6mm ARC 100gr Sierra Tipped GameKing Ballistic Gel Test | 100 vs. 370 Yards
Tested Ammunition | Ballistic Coefficient (G1) | Muzzle Velocity (fps) | Muzzle Energy (ft-lbs) |
| 100gr Sierra Tipped Game King | .515 | 2,732 | 1,657 |
| Â | Â | Â | Â |
Tests conducted with a 22″ Grendel Hunter 6MM ARC Upper.
Muzzle velocities measured with a chronograph using 10 round strings
Testing the 6mm ARC 100gr Sierra Tipped GameKing
For the first five or six years of the 6mm ARC’s existence, our options for hunting ammunition were pretty limited. Hornady’s lead-core 103gr ELD-X was about our only factory-loaded hunting option. But over the last year, we’ve seen some new players enter the game.
We’ve already tested the all-copper 65gr and 85gr Maker T-Rex bullets loaded by Druid Hill Armory, along with the 90gr Barnes TAC-TX. Now we’re moving on to a different bullet design with the 100gr Sierra Tipped GameKing. This high-BC bullet features a lead core, copper jacket, and polymer tip, and is designed to retain velocity and energy at longer distances. With a .515 BC, it looks promising on paper, but we wanted to see how it would perform in ballistic gel.
We’re testing these bullets at two distances, starting at 100 yards to see how they perform at a realistic hunting range. Then we’ll stretch things out to 370 yards, which is where the bullet’s remaining energy drops to right around 1,000 ft-lb with our setup.
We’ll also compare the results at both distances with our previous test of Hornady’s 103gr ELD-X to see how the two bullets stack up in terms of expansion and penetration as impact velocity drops.
Let’s jump right in!
100 Yard Test
100-Yard Test
Kicking things off at 100 yards, I really like what I’m seeing here. The temporary wound cavity appears almost immediately and maintains a good width out to about 12 inches of penetration before narrowing.
With other cup-and-core bullets we’ve tested, we’ve seen jacket separation along with significant fragmentation. In this test, we did see some fragments break off, but there was no jacket separation, and the recovered bullet retained just over 80% of its original weight. The recovered projectile also has a very wide, impressive mushroom, showing substantial expansion while keeping most of its original weight.
Overall, the bullet appears to expand quickly and transfer energy early in its path through the gel, then maintain a consistent wound cavity through the first block. That’s exactly what I’d like to see when evaluating a bullet for medium-sized game.
Next, we’ll look at how Hornady’s 103gr ELD-X performed in our previous 100-yard ballistic gel test and compare the results side by side.
The results here are very similar, with both bullets producing a substantial wound cavity through the gel. The Sierra 100gr Tipped GameKing appears to have a slightly longer, more consistent wound cavity, while the Hornady 103gr ELD-X shows a little more variation but overall, there isn’t a huge difference between the two bullets at 100 yards.Â
Next up, we’re going to stretch the Sierra 100gr Tipped GameKing out to 370 yards and see how it performs as impact velocity and energy drop.Â
370 Yard Test
370-Yard Test
We often see noticeable differences in bullet performance as impact velocity drops, but that wasn’t the case here. At 370 yards, the results are surprisingly similar to what we saw at 100 yards. Even with the impact velocity dropping to 2,112 fps, the Sierra 100gr Tipped GameKing produced a very similar wound cavity, maintaining a consistent width through the gel before narrowing farther down the track. Looking at the two tests side by side, there’s very little difference in the overall wound cavity or the bullet’s performance.
These results are very interesting, considering the bullet is carrying around 460 ft-lb less energy and traveling 443 fps slower at 370 yards than it was at 100 yards.
Despite that drop in velocity and energy, the bullet maintained a similar level of expansion and penetration through the gel. The recovered bullet retained 89% of its original weight, compared to just over 80% at 100 yards.
Overall, I’m very impressed with how consistently this bullet performed at both distances. Even at 370 yards, it produced a wound cavity very similar to the 100-yard test while retaining most of its original weight.
The Hornady 103gr ELD-X didn’t perform badly at 370 yards, but it’s definitely being outshined by the Sierra 100gr Tipped GameKing. The ELD-X produced a narrower wound cavity that was more concentrated in one area, while the Sierra created a wider, more consistent wound cavity through the gel. With both bullets carrying nearly identical velocity and energy numbers, the difference in the wound cavities is especially interesting. Based on these results, the Sierra Tipped GameKing has the edge in this comparison at 370 yards.
Summary
The 100gr Sierra Tipped GameKing performed consistently in both our 100-yard and 370-yard ballistic gel tests, producing a substantial wound cavity while retaining most of its original weight. Even at 370 yards, the bullet maintained consistent expansion and penetration despite the drop in velocity and energy.
Overall, I’m impressed with how well this bullet performed at both distances, and I’ll definitely be using it this deer hunting season.
Check out the video below for a more in-depth look at the test results.
Thanks for reading, and good luck hunting!