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.

Nosler puts a decent bunch of 2nds out to Midway these days.

Surely not. Midway rarely ever sells seconds. Read it right here. 😉

BGK on one box and TGK on another. Ok so his main thing he wants to know is the bullet bonded, any source I read says no, and the American Rifleman tested them and had core jacket separations.

this is what midway describes on thier website


Why hide it's bonded and a shot show is where they announce it ? Surprise ! It's bonded ! LOL Would the AR lie and say they aren't bonded or any other article on the web about them. Watch the video and they don't mention a bonded core/jacket. The video on midway usa is by Sierra shooting and testing the Tipped GK. The jacket seems to be the bullets lack of separation and integrity. What's the special lead alloy?? Will the shot show reveal that ? No.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1020546838

We're talking about Sierra, right ? LOL And this thread is about the mystery bullet, right ?

They look like they have a secant ogive.

Maybe interbonds?

Interbonds don't have a green tip, they're red.


since you're here Fotis, and was gonna reach out to you...... when Nosler came out with the Accubond, did they wait for a shot show to release the bullet to the public?

I know.. Midway probably doesn't have enough sway to get that deal going

Probably never put another colored tip on a bullet for ammo companies

I have some hornady Interlocks that I bought from midway as seconds, they have a green tip. They are the same as first run Hornady Interlocks bought from Midsouth that have a red tip. So, using common sense, Hornady uses different colors when they produce bullets for different companies.

Right 🤨 come to think about it l bought some Weatherby ammo and it said it was loaded with Hornday bullets but they didn’t look like thier bullets. I pulled one and it didn’t have the secant ogive. But other ammo companies load Nosler and you can see it definitely is thier bullets

I'd be happy enough with that, but they do have a green tip and the 6765 SKU seems to match the Sierra SKU pattern, and PV sells many other barely concealed Sierra blems, including the TGKs I bought a year ago. I thought it was interesting enough to bring up, the list of folks who make a green tip bonded, boat tail 165gr .30 cal bullet... Yet.... Is pretty damned short. I'm used to buying all kinds of Nosler blems from SPS, this certainly isn't a Nosler creation in my opinion.

Edit: to your point, I looked back and I have bought Hornady blems from PV as well, 6mm 80gr CX bullets. The green tip is off, but could conceivably be an OEM bullet for an ammo manufacturer.

I did crush the bullet a few different ways in my vise and it's damned sure bonded by someone. Clear as day that the lead in contact with the copper jacket is sticking while the main body of the lead core bulges out when crushed.

Sorry for the tease, they were in stock when I posted the link, but they must not have had very many blems to get rid of

I like their TGKs. Bonding them may make them a bit better. Something around 200 grains, bonded would make a wicked 300 magnum bullet.

Tip color does not means anything substantial these days. Seen black and red accubonds, grey interbonds etc.

I do not remember 100%. I can ask.

I can tell you I had the first 6mm accubond kill ever. 6mm-284 90 gr Accubond on pronghorn well before they were released..

Did the public know before you got them ?
BTW how many wildcats you own ?

Have some of the Powder Valley mystery 165's. They sure shoot like Sierra's. Not picky at all.

I started an account here to say I came to the same conclusion as the original post, independently. Came searching the web for answers and here I am.

The profile is almost identical to a TGK/Gamechanger. They are clearly bonded as it said in the Powder Valley description and on the label. I destructively tested a few to come to that conclusion.

They aren't anything close to a 165 Scirocco. They came up for sale with another huge lot of what were clearly Sierra factory seconds. Did a ton of digging to see if there was a factory load from any of the big names that used a bullet like this. Nope.

The SKU is the ringer for me now...

These are an unreleased bullet from Sierra. Either they were playing with the idea and decided not to pursue it, they were some OEM contract that fell through, or it'll be announced at SHOT. I'm betting on the latter.

Edit to add - Also don't think they're an Interbond. The base is wrong and the ogive doesn't look right for Hornady.

Nice, good to see that other folks who picked up some of these are thinking along the same lines. Hopefully these bullets are some first runs of a soon to be released Sierra bullet, and not a cancelled project. Sierras have always been very easy to get to shoot, but I do like bonded bullets on game.