sierra game king review 30 cal 150 gr.

swampy

Well-Known Member
i purchased a box of sierra gamekings for use from my parker hale 1200 .30-06. They were fairly cheap i brought them from a supplier in the states. i think £16 per 100.
previously i have used speers 150 gr hot core #2023 and had good results but i wanted to try something different.

I immediatley noticed they appeared better made with a more consistant lead point with less lead exposed. they are a spbt design so the ogive was a bit sharper and less tapered than the speer bullets.

i loaded them as follows

imi brass
remmy primer
nobel #1 52 grains
oal length is 3.2 (if i remember correctly)
all cases are full length resized

book velocity 2950

on shooting i found they are super accurate with clover leaf groups at 100 yards through my rifle.

I shot a roe buck at 80 yards broadside with one last week. i took a low heart shot and the buck was instantly dead. no visible entry wound on the outside but intersingly an exit wound on the same side of the animal at the back of the rib cage. on skinning the animal i recovered the jacket and a piece of the core under the skin of the far shoulder. the jacket had peeled back like a picture from an advert! i will try to add some pictures. and there was a small pice of lead in the jacket. the total wieght recovered from the animal was 66 grains 19 grains of that was lead, the rest copper.

there was considerable meat damage to the far shoulder from me. but little on the point of impact. the internal organs were intact except for the heart (it was a good shot).

A very accurate and well made bullet. good instant kill but not a lot of retained wieght. this might well be becuase it is designed as a longer range bullet where it's impact speed will be a lot less so it needs to expand quicker.

steve[/img]
 
Probably twenty years old or more.
I fired a few cartridges the other day that I had loaded with Nobel Rifle 00 and accuracy was still good but the smell was like rotten eggs!!
 
old powder

hi,
yeah the powder is old. I had a source for it at £10 per sealed tin. It seems to give good accuracy though. it has not gone off and is still goot to use. I have som viht140 which i will use when it has all gone. I reload 243 and 30-06 and the same powder will do both cartridges.

swampy
 
i purchased a box of sierra gamekings for use from my parker hale 1200 .30-06. They were fairly cheap i brought them from a supplier in the states. i think £16 per 100.
previously i have used speers 150 gr hot core #2023 and had good results but i wanted to try something different.

I immediatley noticed they appeared better made with a more consistant lead point with less lead exposed. they are a spbt design so the ogive was a bit sharper and less tapered than the speer bullets.

i loaded them as follows

imi brass
remmy primer
nobel #1 52 grains
oal length is 3.2 (if i remember correctly)
all cases are full length resized

book velocity 2950

on shooting i found they are super accurate with clover leaf groups at 100 yards through my rifle.

I shot a roe buck at 80 yards broadside with one last week. i took a low heart shot and the buck was instantly dead. no visible entry wound on the outside but intersingly an exit wound on the same side of the animal at the back of the rib cage. on skinning the animal i recovered the jacket and a piece of the core under the skin of the far shoulder. the jacket had peeled back like a picture from an advert! i will try to add some pictures. and there was a small pice of lead in the jacket. the total wieght recovered from the animal was 66 grains 19 grains of that was lead, the rest copper.

there was considerable meat damage to the far shoulder from me. but little on the point of impact. the internal organs were intact except for the heart (it was a good shot).

A very accurate and well made bullet. good instant kill but not a lot of retained wieght. this might well be becuase it is designed as a longer range bullet where it's impact speed will be a lot less so it needs to expand quicker.

steve[/img]


with 30/06 is would be better to use 180 grain
 
Sierra Game Kings is my experience are the best accuracy V price bullet for stalking, but they do not hold together well if impact is at high velocity, sub 3000 fps they should hold up. I read somewhere that the optimum impact velocity is 2200 fps for expansion, penetration and weight retention.
 
If the core had parted company from the jacket I would call it a failure as the bullet has lost its integrity and may behave eratically. This is a really common problem with traditional cup and core bullets like the sierra. Obviously some consider a bullet fragmenting to be a good thing as all energy is expended in the beast, however in my opinion the bullet could not be counted on to penetrate in a predictable and uniform manner.In this case the beast died quickly so calling it a failure seems inappropriate. I always had better luck with the speer hot cor bullet in the 308 rather than the sierra or hornady brands. I suppose I prefer to know for certain that my bullet will pass right through even on difficult angle shots on bigger deer
 
Swampy, i use the same sierra projectile in my .308 at 2800 fps and have found like you, superb accuracy. They are softish and the jackets do often seperate. At almost 3000 fps and impact distance of less than 100 yds this will be worse. The soft projectile and rapid opening on small deer fallow and sika is great for energy transfer, knock down and i would not consider it a failure at all. I would not use them on big deer where deep penetration and an exit wound was desired. A 180 in a .308 or .30/06 on small deer, pigs, goats often means animals will travel abit before they die as you do not get as good expansion if you don't hit a bone and in thick brush the animal can become difficult to locate. Less meat damage for sure.
 
I have used Game Kings in 243, 270 and 7mm and yes as above they are accurate and rather frangible.

I found that on a front end shot with any calibre the bullet (or its flying particles) would not penetrate the diaphragm and leave you with "soup" to gralloch. I stopped using them for that reason - sometimes if say a leg got in the way on entry the resulting damage could be very significant.

Very cost effective though.
 
Back
Top