300 GR SMK at medium Distance

[CA48]

Joel,

You got my curiosity up. What are you using to push a 300 SMK to 3200fps? I'll bet the results are dramatic!

Probaly 338/408 Chey tac

 

[Joel Russo]

Joel,

You got my curiosity up. What are you using to push a 300 SMK to 3200fps? I'll bet the results are dramatic!

.338-.408 improved....I can run it faster, but accuracy is stellar at 3,200'

 

[yobuck]

well admittedly my experience is very limited and limited to only whitetails.
we dont use our 338s unless its over 1000. so again that limits what we see
since most shots are less. ive seen 5 whitetail bucks killed with the 300smk.
closest was 900 and longest about 1400. all hit at least pretty well but none
died instantly. all shot with 338x416 or 338x378 with mv about 3000+.
first one was just over 1300 which my son hit on the first shot just behind the
shoulders. i watched that bullet hit that deer with 30x eyepieces. he never
flinched or showed any sign of being hit and just walked off about 50'.
he hit him again and he went down. he no doubt would have died shortly
after the first hit. all others were almost repeat performances except one.
that one was late in the day for us as it takes so much time to reach the deer after its shot. that one was at 900 and it dropped like a sack of rocks. slid
downhill aways and hung up in a deadfall where it laid just kicking a little.
we went over for it figuring it was dead. when we arrived it was dark and the deer was gone. it had gotten up stumbeled across the hill about 100' and died. so in summation they all died but not in the fashion you would prefer.
i had heard stories about deer being almost ripped in half and large chunks
being blown off the far side when they exit. well from what ive seen i cant
confirm any of that. in fact ive been so dissapointed in the performance that
i personaly held off on a 338 untill my old 30 cal barrel really needed replacing.
mind you they do shoot extremly well at the longer distances. my son is trying
the 285 amaxes in his 338x378. at 1500 they are right there with the smks. so hopefully we will see how they perform on a deer. my 338 is right
there with joels as for mv. i will be trying the bergers based on what jeff and
others are saying.

 

[D.Camilleri]

I have some concerns about how reliable the smks expand at extreme distance. My longest personal shots have been 1242 with my buddy his smks were found in the hill in tact with a dented nose, my 300 grain bergers evaporated in the same dirt. I will not shoot a bullet that doesn't reliably expand, because they won't make clean kills.

 

[Ultramag45]

I have some concerns about how reliable the smks expand at extreme distance. My longest personal shots have been 1242 with my buddy his smks were found in the hill in tact with a dented nose, my 300 grain bergers evaporated in the same dirt. I will not shoot a bullet that doesn't reliably expand, because they won't make clean kills.

AGAIN MEDIUM RANGE..3-7HUNDRED...THANKSgun)

 

[D.Camilleri]

Last fall my hunting partner and I were hunting cow elk in Wyoming. We got above a herd of several hundred elk on a rock ledge. Both of us were shooting 338 rums. He shoots 300 smk and I shoot 300 Bergers. I gave him first shot. At the crack of his shot, the herd took off, I found a cow that stopped at about 200 yards and broke her neck (she moved when I pulled the trigger) I asked my buddy if he got his and he said the shot felt good and he was sure it hit. Several minutes later I observed a lone cow acting sick about 400 yards below us. She wasn't with the rest of the herd that left. I told him I thought she was his elk. He couldn't believe it because he figured his cow had dropped. I watched the lone cow go behind a tree and never come out. It turned out to be his elk. It was only about a 200 yard shot. The bullet didn't exit. In hind sight we wish he would have opened her up and looked for the bullet path and remainders of the bullet, but we typically cut off the quarters and peel the back straps without gutting. I watched him drill two cows the year before both at about 750 yards and they both dropped in place. Not sure what happened.

On another note, I killed two antelope, a muley buck and a bull elk all drt with the 300 grain Berger last year on ranges between 350 and 620 with the bull dropping in his tracks at 550 and the bullet didn't exit. I wanted to do some bullet recovery on the bull, but some noise in the timber below me that resembled chewing sounds from a grizzly below me in the timber made me rethink staying there any longer than necessary. Maybe the carcass bones will still be there this year and I might see someithing.

Ultra mag 45, re-read this account, I think the bullet (smk) failed to perform at 200 yards) this leads me to wonder about consistancy. If you have a large lot of bullets, possible do some expansion tests at the ranges you will be shooting at into wet newspaper or your choice of medium and see what the bullets do.