First experience with match type bullet on game

[backyardsniper]

I use them and I've had good results with match bullets. 168 nosler custom comp in my 308, 77 in my 5.56 and 300gr in my lapua. Nosler CC in all of them. Occasionally I'll work up a load with the Amax or Eldm. I don't like having a " hunting load" and a "target load" so I train with what I fight with or more appropriately in this case hunt with what I train with.
Had a guy call me the other day to tell me to throw away any eld-x bullets Remington core lokt or hornady SST bullets I had because he had lost animals with all of those and they just weren't any good...ha ha. I asked him what was the common denominator in all those shots? You got it! The trigger monkey!

 

[David Urasky]

I shoot lots of match bullets and understand their construction. They are designed to stay together at very high spin rates so the bullet remains stable at long ranges, 1000 yards +. To do that the jackets need to be thick. The thick jacket is not designed to expand or come apart on impact. Again, the bullet is designed to stay together.

On the other hand hunting bullets are designed with a thinner jacket so as to allow bullet expansion upon impact.

I have lots of match bullets on my shelves. I also have hunting bullets for the same cartridges. If I'm shooting paper with a long gun I'll use Match bullets because I'm pushing the velocities to the max with fast twist barrels. For example in my 308 FTR gun with a 30" barrel I shoot a 200 grain Berger at 2650 fps using 43+ grains of Varget. Look that up in the manuals, that's a ridiculous amount of powder for that cartridge and bullet. But because of the chamber I use I can make it happen safely and without beating up the brass. It's a single shot so I don't have to worry about fitting into a magazine.

I have a 284 Win pistol for long range competition. With the 18" barrel I can't get the velocities which you can with a rifle so I'm not concerned with keeping the bullet together. So I selected a hunting bullet for my load development. Why? I now have one load which shoots 1/8 MOA which I use for 1000 yard competition and as my elk gun good to about 500 yards. Why the shorter range limit for hunting? The bullet runs out of energy. To put a hole in a piece of paper requires much less energy than dropping an elk.

So if you shoot paper use a match bullet, they're designed to put holes in paper. If shooting animals, use a hunting bullet where they are designed to expand and cause damage.

 

[Mike6158]

I shot a Elk twice with 175 game kings at about 250-300 from a 7mm mag both shots in the boiler room I have both and he just stood there not one step third was in the spine he went down on that I just couldn't believe it didn't move that gun is now a .338 mag

I'm trying to recall if I have ever lost an animal shot with an SMK. Nope... some have run a bit though. In brush country that can be a problem. I had to help find a deer that ran after it was shot with a .243 :/ (NOT BY ME, a friends son wanted to use his first rifle). I was literally crawling through the brush on my belly looking for blood spots. It went about 50 yards from where it was shot and then down into the "brush tunnels" (that's what I call them, I don't know what the deer call them, they never said) where it went at least another 50 yards. It was hit well... just not enough.

 

[dk17hmr]

I have used match bullets to fill the freezer a number of times. Mostly A-max bullets but smk's a couple of times.

Unless it's tipped I won't do it again after last years cow elk taking three 300gr smk's from my 338 Lapua. If you hit heavy bone they work well if you don't they pencil. I like meat so stay off the shoulders.

I switched to the 230 eldx in my Lapua for the second elk last year at a similar distance and similar placement slightly larger cow even she took one round and fell over with a 2" exit hole in her side.

Sierra makes great bullets in general I'd look at the game changer line though for hunting. My 6/250AI shoots the 90gr at just under 3400fps into sub 1/2 moa groups at the top end of where I'll shoot an animal from.

 

[PATGARRET]

My son shot a whitetail deer last weekend, and it's the first time I've used a match type bullet on a game animal. Just wondering what everyone's experience with this is and if what happened to us is typical? He was shooting a semi custom .308 that I traded for using factory federal premium ammunition. The bullet was a 175 grain Sierra match king.

The deer appeared about 300 yards away, and I was ranging him to tell him how much to dial, he started walking towards us. He ended up stopping at 110 yards, quartering hard to us. My son made a perfect shot, hitting him in the point of the right shoulder. The bullet broke the shoulder blade in half, liquefied the heart, clipped a lung, and came to rest in the paunch.

The deer actually turned and ran about 15 or 20 yards and tipped over and fell. He kicked a few times and jumped back up, stood broadside, and just as I told my son to send another one, the deer fell back down and died for good. All my hunting experience has been with some type of tipped bullet, and I've never had this happen. All well placed shots have been DRT. This bullet did it's job as the bone and vitals were destroyed, but I'm not happy that the animal was able to run off. Is this typical for an SMK bullet, or did this deer just have an extreme will to live?

Hi Cowboy,

You cannot expect better result than the one got by your son...
Anyanimal start for a sprint with a heart bullet...I faced this as well with small animal game, ie deers as with elephants or Rhino...
That's it
If you want a dead shot, you have to go for a brain or a spine one !

 

[Buckskinner]

I'm more for using a hunting bullet for hunting, match bullets for paper. Aside from performance, thousands of tiny fragments of lead throughout the meat is not my prefered way of seasoning or tenderizing...

Aside from that, what more are you asking of a bullet to do? It ran 15-20 yards, fell over and got back up, then died. Pretty successful kill IMO. It was dead on it's feet. Do you just not like watching such things or what? That deer did not know or care either way.

I target lungs as often as I can, no meat wasted (including heart), usually good blood trail and they bleed out well. I have no issue tracking 100 yards, often it's much less. If it's your concern, deer do not suffer when shot vitals are shot. They die or blackout within seconds before any onset of pain or idea of what happened. And certainly much less agony than being torn down by a predator...

 

[Garou_22]

I've personally never considered using a bullet that the manufacturer specifically states as not recommended for game use...

That said; a couple birdies have told me that certain entities use Sierra MatchKings exclusively. The .300WM load, for instance, is the 190gr MK propelled by RL22 ignited by Goldmedal Match magnum primers and encased with LC brass set to exact SAMI OAL. The .308 recipe is a little different & the only thing I recall is the 168gr. MK as the projectile. I don't own a .308, I do own a .300WM, so I payed more attention to what I own. Anyway, seems to me that if entities who's job description includes hunting and efficiently dispatching the world's single most dangerous animal on a regular basis find the Matchking effective, well then, maybe I've been wrong to dismiss them as a viable game option. Of course, those same entities are limited in their Geneva legal selection of projectiles, so there's that.

The .300WM recipe worked incredibly well in my factory M70 even with changing the brass to Win and the primers to CCI 250's and using Nosler 190gr LR's... at the time, federal primers were short supply as were the 190MK's and I just don't have any .300WM lake city brass at all.

 

[jbower]

My son shot a whitetail deer last weekend, and it's the first time I've used a match type bullet on a game animal. Just wondering what everyone's experience with this is and if what happened to us is typical? He was shooting a semi custom .308 that I traded for using factory federal premium ammunition. The bullet was a 175 grain Sierra match king.

The deer appeared about 300 yards away, and I was ranging him to tell him how much to dial, he started walking towards us. He ended up stopping at 110 yards, quartering hard to us. My son made a perfect shot, hitting him in the point of the right shoulder. The bullet broke the shoulder blade in half, liquefied the heart, clipped a lung, and came to rest in the paunch.

The deer actually turned and ran about 15 or 20 yards and tipped over and fell. He kicked a few times and jumped back up, stood broadside, and just as I told my son to send another one, the deer fell back down and died for good. All my hunting experience has been with some type of tipped bullet, and I've never had this happen. All well placed shots have been DRT. This bullet did it's job as the bone and vitals were destroyed, but I'm not happy that the animal was able to run off. Is this typical for an SMK bullet, or did this deer just have an extreme will to live?

I have a lot of experience with mk bullets in my 308
I have used it mostly for long range 300 to 1000 yds
They have been deadly
I did shot a buck at 125 yards straight on in the chest and had the same experience as you did
The deer rAn 75 yds
And looked like
He wasn't hit
When I dressed him out his heart was blown to pieces
Everything I shot over 250 yds dropped in its tracks
I use the 190 grain S. MK
His ha

 

[PBR driver]

I still can not understand why people want to shoot a target bullet to hunt with.
Every Bullet Manufacturer will tell you not to use for hunting.
With the quality of game bullets on the market, why shoot a bullet that may work perfectly, or Punch right through like an Armor Piercing Bullet, or possibly splash on the or just under the Hyde like a varmint bullet?
Why take a chance on wounding big game?
I understand there will be those that say they have never had an issue, but why take a chance?

 

[19 Badger]

I used the 140 Eld-m this year on a few animals. Bullets shoot fantastic, was very disappointed with terminal performance. Recovered all the animals, can't complain to much. Am going back to Accubonds or Hammers tho.

 

[emp1953]

These bullets were designed and built to give optimum downrange performance on paper and steel. The fact that some will perform well on game is just a spill over benefit and not the goal of the bullet maker. Be happy with your results. I've seen deer dead on their feet bolt and run 100 yards without a heart. I've seen others with a tiny little entry and exit hole, drop dead on the spot. Each deer is different, each shot is different. If it was all the same every time we'd have nothing to talk about and would probably take up crocheting.

 

[Deleted member 107796]

I started a thread, Recovered Bullet Photo Gallery, as while back. There are a few match bullets there as I recall and they killed well.

https://www.longrangehunting.com/threads/recovered-bullet-photo-gallery.226322/

My wife squarely hit a cow elk in the shoulder with a GMX, which expanded and traversed across the lungs and yet the thing ran 60 yards. I think a good, killing vital shot will still allow for some running. Anything hitting the spine, heart or head will stop an animal faster but will kill no more effectively, IMO. The nature of the expansion on a dead critter, from a recovered bullet, is why I wanted to start that thread, as opposed to purely discussing terminal performance.
I use Berger VLDs which some call a match bullet, but have no specific hunting experience with a Match King or other specific match bullet.

 

[73driver]

I have only seen a few DRT shots in all my hunting, and most all involved clipping the spine. One buck at 70ish yards took a 30cal SGK through onside shoulder sheared the top of his heart off and mashed up off side shoulder, that boy ran about 100 yards. That deer was dead but just not ready to quit, also bullet worked perfectly, sometimes they just don't go down right there.

 

[Mike6158]

I understand there will be those that say they have never had an issue, but why take a chance?

Because they worked 100% of the time, for years, and that's what was loaded. The deer doesn't look at you, throw its little hoofs up, and proclaim that it's not going to die because you used the wrong bullet. Two of the three deer looking at me right now were shot with SMK's. They are dead. They didn't go far. I didn't have to try to find them.

Being somewhat sentient I listened to a friend of mines advice. He hated the SMK's for all of the reasons listed on this thread (penciling and little to no blood trail was his big complaint and I thought it was a legit complaint even though I never needed a trail) At his suggestion, I tried the Barnes TSX. I liked the results on one deer and didn't see a difference on another. I hunt with the TSX now.

If I have one bullet and it's time to eat I'm not going to put the gun away because the one bullet is an SMK. Even the lowly .22 LR will kill a deer. I don't understand the hyper drama over a bullet label...