Hornady SST or Sierra Gameking for whitetails

[ldlfh7]

Any 30 cal bullet weighing 150 gr will do the job. Don't over think it. Corelokts work great and have forever.

 

[22250Rem]

I'd just use whatever 150 gr. bullet my barrel preferred, accuracy wise. Shot placement is paramount. I will admit that my favorite .30 cal. 150 gr. hunting bullet is the Nosler Accubond. My barrel loves 'em and they work real good on game.

 

[juk]

I took a 90 lb whitetail just yesterday with a 165 gameking SP out of my 308. She was quartering away and facing downhill. The shot was about 40 yards or so. This is a mild load with only 43 grains of IMR 4064, but the bullet did its job. It blew a 2" entry hole through the right rib, punctured a lung, cored the heart, and exited just inside the front left shoulder. BANG, jump, flail, flop. Realistically though, almost any hunting bullet would have done the same. The 165 HP Gamekings are a different breed though. The deer I have seen taken with those are just gruesome. One in particular was a straight on broadside shot through the boiler room. 30 cal entry hole, baseball sized exit wound. Could have stuffed a basketball in the actual wound cavity.

 

[GooseGestapo]

re original post:
Hornady dosen't make SST's for the .35Rem. Those would have been FTX.
My experience with the FTX and SST's (.25,7mm,.30) haven't been good. (failure to expand, complete penetration on game actually recovered with no apparent expansion).

I much, much prefer the Sierra's. I've killed over 200 deer with Sierra's over the past 38yrs. .22, .25, 270,7mm, .30's,35's, .375 and have confidence with Sierra's.
I've had notable failures with Hornady .243, 7mm, .338, and .35's.

Such that I won't use a Hornady on a $$$$ hunt. Sole exception is the 200gr FTX in .338ME. It has performed acceptably on deer, so I'll chance it for elk. Otherwise, I'll lopp off some of the nose of a Nosler 210gr Partition or buy some Hawk 200gr FN. If in big-bear territory I'll use some factory 250gr Corlokts. I've had excellent performance from the CorLokts if not consistent accuracy...

 

[BudgetBucks1]

Thanks for all the input. Sounds like alot of good experiences from the Sierra gamekings. I already have a box of 100 of them so I think I'll just plan on using them. Season is over here in NC so I won't be able to try them on game until November.

 

[Lloyd Smale]

for myself i would like to never see an exit wound, an exit just means lost energy!

What exactly do you think that energy is doing for you. Do you think its knocking that deer down?? Not a chance. If you want to know exactly how small the effect of the energy of a bullet is suspend a 100 lb bag of corn or grain and shoot it with your rifle. the bag will barely move. It sure wont move enough to translate into knocking a deer off its feet. Give me an exit wound EVERY time. One episode of tracking a deer with only a small bullet sized entrence hole will cure you forever from hating exit wounds. Energy means about nothing when it comes to killing. About all it is is a way to rate power levels of differnt calibers and its actually a poor way to do that.

 

[pigger]

hunting

As I said, I prefer no exit!!!! I don't think it's about moving your target or knocking it off it's feet. (Lloyd Smale, If you want to know exactly how small the effect of the energy of a bullet is suspend a 100 lb bag of corn) And how do you think that the energy of that bullet has no effect on that animal? I sure would like to know! I do agree that some people need an exit wound!! I just feel like that if the bullet passes through you have not used all of the potential the bullet has to offer.

 

[ldlfh7]

...

 

[Art Eatman]

Argh! Enuf!