Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Federals Sierra MatchKing on deer.

Sorry if this has been answered before by an archives search found little info.

A friend gave me 5 full boxes of Federal Sierra MatchKing gold match ammo for my 308. 168 grain. I only use the rifle for deer hunting and the only target shootin I do is sighting in and practicing. I believe they are a hollow point round.

My question is how would they perform on deer and hogs? I realize the company does not recommend them for hunting, but they also dont reccomend Fusions for elk and I know they perform lights out on them. Thanks again for any and all insight.

Scott

An old friend of mine used that exact load for a while, back when he was a SWAT sniper and had access to unlimited quantities of it.

He is a dead shot and always put the round right on target. Bullet performance was erratic at best. Sometimes the deer would drop dead and other times he would lose a deer that a real hunting bullet would have killed within seconds.

Its a fine bullet for its intended purpose but hunting isnt that purpose. Do the deer a favor and use a real hunting bullet. Its worth the cost.

There is quite a few rounds of that ammo floating around here. My agency issues it for use in M-14 and M1A rifles. It seems like every Trooper has a .308 at home. I have talked to quite a few units who have taken deer with this round, and they report the same as Lodgepole. About 8.5 times out of 10, it works like a charm. The other time and a half, it works like a FMJ.

I like the brass, and the ammo is accurate, but I would prefer Remington Corelokts for hunting. If it's all you got, hold high on the shoulder.

Thanks for the replies. Based on the advice so far Im thinkin I will skip them for hunting and use something else.

We've shot hundreds of deer with them. Never lost one to date. Its not my pick but I sure wouldn't shy away from them. I cant' see what the problem is, but of course some run off a ways and you have to track them to find them dead. But they always are. One of my buddies has the long shot with them so far on a cripple, over 500 yards and a dead buck after a 30 yard sprint.

Jeff

I have a couple friends whom I hunt desert muleys with and that bullet is their favorite. Believe it or not not, I think that bullet is actually more consistent at a little higher velocitys.

Both my friends shoot .300 Win Mags and their bullet performance, some I have witnessed, have been very similar to what JB, a.k.a Mule Deer has reported with the Berger VLD's. Small entrance hole, massive damage to the innards, and if broadside, usually an exit.

Mine is a relatively small example, maybe JB or someone with more experience with them will chime in.

Bill

biggest deer i have harvested so far was with a 168 gr. smk out of a .308. about 75 yds, total damage inside, drt, no exit hole. 156" mainframe 10 pt. field dressed 180 lbs. i put it in the boiler-perfectly. my thoughts are this: the jacket may be to thin to perform consistently especially on hard bone. it worked like a champ that time but i haven't used them since. fwiw.

I saw a test done awhile ago on a number of bullets but can't come up with the link at this time. It was an extensive test of many bullets and their performance at varying velocities. The pictures of the SMK after firing were as stated by others, some blew up and others were almost fully intacted after testing. Quite erratic compared to any of the other hunting type bullets tested. Should be great practice ammo for punching paper though.

2Seventy

Interesting. Sounds like a round maybe for deer but nothing bigger, or stouter (hogs). Thanks again for the replies.

I took one feral hog with this ammo and I got FMJ performance and an odd bullet track as the bullet tumbled. It also did not exit. Lucky it was placed perfectly.

I've taken two south texas deer, one buck and one doe, with 168gr SMK's -- and I will never, never again use the SMK on game.

Had to put three into the doe before she checked out, and the buck required a 45acp coup de grace after absorbing two SMKs.

I've killed several hundred deer with my M1A and 168 gr SMK's on crop damage back when I lived in Va. I can count using both hands the number of times I did not get an exit, all but one or two of those times was when I shot through the shoulders, but the vast majority that were shot through the shoulders had an exit. If you are the type that will take any shot angle to down a deer, I would choose something else though. I've seen just as many "problems" with any bullet myself or friends ever used as with SMK's. Dead is dead, in that respect, I never in hundreds had a "failure" with SMK's.

Interesting that it always has to be placement first. 3 shots to down a deer tells me something.

Anyway the one true bullet failure I've seen over all the years has been from a sierra game king that never opened up.

Beyond that I've had some dead but very iffy performance from partitions on large game. I'm told 180s in 30 cal are not the choice for elk sized and should have gone to 200s there.

Bottom line though I've never seen a non dead bad result from 168 smks OR 224/80smks on game, I do not need bang flops and the only 2 places I shoot deer are lungs/ribs only, no shoulder bones as I don't like waste or a direct CNS head shot.

Others mileage may vary, but our results have been very good. I prefer to use Barnes if its crunch time and I can't pick and choose my shots though.

Final thoughts, I used to guide a bit, and I was deathly afraid when folks showed up with 308/168s, I learned that it was an unfounded fear and after having shot who knows how many 10s of thousands in competition, I no longer had to load 165 game bullets for my M1A, I could just grab a mag out of my stool.

Jeff

"Anyway the one true bullet failure I've seen over all the years has been from a sierra game king that never opened up."

Same here.. 200 Grain Sierra Game King, 300 Win Mag, 100 yds..zipped right thru the breast of a big Minnesota Whitetail...

at the shot the deer hit the ground with his nose...fur and blood in a circle over a 2 ft radius in the snow... deer got up and ran head first into the swamp he was heading for..

Never found him... Sierra Techs told me the bullet was too heavily constructed for deer regardless of size... so that it probably zipped right thru the animal....

Even though Sierra does not recommend Match Kings for hunting, some of their techs on the tech line do...

The last two years I have taken 2 big bucks that were hit with heart shots... yet it amazed me that even with that, both still came to rest about 35 to 40 yrds from where they were hit...

some folks would call that bullet failure... yet on both, the hearts had a big valley thru them from bottom to top... both deer were shot by me standing at about a 4 o'clock position, with them heading away from me...

Sounds like there are many positive results with the SMK as well. I think I will give them a try on deer as I usually wait till I can place one broadside. I am hunting West Va first part of December and if fortunate I will post my results. Thanks again to all.

OT but... the game king we had was a 165 in an 06 going fast enough. 120ish yard shot IIRC. Double lung. Not much blood, followed around looking for about 6 hours, never found that buck. Had very unique antlers and was killed 3 weeks later running a doe with a neck shot. the 165 hit a rib in and out, and was centered in the lungs, never opened up, and there was scar tissue on both lungs....

Doesn't mean I won't use them, am using them right now, just prefer the X type bullets generally.

As to matchkings, I have my uses for them but its not a X bullet and 2 things, stay off bone and expect the possible times the bullet won't open, so hit em right. I've never seen one not open, but folks claim it happens. So I'd just be careful. Heck they claim TSX won't open and I'll stick one of those ANYWHERE I need to with full faith so far.

Jeff