Hornady SST experiences

mahony1977

mahony1977

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Shot this little buck at about 120 yrds , 150 grn sst out of a 270 win at around 2900 fps / muzzel vel .

took it perfectly broad side bullet appears to have hit between the ribs , broke two of them on the way in liquified the lungs & then no trace of it .



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Is this typical SST preformance ? Your experiences please .
 
They are a very frangible bullet from my experience, and my velocity was approx 2850 ft/sec. I have seen bigger messes yet with them.

I have now switched to bonded type bullets, although those would be a good coyote bullet at those velocities,
 
I've come to use them almost exclusively. 150 grain SST's in .308, from the Light Mag selection. Last 4 years dropped 3 elk, 2 moose, 7 deer.

I love em. I tried going to the Barnes bullets... but after lost deer, I went back to the SST's I've always used. I find they just work, even if they aren't bonded death angels from the war god Ares' personal stock.
 
I hit my last years buck at 175 yards with a 117g sst from my .25-06, and it was dead before it hit the ground. It hit the front shoulder, then a rib going in, turned the lungs to mush, hit another rib on the way out, and through the off shoulder and was just under the hide. I think it weighed about 55 or 60g. The front shoulders were destroyed. I think if the bullet was used for just broadside shots it would be great, but I will not use them again for deer.
 
I used them exclusively for a few years. They grouped really nice, but as stated earlier, quite frangible. On on a whim, I tried some Barnes TSX and had some great success with them. I don't think that I will go back to SST, regardless of the prohibitive cost of Barnes.
 
hakx said:
I used them exclusively for a few years. They grouped really nice, but as stated earlier, quite frangible. On on a whim, I tried some Barnes TSX and had some great success with them. I don't think that I will go back to SST, regardless of the prohibitive cost of Barnes.
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With the 140's I traded you for these SST's ? ;)
 
I use the SST in my .243, muzzleloader and my uncle's 30-06. I have only recovered one and it was a 250gr from the muzzleloader. It weighed 243 grains and was recovered against the skin on the opposite side of the entrance. I have had good success in all three applications of this bullet.

I was going to use it for my new .300 wsm but in my research (here and other sites) I found a trend. Most of the guys that were complaining of poor performance from the SST were pushing them faster than 3000fps at the barrel and using magnum rifles. MOST OF THEM, not all.

I also noticed that most that said they experienced poor bullet performace were at a fairly close range, somewhere inside 150 yards. Again, most were out of magnum rifles and said the bullet fragmented.

In my mind, that meant.. magnum + 3000fps + close range + SST=fragments.

This was just my research for the 300wsm and decided to go with a different bullet. I will continue to use them in my .243, 30-06 and muzzleloader for their amazing accuracy. Your results may differ.
 
I was expecting violent expansion but nothing like this , that entrance wound looks more like an exit wound . The are extremely accurate sub moa in my rifle . & I entirely intend on trying them on some yodle dogs .

I thought that they should be quite comparable to BT's , but i belive they expand much faster now .
 
mahony1977 said:
I thought that they should be quite comparable to BT's , but i belive they expand much faster now .
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Section a SST and a Ballistic Tip and you will see why. The Hornady has a jacket that is a lot thinner then the Ballistic Tip.


With that said the SST seems to have worked as designed and you had a very dead deer on your hands. For what it's worth that entry wound on your deer is pretty typical for most 270 bullets when used at short - under 200 yards - range.
 
I'm not disputing it's efectiveness on game , it did the job . Just wondering if complete fragmentation on impact is a comon result for the SST. Asides from this deer ,the only thing I killed with them is paper . I'm glad I didn't shoot it in the shoulder . :)
 
I shot a black bear through its shoulder with my 7mm rm loaded with SSt. The bullet torn a fist sized hole upon exit the other side. The bear was dead before it made its final charge. That was a close quarter encounter. 50 yards.

Some hunters, like some people in this country, are too paranoid and whine too much. IMHO.
 
I used to use them in my 280 Rem older son shot his first deer and a 6' + black bear with them with good success but I have now switched to Accubonds because they are bonded.
 
I shot a doe this year at 83yards with a 130grn SST at about 3170fps out of a .270 and the bullet exited. Both the entry and exit were much larger than yours and the bullet only passed through the ribs no shoulders. On the plus side the recovery distance was about 25 ft.
Regards
 
I've taken two does and a Black bear with my .308 and 150gr SSTs and my friend shot 3 other deer with my rifle as well.
Generally the bullet will exit if it hits only ribs on a direct broadside shot.
If it hits solid bone like a shoulder the bullet fragments VIOLENTLY causing the meat around the wound to be turned to powder (hydrostatic shock).
I've seen entrance wounds 3" in diameter with massive cavitation behind it, and bone fragments driven back into the chest cavity from the shoulder.
It never ceases to amaze me that a deer will actually continue to travel 10s of metres after sustaining wounds like that.
 
I load 130 gr SST exclusively for my father's 270. 2 bull moose, 1 cow, and at least 7 deer have gone down with only 1 shot each. No failures. He only "goes for the motor", and has never hit shoulder plate in a moose. Although the first doe he shot at 30 yards hit shoulder, no exit, and she dropped dead on the spot. I know if it isn't a .338 UM with solid copper, 100% weight retention, $3 a piece wonder bullets the moose will just keep going. But the results.....
 
130gr with 51.1g of IMR4831 just over 2800 fps is all I use out of my .270. i love these bullets and after recovering a pile of animals that have been shot with them I have yet to recover a bullet. All the animals I have shot had both entrance and exit holes with loonie size entrance and about double that on exit. Makes for tracking easy because they drop in their tracks! Ranges have been from 60m out to 225m.
 
I shot this elk with a 162g SST out of a 7mag. Impact velocity was 2900fps. I hit it in the shoulder. The bullet broke the near shoulder, went through the lungs, far ribs, and came to rest somewhere in the far shoulder.



I use this on deer exclusively but happened to have it when I shot this elk. I believe this bullet (talking about the 7mm 162g SST only) is actually made out of a harder lead than the 162g Interlock from what I have seen on game.



With any SST I would just keep in mind that using a low sectional density SST at high velocity is not a good idea on Elk and Moose sized game (in fact I would not want it on deer sized game either). I would draw the line at sectional density .280 and higher for moose. For deer pretty much anything works but at high velocity the heavy SSTs' are my only choice.


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Further to my last I recovered a bullet from a doe i shot last weekend. She dropped in her tracks. The bullet was just under the skin on the exit side. It retained almost none of it's weight. As I posted earlier I shoot 130 gr sst's This round retained 45g of it's original weight. so where did the other 80 some odd grains go? lots of blood and her lungs were mush. So I think that no matter what I love these rounds!!
 
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