Im wondering if seirra 140 gr hpbt or 130 gr barnes ttsx would work better on deer from a 270wsm.

For deer? take your pick. However, if you plan on shooting for bone, the TTSX is extra insurance IMO. Lung shots....use whatever you want.

Barnes.

No lead.

how well does the sierra 140 gr gameking hpbt hold up?

elmo729,

first question

"Im wondering if seirra 140 gr hpbt or 130 gr barnes ttsx would work better on deer from a 270wsm. "

Either will work just fine. You should get pass throughs with either bullet. Shoot some of each and see what your rifle likes best.However, for deer at reasonable ranges plain old remington core lokts should be fine.
If you reload, nosler ballistic tips, accubonds, or partitions, barnes tsx or sierras in the 130 to 150 grain range should all be fine. The sierras and nosler ballistic tips will be the cheapest to reload.

cull spike shot at +/- 120 yds with winchester high wall in 270 wsm, 130 gr nosler ballistic tips, complete pass through. Deer was DRT


question 2
"how well does the sierra 140 gr gameking hpbt hold up?"

The sierra manual, 5th edition states that "the 140 gr #1835 hollowpoint boat tail bullet is inteded for medium and heavier game at shorter ranges. It is a tough bullet, allowing higher impact velocities with good expansion at shorter ranges. It also delivers good long-range performance on heaver game from the 270 Winchester and magnum rifles in 270 caliber and is highly accurate."
I find the 140 gr sierra hpbt to work extremely well. One of my buds has his stand set up where his closest shot is 270 yards. I have set up his rem 700 in 270 with 250 yd zero using this bullet. Works like a charm.

Here is an example. This pic is of two hogs I lined up and took with one shot in Concan Texas in summer of '06. Range was +/-230 yds. Remington C grade 700 in 270 winchester. The 140 gr. sierra HPBT passed through both and was not recovered.


My $.02 - you don't really need premium bullets for deer, hogs, turkey or varmints. Game taken at reasonable ranges with bullets like nosler partitions and barnes tsx's typically suffer less meat damage than those taken up close or with more frangible bullets like ballistic tips and sierra spitzers or hornady sst's. With good shot placement you should be fine whatever you choose.
GWB

i shot a lot of game with sierras but get marginal performance, but i quit when i had a 200 grain 30 cal out of a 300 mag blow up on a mule deer at 400 yds

I too had disappointing results with Sierra hunting bullets and with HPBT as well; now I prefer Hornady and even more Nosler. I still use Sierra as target bullets.

Geedubya,

Couple of VERY good looking rifles!!!!

Don

butchloc wrote:

quote:

i quit when i had a 200 grain 30 cal out of a 300 mag blow up on a mule deer at 400 yds

Not be be argumentative since I wan't even there, but if the bullet indeed hit the mule deer at 400 yards, physics tells us that even a lightly-constructed varmint bullet with that much mass and sectional density will penetrate sufficiently to kill a mulie. And more than likely, the bullet -- or pieces thereof -- will even exit given virtually any broadside presentation.

Do you have photos of the wound channel by chance?

quote:

Originally posted by wildboar:
I too had deceiving results with Sierra hunting bullets and with HPBT as well; now I prefer Hornady and even more Nosler. I still use Sierra as target bullets.

Do you use the Hornady HPBT for deer? I was wondering if it is up to it or is it just a target bullet?

Sierra HPBTs are a particular kind of hunting bullets, with no apparent lead tip and they are supposed to be tougher than ordinary Sierra bullets; unfortunately, I found them quite unpredictable as for the terminal effects; either they punch trough, with little or no expansion, or they blow-up completely. The target Sierra bullets that I currently use are Matchkings.

butchloc did you recover the deer and did you use a range finder.

I have used sierra bullets for the over 35 years and the only time I have had to shoot a second shot is when I didn't put first on in the right place. I have a full box of .308 165 gr hpbt that I will try for the first time this year on mule deer.

Rad

Sierra bullets -- both Pro Hunter and GameKing -- have always served me well, but I don't push them beyond their capabilities, either.

Here are a couple more Sierra bullet kills:

I almost forgot my best buck to date taken with a 130 grain Sierra SSP fired from a 7mm Bullberry at 2505 fps MV. The range was 108 yards, and the bullet penetrated from the frontal chest to the rear ham. The recovered bullet is shown below also. The recovered weight was 114 grains if I remember correctly.

Bobby,

Excellent Buck!!! As are your pix..

Don

I was using the 165 grain .308 Sierra HPBT back in the 1970s and 1980s in a Browning Safari, and it was super efficient, usually field dressing a Texas Whitetail on impact. In fact I came to the conclusion that the 165 grain .308 HPBT was too potent for Texas deer and ceased using the .30-06 on them. Now I still have a few hundred HPBTs on the back shelf! Deadly? Oh my goodness YES!

Don

Thank you. That buck now has a place of prominence in our living room. After I took him, I realy didn't plan to have a shoulder mount done. I was just going to mount the antlers on one of those $10 plaques.

I didn't save the cape, but when I got home, my wife insisted I call the taxidermist to see what he could do. Fortunately, he had a spare cape, and with the help of a couple of photos, he "reconstructed" the buck for me.

Elmo729

I have used both 85gn sierra HPBT and 87gn hornady HPBT in a 243 win on red and sika deer. I had trouble with the hornady literally flying to pieces on impact (may have been going a bit fast) yet the sierra bullet was exceptional. Out of the various bullets I have shot deer with in 243 which include partitions, barnes and sierras the sierra HPBT has provided the quickest kills. Don't ask me why but worked very well. Started it out at 3200fps.

thanks for all the help guys. I think I'll go ahead and try the seirra hpbt on deer this year and see how they do.

you won't be disappointed...

that 140 amax in 6.5 is probably my favorite whitetail bullet.

quote:

Originally posted by 390ish:
that 140 amax in 6.5 is probably my favorite whitetail bullet.

In what caliber?

Pictures and reference to a deer shot, don't tell much of a story other than it did or did not work on that particular deer...

The number of failures and successes reported over years or decades tells us what bullets work and what bullet do not..

Historically Sierras have pretty well proven to be some of the most accurate bullets ever massed produced, and they have a reputation of failing to hold together.

I used Sierras for years as that is about all that was available to handloaders, then Hornady showed up and on and on...The Sierras mostly worked well but they did blow up on many ocassions, and except for several ocassions they still killed the animal, but not always..by todays standards they are a second rate performing bullet in game killing catagory and that is simply because they are limited to expansion by the thickness of a jacket and that is all that holds them together..

Todays good bullets have partitions, soldered cores and other modern means of controling expansion, Sierras do not, but they are still super accurate bullets and will get the job done most of the time. I use them for varmints but don't wish to take a chance on them anymore for big game, I owe the game that much, but to each his own, that's what makes a horse race.

Ray wrote:

quote:

Pictures and reference to a deer shot, don't tell much of a story other than it did or did not work on that particular deer...

True...but the same can be said for any reply by any person in any thread on this board.

Everything should be taken with a grain of salt. Heck, in the American Big Game forum, someone posted a compilation by a national gunwriter touting the Sierra MatchKing as one of the 10 best hunting bullets of all time. He somehow rates it third overall...

Personally, I have used the Sierra GameKings and Pro Hunters to take quite a bit of game. But I don't push them overly fast and certainly don't load them up in some overbore magnum that features a pound of powder in a gallon-sized case.

I understand the ballistics of my cartridges, I am famliar with the velocity/expansion window for individual projectiles and test everything thoroughly before ever using it on flesh and blood.

In short, I know what works and what doesn't.

We have lots of choices out there, but it all eventually boils down to common sense and logic.

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
..by todays standards they are a second rate performing bullet in game killing catagory and that is simply because they are limited to expansion by the thickness of a jacket and that is all that holds them together..

Well actually the jacket thickness PLUS the hardness of the lead alloy. And IME the HPBT's (120gr 257, 140gr 277, and 165gr 308) are significantly tougher than the normal GameKing.