A couple of years back I had what I thought was a bad box of Sierra 140 Game Kings for my 6.5x55.
After chatting to the folks at Sierra and relating the core separations and attendant hassles, they suggested that perhaps it was because the critturs out here were a bit tougher than at home. Not that I lost any of the animals, I was shooting a mess of impala at the time and apart from one or two time onsuming follow-ups they were all biltong. BUT, the fact is that the bullets did not hold together and on what we consider to be light game. I shot the rest of that batch of boxes at the target range.
I recently bought another box and used it to shoot a blesbuck. The animal was quartering towards me at about 120m. The round hit the shoulder/breastbone junction and just disintegrated. The whole frontal area was a mas of tiny bone shards and nothing reached the vitals. It took a second shot to finish it off. When dressing the animal we found the bullet jacket about an inch into the wound, flattened out with not a trace of lead left in it.
Average velocity of these rounds is 2430fps.

On another matter, are there any decent outdoors shops in or around Montreal. I will be over there on business soon and want to look at a couple of bows. The crap with the firearms laws over here I just might sell up and go tribal.

That is a typical reply from the pinheads at Sierra, there is no doubt with anyone that has used them ENOUGH to know they fail from time to time...

In my considered opinion, the Sierra game king bt's are just fine for whitetails. Anything tougher than that I would use a better bullet. At a minimum, Nosler Partitions. Another factor is the speed of the bullet. Game kings tend to perform well at slower speeds, but tend to explosive disintegration at higher speeds. I have one of the 180 grain thirty caliber bullets I recovered from a 195 pound live weight deer in Alabama back in 1994. It retained 90 percent of its initial weight. If anyone would like a photo, I will try to take one and post it.

My favorite load for whitetails is Sierra's 117 grain bt in my .257 Roberts. For African game, not a chance I would even try to use it, except perhaps for the miniature antelope species, and maybe for impala meat hunting or culling.

I admit that this bullet is probably the exception, rather than the rule. It weighs 163.3 grains (original weight was 180).

I use Sierra's for target practice and varmints because of going to pieces on big game.

I'm going to smelt down all my remaining inventory, reclaim the lead and cast bank sinkers for saltwater fishing. That way I'll never be tempted to give them just "one more try."

I have never actually seen any Sierra advertisment lauding their big-game bullets but have seen thousands about how accurate MK's are.

I agree with Patrkyhntr,

I love the Sierra gamekings for whitetails. I don't think you need a tougher bullet. I use the 165gr Federal 30-06 load and have been happy.

Only one noteable recovered bullet and that one lost its core when it struck the ball and socket joint in the rear quarter on a second, as it turned out, unecessary shot. The damage done by that failed bullet was extensive and though it failed it destroyed the joint.

I believe the Sierras are actually tougher than the Ballisic Tips et al. I've used the Ballistic Tips a couple of times and they sure seem even softer.

I wouldn't use a Sierra for big or tough game though. I think deer are its nitch.

JPK

I have had similar results with sierra's 300 gr HPFN 45/70 bullet, it won't even penetrate really thin skinned stuff at times and is explosive like a 50 gr Nosler Ballistic tip.

I had been using the Seirra 180 grain SBT for whitetails for many years-- had taken 52 whitetails (all one shot kills, perfect bullet performance) out of the same box of .308's in a 30-06 or .308. Last fall I had a failure on #53, a doe that got up on a powerline 10 feet away and run uphill 10yards and looked back. i placed the shot on the right rib cage attempting to break the off shoulder. The doe did not drop, but took off-- I finally killed her at 260 yards on the 3rd shot. When examining the 1st shot -- the bullet hit a rib and came apart, taking out only one lung. If she had not stopped at a gate down the powerline and across a corn filed. I would have never harvested her. The really bad news is that I had a box of Batnes 180 X's that i had loaded and was going to try--- but decided that morning to stay with the Sierras.

quote:

On another matter, are there any decent outdoors shops in or around Montreal. I will be over there on business soon and want to look at a couple of bows.

I'm located in Montreal and would be happy to meet up with you and show you around the sports shops here. Kinda scary, but I pretty much know all the employees and managers of all the hunting-fishing-camping stores that we have We do not have a great selection of strickly archery gear (I bowhunt too), but depending on your needs, I have a few options for you. One place to start looking is http://www.lebaron.ca -one of the few or only with online presence.

I'll P.M. you with my phone number. If you're up for a beer, we can talk hunting and business all night long!

There's a darn good reason why so many companys are producing bonded bullets. IMO for game bigger than Pronghorns and whitetails I'd be recommending the better bullets.......and Sierra don't make any of them!!!!

I would go as far as to say that Nosler BT's are harder and hold together better than a sierra...............from my experience they do in 30 cal comared to the 45 cal ones.

On the subject of immigration may I suggest that you take the time to read Canada's gun registration and no knock warrant search laws. As I understand it, if you are suspected of possessing an illegal firearm they can come through the door anytime at all. The misses would just love that. Rather than annexing the Nation to the North, I would suggest that we allow some of our northern and more liberal states (I live in one) to secede and comingle with their socialist brothers. I guess I am too far off the target here, so I will go away now. Sorry for the interruption.

knock warant searches are only being conducted (to best of my knowledge)in rare cases, but even then, mainly against known criminals and biker gangs.

I have not heard of any upstanding Canadian that has everr been searched.

Aside from addressing that point, the gun registry has a lot to be desired and money would have been much better spent elsewhere.

I don't know who might be immigrating to Canada, but it is still one of the best countries in the world to live, especially if you enjoy the outdoors!

Everytime a bullet thread comes up I see a certain MO...those that the bullet worked perfectly for and those it failed for...

This is the problem with some makes of bullets, mostly they all work, and only fail on ocassion..therein lies the problem with conventional bullets like Sierra, Hawk, Speer, and others, they only fail on ocassion..so the airways are filled with hype and failures...and most have not shot enough game to make a realistic assessment of the bullet in question as to its reliability..

My advise is to forget the good press and concentrate on the bad numbers that come up, a bad bullet will surface for the astitute to see, its like a bad penny, it just keeps coming back...

I think Sierra is in that catagory, lots or praise but an inordinate number of failures crop up...I have had many failures with Sierra and othe conventional bullets over the years both good failures that killed and bad failures that ended up with long chases and tracking jobs...

The pinhead at Sierra that said at what point did the bullet fail if it killed the game, is probably the stupidest damn idiot on the face of this continent....Its a cutsey phrase, but not applicable...

Now if you really want to know how I feel just yada yada boom etc.

Ray: You're 100% correct. I've been shooting big game since the 60's and most of the time with non-premium bullets. I've had quite a few bullets fail especially Sierra's and Ballistic Tips, usually these explode on the surface with virtually zero penetration. At what time did the bullet fail? My answer is on impact, the second one usually did the job though, some required a third.

Ray, you are so right, the point at which the bullet fails is when it explodes or doesn't expand & results in a lingering death for the animal. That's how I judge a bullets performance. Nosler partitions for me, if I never recover one & the animal expires in a short distance, the bullet performed well for me.

The best testament I've ever witnessed AGAINST Sierra bullets for game was when I guided a couple employees from Sierra. Neither of them made a lot of money and they essentially got Sierra bullets for free. They wouldn't even consider shooting paper or varmints with any other bullet... but when it came to big game hunting they dug deep in their shallow pockets and came up with the money for Partitions.

That says it all.

Kyler

Glad I dont use them on anything but praire dogs. What do you guys think of Nosler accubond bullet.