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Am I missing something here? Hornady has their interbond and their interlock has built it's own reputation as a conventional bullet. Nosler has their accubond and their fabulous partitions Speer has their sledghammers and TBBC line (Grand slams don't count) Remington has their ultra.....a bonded bullet. Winchester has partnered with nosler in their premium bullet. We have NorthForks, Woodleighs, Swift, Barnes and others out there competing for our business and Sierra just sits there and sells gamekings like always. Years ago Federal sold Sierra boattails as a premium bullet and they wasn't at all. Federal actually admitted that they wasn't the bullet they thought they was and dropped them from their premium line of ammunition. I bought a box of them with extremely poor results and haven't bought a box of sierra bullets since. Occasionally someone posts positively about Sierra hunting bullets but where's the beef?.....are they going to compete? Target bullets they are good at but it seems to me they don't really want my hunting bullet business.....Am I missing it here? /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." Winston Churchill | ||
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Well Sierra seems to be riding the accuracy reputation and I supose in a way they can claim a "premium" on that. But evidently they figure there are lots of calibers that don't exceed 3000 fps and their normal line of bullets works fine in that range. Re speed and premiums I recently contacted one of the makers of "premium" copper monolithic bullets and asked if the hollow points/olgives are designed for different impact speeds. The answer I got was that they really weren't and that the shooter should plan on the bullet that would bring his impact speed down under 3000 fps. In other words don't plan on using 130-150 grains for close up woods hunting out of your magnum rifle.....use 180's. the 130's through 150's are for .308's not 300 win magnums. It's obvious no one can totally "plan" their impact speed but I found it interested that the maker of the some of the toughest bullets around would much rather see their product impacting under 3000 fps---right where a cheap sierra would most likely be doing just fine too. | |||
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ALL Sierra bullets are "premium", they just don't cost as much as the other "premium" bullets! | |||
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kraky, why don't you name the company... Mike Never under estimate the internet community's ability to reply to your post with their personal rant about their tangentially related, single occurrence issue.  What I have learned on AR, since 2001: 1. The proper answer to: Where is the best place in town to get a steak dinner? is…You should go to Mel's Diner and get the fried chicken. 2. Big game animals can tell the difference between .015 of an inch in diameter, 15 grains of bullet weight, and 150 fps. 3. There is a difference in the performance of two identical projectiles launched at the same velocity if they came from different cartridges. 4. While a double rifle is the perfect DGR, every 375HH bolt gun needs to be modified to carry at least 5 down. 5. While a floor plate and detachable box magazine both use a mechanical latch, only the floor plate latch is reliable. Disregard the fact that every modern military rifle uses a detachable box magazine. 6. The Remington 700 is unreliable regardless of the fact it is the basis of the USMC M40 sniper rifle for 40+ years with no changes to the receiver or extractor and is the choice of more military and law enforcement sniper units than any other rifle. 7. PF actions are not suitable for a DGR and it is irrelevant that the M1, M14, M16, & AK47 which were designed for hunting men that can shoot back are all PF actions. 8. 95 deg F in Africa is different than 95 deg F in TX or CA and that is why you must worry about ammunition temperature in Africa (even though most safaris take place in winter) but not in TX or in CA. 9. The size of a ding in a gun's finish doesn't matter, what matters is whether it’s a safe ding or not. 10. 1 in a row is a trend, 2 in a row is statistically significant, and 3 in a row is an irrefutable fact. 11. Never buy a WSM or RCM cartridge for a safari rifle or your go to rifle in the USA because if they lose your ammo you can't find replacement ammo but don't worry 280 Rem, 338-06, 35 Whelen, and all Weatherby cartridges abound in Africa and back country stores. 12. A well hit animal can run 75 yds. in the open and suddenly drop with no initial blood trail, but the one I shot from 200 yds. away that ran 10 yds. and disappeared into a thicket and was not found was lost because the bullet penciled thru. I am 100% certain of this even though I have no physical evidence. 13. A 300 Win Mag is a 500 yard elk cartridge but a 308 Win is not a 300 yard elk cartridge even though the same bullet is travelling at the same velocity at those respective distances. | |||
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Spoken like a man on Sierra's marketing staff. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." Winston Churchill | |||
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Sierra bullets are, and have always been, known for their superior accuracy. Go to any of the big competitions and you will find very few brands other than Sierra. As the other posters have said, for most average cartridges the Sierra bullets are just as good for hunting as any of the so-called "premium" brands. I never could understand why the average hunter shooting a 243, 270, or 308 needs a premium bullet in the first place. And except for those once-in-a-lifetime big game hunts I fail to see the need for premium bullets in any other calibers. I first started hunting more than 60 years ago and it's only in recent years that hunters have developed a need for these bullets. I can't figure out what has changed. JMHO Ray Arizona Mountains | |||
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Actually, spoken as a man who has been using Sierra bullets since around the middle 1960's, on both game and paper. Sure I have used/do use others, but I always find the Sierra bullets without compromise. | |||
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Well I am gonna kick this hornet's nest by agreeing with Cheechako. I have used Sierra, Remington, and Winchester "standard grade" bullets with no complaints for years. HOWEVER; if I had a hunt where lots of $$$ were involved I would opt for a premium bullet. Just my .02. good luck and good shooting, Eterry Good luck and good shooting. In Memory of Officer Nik Green, #198, Oklahoma Highway Patrol Troop G...Murdered in the line of duty 12-26-03...A Good Man, A Good Officer, and A Good Friend gone too soon | |||
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if i understand the response from Siera that Kraky cited.......for Siera bullets to function properly, the impact velocity should be below 3000fps. it is hard to imagine what round would have an impact velocity above 3000 fps. the fastest round i shoot is a .30-378 Weatherby. i get 3200fps from a 180 grain bullet. at 150 yards, the bullet is already below 3000fps. if i was hunting with my .30-378, i would be expecting a shot a lot further than 150 yards. if i expected to shoot at closer ranges, i would not use it. granted the unexpected does happen. on this board i hear about the "responsible" hunter usually passing up a shot that is too far off because no one wants a wounded animal running off and becoming coyote chow. if you think your ultra velocity round has too much velocity, say above 3000fps, maybe you oughta pass up a shot that is too close. practically speaking, i'm not at all sure that that makes any sense, but it's a thought. my personal exprience with Sierra bullets....i have shot several animals and never had what i defined as a bullet failure. i have also never used one at a velocity above 3000fps. | |||
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The Sierra bullet Co. is a fundimental part of modern bullet history. Before that bullets were junk and rifles were not very accurate. If you shoot small animals with big bullets, varmints or paper Sierras are good or even best. Thus Sierra sells zillons of bullets for the majority of applications. If your a hunter pushing the envelope then premium bullets are for you. In the Eastern USA most use 30-06's on deer and therefore don't need premium bullets. See these guys in the picture below. It's likely that they shoot more than you do, shoot better and shoot at longer ranges. The only bullets that they consider are Sierra's. It's a given.  Here are some of their rifles used on a team that shoots all over. They compete at very long range and these rifles are as good as anything made today. That includes someones "A" list of gunsmiths. These are Palma rifles made on Barnard actions with 30" Krieger barrels.   | |||
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I think the topic is regarding hunting applications, not matchkings for competitions. Sure, Sierra MK's are very accurate and very popular, as Savage pointed out also, but Vapodog opened up with GameKings, not the matchgrade. I've never seen anything remarkable about the regular gamekings anyway. Btips and Sciroccos are far superior in my experience in terms of accuracy. I've had Partitions groups time and time again better than GKs. When I spoke with Sierra (which I still get there newsletter), a couple of years ago, they told me that their tests showed that their bullets were as "tough and reliable" as any of the bonded or partitioned bullets on game. The tech guy at Nosler specifically told me that partitions perform best between 2400-2600 fps. I'm assuming he meant MV. After my friend, Brian, lost a good buck in MO with a gameking I loaded up for him (30 cal 165 HPBT GK) for his 30.06, I decided to never load them again. It doesn't take long to gain experience in MO with the guys I hunted with. It wasn't uncommon to kill 40 deer opening weekend, and I started hunting there in 1995. Brian and 2 of the landowners were using Sierra bullets. The landowners were using Fed. Prem. ammo. We lost about 4 deer. Evan stated that he's going back to his Rem. CoreLokts from Wal Mart. We tracked Brian's deer a very long way and never did find it. 3 of us saw him hit it too, right behind the shoulder. We can only speculate what happened.  Ted Kennedy's car has killed more people than my guns | |||
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Doc, Your right. I never finished my point. It's late and got carried away posting the pics. Sierra has a niche and their hunting bullets work for many applications. I have asked them about polymer tipped bullets, premium bullets and making mono metal bullets but they are all set. Join the NRA | |||
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This is the case. Accuracy of Sierra bullets is not what I'm questioning here. Their accuracy is legendary and needs no defence. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." Winston Churchill | |||
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My buddy has a picture of a deer when they got back to the house to skin it out the deer was was on his front feet still alive and the deer was shot him with a 130gr Speer Hot Core from a 270 to this day he will not use Speers. He has Sieera 130gr Boat tail recovered from a Elk perfect expansion shot with a 270. I used a 90gr Sierra Hollow point in my 25-284 shot a couse deer about 200yds out if not a little further, that deer didn't go anywhere, here are some pictures of the deer I shot with the 90gr hollow points   Handmade paracord rifle slings: paracordcraftsbypatricia@gmail.com | |||
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Sierra bullets are first rate, not only for the range but also to hunt with. They work very well when the bullet is placed into a vital area. My brother loves Sierra bullets for elk, especially the 200 gr. SGK. Some people on this board like to bad mouth Sierra and NBTs, instead favoring the solid coppers and the like. To each his own. Virtually any bullet placed into a vital area will drop a big game animal. | |||
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To many people relay on to little data. One animal shot good or bad doesnt' make or break a bullet. Too many things can happen one way or the other. The bullet can hit a limb the animal can move at the last second and cause a bad hit. THE HUNTER CAN BLOW THE SHOT among many other weird things that can happen when one pulls the trigger. When one shoots a critter and it gets away never to be found one never knows what happen to the bullet. I have been in on hundreds of big game kills When some one tells me they shot it right behind the shoulder and I have to help track it move the 100 to 150 yard I know that they did not shoot it right behind the shoulder. In all the those cases when the animal were recover the shot was muffed and hit some place else. Bullet placement to much more imported the the bullet used. That said I want a very tough bullet for cape buff and I will chose wisely. | |||
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Hey Don, Obviously you need to go visit a Doctor - quickly. It appears you forgot the great experienced(?) wisdom(?) provided by your close and personal buddies, ad and kutee that Accuracy just isn't all that important! And to top it off, not a one of those rifles in your flicks looks like a rifle made by the greatest rifle maker of ALL TIME, so therefore(from the same source of info as before) they must be out of balance, magazines don't feed properly, bolts don't extract or eject reliably, and blah, blah, blah... --- I've never had a bullet failure using ANY brand of bullet, including many boxes of Sierra's. When a person uses the appropriate bullet "Weight" for the "Impact Velocities" they will encounter, and places the bullet properly for that specific "Design Envelope" on the Game being hunted, then everyone reading this could eliminate "Bullet Failure" from their hunting stories. Good hunting and clean 1-shot kills to ALL you folks. | |||
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This has been my experience, and I couldn't agree more. | |||
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Sierra bullets are very accurate. In addition, some of them are plenty good enough for deer shooting, like the 165-grain .308 HPBT. For bigger, heavier, tougher animals I use Nosler Partitions - not because I've tried Sierras and had failures, because I haven't-haven't tried them on bigger, heavier, tougher critters! Don't plan to- Partitions work too well! Sierras are NOT premium bullets as far as game bullets are defined as premium-only insofar as match bullets are considered "premium". "Bitte, trinks du nicht das Wasser. Dahin haben die Kuhen gesheissen." | |||
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