120 grain Sierra Pro Hunter Range Report

[Whelenon]

120 SPH has been my go to hunting round for the past two years. After loading with a COAL of 2.224 and shooting TAC at 27.5- 28.8gr out of my 16" AA, I was getting consistant groups of .75 or less @100yds. I decided to go with the 28.4 gr load which gave me a velocity of 2452fps. So far this year I'm switching to the 120gr Core-lokt with 28.5gr of 8208 and that is only due to my spending so much time busting brush in hog country where a bonded bullet may give me better penetration. I'm hoping to try some custom 118-120gr Accubonds after I check them out at the range soon.

Were you hunting hogs, deer? How did the 120 SPH perform on game? My goal is to make a solid neck shot(<100yds) come deer hunting.

[steel89]

No luck with the hogs, but the small buck I shot had a complete pass through with a 1.5" exit wound. The shot hit the rib cage jellied the lungs and broke a rib on exit. Bullet not recovered. I've shot about 80 throu my Gren and had no feed problems and the tips did not show signs of damage when I ejected rounds after the hunts. I liked the accuracy and they seem to work fine on whitetails.

[Whelenon]

No luck with the hogs, but the small buck I shot had a complete pass through with a 1.5" exit wound. The shot hit the rib cage jellied the lungs and broke a rib on exit. Bullet not recovered. I've shot about 80 throu my Gren and had no feed problems and the tips did not show signs of damage when I ejected rounds after the hunts. I liked the accuracy and they seem to work fine on whitetails.

That's good to hear, thanks.

[Whelenon]

C.O.L.? What COL are you using for the Sierra Pro-Hunter? The profile is different than the Nolser BT so the SPH looks like it need to be seated deeper. AA's ammo w/NBT C.O.L. is 2.246. I loaded a SPH at 2.246 and it was into the lands. Would this create excessive pressure? Elsewhere I've seen 2.235 and 2.224 C.O.L.

[steel89]

2.224 worked well in my Gren, but check your chamber COAL. Always play it on the safe side.

[Whelenon]

Range report using Sierra 120 Pro-Hunter and Varget.
Lapua brass, Rem 7-1/2 primers, C.O.L. 2.226, 100 yds. 5-shot groups. 80degrees, winds 5-10 mph left to right.

28.3 - 1.186"
28.8 - .983" (Hornady's recommended max load for 120, 123 gr. bullets)
29.3 - 1.627"
29.8 - 1.344"
30.3 - 1.329"

Looks like 28.8 grs of Varget with the SPH could be an excellent deer load(at least in my Grendel). Not bad but want to improve. Tac has been highly recommended but I have some 4064 that is close to TACs burn rate. Any reason not to try 4064?

[Algae Man]

I have 4064, but haven't tried it. I would check the charts to see if 4064 has a similar burn rate as Varget, BL(C)-2, or the others listed on AA's site. The wrong burn-rate powder can be extremely bad.

[RangerRick]

I have 4064, but haven't tried it. I would check the charts to see if 4064 has a similar burn rate as Varget, BL(C)-2, or the others listed on AA's site. The wrong burn-rate powder can be extremely bad.

Be careful and back down on your loads and work up. Powders with the same or similar burn rates seem to produce grossly different results in the Grendel sometimes.

RR

[Algae Man]

RR and Whelenon,
Good advice. The 4064 could be a whole different animal even if similar in burn rates. I've also been thinking about my loads and have decided to back off from what the old site data said (30.5 g Varget max) due to what Whelenon found as Hornady's max for 120 gn bullets (28.8 g Varget max). I didn't have that piece of info before, and would prefer to stick with a manufacturer's specs than to old thread data without any details. I didn't see any immediate signs of over-pressure with the 30.5 g Varget loads, but I really don't want to push it. With the new piece of data, it just makes sense to drop down to the 28.5 - 28.8 g range. The difference in group size from the old site max and the manufacturer's max wasn't much and is definitely within the range of operator (me) error. The 28.5 to 28.8 g Varget load will be good enough for the 200-300 yd ranges I was planning on. I'll provide details on group sizes after getting out to the longer-distance ranges. Thanks.
AM

[gophernuts]

I just posted my results using XBR8208 powder with the Sierra 120 game kings on a new post.

[Whelenon]

I just posted on your other thread. A little confusion on which bullet we're talking about. I checked Seirra's website, the only Game King listed for the 6.5 is 140gr. and the Pro-Hunter listed a 120gr. SPT. I'm assuming were talking about the Seirra Pro-Hunter 120gr. SPT.

[jwilson1985]

the ttsx is a nasty little bullet, but on a deer i think i personaly would use a soft tip. just do to what i have seen with other calibers.