Sierra game king question

[mhayes]

Federal Premium Sierra Game king, 100 grain 243 & 165 308. I apologize up front for the long post. Lol.

Didn’t know a better place to ask this question. If I have it in the wrong place please move it.

So I changed up my hunting ammo for my 243 and 308 this year. Mainly cause I couldn’t find what I normally use in my 308. I don’t use my 243 much for deer and decided to take it more this year. So I wanted to get a premium bullet. I’m trying to decide if I have an issue with quality or if these are really not liked in the hunting world. I know with the smaller calibers it’s shot placement and all but I’ve never had this problem before. What grain and bullet choice would you guys be using for these calibers? I don’t reload so I will need to by factory production ammo. I’ve never used this bullet before, but use different kinds of Federal ammo in all my guns.

Here are my issues. Shot 3 deer with the 308. The buck I center punched his right shoulder and got a pass through on left. Same shot with Hornady dropped bigger deer last year. He made it 65-70 yards. Double lunged 2 does. Each made it at least 80. I’ve never had deer do this with any 308 ammo in the past. Well yesterday I had the 243 with me. Shot a doe in the neck and watched her stand and drunkenly walk circles and walk about 20 yards or so. Little bit later shot a doe just behind left shoulder and exited right shoulder. She dropped and plowed with rear legs for a few feet. Flipped over got up and ran. She looped back to close to where I shot her but all in all went at least 60 yards.

Do I have an issue with expansion? The exit holes don’t seem to be as big. Is this bullet not made to expand as good as the old blue box Federal ammo? I’m lost! It does group extremely well in my guns and I bought a lot of it. Lol.

 

[davans]

I’m having similar results. .308
1- Doe, 200 yards. Behind the shoulder. Only ran 30-40yds. No sign of entry, very small exit
2- Doe, 100 yards, slight quartering away. Behind the shoulder, exited through opposite should. Dropped in her tracks. Absolutely no sign of entrance or exit. Literally zero sign. She started leaking out the exit when I loaded her up.
3- Buck, 200 yds. Broadside. Hit him a little high behind the shoulder. He flinched, then jumped the fence. No sign of blood. Never found him.
I’m not blaming these bullets fo shot placement. But I have noticed over the past couple of years that they don’t make great wound channels.
Very accurate though. The gun loves them.

 

[BIKER13]

I use the Sierra pro hunters and never had one leave 308 150's. Now speer hot cor 165's knock em in the dirt another 308.243 I always used 100 grain coreloks always

 

[mhayes]

I use the Sierra pro hunters and never had one leave 308 150's. Now speer hot cor 165's knock em in the dirt another 308.243 I always used 100 grain coreloks always

Thanks,
Never tried Corloks. Just plain Federal blue box and Winchester soft tips have always dropped them hard. Usually only a step or two at the most. But my shot placement hasn't changed and I have retrieved all these deer that I mention. So I was at least able to verify the shot and channel. But i upgraded to these thinking they have to be better right. And all but one of them have made it out of sight after the shot. Had I found them and realized I made a bad shot I would understand. I was tempted not to post this as I was expecting someone to say it was my shot placement. And I will be the first to admit that when I have had to track one in the last 35 years. But this is just out of the ordinary for my experience and all i can relate it to is the ammo.

I’m not blaming these bullets for shot placement. But I have noticed over the past couple of years that they don’t make great wound channels.
Very accurate though. The gun loves them.

I agree, one of the most accurate factory rounds I have used in my 308. Just not happy with the performance.

 

[BIKER13]

Shot placement is key. Shot a doe sunday with the speer 165 quartering to me. Bullet entered at front right shoulder exited in front of left hindquarter heart lungs liver all destroyed. Flipped over backwards.90 yard shot

 

[59gagohunt3]

Other than having a little more consistent accuracy with the SierraGK, I've not noticed much difference on terminal performance on deer whether their the Sierras, Rem cor-loc, Speer hot cor or Hornady interlocs. They have all put them down dead equally. At least for me those have been pretty much equal. The Nosler Part. and the Barnes TSX or TTSX are another story altogether.

 

[BIKER13]

Ballistic Tips will not perform at short range might as well have been a FMJ

 

[rosewood]

I used to use the Hornady SSTs, but discovered them as well as Nosler ballistic tips tend to blow up at short distances. They will totally come apart inside the deer. They kill them dead, but usually no exit wound. If you shoot them at longer distances once the bullet has slowed, they are more likely to pass thru. I switched to Sierra Game Kings in most cartridges for hunting and have had pass thrus on all of them. I go for double lung shots and if they run, usually no more than 30-40 yards and pile up.

That being said, I think you have just had bad luck. Deer are tough critters with a strong will to live. I have shot more than one in the same spot with the same bullet, one is DRT, the other runs a ways. Keep doing what you are doing. I think adrenaline is a major factor also. At closer distances, the deer are more spooked from the shot, and are more likely to run on adrenaline, at distances, they are less spooked and many times stand there and just fall over when the BP drops low enough.

Try bow hunting, most all deer run off unless you clip the spine.

Years ago my brother shot a nice 7 pt buck with a 300 win mag. The deer run 75-100 yards before crashing into a tree and stopping. There was a hole you could put your fist in and the deer's heart was gone.

Rosewood

 

[SteelRinger]

So let me get this straight. You killed 5 deer with these bullets and think there is a problem when they went no more than 80 yards after the shot?

Seems to me that they performed exactly how you would want them to. If you want to drop one in its tracks you have to hit the Central Nervous System. Period.

And for davans, your experience sounds like you don’t know what good bullet performance looks like. If you have a giant entrance wound, the bullet expanded too early and essentially failed. Same thing with the exit. You should have a caliber sized hole on entry and no more than 2-3X at exit. If you want bloodtrails you need to shoot them lower. The number one problem I find when recovering deer that were hit “great” that ran with little or no blood is that they were hit high. The blood won’t leak out if it has to fill the chest cavity first. Poke the hole lower and watch your recovery rate soar.

 

[Alaskan]

Take the game kings to the range and have some fun. When you find them buy some Rem corelokts or federal power points. In my experiences the game kings acted like a FMJ or BTHP bullet.