With all the talk about Sierra bullets lately I thought I would post this in case anyone is interested.

I used a 140 Gameking from a 7-08 at a muzzle velocity of 2,675 fps to take a descent (160'ish pounds dressed) whitetail buck Friday.

The deer was shot broadside just behind the shoulder at around 150 yards. He went less than 30 yards before piling up and expiring very swiftly and neatly.

I found the bullet just under the hide after it had penetrated through the offside shoulder. The recovered bullet still weighed 91.4 grains and had expanded to between .420 and .440.

If I were pushing these bullets a little faster I would have most likely got a little more expansion and an exit hole.

So my conclusion (my 2 cents ) is as long as they keep behaving like that example they are plenty tough enough to hold together on deer at standard 7mm velocities but I doubt I'll be trying them launched from my 7 mag.

The performance you got out of the 140 gr GameKing is what I have come to expect out of the 165 GameKing from a 308 Winchester @ 2750 fps. The only difference, I have yet to recover one of them. Congrats on the buck.

Shoot Safe, Shoot Straight.......RiverRat

At that speed, Gamekings usually work really well, it's only when pushed too fast do they mess up. I shot a lot of deer with a .270 pushing a 130 Gameking at 2900 fps and they worked perfectly, but when I got a velocity bug and shoved them a little faster (3050) they went to pieces and caused me some grief. I kept the velocity and went to ProHunters (flatbased spitzers), and they are working well enough to satisfy me. Haven't had a deer move out of it's tracks yet, since switching to the PHs. Keep the velocity where it's at, and you should be in good shape. Sierras aren't bad bullets, regardless of what you may read. I like them, and they shoot really well in all my rifles.

Speed and expansion are not conducive to greater penetration.

Chuck

Chuck, please explain. I have done casual tests on bullets such as wet phone books etc. that in no way makes me an authority on the subject of balistics so forgive me if I am missing something here.

The testing I have done showed me that more velocity would cause bullets to penetrate further up to the point that the velocity became to much for the bullet and caused it to do bad things like blow apart or loose its jacket, shedding to much weight.

Heavy Varmint,
By the time the bullet does all the things you mentioned it is a dead deer, provided you hit it in the boiler room.
Stepchild

[ 12-01-2003, 16:49: Message edited by: stepchild 2 ]

If your looking for a little tougher "Sierra Bullet" able to handle higher velocities, you might want to give the Sierra HPBT GameKings a try!

http://www.sierrabullets.com/xring/index.cfm?fuseaction=Vol7no4#tough

Marsh Mule, Thanks for the link! I new these bullets existed but never new they were a "tougher" Sierra.

HV,

Here's a link to a pretty exhaustive study done on the penetration characteristics of a variety of .308 cal 180gr bullets.

http://www.mindspring.com/~ulfhere1/methods.html#medium_bore

It's pretty consistent in showing that higher velocity (above the minimum velocity needed to expand the bullet) is generally detrimental to penetration. My understanding of this is that higher velocity causes the bullet to expand sooner and to a greater extent thus creating a greater frontal area which is not conducive to penetrations. Lots of penetration can be obtained from a "hard" bullet, say a Barnes X, at an impact velocity that barely deforms it, say 2000 fps, such that it has a small frontal area. In that case it will really penetrate well.

I kill a buck last Friday with thr 140 Gr, Sierra Game King .270 Win. Clean one shot kill, impact behind the sholder exit hole Apx. size of a quarter. Deer ran Apx. 20 Yd. I have used Sierra Game Kings for several years. 165. Gr. in 30/06
These are very accurate & excellent bullets for deer size game. I have have killed over 100 deer with them. I used Hornady SST two years ago for one season, killed 5 deer two still alive when found all had massive intury wounds. I went back to Sierra I new would give me excellent results. I load for 5 other hunting buddies they have excellent with Sierra Game King. I base my openion on first hand experence. I dont care what is left of the bullet as long as it performs. The Sierra Gameking is an outstanding performer on deer size game.

I have used Sierra 150 grain Gamekings in .308 Win loaded to about 2,600 fps. I have shot deer, coyotes, wild hogs of various sizes and at ranges up to 200 yards. Most were one shot kills and all were complete penetrations of the animals. I have yet to recover one of these bullets and I am quite happy with their performance.

Most any well constructed hunting bullet will work fine when velocity is less than 3000 fps muzzle velocity. Muzzle velocities above 3000 fps are best suited for long shots after the bullet slows below 3000 fps. Some very heavy jacketed hunting bullets will punch holes in game animals at longer ranges and not mushroom at all. The right balance between jacket thickness and lead core composition makes the hunting bullet do it's best job, mushroom perfectly and not break apart.

The Sierra line of hunting bullets are very accurate and the game king will work on game animals. Being a long time Sierra bullet user, I find they are exceptional, and perform to my expectations. I contact Sierra bullets on regular basis and they are always very kind and ready to help me solve any question I may pose about Sierra bullets.

The only difference between premium hunting bullets and all the rest of the so called plain old hunting bullets is pricing. Premium bullets cost more and are only better in the mind of the buyer.

Much praise is given to the Nosler Partition bullet, but I have yet to see one mushroom to twice it's original size. The Partiton bullets two compartment design makes the nose section break open on impact and disintegrate. The jacket peels back against the back section of the bullet,
remains intact, and the bullet diameter remains bore size.

No game animal can survive a well placed hunting bullet in the heart lung area. Premium hunting bullets, Partition included, will not deliver if the shot is not placed properly. Some premium bullet users make poor shot decisions because they believe that premium bullet will perfrorm miracles and shoot through the animal from any angle or direction.

Reloader66 ;
Very well stated, I couldn't agree more!
For my hard earnded dollars there's not a better bullet on the planet, plain and simple!