First experience with match type bullet on game

And BTW, my 142 was still moving at 2650 when it hit my elk at 400 yards so like shooting it with a Creedmore point blank, and no pencil hole or failure to expand even when just through the rib cage. Same with my deer, still cruising 2500 FPS at 525yds and a blender in the chest cavity.

We need to ban CM, match bullets DRT, which [insert whatever thing I want here], and what do you consider long range threads. We need to petition our local law makers to make this change a permanent reality! Who's with me?!

300Whisper, that is too bad that you experienced that type of performance. With the 6.5mm 142 SMK, did you check the pointed meplat to ensure it was open? I do that step when running a few other pointed match bullets in my (or buddies) hunting rifles. 6mm 110 SMK, .257" 131 Blackjack Ace, 6.5mm 142 & 150 SMK, 7mm 183 SMK, and .308" 210 SMK. Never had an issue when checking them.
The Berger Hybrids and OTMs seem to work phenomenally on game from the 20+ game animals we have used them on. I actually think the slightly heavier jacket is beneficial over the HVLD jacket. Yet, they still open violently, they seem to drive through. I have only had 4 match bullets that did not exit a game animal. All those were just under the offside skin. And none have gone more than 40-60 yards on a dead (no pun intended) run. I would say 80% have dropped either at the shot or within 10 yards. I think shot placement trumps any bullet design or construction in that aspect. But expending massive amounts of energy and hydrostatic shock quickly incapacitate much faster, if not near instantly.

^ sorry to clarify mine where 175 grain SMKs out of a .308 win. Shots were short probably 75 at the closest and 90 yards at the farthest. I could not recover any bullets to inspect but it would have been interesting if i could. I have only ever had three animals in my life DRT. Two hogs and one coyote. I always do crease of the shoulder heart lung shots, so that maybe why I don't get DRT with any bullet type.

KyCarl said:

I just don't get it? It says right in the name! S. MATCH K. it doesn't say one word
about hunting! So why would you even try?

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I just looked at the sierra site and they state for "MatchKing Bullets: While they are recognized around the world for record-setting accuracy, MatchKing® and Tipped MatchKing® bullets are not recommended for most hunting applications."

Blackdirt Cowboy said:

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?

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It is typical of a heart shot. For some reason, a heart shot will sometimes result in the animal running for short distances. It sounds like the bullet performed perfectly, however. Sierra does not recommend use of match bullets for hunting, but they will work, and from the damage described, this one worked perfectly. Nobody who hunts and kills game in large numbers gets a DRT every time. Sometimes, they're just tougher than others. Sometimes they just don't drop right away no matter how hard they're hit. As long as you don't lose the animal and the animal dies quickly, the bullet has done its job.
But again, Sierra doesn't recommend any of their match bullets as hunting bullets, so I would go with the 165 grain Gameking or the 180 grain Gameking, both of which are actually designed for hunting, rather than any of the Matchking bullets in ANY
weight.

chickm1 said:

I have a suggestion for you, of you want to hunt with match bullets, try Berger VLD. Sierra MKs have too thin a jacket for hunting.

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Wow, a lot of experts on here!!

Have you ever sectioned a SMK bullet, a Berger VLD? I have sectioned lots of them. Sierra jackets are thicker than the Bergers. I have rifles that will blow a Berger up in flight but the SMK always hits the target. I can remember shooting 1000 BR matches with the 210 Bergers from a Lazzaroni Warbird. Every once in a while one of these match bullets with vaporize in the air and you would have a very nice 9-shot group and a puff of smoke in the air. We switched to Sierra Match kings and never had another blow-up.

Another poster stated that target bullets have thick jackets to hold together at long range, hunting bullets have thin jackets!

I guess he has never seen a Swift A-frame, a Bitterroot or whatever other quality hunting bullet.
Target shooters are well known for using the minimal amount of twist they can get by with to minimize any defects in the bullet core manifesting in groups. The ubiquitous Remington 700 in 308 has a 1-10 twist in all models except the varmint and PSS (at least when I was buying factory rifles they did) the Varmint and PSS were 1-12 twist; ostensibly to better shoot the 168 SMK target loads. Hunters on the other hand usually spec a barrel to shoot the heaviest and longest bullet they can dream of in their best hallucinations. They spin bullets much faster than a typical target rifle.

Everyone is going to have different experiences with deer reactions to gunshot wounds (GSW). A study done in France a number of years ago involved the killing of hundreds of goats to study bullet effects on vitals. One thing came out- the DRT goats (all were shot in the heart) were dependant on WHICH chamber of the heart was filled with blood at the time of the shot. I believe it is the left ventricle that, when filled, would shoot a tsunami of blood into the brain - causing the DRT that we all ooooh and aaaah at. A true DRT reaction from a GSW MUST involve the central nervous system. Period.

High shoulder shots typically disrupt the spinal cord and cause the legs to collapse. The animal is still alive but instantly incapacitated. Bigger calibers exacerbate this phenomenon but don't help much with a poor shot.

Another poster won't use lead bullets (cup/core) anymore because he doesn't want any lead in his system. There are been plenty of studies done to show that these particle of lead pass through harmlessly. It is the primer residue that is most toxic.

I have used my share of Barnes X bullets in their various iterations. I have found that they do NOT kill nearly as quickly as a standard bullet given the same exact shot placement. I tried it repeatedly on a trip to Africa. My Partition loads were much quicker to end the flight than the copper bullets. Only place I would use a copper bullet is in a place that didn't allow real bullets. I shot quite a few head of game with them when they first came out. They have their place but shooting deer is not one of them.

I have only killed game with match bullets for the last 6 or 7 years. These have been a mix of whitetail and mule deer. 2 big bodied mulies with a 140 amax from a 6.5-284 that was a 3000fps load at the muzzle. One at 525 and the other at 180 yards. Both times the bullets expanded extremely well and fragmented a good bit despite not hitting a shoulder. Both dead in under 10 yards. A dropped in its tracks mule deer with a 147 eldm from the same rifle and several whitetails shot with a 308 and 168gr match kings. Even a 140 eldm from a 260 on a whitetail too. All bullets expanded and either broke up inside the animal or left a huge exit. I have had no bad luck with match bullets hunting and will continue to use them. The main reason I use them is because I shoot so many of them through my 308s, 6.5s and 338 lapua that I am so comfortable placing a shot at most ranges right where it needs to be that I know that if I need to make a high shoulder shot or can just blow through rib cage/lungs and heart that I can do it with so much confidence that I can accommodate the setting I'm shooting the animal in. If it's a big buck or bull in an area where I don't want it to run I will anchor the shoulders. If it's something that's more in the open with no opportunity to hide in brush or end up in a hell hole I'll punch the lungs/heart so if it makes it 50 or a hundred yards (though none have to this point) I can opt for that shot placement. There is no replacement for me than being intimately familiar with a particular rifle and a particular load that is tested thousands of times each year at way longer ranges than I would shoot an animal.

Blackdirt Cowboy said:

I wasn't disappointed in the bullet performance. I was shocked, actually, since it is a match bullet. I was disappointed that with all that damage, the deer didn't drop in it's tracks. But I wanted to mainly see if that kind of performance is expected out of an smk, or if it was just a fluke.

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It ran 20 yards..................

Here's the deal. a cast lead bullet will kill an animal, but, there are better choices out there. Many people think the "hollow point" will do the job, but the fact is, the hollow point in a SMK is part of the manufacturing process, not a hollow point meant to expand. And, remember all military ammo is FMJ, and many, many dead soldiers didn't know the difference. I think if you hit a deer with a marble going 2600 fps, it will probably kill him. But, is it a clean humane kill? There are reasons that there are bullets with different designs and features. SMK are not designed for maximum performance on game. Will they kill if they hit an animal? of course they will. Will they consistently perform as well as a bullet designed for hunting large animals? The manufacturer is the expert, and they say they will not. I believe them. I know a man that shot a deer 4 times with a SMK. Do whatever you think is ethical.

I used the 142smk on my antelope this year. Antelope ran 60 yards after being shot at 862 yards. Bullet worked well. I generally use the ELD if I am hunting, but the 142 shoots better out of my .260AI than the ELD does. I have always used match type bullets on game with good results. If you are wanting to shoot coyotes with a match bullet with minimal damage, the 77 grain RDF has been working well for me. *Warning The RDF is intended for target shooting, and not recommended for hunting. They do run a bit after being shot, but it still kills them...

There are some "match bullets" that are great on game like the A-Max and the ELD-X. The SMK's are not one of them, the jackets are too thick and structural. I promise that that bullet will not liquefy the heart or any other muscle or organ without either getting thrown sideways by a bone or by sending bone fragments through. Without hitting bone, that bullet is no more effective than using a target tip on an arrow 95% of the time. Also, SMK's are not any longer the go to for long range precision competition. I hit a deer in the neck with one years ago and the animal never looked like it got hit. He ran off like nothing happened. Luckily it cut the jugular and bled out in about 75 yards. BTW, the neck meat was still in great shape and turned into a delicious roast.

I have 1000's of rounds of surplus Military FMJ ammo 7.62 X 51 MM. Would it kill a Deer? I'm sure that it would .even kill a Bear! But I don't use it for hunting that's not what it was made for! Horses for courses!!

300whisper said:

^ sorry to clarify mine where 175 grain SMKs out of a .308 win. Shots were short probably 75 at the closest and 90 yards at the farthest. I could not recover any bullets to inspect but it would have been interesting if i could. I have only ever had three animals in my life DRT. Two hogs and one coyote. I always do crease of the shoulder heart lung shots, so that maybe why I don't get DRT with any bullet type.

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Try an eldm in that rifle and you will have better results. Some match bullets are great hunting bullets some aren't. .308 155gr lapua scenars do not work on game, same experience as ur 175smk.