300gr Siarra Match King for hunting

[hooksz86]

anyone use the 300 gr match king in there 338 lapua to hunt bigger game with. i am planning on maby useing these just b/c i bought 500 from cabelas and it would be nice to hunt with same bullet as target practice. thanks for any inpute.

[Jimro]

well, they will definitely kill what you hit. Sierra doesn't recommend Match Kings for hunting as they fragment easily, but 300 grains is a lot of bullet, even with 50% weight retention you are still looking at 150 grains.

Be prepared for a lot of blood shot and spoiled meat though.

Jimro

[Clifford L. Hughes]

Hooksz86:

The Match King bullets are designed for match shooting only, they are to tough to expand on game and I'm not sure if they are legel in some states to use on game.



Semper Fi.

Gunnery sergeaant
Clifford L. Hughes
USMC Retired

[hooksz86]

maby i need to try the burger 300 grain hybrid. do you know about that bullet any. just so i can have the same site in with my scope between two diff bullets is what i manly want. so that i can kill game with what is practice with ya know. but i had realy good luck with my f class 308 between the 168 Mk and the 168 burger match VLD hunting bullet. they both shoot identical on paper, so maby the same for 338. but is that hybrid burger mean match/hunting?

[hooksz86]

ah, nevermind i found on burger website that it is also a target bullet and not like the vld.

[PawPaw]

What are you hunting with a .338 Lapua? Regardless, when a 300 grain bullet smacks into meat, it's going to leave a mark.

Originally Posted by Jimro

Sierra doesn't recommend Match Kings for hunting as they fragment easily,

Originally Posted by Clifford L. Hughes

The Match King bullets are designed for match shooting only, they are to tough to expand on game

We're going to have to make up our minds if the SMK is too tough for hunting or if it fragments too easily.

[Picher]

The Match Kings are a non-expanding bullet design, meant for target shooting. With all the great game-bullet choices out there, there's no need to use them on game.

We had a poorly designed berm behind our 200 yard targets and only about a mile to some houses. The first time there was a high-power match, the cops shut down the range because the hard bullets were ricocheting off the berm and hitting houses and other things about a mile away. Almost everyone used Match Kings.

[hooksz86]

i am going on an elk hunt and im wanting to use the 338 if i get a chance with one not running and at a good distance. would love to go bear hunting also. and to the other reply on other game bullets, do you know of any good hunting bullets that still have a good BC off the top your head. thanks for the info though. i am new in the bigger cal of rifles so any help is good.

[LSnSC]

The .308 168 SMK's fragment/expand easily in my experience. The deer Ive shot with them usually had very large exit wounds and multiple wound channels.

[Jimro]

SMK's fragment easily at pretty much anything over 2,200~2,400 fps. After that they don't do much at all but make a single hole. This is based on what I've seen with 77 gr SMK's in Mk262 and 175 gr SMK's in M118lr.

Match bullets use thinner jackets than hunting bullets for accuracy purposes, and those jackets separate off quickly at significant velocity. The lead core is usually soft lead and comes apart like soft lead does at high velocity.

So, depending on the terminal velocity, match bullets turn into grenades or make one single hole. There is a transition velocity that allows for limited fragmentation, but neither option is good for a humane kill that preserves meat for human consumption.

Jimro

[Kiwi Hunter]

Some of the SMK varieties seem harder than others, I have seen 2 deer shot with a 300 RUM at 600 and 300 yards where the SMK pencilled leaving one animal unrecovered and the other still able to run pretty damn fast while shot right through both shoulders where a hunting bullet would have been DRT. I dont recall the bullet weight but it would have been one of the heavy ones and would have been moving at a pretty good speed from the RUM those ranges.

As posted above some people do use SMK's for hunting and report good success. However after this experience and and similar bad terminal results from Nosler CC's I will never try match pills for hunting again, 2 wasted trips and a quantity of wasted game.

Basically there are plenty of good hunting bullets which will get the job done, with good accuracy and no questions asked so why go there?

[Art Eatman]

Save the Match Kings for targets. Buy one box of Game Kings in the same weight; load with the same powder, and odds are that the sight-in will be little different. Practice with the MKs; hunt with the GKs.

It's not that the MKs won't kill an elk. The problem is when the elk doesn't realize he's dead until he's a couple of miles away.

Granted, any spinal hit with most any bullet is an "I quit" deal, but that's a skill thing, not a bullet thing.

[natman]

Quote:

We're going to have to make up our minds if the SMK is too tough for hunting or if it fragments too easily.

One or the other or possibly both. The one thing we can be sure of is that Match Kings were NOT designed with proper expansion in mind and therefore the odds that they will give proper expansion is pure chance.

Use a bullet that was designed for game.

[Zak Smith]

I generally agree with the idea to use a hunting bullet for hunting, but the 300gr SMK is a very large bullet. I now several people who use them for elk from .338LM and have great success.

[cornbush]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimro
Sierra doesn't recommend Match Kings for hunting as they fragment easily,
Quote:
Originally Posted by Clifford L. Hughes
The Match King bullets are designed for match shooting only, they are to tough to expand on game
We're going to have to make up our minds if the SMK is too tough for hunting or if it fragments too easily.

It can actually be both, have seen a couple antelope shot with SMK's its a toss up whether the bullet opens up explosively or drills through virtually undisturbed.
My grandpa has used some Sierra Palma match bullets on deer as well with the same 50/50 results, match bullets are match bullets and paper doesn't care what the bullet does on impact.
Use a hunting bullet and don't worry about whether the bullet is going to work the way you want.

[ZeroJunk]

Use a hunting bullet and don't worry about whether the bullet is going to work the way you want.

I'm with you. How much trouble is it to buy a box of bullets designed for the purpose.

[hooksz86]

well guys, i like all the help and opinoins. i think ill get some 250 gr hunting bullets or soft point of some kind and see how they shoot. its just that i know the 1 in 9 twist in savage 338LM likes the heavy bullet. does anyone know of any hunting or non match bullets that are heavier that 250gr.

[hooksz86]

i found a 275gr bullet A-frame hunter by swift and a 285gr by barnes Txs boattail. have you guys had any luck with either of these?

[big al hunter]

Hornady has a 225 gr boat tail Interbond that has a bc of .515. In researching for my 338 win mag I found this to be one of the better bc's in the lighter end of the line. And it is a bonded core bullet, should do well on elk and black bear. for Griz I would look at the heavy end 250 to 300 gr. Speer used to have a 300 gr but I haven't looked at them lately.

[publius]

That long 285gr. barnes would be excellent if your rifle likes barnes bullets. Some rifles don't like those solid copper bullets. My 30-06 likes them and I love them.