Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Sierra Game-King Lovers...

My biggest bodied buck was killed with a Sierra 165 grain Gameking out of a .30/06, at about 20 yards. Through both shoulders no problem. I've killed lots of doe with them too.

I like them, but I also like Interlocks, Ballistic Tips, Accubonds, and X Bullets, so I'm not overly particular.

HOLY THREAD RESURRECTION!

October 31, 2009 - today

I could finish out my hunting career using Sierras and be no worse off.

I have killed a large pile of deer using 150 grain Sierra Gamekings in my .30-06 and 150 grain Sierra Gamekings in my 7mm Rem. mag. I have always got very good accuracy and performance from them. In fact, my favorite three bullets are Sierra Gamekings, Winchester Power Points, and Remington Corelokts and I have not been able beat the performance for deer sized game.

I've shot some at paper and loaded them for a friend for years - 150 grain Gameking out of a .30/06. I don't know the velocity, but it isn't a hot load. He points it where it goes, the rifle goes bang and he goes and field dresses his deer. I also watched him shoot an antelope with it once and it did fine.

My FIL has shot a lot of different cartridges and bullets at deer over the years and he swears by Sierra now. He prefers the HPBT, however.

165 SGK is all i run in my .308 win.

I'll post these pics again.





275 yards, nice mushroom in off side just under skin.

An oldie but a goodie . For deer in deer cartridges, I don't reckon there's a better bullet made.

I'm using SGK's in my 30-06. Never gave me a reason to change.

They work great. That's all I use for elk in my 338 win mag...The 250gr. is heavy enough that I don't have to worry about much of anything and it shoots like a house on fire out of the old 338....They are great bullets...

my buddy loaded up some 130gr GK for his father in-laws 270 win ten rounds ten yoties told me they all drop in there tracks. I loaded up some 250gr for my 375 ruger with 66.7gr imr-4064 i figure around 2550-2600fps haven't had a chance to chrono them yet. I plan on trying them out on a black bear this spring or a mulie buck this fall.

I drive them no faster than 2700-2800fps and have never had a problem. The just kill critters.

They're not on the top of my list.

And yes, I've killed a fair number of elk, muleys, a few pronghorns and a bear with Sierra GK's in 150 grain 270's and 180 grain 06's. Can't speak for whitetails though.


Casey

I've never personally loaded or shot them due to the lack of BC and resulting lack of interest, but have seen elk slain with 140s slung from a lowly 260 slightly more than a couple of times... every shot was placed squarely into the vitals and each time resulted in a VERY dead elk.

I'm ambivalent. Literally don't give a flying [bleep]. Don't plan to buy or load any, ever, due to too many better choices. And the choices only get better. Can't for the life of me figure Sierra's stagnancy in an ever evolving world....

'Til recently, the Sierra 225-grain GK was thee choice in .358 Win, and a great choice in the Whelen.

Still a great choice, Nosler just gave 'em some competition with the 225-grain Accubond. Both those bullets are constantly "backordered, out of stock".

It's a great bullet that I have used since I was a kid.....still have hundreds put back for the hard times ahead

When I first got a 7mm Rem Mag (1980) I loaded 140 grain Game Kings for Deer and Antelope. They were very accurate and wonderful killers. I'd use them again.

There was some meat damage on the closer shots.

I killed my biggest Mule Deer with one. The Game King blew quite a hole thru the ribs @ about 70 yards. I didn't care. The Muley was headed for a cliff that would have taken him at least 3/4 of a mile down into the Owyhee River canyon --- Instead he skidded on his nose for about 20 feet and never reached the cliff. He was a perfect typical that went 30 1/8" wide.

Have used Serra's in most of my rifles over the years..Still have many left to shoot..I have often used the 150's and 165's out of my old .300 win..elk, moose, antelope, mulies, whitetails, blk. bear, axis deer, caribou, and coyotes have all been taken with ease..If I think I will be in a situation where in may have to take a shoulder shot on an elk, then I would load Nosler Part...but otherwise, I feel very comfortable with these bullets..

Yesteryear it was the Ballistic Tip, now the Gameking I guess............What a fickle bunch!!



X-VERMINATOR

I believe GKs were designed primarily as accurate, longer range loads, where terminal velocities would be fairly moderate.

The most accurate handloads I've found for my .338 WM were both thrown together "junk loads" to get rid of some bullets I didn't want. The Sierra GKs run right at 1" groups at 200 yards. I wrote that load down....

The one round of same I used broadside on a yearling moose at 160 yards performed adequately.. But he was already on his last legs (3 of them to be exact.... ) The bullet exited and was not recovered, the entrance and exit holes and wound channel were acceptable and not remarkable either way. He died without much meat damage from any of the rounds. The hand-load GK was the 4th shot fired, and showed a somewhat larger wound channel than the previous 3 Trophy Bonded Premium factory rounds, fired at different angles ( the 2nd took out his knee- oops). The two (first and third) TB and fourth GK rounds exit wounds could be covered by the palm of my hand. In fact, I've got the off-side shoulder blade with bullet holes on the piano downstairs - a "trophy" of the yearling kill, made under difficult shooting conditions.

I didn't want those 30 GKs bullets that came with the used rifle because of their frangible rep... so junk loaded em and shot most of them up as test ammo with customer guns before I checked accuracy. I still have 3...

The other junk-load turned keeper is Hornady 250 RN. Ugly, Ugly, Ugly. Also thrown together with no work up, just to get rid of the ugly damned things. 5 at a hundred go inside 1", and are zeroed 2 inches high at that range. My average moose shot is about 60 yards for the 20 bulls I've killed. The longest two have been about 160 -- Those RN will do fine within 250 yards.

Wrote that one down too...

I'll probably die before I use those up- I've over 100 of the damned ugly things, and my perfect moose season sees 3 shots fired - one to check zero pre hunt, one to drop moose, one insurance shot on walk-up (Bastids have scared the crap out of me thrice over the years- an extra round spent at 5 yards is well worth it!!!)

The nice thing is that the 3 remaining GKs that I have print 3 inches higher at 100 yards than the Hornady RN. My average moose shot is about 60 yards- but the GKs are my 500 yard insurance rounds..... I have no qualms about their performance at that range.

My understanding is that GKs terminally perform best at somewhat modest velocities, at whatever the range may be. Load 'em down for short, or up for long, or live with the in-between..

I've changed my opinion of GKs based on experience vs "read-about". I would not hesitate to use them in any situation where plain-janes are appropriate at modest velocities. If terminal velocities (at whatever range) is under 2800 or so, I think they will do fine.

However, I'd not pick them to shoot much of anything at 50 yards with a 7 Mag. for example.

Loaded at reasonable velocities, they are my favorite Cup and Core bullet. I shoot 165gr in several 30-06s and they all have been accurate and effective on game (whitetail).