Hornady SST and Nosler Ballistic Tip specs/experience???

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xingyc

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Since Cabela's and Bass Pro removed the 270 Gamekings from their shelf, I'm on the hunt for a new hunting/target bullet. I want an affordable, reliable, polymer tipped bullet. I need the bullet to be able to penetrate a full grown whitetail buck. preferably, south of 60 dollars per 100 round.
During my research, I couldn't find any information about bullet performance with Google. The only useful video is from Federal explaining the performance of their premium line ammo. The premium bullet makers are not putting much effort into the performance comparsion, so I assume most of hunting bullets performs the same.

Price wise, Hornady SST fits the bill, but there are rumors about SST explodes upon impact and separation of core and jacket. so I emailed Hornady for more specs on the bullet, I asked for the ballistic coefficient at different velocity, the ideal velocity for bullet expansion, the bullet weight retention at different velocity in ballistic gel. The reply I got says they cannot provide any information regarding the bullet. What a huge dissapointment. I think the industry needs better transparency. (Now I'm thinking to switch to Nosler BT, but it is a bit pricier.)
The lack of information from Hornady brings me back to the dark net, which mostly are speculations and reviews, which can be easily manipulated and bought.
Now I turn to your help, anyone have detailed specs on the Hornady SST? Have anyone used SST or BT bullets on 10+ deer size(or bigger) animals? anyone knows who sells Nosler BT under $60/100 rounds?
 
I've used both in .308 150gr to great success. Both handloads and factory. On big whitetail and caribou.

They do a lot of damage and break up on bone.
They generally fragment some even on vital zone shots.
They are both super deadly and you can't go wrong with either one if you don't mind some meat damage.
The shock from one of these fragmenting will turn lungs to mush and shred the innards. I've seen them transfer so much hydrostatic shock that meat will look pulverized like powder, usually if you hit a shoulder blade or hip.

Exit wounds are rare but the entrance wounds are pretty big so blood trails are not usually an issue, at least with the .30 Cal versions. I've hears the smaller diameter ones are harder to track due to small entrances but they still cause massive internal damage.
You can find ballistic gel tests on YouTube that will show the exact performance difference but speaking from experience there isn't much.

They are very similar bullets so I'd just shoot whichever one is cheaper or most accurate.
 
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In the 270, I prefer 150gr pills in cup/core...130's are too explody.
SST in my experience are a bit more explody then BT's, so between those 2 the BT's are my preference.
Anything fast like the 270 however, I pony up for Accubonds or Partitions. Worth the extra money for piece of mind...
 
I have shot dozens of animals with both SST's and NBT's, they perform similarly... I would give the edge to NBT's as the speed gets up there...
 
Hard to beat NBT accuracy. Another good option is the 145gr ELD-X, should do quit well especially at impact speeds below 2500 fps
 
OP, how far are you planning on shooting?
I get great accuracy from SST 130's, however they are not great close up. The last deer I shot was at 70 meters, entered behind front shoulder and the bullet took a hard right turn and I had to throw away the front shoulder. The shot was broadside. I was planning on getting a longer shot, but this buck ran towards me chasing another.
If you are shooting 0-400, probably a regular Hornady Interlock would be cheap and effective.
 
appreciate all your help, special thanks to [huntingfamily].
I'm going with the 150gr SST. anyone knows the upper speed limit for proper expansion? Don't want see a deer with open ribcage running into the bush, I'm a little color blind, not easy to track a wounded animal when you can't see blood on the ground.

I looked at the cheaper Interlock, but they are soft points. last year I dropped a box of 50 Sierra GK reloads, all the bullets' had a damaged soft point, after the incident I started moving away from soft point bullets.
The premium bullets does give me a peace of mind, that's why I played with Barnes TSXs, they are wonderful hunting bullets, but it's too expansive to use as target rounds. Barnes' cost two times the price of affordable hunting bullets like Sierra GK (which is also in the Federal Premium line), I'd rather shoot twice as much, or save for a barrel change.
 
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I guess you have made up your mind already, but here and there you find a good deal on other bullet sources online, but a buddy of mine shoots the ballistic tip for practice and lighter game, and uses same or very similar load data for the same weight accubond, reducing cost spent on load development.
 
Only soft point does not expand well is Russian bimetal soft point. As long as speed is above 1800 or 1900 fps, most of modern bullets will do the job.
 
xingyc said:
appreciate all your help, special thanks to [huntingfamily].
I'm going with the 150gr SST. anyone knows the upper speed limit for proper expansion? Don't want see a deer with open ribcage running into the bush, I'm a little color blind, not easy to track a wounded animal when you can't see blood on the ground.

I looked at the cheaper Interlock, but they are soft points. last year I dropped a box of 50 Sierra GK reloads, all the bullets' had a damaged soft point, after the incident I started moving away from soft point bullets.
The premium bullets does give me a peace of mind, that's why I played with Barnes TSXs, they are wonderful hunting bullets, but it's too expansive to use as target rounds. Barnes' cost two times the price of affordable hunting bullets like Sierra GK (which is also in the Federal Premium line), I'd rather shoot twice as much, or save for a barrel change.
Click to expand...

Try checking out Terminal ballistic studies. Man named Nathan Foster in New Zealand. Talks a lot about specific bullet performance and cartridges on game.
 
Shot lots of game with 150 grain interlocks, they work. If I were shooting 300 pluss yards, I liked the 180 ballistic tip for 308, and it worked well for sub 100 yards too. heavy for caliber ballistic tips are in my opinion the way to go for reliable expansion from short to long shots. I’m sure the heavy for caliber sst will be fine, just load for accuracy and if your 100fps short of top velocity.... bonus!
 
An educated opinion is that these ballistic tip bullets will still expand down to about 1900fps. They won't fragment much at these low velocities.
That's a hell of a long way out of a .270 farther than I'd want to take a shot.
My farthest has been 200yds with SSTs and my .308 and it was still quite explosive.
 
not a fan of ballistic tips they whistled through an elk not much better than steel jackets i even had some of the polymer tips fall off in the box
 
The Ballistic tip is one of the first long range bullets. They open up easy which helps at long range when the velocity drops off. I use the Accubond or the Partition for close work.
 
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