sierra game king hollow points

Mojo said:

The Gameking is really designed for longer range shots with the caliber it's designed for. I don't think they show any kind of "best performance impact velocity" but that is what the shooter needs. The bullet is very well made, but the shooter has to know what kind of shot they are likely to take before they choose the Gameking as their bullet. My very loose rule of thumb is minimum of 200 yard shot with most cartridges to use this bullet. I would think that if you call Sierra and ask them about a specific bullet, they would tell you what impact velocity the bullet will perform best in your specific caliber/bullet weight, and from that you can decide if it's the right bullet for the ranges you are likely to take shots. At the right impact velocity, they are an excellent bullet, usually very good BC with a boattail design, so less drop and less wind drift - exactly what you want for a bullet used on longer shots.

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Mojo,

You're 100% correct, but what if you go out expecting a 200 yard shot and a trophy mule deer buck pops up out of nowhere and he's 35 paces away? Do you patiently wait for him to bounce off and whistle when he gets to 200? A good big-game bullet is not one that performs perfectly at a specific distance; they ALL do that! The ideal big-game bullet opens up and holds together at 30 feet while still expanding and penetrating completely, at 400 yards. The Gameking will probably be great at the longer range, but I know from personal experience that they do not hold together well at 30 feet.

Core-lokt, Partition, X bullet, A-Frame, Accubond, Interlock, etc...These are quality big-game bullets and they are well worth any additional cost, or the loss of gilt-edged accuracy, for the performance on game that they provide.

Carry two different loads? Ridiculous. Adjust the distance you shoot based on the bullet you have loaded? That would be very accommodating of the game being hunted.

The Partition penetrates reliably, even when the front core separates completely. This causes dramatic wound channels and an exit wound for easy tracking. The SGK just blows up and if/when the animal runs off 150 yards, you've got a much tougher job finding it.

The Gameking is a target bullet, masquerading as a hunting bullet. It uses a simple, drawn copper jacket; technology that is pushing 100 years of age. Sierra makes some of the best target bullets in the world...the SGK is one of them.

We do agree on one thing: The Accubond is a very well-designed bullet that performs well irrespective of distance or impact velocity. It has an excellent BC and would be just as capable on that 500 yard sheep as the Gameking, but if you happen to peek over the top of a ridge and see one at 50 yards, you aren't going to wonder if the bullet is going to perform.

SMK said:

Sorry for this reply being off topic. I don't have any idea how many bullets are sold each year for hunting vs target shooting, but I know I hunt and shoot competitively and I shoot nothing but Sierras in competition and if you go to a High Power or Silhouette match from what I have seen Sierra totally dominates all other brands. I shoot probably 10x as many Sierra bullets for match shooting as I do for all other brands of bullets combined that I use for hunting. One 3 hr silhouette match can easily consume 100 bullets. I don't ever buy Sierra Matchkings in anything but the 500 count boxes. I do use Sierras a little for hunting as well and have found them to work just fine for deer. All I'm saying is that I am not sure they are in such dire straits as you suggest. I think there will always be a market for an affordable, accurate bullet and target and varmint shooters put a LOT more rounds down range than a guy who just hunts big game.

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You are undoubtedly correct about the target crowd using a lot of bullets, but where there are tens of millions of big-game hunters, there are relatively few shooting target competitions. Any company whose product line is gradually reduced to just a few profitable items risks going out of business with just a small change in legislation or consumer sentiment. If the anti's get their way, the entire nation will follow Kalifornia on this absurd track of lead-free bullets, and if that happens, Sierra is a thing of the past. If they were part of a larger corporation they might survive, but being a privately owned company, they are potentially at risk if the market changes.

Perhaps more on-topic, I love Sierra bullets and will always use them for some of the shooting I do. They were the first bullets I handloaded and gave the kind of accuracy I had only read about, previously! Also, they used to be much more commonly used by other companies who were making ammo. To a lesser extent, they still are, but I really wish they would take what they know about making accurate projectiles and combine that with the modern technology used for making tough bullets. That way, they could offer a product with better terminal performance to compete with the likes of Nosler, Speer, Hornady and Barnes.

The Accubond was only released 9 years ago, so I'm presuming you are combining your Partition and Accubond experience into one big pool. The Partition isn't a "bonded bullet", but is definitely a very consistent performer, even if it's not often one-hole accurate. In my admittedly limited experience, the Accubond IS very accurate, with 1" groups at 100 yards not too difficult to attain.

Shooting southern deer with 300 Magnums may not be the best test of terminal performance because, as you stated, every single one is a pass through. No surprise there, but I do wonder if you were to be fortunate enough to harvest a like number of elk, or nilgai, what the results might be. As Nick stated earlier, Sierra did some testing and came to the conclusion that whatever differences might be quantifiable, they aren't enough to justify changing their extremely accurate bullets. For light, thin-skinned (CXP2) game, I'm not sure the bullet matters much at all, so excellent accuracy is something to consider as a defining characteristic.