.308 SMK Report on Texas White Tail

[Savage .308]

In short they SUCK!!! at least in my field testing. I had made my mind up that 175gr SMK's would be the bullet of choice for my long range hunting with my .308 but after last weekend I think I will be switching to 180gr Accu bonds. Well the story starts out as such, I had two more doe tags that needed to be filled at my place in Coleman TX and I thought it would be a great chance to see how 175gr SMKs would do on game. I had read lots of threads about the good and bad about SMKs on game but had decided they would be fine for our Texas White tail. What a mistake that was! the first doe I shot was at 225 yards. I hit her just behind the shoulder and it actualy skined the shoulder blade on its way in. The bullet completly blew up and did not exit. The poor little doe ran a good 150 yards before expiring wich is completly unexceptable for me. I dont want any deer runing over 60-70 yards after a well placed shot like that and defintly not at that close of a range. The second doe wich I never found [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img] was shot at 267 yards square in the shoulder blade which my spotter and I saw she ran off holding up her leg and was never seen again. we looked for her for a good 6 to 7 hours with 8 guys and never found her. In my opinion and experience SMKs are not for game but thats my opinion. I dont want to piss any one off with this post I just want to share some facts that I gathered so I am sorry if I affended any SMK users. I also have photos of the doe and a video of the second doe showing me hit her and her runing off. I will post them if I can ever fiqure out how to do it.

[ELZWizz68]

Sorry to hear about this... thanks for the post though. I too had thought to try the SMK's for Texas deer as our deer are a little on the smallish side (comparatively to up north). The one drawback to me was the warnings from Sierra to not use them for hunting... I know that there are lots of members here that have great success with these, I am thinking of the ULD/VLD Wildcats now with the thicker jacket or the Accubonds, as I have used the BTips very effectively and the Accu's could only be better if they have the same accuracy. No need to apologize IMO - state what you think. As long as you don't lambast other members that have used them successfully, I guess. This to me was an absolute disaster for you - I know that it would tear me up too if I was in your shoes and won't try these now... I would put this forward though - as a newbie member cruising through the posts, it seems that most of the successfull harvests were with heavy for caliber SMK's i.e. high SD bullets. Something that may not be usable for a standard twist barrel, though. Just 2c, not a jab by any means, just an observation. I am getting my 25-06 rebarreled to 6.5-06 AI with a fast twist for these high SD, ULD bullets. I expect to be able to comment next fall on any success or issues with the Wildcats if they shoot right.

Regards,
Erik

[Nomosendero]

The 6.5-06AI is a great round, & worth doing if that is what
is best for you. I just wanted to point out to you that if
you like the 25-06 & especially if you use it also for Varmits, you maybe should look also at the 125 ULD Wildcat.
We used this bullet back in October to harvest 6 Antelope
& 3 Mule Deer & 1 AR. Whitetail in November. It worked very
well from 80 yards to over 400 yards for us. I won't know
until later, but I believe this bullet will work way out
there for Coyotes & such.
Kirby accurized & did the Ackley treatment to my & big brother's Sendero's & I could not be more pleased. We are
pushing these bullets to 3,250FPS in the AI.

[Dave King]

E-Mail the video to me and I'll post it.

[Bart B]

Too bad, but now you know why Sierra Bullets does not recommend their Match Kings for hunting. They've had phone calls and mail since the '60's from hunters using their hollow point match bullets saying how bad they performed. And since the '60's Sierra's put in print everywhere not to use them. Oh well, such is life. Some folks don't wear seat belts either.

[POP]

I am probably the biggest "ANTI" when it comes to Matchkings for game. Man.... there are so many incredible HUNTING bullets out there! Why some still insist on using Matchkings on game (even against Sierra's advise) is well beyond my scope of understanding. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

[Varmint Hunter]

Here we go again! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]