Sierra Gameking .308 on Muntjac

[Bucksdeermanager]

Hi All,

I was stalking recently and shot a Muntjac Doe with a 150gr Sierra Gameking from my .308 rifle. The shot was about 65m. When I retrieved the carcass the bullet had passed straight through with a very narrow wound channel. I expected the Gameking bullet to have mushroomed more?! Are Sierra Gamekings reliable at expanding / mushrooming? Or is a .308 too powerful for Muntjac?

Constructive thoughts / opinions / comments welcomed!!

Tom

 

[JMikeyH]

Don't think it will have been that 308 is too powerful, it's a big bullet going a fair bit slower compared to other commonly used calibres. I would have expected a big old exit wound on the other side. Where did the bullet pass through? Hit any bone? How hard is the lead on the Gamekings?

Bearing in mind I'm no expert, but that's just my thoughts

 

[Bucksdeermanager]

Don't think it will have been that 308 is too powerful, it's a big bullet going a fair bit slower compared to other commonly used calibres. I would have expected a big old exit wound on the other side. Where did the bullet pass through? Hit any bone? How hard is the lead on the Gamekings?

Bearing in mind I'm no expert, but that's just my thoughts

There was quite a big exit wound, but very little damage in the cavity. The bullet passed straight through the lungs. The lead is pretty hard on the Gamekings which is making me wonder whether it needs quite a lot of resistance to make it expand??

 

[Colonel]

I have shot muntjac with 243 using 95gr SST and even they will drill a hole through if no one was hit. Don’t worry about bullet performance if it drops the deer to the shot unless you get too much meat damage

 

[JMikeyH]

There was quite a big exit wound, but very little damage in the cavity. The bullet passed straight through the lungs. The lead is pretty hard on the Gamekings which is making me wonder whether it needs quite a lot of resistance to make it expand??

I had the same on a muntjac a few weeks ago using Sako Gameheads, not Sierra Gamekings but perhaps they use a very similar bullet. It pencilled through without any real exit would but still dropped the deer. Softer lead may be in order, or ballistic tips if meat damage is not a big concern.

 

[Tim.243]

Same round in .270 does the same thing, had them go through Fallow, to add my 95gn .243 Hornaday goes through 10mm ms plate @ 200 yards with a gap in the ribs and a soft bit of H/L is no surprise....

MJ are rarely square on with then stepping in at quite an angle so you just have to make your choice.

Tim.243

 

[diverdave]

Very happy with the performance of Game kings on roe and red deer, never shot a Muntie, but i guess it is fairly small and at 65 meters it will still be going really fast. Certainly stops red stags out to 300 meters, i am no expert, but perhaps a little hard for smaller deer. Are they tough skinned things, i have heard they are fairly hardy?

 

[iain b]

My bit. Was the deer dead, did it run on? If yes to the first and no to the second then no problem. Don’t over think it. There is too much worry about bullet weight/ velocity. If it’s legal crack on

 

[big ears]

My bit. Was the deer dead, did it run on? If yes to the first and no to the second then no problem. Don’t over think it. There is too much worry about bullet weight/ velocity. If it’s legal crack on

Beat me to it. What he said!

 

[Bucksdeermanager]

Very happy with the performance of Game kings on roe and red deer, never shot a Muntie, but i guess it is fairly small and at 65 meters it will still be going really fast. Certainly stops red stags out to 300 meters, i am no expert, but perhaps a little hard for smaller deer. Are they tough skinned things, i have heard they are fairly hardy?

In my experience Muntjac are very hardy - I’ve always been surprised how much it takes to drop them.

 

[Bucksdeermanager]

My bit. Was the deer dead, did it run on? If yes to the first and no to the second then no problem. Don’t over think it. There is too much worry about bullet weight/ velocity. If it’s legal crack on

Sadly the deer did run on.... I wondered whether the bullet had too much force to dump it’s energy in the Muntjac?

 

[Tim.243]

Sadly the deer did run on.... I wondered whether the bullet had too much force to dump it’s energy in the Muntjac?

As above in post 8#, It is very nice to see a clean chest shot caucus after skinning, however the smaller the beast then at distance it takes very little angle for the round to clip a front leg or the greens.
You watch most of the YTube vids of field sports Briton, the shooting show etc you will rarely see the exit hole when they
walk up to it....It cant be helped as the angle of the shot plays its part...
What ever shot you chose needs to put the deer down with out it suffering which we all strive to do....

Tim.243

 

[jer]

In my experience exit wounds and wound channels inside the animal are down to more than one factor, bullet construction which is important i.e. a ballistic tip vs soft point all things being equal will perform quite differently but just as important is what is hit on the bullet entry, inside the animal and on exit. Hit a rib on the way in, a major organ inside and a bone on the way out and you will find different wounds than if the bullet has passed through without hitting any of those. A Muntjac is small and there would be few bullets, excluding ballistic tips that would dump its energy inside. If you do a lot of foxing with the same bullet you will see huge differences in wounds due to the above. I use Sierra and Hornady 150 gn soft points on Muntjac and some will run 20 yds or so but they are dead.

 

[stubear]

It may have been that that particular bullet didnt expand properly, or you put it in the exact perfect spot where it hit no bone at all - just skin, muscle and lung tissue - and again it didnt expand quite right.

Deer can run on a bit even if shot properly I've found, especially if they know something is up before you take the shot.

I had a roe buck I shot earlier this year from about 70y with a .25-06, perfect heart/lung shot, and when I opened the carcass up the heart had been cut in half. It still ran 10-15m!

I've shot deer with .308, .25-06 and .300WM. Last doe season I had a roe doe shot with .300WM that I never recovered - there was a blood trail and I found a spot she'd obviously been standing for a moment which had a huge great puddle of blood (frankly I'm amazed there was still any in her at that point) but no sign of her. She was in a group and I reckon the adrenaline just kept her running with the group. Shoot enough deer and it will happen to you - doesnt make you feel any better about it when it does happen, but it is part of deer stalking.

The main thing is the deer was down, it was a quick death and you recovered the carcass - if you can say that, job done.

.308 is a great all rounder for deer though, nothing wrong with it at all - and the SGKs are a great bullet too.

 

[Bucksdeermanager]

It may have been that that particular bullet didnt expand properly, or you put it in the exact perfect spot where it hit no bone at all - just skin, muscle and lung tissue - and again it didnt expand quite right.

Deer can run on a bit even if shot properly I've found, especially if they know something is up before you take the shot.

I had a roe buck I shot earlier this year from about 70y with a .25-06, perfect heart/lung shot, and when I opened the carcass up the heart had been cut in half. It still ran 10-15m!

I've shot deer with .308, .25-06 and .300WM. Last doe season I had a roe doe shot with .300WM that I never recovered - there was a blood trail and I found a spot she'd obviously been standing for a moment which had a huge great puddle of blood (frankly I'm amazed there was still any in her at that point) but no sign of her. She was in a group and I reckon the adrenaline just kept her running with the group. Shoot enough deer and it will happen to you - doesnt make you feel any better about it when it does happen, but it is part of deer stalking.

The main thing is the deer was down, it was a quick death and you recovered the carcass - if you can say that, job done.

.308 is a great all rounder for deer though, nothing wrong with it at all - and the SGKs are a great bullet too.

Thanks for the wise words! Really helpful!

 

[Woodsmoke]

Same round in .270 does the same thing

This is my experience too. In fact, it's the main reason I handload down to about 2800fps (-ish) I still have occasional pass-throughs on roe, but on larger species the Gamekings expand very well!

 

[A21MEO]

I use .308 with 150gr SGK for red down to muntjac. I have found muntjac to be particularly tough and will run even when shot through the heart. I found almost the opposite problem to you; I was getting a lot of carcass damage on heart/lung/shoulder shot muntjac and CWD (they are on an airfield that is surrounded by thick scrub and I don’t want them to run). I have since modified my view on the .308 being the perfect all-rounder and I use .223 for small deer.

 

[enfieldspares]

Until you chronograph your handloads you never really know the speed they are actually exiting your rifle at.

Most American pointed tip .308" bullets of cup and core will likely be optimised for 2,650 to 2,950 fps cartridges.

Essentially .308 Winchester or .30-06 type performance.

Flat tip .308" bullets of cup and core will likely be optimised for 2,150 to 2,450 fps cartridges. That's .30-30 type.

My suspicions would be that whilst your reloading manual infers your XX.X grains of powder should give 2,600 or 2,700 fps that it actually isn't...but a lesser velocity.

 

[Bucksdeermanager]

Until you chronograph your handloads you never really know the speed they are actually exiting your rifle at.

Most American pointed tip .308" bullets of cup and core will likely be optimised for 2,650 to 2,950 fps cartridges.

Essentially .308 Winchester or .30-06 type performance.

Flat tip .308" bullets of cup and core will likely be optimised for 2,150 to 2,450 fps cartridges. That's .30-30 type.

My suspicions would be that whilst your reloading manual infers your XX.X grains of powder should give 2,600 or 2,700 fps that it actually isn't...but a lesser velocity.

I thought the same initially, but I’ve chronographed my rounds and they reliably come out at 2,747 so no problems there!!

 

[iain b]

Sadly the deer did run on.... I wondered whether the bullet had too much force to dump it’s energy in the Muntjac?

How far. My last fallow ran 10 yards, by the time I’d reloaded he was dead. Some times deer run. When I skinned him off the bullet went through the lungs and top of heart. He was dead before he ran.