Best cartridge for silhouette

[Trent]

I think that the Lapua and the MatchKing are going to give identical results in their equal weights/velocities on Rams after looking at that photo.

[lone ringer]

I think that the Lapua and the MatchKing are going to give identical results in their equal weights/velocities on Rams after looking at that photo.

Trent, I believe you will also have to consider which of the two has a better ballistic coefficient and is more accurate on your rifles.
Have you tried the Sierra 175 MK on your rifles yet? Take with a grain of salt what they say about having to use them on an 8-twist barrel.

I have a friend that had a 7-08 rifle with a 10-twist and was told he could not use anything heavier than a 162 gr on it but he shot 168's and for a long time was co holder of the HP National record with 38X40

I also had a long friendship with Martin Hall who was Sierra's ballistics expert and silhouette shooter back when I started shooting and he always told us that the Sierra Game King bullets were the better choice for knocking down rams, his favorite bullet was the 30 cal 200 gr Game King and he claimed that he did not ring any rams with it and was very accurate. I also remember using the 175gr Game King in my 7-08 and 7 IHMSA with good success.

In my opinion the best bullet for knocking down rams in a 7mm was the 162 gr Hornady A-Max with the aluminum tip. I bought 500 and when I used them up I put another order for 1000 and they sent me the ones with the red plastic tip. I called them to complain and they told me they were not making the ones with the aluminum tip any longer and that the ones with the plastic tip were more accurate in their testings but they were not as accurate on my rifles.

[tenx9]

Mr. Ringer. What you say about using primarily hunting bullets on rams is probably very valid due to the fact that hunting bullets hold together better than match bullets and impact more energy on the target. But, I am confused about your friend shooting a national record with a bullet not designed for the rate of twist. Wouldn't it make more sense that a shooter as good as that can literally place his shot wherever he wants on the target thereby making it easier to knock them off, ie: corners,,etc. and spin them off the stand. I think its the deal of shot placement rather than sheer knockdown power.

[Bob Mc Alice]

I might mention that those three found jackets were the only ones I found after smacking more that a rail full of the birds with the 175's. I have no idea where they were hit. No doubt that 11 pound target was well off the rail before all of the energy was expended. I fired more that 50 of these at all of the targets but found none intact like these. You have to believe that a tough bullet like the SST will put more dwell time pushing on the rams before it disintegrates.

[lone ringer]

My friend lives in Mexico and has no access to all the different bullets and powders we have here so being limited to what they can get they try any of those available on their rifles and sometimes they work and some times they don't.
Another instance of shooting a bullet that was not designed for a particular twist is the 200gr Sierra MK that is not supposed to be stable in 12 twist barrels, I had at least two 308 Rem mod 700 with varmint barrels with 12-twist that shot those bullets very well.

[Trent]

Tony, I don't have any of the heavy 7mm GameKings. I added a 7mm 120gr GameKing to my last photo. The jacket is thicker than the 6.5mm Matchking next to it, but I was surprised that it wasn't noticeably thicker. It is only ever so slightly thicker on the sides near the bottom. The base and the upper walls of the Gameking are the same thickness as the Matchking from what I can see.

All below are 6.5mm except for the 2nd bullet.
139gr Lapua - 7mm 120gr GameKing - 120gr Sierra MK - 140gr Hornady SST - Nosler 120gr BT

[Trent]

I'm loving all this activity in the High Power forum lately. It's been freaking DEAD in here for a while.

[Jim Beckley]

Had to be Marcos Barriga!

[lone ringer]

Tony, I don't have any of the heavy 7mm GameKings. I added a 7mm 120gr GameKing to my last photo. The jacket is thicker than the 6.5mm Matchking next to it, but I was surprised that it wasn't noticeably thicker. It is only ever so slightly thicker on the sides near the bottom. The base and the upper walls of the Gameking are the same thickness as the Matchking from what I can see.

All below are 6.5mm except for the 2nd bullet.
139gr Lapua - 7mm 120gr GameKing - 120gr Sierra MK - 140gr Hornady SST - Nosler 120gr BT

One day just for fun shoot some Game Kings and some Match Kings at a mild steel plate at 200 meters and see the difference in the impacts.
I did it a long time ago with my 308 shooting 165's and 168's (same powder charge). The 165 Game Kings put nasty 1/2" craters on the plate while the 168 Match Kings did what they do on regular silhouettes and gongs, just left a gray mark on the surface where they hit. I believe is the lead on the tip of the Game King bullets plus the thicker jackets that do that while the Match Kings bullets just blow up on contact.

[lone ringer]

Had to be Marcos Barriga!

Edgardo Ontiveros from Guadalajara, Mexico

[Trent]

Tony, that sounds like a pretty definitive test. Is the Gameking bonded at all? I imagine if it was that Sierra would advertise that.

[Bob Mc Alice]

tenx9, I my prime years ago I could never put a bullet where I pleased on a 500 meter ram. Few are this gifted. I do my best to break anywhere in the animal and hope for any hit.

This is where a good accurate hunting bullet should make up for lousy shot placement...hopefully. I think from now on I will be using the 168 MK's for practice only and using the SST's for important matches.

[DanDeMan]

Meine Damen und Herren,

I sent the below email to a fellow shooter. I though posting it here might spark some cogitation and navel gazing. So here's the skinny:

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The idea of bullet toughness and how it affects ram knock-down performance came to me back in 81 while shooting pistol silhouette in Florida. I used the Sierra trajectory tables and my physics background to grapple with the ram-ringing problem. It just did not make sense that we were ringing rams with the terminal momentum generated by our bullets. During a practice day, I noticed a trench in front of our staked rams. It was formed by bullet splatter. That's when the light went on. I built a bullet smasher to test bullet toughness for 7mm bullets. Nosler had a 162-grain, bevel-base bullet that was way, way tougher than any bullet tested. The Fla guys never could figure out why I didn't ring rams even though I was shooting the much scoffed-at 7 TCU, built on an XP-100 action. The top guys were shooing 7 IHMSA's and 7-08 as well as 308's and ring rams, not to mention the terrible recoil they were suffering. First match I shot those Noslers in, the match director came storming up to me as I was coming off the line. "Theodore what the he!! are you shooting, you're damaging the targets." I grinned, held up a 7TCU round, silently chuckled as he turned and walked away, totally confused. The only other guy I told about the toughness thing was my shooting pard. He rebarreled his 7-08 XP to 7TCU, my first reamer design (front-end designed for longer bullets and tighter chamber-neck), and promptly started shooting 40 x 40's with that pistol. It was amazing to him what less recoil did for his score.
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[Trent]

I like to navel gaze... especially at the beach!

[DanDeMan]

I like to navel gaze... especially at the beach!

Trent,

I'm usually checking-out the hot honeys at the beach....errr....except when surfing...then the waves are where it's at.