Sierra matchking performance on game

[Teri Anne]

Did you Buy the .06. If not, you should have! "Hind sight is always 20-20"

No I didn't at that time but did years later when someone came in with a Tikka T3 om 30-06 and said it couldn't hit the broad side of a barn if you were in it. Bought it on the spot from the dealer, bought a box of Sig Sauer 165 gr mounted a Vortex 6 x 24 x 50 on it and the first 5 shots out of the barrel were a clover leaf at 100 yards, off center but still a clover leaf. Moved the sights and next shots were exactly where I wanted them. It's a great one shot one kill deer rifle.

 

[DMP25-06]

My buddy took this Antelope at 200 yards with a .308 pushing a 168gr SMK. He was facing to our right. The pic shows the exit wound from the first shot which we thought was a miss as he did not even flinch!! I called it just high until he turned and started moving to our left. Seeing the wound I called the hit and had him shoot again. Second round struck him high in the neck. He dropped. Inspection showed a massive wound getting the top of both lungs and a 3" exit hole thru the rib cage.

Rogue ,

Do you consider this experience to be bullet failure , or success ?
How far did the Antelope move after the first bullet impact , before the second shot to the neck dropped him , and how much time elapsed between shot #1 and #2 ?

It seems to me that a bullet going through both lungs , and exiting the animal with that large of an exit wound , would be a fatal shot .

Just curiosity on my part .
DMP25-06

 

[old_heli_logger]

I've read about smk's "penciling" through critters without any expansion at all, does anyone have pictures of this? I see lots of pictures showing almost explosive wound channels. Sierra says that their smk's have very thin jackets...

 

[Rogue]

Rogue ,

Do you consider this experience to be bullet failure , or success ?
How far did the Antelope move after the first bullet impact , before the second shot to the neck dropped him , and how much time elapsed between shot #1 and #2 ?

It seems to me that a bullet going through both lungs , and exiting the animal with that large of an exit wound , would be a fatal shot .

Just curiosity on my part .
DMP25-06

After the first hit, he walked approximately 5 steps then turned and took maybe two more before the second shot. I would say about 10 seconds between shots.

Yes, it was a fatal wound. But, as stated, there was no response to the first hit. We thought we missed.

I've killed many Antelope and never seen one react like he did. The SMK did kill the antelope, but we will not be using them again for hunting.

 

[Parkerized]

Yes, it was a fatal wound. But,

 

[Coldfinger]

View attachment 310453Hi all. Wasn't able to find much info on this subject before my general deer season started on nov 8 so I decided to test out the matchkings on deer. I'm shooting a 183 smk from a 26" 7 wsm @ 2860. I shot this big bodied whitetail at 180 yd impact velocity 2575 fps. It had a tiny entrance hole and the exit was 3-4" in diameter. This is my biggest buck so I'm glad I could test the load out on something other than a doe. I hit about 2" further back than I should've but that because i held wind when I shouldn't have. Ran 50yd with a great blood trail. I'm hoping to test it out on something past 500 yd. I will get some pictures of the entrance and exit wounds later today. Please post your experiences with smks and hunting on here. Thanks for your comments

If you listen to all the professionals out there you'll find that match kings aren't up to the task for harvesting game but Berger vld's are??! I will stick to my Sierra Match Kings for hunting as I've never been let down. The 250 grain Sierra match king at 3200 FPS out of my 338 edge penetrated more elk than I believe most bonded or copper bullets would have at 600 yards. .338 bullet hole at entrance completely destroying front shoulder joint any traveling through vitals paunch and exiting a softball size hole at his ham next to tail!

 

[Northkill]

I hear you. I had one bad experience with a woman once, but took my white blesbuck at 430yds using a borrowed 7mag pushing a 160g SST. BOOM

430 yds no problem with SST. And the 160's will hold together better than the 139's. Not a bad choice. It's the light for caliber ones hitting close and fast where I've had and observed issues.

 

[yobuck]

We have had great success on whitetail and black bear with 200 grain SMK out of a 30-378 weatherby, and 300 grain SMK out of a 338-378. They're all we've used for the past 30 plus years.

You know the answer to that HC, every generation needs to reinvent the wheel and find out for themselves. lol

 

[Parkerized]

Both are regularly killed with 30-30 Winchester carbines.

 

[Bravo 4]

.300 WinMag
190 SMK
3020 fps MV
2215(ish) fps impact
Broadside deer, impact tucked right behind shoulder and little less than halfway up, pinkie size entrance, jello-jigglered lungs, rather large exit that took some shoulder with it…nasty! Not something you can walk away from.

 

[xsn10s]

.300 WinMag
190 SMK
3020 fps MV
2215(ish) fps impact
Broadside deer, impact tucked right behind shoulder and little less than halfway up, pinkie size entrance, jello-jigglered lungs, rather large exit that took some shoulder with it…nasty! Not something you can walk away from.
View attachment 313073

Obviously penciled through Did you clear the tips?

 

[old_heli_logger]

.300 WinMag
190 SMK
3020 fps MV
2215(ish) fps impact
Broadside deer, impact tucked right behind shoulder and little less than halfway up, pinkie size entrance, jello-jigglered lungs, rather large exit that took some shoulder with it…nasty! Not something you can walk away from.
View attachment 313073

Gnarly!! Lol!

 

[Ken61]

I used a 105 Amax 6mm on a buck deer. Fell in his tracks.

 

[Bravo 4]

Did you clear the tips?
[/QUOTE]

No just a visual check, must be getting lazy.