Hornady SST bullets

Curt

Curt

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Will a .30-06 take a moose??? Just kidding.
Is the Hornady SST bullet suitable for deer sized game. I thought I read somewhere that it was more for varmints. I also read somewhere that it was a suitable medium game bullet. Anyone know for sure. Who has used them and for what purpose? Any input would be great. Thanks.
 
No problems for moose in 7mm rem mag. I just load them for the father-in-law. No issues, deep penetration and excellent expansion. 1 shot bang/flop at 200 yards or so. 162 gr IIRC. They are just like the interlocks.

-Jason
 
I had heard that before, they are just an interlock with a polymer tip.

I don't know much about them though, but my rifle LOVES interlocks, and I have given the SST some thought.
 
Thanks guys. I am loading 95 grain SST's in my 6mm Remington and working out a deer hunting load.
I thought I read on a post that someone compared the SST to a varmint bullet. I just wanted to clear it up.
ps. The moose with a .30-06 question was only me trying to be funny.
 
i had poor performance with 150 grn sst out of a 308. failure to penetrate. i would think if you were to use a 180 out of your 30 06 it would work fine. i wouldn't use light weight sst at high speed in any calibre.
 
chappy said:
i had poor performance with 150 grn sst out of a 308. failure to penetrate. i would think if you were to use a 180 out of your 30 06 it would work fine. i wouldn't use light weight sst at high speed in any calibre.
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Chappy, I think that you are right. SST stands for super shock tip. The SST is designed for rapid expansion. That by itself does not make it bad, but placement is very important. The heavier bullet would be a better choice if penetration is desired.
 
I have been fortunate enough to harvest 3 deer in the last three years (one per year). I use the 150gr SST in .270 cal. All three deer went about 25-30yds max. All three were lung shot. All three bullets went right through both sides. (one shot one kill) The closest deer was 50yds the farthest was 80-100yds. I'm happy with the results and I will keep using them. They also group well at the range. I can get 5 rounds in a 1/2min group at 100yds with my Browning Abolt. I highly recommend the SST bullet. I hope you get the same results I have been getting.

Of all the deer that I have shot I have not been fortunate enough to have a bang flop situation regardless of the bullet used.
 
Some good first hand experiences, thanks. I use TSX in my .30-06. I am planning on using the SST in 6mm Rem, 95 grain. This would be for deer and coyotes only. I will use the .30-06 for bear and the larger ungulates.
 
I had been using Interlocks in my 308, when a mate talked me into trying SST"s. The accuracy improvement was noticeable, so I carried them for deer for a while. After shooting two deer and losing a lot of black jellied meat, I went back to interlocks! My mate is now on Partitions, and I"m on Grand Slam or Interlocks depending on what I"m after.
SST"s are accurate, but they seem to open quicker than Interlocks. If you want a good blood trail and don"t mind the bruising they"re ok.
 
Did the job for my deer. 140 grn out of a .270, took apart the shoulders on one buck. Can't complain about the penetration or expansion. They'll do the trick on deer for sure.
 
For sure SST's will work, I'd go a little heavier though. Nothing that I've ever shot at with even plain old Interlocks has gone more than a few paces away. You really don't need premium bullets for deer size game. If meat bruising is a concern (and it should) just quickly cut out the bruise area to prevent spreading. :)
 
I used the 130's in my .270 for a season, and found them to be good bullets. They opened up real well and I never recovered one. I shot a whitetail doe at just over 500m with them, and 4 out of five shots hit and penetrated fully. The took the first two standing then the last three shots walking, dead and didn't know it:rolleyes:. The reason for the confident shots was the keg of powder, those 130 SST's and the summer we spent together shooting. It made nice little .75" five shot groups, and made gongs ring:D.
If I had a dedicated deer rifle, I'd have no problem using those bullets permanently.
 
Hornady 165 gr SST's is my choice bullet for my 30-06, as well as my brothers 308 and 300WSM. Not to big for deer, not to small for moose.
 
I took a 3x3 WT in 2006 with 165 SST's in .30-06 factory Light Mag. Broadside shot at 120 yards, full penetration with an exit hole that was loonie sized. It was my first animal I'd shot and I wasn't sure if I'd even hit him, it was -24 C and I did have a bit of a shiver/excitement. He paused crossing a cutline, then after my shot he stumbled on his first attempt at jumping the 3-wire, leading me to believe he was wounded. In my excitement I clumsily cycled the bolt with a fierce jitter on my Rem 700 and created a double feed; then had to clear that and thought I missed out on my follow up shot. I waited for my buddy/mentor to get to me and we went down to its last known spot, followed the blood trail about 12 yards to find it stone dead. Field dressing revealed a heart & double lung shot. Being a green hunter, I was pretty astounded the critter could clear a fence with no ticker functioning. I was quite pleased, and thankful to have a licensed butcher as a hunting partner to guide me through that first field dressing.
 
I have used the 162 SST in my 7mm Rem Mag for deer and really was not that impressed with them. They tended to perform more like a varmint bullet. I was seeing fairly large entrance wounds with shards of copper embeded near the entrance. They tended to leave small exit wounds and a lot of the deer I shot seemed to go a lot further than they usually did when I just used the plain old Hornady 162 BTSP bullets. I also used Nosler Ballistic tips and got similar varmint type performance as with the SSTs and don't care for the Nosler BT either. My guess is that at a lower velocity the SST would likely be a fine performer but personally in my 7mm I get better results and quicker kills with the regular Hornady 162 BTSP and have since switched back to that bullet.:)
 
The trick to using any rapaidly expanding bullet at higher veleocity is to pick one with a high enough sectional density that there is some bullet left after the front blows back and off. The 95g sst out of a 6mm may be a bit short on bullet shank after a few inches of penetration, or it may be ok you will have to test it out to see.

I think the SST gets a harder lead aloy than the regular interlocks, helping it to stop from compleatly blowing back. The tip causes easy expansion driving back easily even with the harder alloy. This is the identical idea to the round nose bullets that were once popular, the round nose easily peals back, allowing a thicker than normal copper jacket to be used, and increases penetration.
 
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