Anybody used the Sierra prohunters in 30 cal, 180g? (I think this is an old bullet, box looks old and I don't remember seeing these recently). I only currently have two bullets to use for my 308 Norma, the Sierra match kings and pro hunters. I was thinking about ordering some NorthForks but wanted to find out how the prohunters had performed on Deer type game.

thanks gents.

Red

Oh boy Red, now the fur is going to fly.

You'll get a bunch of varying opinions on any Sierra on game. In my experience I guess you'll be okay on deer, especially our smaller CA deer....

BUT THERE ARE SURE BETTER CHOICES.

Best of luck,

Kyler

I have loaded them for a friend of mine in the past and they worked okay on deer. We both have switched to Barnes TSX and like them better but they do cost a little more. If you are only concerned whether they will waste a deer or not then load and shoot and kill. There are better choices if you don't mind the expense.

I just ordered a box of Northforks, I'm gonna use the sierras to murder paper. :-)

Red

If you keep the velocities down to 2900fps or less they'll punch right through a deer. If you want to push them at higher velocities, they'll expand more , make bigger holes, but may not penetrate.

Your only shooting deer. They'd be fine, as would a host of others. Nate

Unbelieveable!

So let me get this straight, you guys are advocating premium bullets for deer size game? The .30 cal. Sierra's won't kill deer now?

Please spare me the stories of poor shooting that get blamed on "bad" bullets to justify your positions. The flavor of this thread wreeks of armchair monday morning hunters rather than anyone with real field experience.
I've used the 180 grain Sierra SPBT, (which by this forums standard is even more frangible that the flat base Pro hunter of the same weight), for 30 years. In this time it has cleanly killed more Elk than I can remember, a dozen deer or more, Antelope, Bighorn Sheep and Mountain Goats. Never lost an animal while using this obviously inferior and sub standard bullet, guess I've just been really lucky.
Obviously with this track record of real field use I should have switched to "Premiums" years ago.

Red, you can use those 180 grain Sierra Pro Hunters with confidence.

I use them quite a bit in a couple of 300 magnums, they perform well.

I have shot several wild hogs with my 300 Wby Mag using the 180 Sierra, no complaints.

I recently shot a 200 pound boar with my 300 WSM using the 180 Sierra flat base. He was going straight away, about to top over a hill. I shot him right in the ham and that bullet almost came out his chest. His lungs were a mess, real penetration. I did not find the bullet as it was darned near dark, I had to finish gutting with a flashlight.

I have never recovered any of the Sierra's, nearly all have gone out the other side of the animal.

In fact, last weekend my buddy and I were deer hunting and he was commenting that he had never dropped a deer on the spot with his 300 Win Mag.
He shoots 180 Nosler Partitions and has killed a bunch of deer in CA. None have run far, but they all have run a little ways. He was thinking of switching to the Sierras to see if they might be better for deer.

And they are accurate, I shot a group with that 300 WSM the other day with the Sierra's that you could cover up with a dime.

Try them out.

I have a box of 180 grain prohunters SBT's that has taken 84 deer in 85 shots. I load them in 30-06 and 308. They have worked without pause except for two years ago when I shot a doe at 15 feet as she stopped and looked back on a powerline after I almost stepped on her. The bullet went in the left flank and blew up going toward the chest. No exit wound. I got her with the second shot as she stopped to jump a fence at the bottom of the powerline about 200 yards away. So, last year I used a Barnes X and could tell zero difference in performance on my deer. Generally, I place the bullet on the near shoulder joint and it breaks both shoulders and takes out the heart. The exit wound is about softball size and I have no tracking to do. So, I imagine I will finish out the box of Sierras and maybe buy another.

Deer are much more sophisticated than they were just a few years ago. They can easily tell when they've been shot with bullets that cost less than a dollar apiece and simply ignore such pedestrian projectiles. You'll have to buy something much more expensive than the Sierra if you want to kill a deer, even if it prints patterns instead of groups.

You guys go ahead and shoot your Sierras, and have fun. I know for a fact, based on two different experiences, that Sierra Pro Hunters can be as frangible a bullet as money will buy.

I have related the stories before: finding the cup from a .311" Pro Hunter 150 shot out of a 7.65 ARG in a front shoulder, and my father losing a 6-pt at less than 75 yards from another bullet out of the same box.

I have also talked before about a friend visiting with the Sierra rep at a SHOT show a few years back. The rep said that Sierras weren't designed to be launched at over 3K, the jackets were too soft...

I won't shoot them, period. The way I see it, when you spend hundreds, maybe thousands on a hunt, and maybe only one shot, to scrimp on bullets is fiscally irresponsible.

I don't like finding bone fragments in my venison...

And probably most importantly, the animals deserve better.

JMHO...

Doubless kind of hit the nail on the head. If a bullet is used as per recommendation, ie. game being shot, and muzzle/impact velocity, they will work just fine.

The one pig I have taken was with Remington CoreLok, performan was fine, didn't bother looking for the bullet but it worked good, only went about 15-20 feet before laying down.

I see no reason though to skimp, why not use premium bullets? no good reason not to. If I am going to use a week of vacation, spend money on camping, gear, my time up there, what's a box of bullets? Will I not hunt with something because it isn't premium? obviously not, I have hunted with Sierra's, remington, barnes. I just don't have any first hand knowledge of their performance since the deer are so damn lucky/smart up here.

Hopefully this year will be the year that I outsmart them!

Red

Well if its a very old box then here is my very old but accurate story.

When I was a kid I started loading at age 14 and deer hunting as well. I was watching a field in Vermont on opening day before light. At first light, which was legal shooting time, a group of deer including a nice buck with a rack were moving across the field about 200 yds away being visable and then going out of sight. A buck with at least one 3" antler was the only legal deer.

They stopped under an apple tree shaded somewhat and I tried to aim at the buck. I was shooting the P 17 Enfield that my late dad and I had sporterized chambered in 30-06 with the 24" tube. It was sighted with a Pacific peep and a ramp front sight with a Sourdough blade. I could not see the front blade in the dim light but the deer were easy to see. I estimated the height of the front blade and fired off three shots. There was no sign then or later of a hit and the deer ran off.

Now I had two rounds left in my 30-06 charged with, of course, the 180 Sierra Flat Base that was later renamed the Pro Hunter. The load was 57.5 grs of IMR 4350 in military brass held in 5 round stripper clips and secured with masking tape around the shells and marked with a ball pen as to the load. Don't go and copy this load. It was worked up in that gun and functioned just fine.

As I stood up to go and follow the deer that had run off it turns out that a buck was sleeping or hiding just 50 ft in front of me all of the time. It stood up and presented itself broadside and I shot the four pointer right above the heart. It fell and got up and ran across the field and I shot again and missed it. I tried to load my gun but my cold fingers could not get the tape off. Don't wrap your rounds in masking tape.

The buck continued to run across the field and I ran after it. I could run quite fast back then. The buck fell about 100 yds from where it had been shot and was holding its head up. I ran up to it and drew my Colt Woodsman and shot it in the neck with a 37 gr Remington HP. The bullet broke the bucks neck and was recovered under the hide on the other side.

The 180 gr Sierra made a hole in the aft side of the buck that you could stick your fist thru. I know this as my dad kept that hide around with the hole in it always saying he would do something with the hide.

After that learning experiance I got a scope for the 30-06, got rid of the tape, started using 150 gr bullets on deer and will not shoot at game if I can't see the front sight.

Today, half a century later, the consensis of my buddy and I is that a powerful round like the 30-06 is better for taking all shots at deer as it makes a larger more humane wound than smaller bullets. He loads the 150 Nolser Partition and I am loading the 150 Accubond.

For several years after I out grew the good old 30-30, I still used 170 gr. 30-30 bullets in a 30-06. If any of you california hunter have ever hunted up by Rockport CA, you know that if a deer is hit and runs off more than maybe 25 yards, you ain't gonna find him. So, I went to the 150 gr. Sierras, but after a few years of having them ruin good eating meat, I went to the 180 gr. Sierra Spitzer flat base bullets. I was hunting other areas than Rockport by this time and the 180 gr. Sierras did just fine.
I figure someone is going to ask why I stuck with the Sierras when there were other bullets available. Well, primarily due to cost and availability. back then, Sierra had their plant in california and Speer and Hornady bullets were more expensive at that time, and Noslers have never been "cheap". My local gun dealers stocked Sierras and all the others had to be special ordered. They shot just fine and killed deer, what more could one want?
Now, the question is about the Sierra Pro-hunter in a magnum cartridge. I don't know much about a .308 Norma, but I do shoot the .300 Win. Mag. and the accuracy is great. In my rifle, I can use the same charge with either the 180 gr. Sierra or the 180 gr. Nosler Partition and either will stay in the same group. Sad to say, I have not yet taken a deer witht he Sierra in the .300 mag., mainly because Arizona requires one draw a tag and then if you're lucky, only allows you four lousy days to hunt for most of the seasons available. I did draw for last year but circumstances beyond my control forced to to hunt only the very last day. I saw a few does but nothing with horns. This year, I drew a different area that I have yet to go check out. I'll probably take the .300 again, and if shots are as long as they are in my normal area of choice, I see no problem using the Sierras. remember, a 300 mag. at 200 yards is more like a 30-06 and by 300 plus is nothing more than a long range 30-30.
Anyway, I haven't seen any deer wearing Kevlar lately. I will use the Noslers on my elk hunt though.
Paul B.

quote:

Unbelieveable!

So let me get this straight, you guys are advocating premium bullets for deer size game? The .30 cal. Sierra's won't kill deer now?

Oh yeah that's old news They all are born w/ kevlar vest now. One of those evolution things you know

I'm worried to death because since I've started using these internet forums I've found that my:

My non-premium bullets will bounce off any game

My hunting truck (A Dodge 4x4) is going to fall apart at any moment despite the years of abuse and 140,000miles

All of my Model 700 bolt handles are going to fall off at any minute

I'm going to die of hypthermia the next time I use my cheap sleeping bag that's rated for 0 degrees

Some of my reloading equipment that is made by Lee is going to fall apart any day

My scopes that are not Leupold are going to fail at any moment

Oh the list goes on

Reloader

I believe Dago, some fellows want to use your question to gripe at eachother (from armchair to armchair) about everything and nothing. What a pity. I have shot a few animals with said bullets, and man do they kill deer. Out of the 30-06 the deer only ran 20yds give or take ten. Out of the 300 Winnie, well they died on the spot, but the meat damage told me I should stick with a bullet that likes to hold together better at those velocities. But I see you already made that choice. Incredibly accurate bullets though and all the animals died, so in the end they were a success. Good luck, and say hi to Arnold.

Hi Dago Red:

I reload for my buddies and I. Together we have accounted for over 30 animals shot with 30-06's and 165 gr BTSP Sierra Bullets. The list includes many one shot kills on Caribou, Moose, Elk, Alberta Whitetail, Mule Deer and Antelope. IMHO they are perfect for deer size game. But unlike the some current philosphies that support bullet construction that beileves bullets must exit to be effective killers we have proven otherwise. We have recovered most of our bullets and happily thought this was good thing, because these animals were usually flattened by the impact. The bullets usually weighed about 130 grains recovered from a 165 grain bullet. Use Sierra bullets with complete confidence that if you do your part (and hit them in the chest or shoulder) with the 308 Norma and 180 grain Sierra bullets you will kill deer and elk size game with ease.

Hoopi

Do you think my 52gr Sierra's 2nd will work on P-dog or should I switch to premium bullets?? I have heard of some serious charge's and bite wounds so i'm really concerned that these P-dogs have also found Kevlar along with the fact i'm driving 1300 miles one way to hunt I think I need all the bullet I can get.

I've had no problems with 180gr sierra game kings in my sako 300wm when i shot a very large barren mule deer doe at 600 plus yards in colorado,in the packing house in meeker she hung with the 6x and 7x mule deer bucks.made a major mistake when someone asked where i found her and i blurted it out,the next year i went to my honey hole and it was over run with hunters camping in the area.