Sierra Gamechanger bullets.

[Cinchy]

My antelope pic. shows a great amount of energy expended in a very small area! A antelope in his lower body is only a few inches thick!! If I had hit mid body I`m quite sure the energy would of been contained more inside the heart lung area? A side note I shot a doe standing looking at me at 165 yrds with same gun & same load last night. The bullet preformed exactly as I would expect, I could tell by the internal damage the bullet made it almost to her pelvic area, it was near dark so did not recover bullet. Bottom line I`m impressed with the game changers, both in accuracy & killing power. I have more tags to fill so will update soon on performance!

 

[A Stranger]

I hesitated posting this picture of my New Mexico antelope when I post the others, but since there is concern the game changers don't expand?? The shot was only around 150 yds sharply down hill, but I would say the 165 gr game changer shot from my 7mm STW expanded a lot!

Thanks for sharing your photo. Comparing our experiences, I wonder if your shot might have hit bone to help it expand while my shot may have missed the bones/ribs. In either case we both still got our animals. I hope others continue to share their experiences.

 

[5RWill]

The guy that posted the .308 pictures through the heart hasn't given us enough info to make any type of judgement at all. His heart photo could be just a fragments that passed through, he even said he didn't look at the entry or exit wounds.

The pic from the 7stw likely hit right on the sternum at very high velocity (3000+) had violent expansion, and made a massive hole in a small bodied animal.

That's fair, then there are these. I mean don't get me wrong i want them to be great. Because 168gr Nosler Accubonds are $60/100 and i'm not sure i can get 178gr ELD-X up to the speeds i want. I mean 2600-2630 would be fine for our situation i'd just like to be able to push the 165gr Gamechanger to 2700 or so out of a short 308. Would make for a hell of a compact hunting gun.

http://forum.snipershide.com/threads/new-sierra-game-changer-line.6896789/page-2#post-7357783

 

[antelopedundee]

I've never used the regular GameKings so nothing to compare with. Unfortunately when field dressing my critters my camera battery ran dry so no extra pix. From what I remember the exit hole in the rib cage was maybe an inch to inch and a half tho it didn't look that way from the outside. I plan to use them again next year.

 

[Bob Wright]

My experience in aerospace makes me wonder why after all these years aero heating is just being "discovered" by bullet manufacturers. Bullets are technically rocket science and they have ballisticians/aero folks on staff. So, it leaves me thinking:
1.Time of flight to target made them ignore heating in all the years/decades before: (before the long range era we enjoy today)
2. Sharp plastic tips are less drag but add item 1. above to the equation again
3. They are a marketing gimmick (partially), I shoot tipped bullets....sharp tips vs smashed Spitzer points are marginally better
4. Hornady did engineer the heat resistant plastic tip and is marketing heavily, but they had to have known aero heating existed and never delved into it until they needed to bring a new design to us. It's got us all talking huh?
5. It's a non-issue on hollow point designs (SMK's, Berger, etc.....)
6. We'll continue to see other designs like Peregrine which have a interesting brass tip and copper monolithic bullet behind.

It's marketing and improvement, but
WE decide at time of purchase and in the field which ones we continue to load.
It's disingenuous to claim "it" is just now discovered, of aero heating and it's effects on plastic tips. Their engineers really are being thrown under the bus on that statement by marketing. They took one for the team.....
My 2 cents...

 

[Barrelnut]

I think they are just now exploring it cause they are just now getting the tools that are cost effective for them to purchase and adequately measure how much heat can affect a plastic tip.

 

[Bob Wright]

I think they are just now exploring it cause they are just now getting the tools that are cost effective for them to purchase and adequately measure how much heat can affect a plastic tip.

However, the math is well known to determine friction in air under all other atmospheric stuff. They also knew that the plastic tips they previously used would melt at "X" degrees. It's just too simple....
They mentioned they purchased doppler to measure downrange ballistics. You can derive a ballistic coefficient by drop at distance if speed at the muzzle is known along with that moments atmospherics/climate. That's what got my attention. Why is it new info, Hornady? Hornady knew it before they bought a doppler. Doppler just speeds up the calculations at multiple distances on the same shot. Any aero guy would take drop data and the climate into account and give us an accurate BC. Aerospace guys would be embarrassed if they couldn't give >98% accuracy. I just don't buy it. The bullet may perform much better and hope it does....thats the only part I like of this story.

 

[cornchuck]

I am going to try the 90 grainers in my 243. But I'm wanting to know how they do at distances. So Im tagging in on this thread.

Jason

 

[lee31]

I am going to try the 90 grainers in my 243. But I'm wanting to know how they do at distances. So Im tagging in on this thread.

Jason

My buddy's kid has taken 2 whitetails with my 6.5x55 and the 130 grain Gamechanger. One doe at 310 yards and one buck at 404yards. Both shots where bang flops. The doe was shot through the shoulder. The bullet went through both shoulders and stopped under the off side hide. The buck was shot a little higher high shoulder pretty much spine. The bullet recovered from the doe did have core separation but core and jacket were right next to each other. I didn't see the bullet from the buck but my buddy said it was intact. Damage wasn't to bad at all. Not a lot of blood shot meat which was nice. I think I'll be running them out the Swede for quite some time

 

[Cinchy]

I shot another doe in the neck last night at 170 yards . The 165 gr game changer showed extreme expansion! The doe I shot looking at me a couple nights ago I did recover the bullet in her pelvic region , when I cleaned it up the cup seperate from the jacket, & only weighed less than half of the 165 gr bullet.

I`m not sure if I am in love with the extreme expansion or not? I`ll try to shoot one thru the ribs broad side, before I pass judgement on the game changers! With a little luck more pictures to follow soon.

 

[A Stranger]

I shot a cow elk at about 100 yards with a Sierra Gamechanger just a few days ago. It was the .308 dia. 165 gr. bullet with 56 grs. of H4350 loaded as a 30-06. The bullet went right through the heart leaving a fairly small hole on each side. I did not recover the bullet. I have seen other brands of bullets do much more damage to an animals heart. See photos.View attachment 112111 View attachment 112112 View attachment 112113

I finished processing the elk quarters and still did not see any signs of the entrance or exit of the bullet. No bloodshot meat or damaged bones. I did find a very small lead fragment in the heart near the wound channel. The fragment leads me to believe that the bullet did mushroom to some extent or that there might have been some separation, but without hitting bone it didn't cause massive damaged. I still think the bullet passed through. Here are some new photos of the heart. There is a 30-06 with the Gamechanger to give some perspective of size.

 

[5RWill]

Ordered some going to load them up this weekend and see if we can't get a doe.

 

[5RWill]

So my brother wouldn't shoot another doe to give me some performance of these rounds. I shot a doe this afternoon at 375yds. Looked like a perfect hit but wasn't sure where she went in on the CRP. She jumped straight up and tried to run around and run off but fell down and then got up and ran. Going to look in the morning, let her die if it is me and i pulled the shot a little back but i don't think i did. That way i'm not pushing her deeper into the thick stuff. It's 27F here so meat will be good. But i think the shot was fine.

 

[Mike 338]

Was testing 130 gr. in 6.5 Creed @ 200 yards. With 5 thousandths jump, I was getting 1/2 moa. 10x fixed scope but that's probably as well as I can shoot anyway. Testing in my gun (Savage LRH) showed they are somewhat picky about seating depth. Could be the gun though. I had a devil of a time fiddling with action screw torque. Seems it prefers 60 i.p. on the front and 65 i.p. on the rear and absolutely nothing else.