300gr SST in 50 cal rifle, does it expand?

Fox

Fox

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I ended up with an insane deal for 300gr 0.452 SSTs in sabots, I got 114 for $25, I could not say no even for punching paper.

Anyway, after I got home I looked in to them, based on my reading they tend to pencil through game at normal ML velocities and only expand at BH209 or smokeless velocities.

Anyone here use these on game? My original hunting load was a 300gr 0.430 XTP on top of 100gr of 777 FFFg equivalent but got a new to me A&H bolt action rifle and need to work up a load for it.

Thanks guys
 
I had the opposite experience with 300gr SST in 2005 during CFB Wainwright Landowner muzzle loader hunt. They seemed to near detonate on impact. My hunting buddy and I went back to using 300gr XTP for the remainder of the hunt.
 
They do sell them as a muzzleloader bullet so you'd assume they did there homework. Can't push them too slow obviously.

I know from experiance a 250 sst expands alot and every time out to 150( never shot nothing further) when started at 1950 fps. I know this cause I've recovered some on angled shots. Even if they expand they don't make massive holes due to the low volocity so I can see why people think they don't.
 
Huntsman said:
I had the opposite experience with 300gr SST in 2005 during CFB Wainwright Landowner muzzle loader hunt. They seemed to near detonate on impact. My hunting buddy and I went back to using 300gr XTP for the remainder of the hunt.
Click to expand...
What was your load?
 
prairie lover said:
They do sell them as a muzzleloader bullet so you'd assume they did there homework. Can't push them too slow obviously.

I know from experiance a 250 sst expands alot and every time out to 150( never shot nothing further) when started at 1950 fps. I know this cause I've recovered some on angled shots. Even if they expand they don't make massive holes due to the low volocity so I can see why people think they don't.
Click to expand...
You would think that but there are rifle bullets in the past that blew up with air resistance.

I picked these up super cheap but it seems like unless you are using BH209 and running them up over 2000fps they just pencil through like a FMJ.
 
Fox said:
You would think that but there are rifle bullets in the past that blew up with air resistance.

I picked these up super cheap but it seems like unless you are using BH209 and running them up over 2000fps they just pencil through like a FMJ.
Click to expand...
Test them into water jugs. A minimum charge of bh 209 still has the 250 gr version expanding at 100 yards.
 
Gday Fox, the load I used at the time in my TC Encore was 3x T7 pellets or 150 gr equivalent charge. This was twenty years ago and I have since measured every charge with loose powder and found the best accuracy was with 120grs loose Triple 7 FFG. I have not used pellets for quite some time.
The extreme rapid expansion from the early SST’s for muzzleloading seems to have been corrected.
It seems the early SST was too fragile for muzzle loader velocities.
YMMV

Cheers!
 
Huntsman said:
Gday Fox, the load I used at the time in my TC Encore was 3x T7 pellets or 150 gr equivalent charge. This was twenty years ago and I have since measured every charge with loose powder and found the best accuracy was with 120grs loose Triple 7 FFG. I have not used pellets for quite some time.
The extreme rapid expansion from the early SST’s for muzzleloading seems to have been corrected.
It seems the early SST was too fragile for muzzle loader velocities.
YMMV

Cheers!
Click to expand...
No way to determine the difference between the old ones and the new ones I bet.

I ended up with 114 of these for 20 bones, ha ha, like I said, worst case they are cheap range food but if they would work on deer that would be ideal.

I guess I have to get some big water jugs set up at 100 and 200 yards and see what happens.

My plan was 100-120gr of FFFg 777, I have FFFg and FFg was harder to find. Both the smoke poles I am considering are guns that are designed for magnum (150gr) charges of black powder and substitutions, so I think the maximum would be 120gr as per Hodgdon.
 
You still got a beauty of a deal on your SST’s
I think the newer SST have a softer red tip compared to the original’s?

I still load the SST in my 25-06 and 308 and for muzzle loading I stepped it up to Barnes TMZ. I’ll be honest though, I haven’t hunted with my inlines for several years. My sidelocks and been stealing all my attention lol. Especially my TC Hawken with .58 cal Green Mountain barrel ;)
 
Huntsman said:
You still got a beauty of a deal on your SST’s
I think the newer SST have a softer red tip compared to the original’s?

I still load the SST in my 25-06 and 308 and for muzzle loading I stepped it up to Barnes TMZ. I’ll be honest though, I haven’t hunted with my inlines for several years. My sidelocks and been stealing all my attention lol. Especially my TC Hawken with .58 cal Green Mountain barrel ;)
Click to expand...
The last smoke pole I took out was an original Enfield rifled musket, 58 cal too, but the bore is really oversized and minies do not do well. The plan now is to try REAL bullets but it has a slow twist so has to be the short REAL.

Not going to lie, we have a doe tag in the group this year so for rifle season I bet the 50/70 comes out and the modern guns will be kept for the range this year.
 
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