it certainly appears to be bonded.









What do you think? Was there an announcement I missed or could these be from the first runs of the long requested but thus far unannounced bonded Sierra hunting bullet?

Shot show is a month away who knows.

Gamechangers are tipped game king and are not bonded. If you don’t believe me, put your sectioned bullet in a vice tip to base and close the vice, watch the core and jacket seperate.

Here’s what they say about them…



I tend to disagree. Just because they have a harder core and thicker jacket doesn’t help as far as l’m concerned. Compared to what the originals do?.. it’s not just the tip but also the cavity under the tip that upsets the bullet faster and the thicker jacket isn’t enough to slow down expansion compared to GK’s. Original GK’s do just as well if you load them correctly. I noticed the pro hunter being a tougher bullet. A manager from Sierra told me this years ago, and the GK has to be loaded slower to keep it together longer for more penetration. If you place the bullets in the vitals, how much more penetration do you need that you don’t get from a GK ?

Come on man, why post if you're not going to read past the title?

I didn't say these are regular TGKs, I compared them to TGKs that I already have. I shoot TGKs in 3 different calibers and multiple weights,I know what they are and what they aren't. In the picture the two lighter colored bullets on the left are TGKs, two on the right are the new bullet.

These bullets aren't TGKs, but they are very similar in profile, have a Sierra style UPC that doesn't match the UPC of the blem TGKs I already bought, and are sold as bonded, tipped bullets. Also, the tip is an opaque, darker green vs the TGK light translucent green. The core does not separate from the jacket as I already stated, they appear to be actually bonded (Powder Valley isn't lying).

He wanted you to know how smart he is that's all.

I could give a care less about all the fluff I would love to see sierra jump into a bonded line that carried a reasonable price.

It would probably be a giant success if they could keep them in stock it seems that a lot of other bullet companies cannot keep anything in stock reliably.

Yeah, I was thinking about that too, maybe some first runs of something new for next year.

I ordered the 500 pack of TGK blems (the ones I was comparing this new bullet to) about a year ago, and PVI's SKU was a direct match for the Sierra SKU for the 165gr TGK (4665) with a PVI added, also the shipping info actually identified them as TGKs.

Shipment notice from the verified TGKs I ordered a year ago.


The new bullets I just received have an SKU of PVI6765R, which follows the Sierra pattern, but I haven't seen the 67 prefix on any of their other bullets, I kind of think it's a new prefix for a bonded series. Also the new bullets are advertised as bonded tipped bullets, and the packaging reads "BGK" instead of "TGK" from my last shipment. The tips are also a dark opaque green instead of the lighter translucent green of the TGKs. To me that's circumstantial, but points to this being a different bullet.

Anothergun's comment did get me thinking about testing the bonding so I crushed one of the sawed bullet halves in my vise both lengthwise and widthwise. The lead is starting to bulge out, but is obviously sticking to the copper walls and wont separate. I'm pretty convinced they really are bonded.

I went to the link in your first post with high hopes. Wish they weren’t sold out. Should be an outstanding hunting bullet.

I did the same!

You think what ? Who know s what PV said in thier description....

What threw me was this AR article, and nothing on the box that says "Bonded" AND in the article is says this........
https://www.americanrifleman.org/content/tested-sierra-gamechanger-bullets/

Total core jacket separation. AND Sierra in a email is surprised.......

Tech from Sierra....


It doesn't say on thier website that they are bonded.
https://www.sierrabullets.com/product/30-caliber-165-gr-tgk/

And a tech said this......

Philip Mahin
3:17 PM (9 minutes ago)
to me

No, none of our bullets are bonded at this time.

As did I!

You think someone there is going to spill the beans to some Joe over the phone or anonymous email if they have a new product they plan to unveil next month at the largest outdoor trade show in the world? Probably not.

What makes you know that ! ? LOL So what if they did ? Why would they have to wait till a trade show to tell people that ? LMAO

They sell seconds, it says so on thier website, doesn't make sense they wouldn't tell anyone they're bonded.

Guess it would take a genius to ask PV what brand bullet they are selling, or better yet ask Sierra if PV bought them from them in the first place. Says not for resale, uh oh !! Oh WAIT. PV wouldn't say where they got it from, would they? Some Anonymous person walked in the outlet, it only one state over and worth the trip, and bought them, and sounds like they RESOLD THEM. 4 hours from Winfeild to Seledia... but worth the trip if buying alot ! One sale of payed for two trips to the outlet !



Lets see the UPC and I'll show it to Sierra.. LOL

Quote from Sierras website

Not possible that just maybe Sierra, Hornady, Speer, and whatever other bullet manufacturers might make a deal with places like PV, Midway, Midsouth, and other outlets that regularly sell unnamed factory second bullets to get rid of them in bulk?

Surely Midway isn’t making their own bullets back in the back of the warehouse and advertising their seconds with strangely familiar wording?

Couldn’t possibly be any reason a bullet manufacturer would want to get rid of huge quantities of seconds or overruns by selling them to distributors instead of dealing with the general public in direct competition to their factory firsts while still at least recouping some of their investment in components. Right?

What about the times the outlets will have overruns of non catalog bullets that were made to fulfill contracts with ammunition manufacturers? Sierra doesn’t or didn’t offer Tipped Matchking bullets with a cannelure but ammo loaded by several companies using Tipped Matchkings had cannelures and somehow I ended up with a big box of them from Midway. But they weren’t in the Sierra catalog so they must not be real. Or maybe Midway was putting a cannelure on them in their bullet shop so they could sell them as overruns at a reduced price.

You can’t possibly be this dense unless you’re purposely trying to be obtuse.

Originally Posted by TheKid

You can’t possibly be this dense unless you’re purposely trying to be obtuse.

YUP.

both of you guys need to wise up !

you're talking in circles trying to draw your own conclusions. Really you are ! Back up a couple of steps, take a deep breathe and think about what you're saying. Why doesn't Nosler catalogue their blemished seconds to distributors, oh wait they don't, just like Sierra doesn't and said so. Big Surprise ? How often do you see any distributor selling seconds to the public, which is resale??? Right?? Compared to the manufacture themselves? I rarely see or saw Midway selling seconds over the years, so where are you coming from ? LMAO And I never saw Sierra being sold as seconds on the WWW either until now.


Guess you missed the word Anonymous person walked in the outlet to buy the bullets.... go back and re- read my post. All kinds of shady stuff going on these days, pay attention.




LMAO

that's a ridiculous statement if I ever heard one ! How about shipping costs and record keeping etc.....how's that for RECOUP ? In this day and age, seconds and firsts are rolling out the door faster than they can make them, right ?

Midway literally has a page for just factory second bullets in their reloading components. They have for as long as I’ve been buying from their website which is going on towards two decades. As does PV, Midsouth, Natchez etc.
Nosler sells all their seconds and overruns through SPS.

Maybe when you contact Sierra for some more info you should tell them that Larry Potterfield is sending people in to buy massive quantities of seconds on the down low and reselling them for a profit. You might have to be the key witness in the trial when they file suit against Midway.

Factory outlet inventory and distributors are obviously two different sources. Midway has very little seconds for sierra TGK an TMK.