Hornady SST Failure

J

jedimaster

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I am hoping someone can shed some light on this. I was out sighting in my muzzy this past weekend and I had a weird thing happen twice. I had some hornady SST's that I bought last year. Twice the jacket hit the board but there was no core. The copper expanded but it didn't penetrate the 3/4" plywood. There was no core to be found anywhere. I actually caught this on video. Just wondering if anyone else has had issues with these? I'll be tossing the remaining into the garbage and buying something else for this season. I have contacted Hornady about this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1OMGbBc2KY&feature=youtu.be

This is pretty upsetting to me because the situation felt really dangerous after the fact. Not to mention I had a deer lined up perfectly from about 20 yards away and missed. I think this is what happened.

One time there was recoil another time there was none. Both times the copper jacket embeded without penetrating.

I was using the 150 grain Jim Shockey Gold Sticks.

Does anyone know what happened, or how this could happen?
 
If you watch the first few seconds you can see there is no recoil from the shot. I am wondering if the jacket was empty? Is that even possible? After the shot yo ucan skip forward til about the 3:50 mark where I bring back the copper jacket that was stick into the board.
 
I suggest you recover the ones you put into the garbage and weigh them to confirm they are complete.... or not. If not then I'd be returning them to Hornady for a refund and big apology. I have had jackets and cores separate in flight but never at M/L velocities.
 
If the jacket was empty, you should have felt the differance when you loaded it, if you have a scale weigh whats left. Quality control may have slipped on that batch. I know a guy that used year old Pyrodex pellts and had them go down range like a tracer wistling all the way. Thats why I like to shoot as much as I can to see if anything has changed, scope off, powder old or whatever. Good luck and happy hunting.
 
I have had the SSTs come apart on me to shooting them out of my Savage ML I have since switched to the Barns spit fire tmz and never looked back
 
It seems so weird that the copper on its own would hit the target and expand after separating. I am a bit peaved at the hornady about this, but I sent them an email and will likely not be buying SST's any more. I have sionce read a few reports of people having two issues with the SST's. Most common seems to be not expanding at all, and the other side coming apart in the air. The ones I have left all feel heavy and the same. If I hear back from hornady I'll be sure to update this thread. I guess I just wanted to see if anyoe else had the same issue.
 
snowshoe said:
If the jacket was empty, you should have felt the differance when you loaded it, if you have a scale weigh whats left. Quality control may have slipped on that batch...
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Exactly! There should have indeed been a very noticeable difference in bullet weight.

You should contact Hornady about the problem. They might even send you some replacements.

Edit: I see you have contacted them already. You must have posted that as I was typing!
 
I lost several deer using the SST's during CFB Wainwrights 1st Land Owners Hunt.
The deer that I did recover had just the cup left inside the cavity.
I did try the TC Bonded Shockwaves (w/blue polymer tip) and they seemed to hold together better but to reduce any further risk of wounding an animal and losing a deer I've since switched to Barnes Spitfire TMZ's
 
Blackhorn 209 and precision rifle dead center bullets from a small place in a small town in Manitoba works for me. Good luck with whatever you choose.
 
Well just as an update Hornady contacted m back and are very interested to see the video and are asking about more specifics, so I'll be sure to update this thread with whatever happens. I am certainly not out to slam anyone here, nor am I out for a free box or anything like that. Just wanted to know what happened.
So far I am happy that Hornady responded. Good service so far.
 
Get some 50 cal cast conicals from MTchambers in sask seat them on top of some BP and put all this modern crap behind you. If you are shooting deer far enough away that you need the BC advantage of a 45 cal bullet then you should have enough time to hit em with a range finder and aim where you need to with the 50 cal slug. Nothing says dead deer like a 50-90 load. If you gun is some sort of 'only eats' 4 dollar a piece copper clad whizbangs sell it and get something you know is going to work yeaar after year.
 
Good service so far
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Not for brybenn LOL

I've had failures as well. They weren't accurate at all. Tried them in 7 different rifles
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Good service is selling a reliable product anything else is damage control after they got caught ripping you off. BTW Ben's bullets NEVER fail.
 
brybenn said:
I've had failures as well. They weren't accurate at all. Tried them in 7 different rifles
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What kind of failures? What bullet weight did you use?

I've always favored heavier bullets in just about every rifle I shoot and use the 300gr. SST in my Rem. 700 ML. They are by far the most accurate and consistent bullet I've found. With a Winchester 209 primer and 110grs Pyrodex RS they group under 2" @ 100yds (5 shots) with open sights.
 
The first shot I took with my eclipse left 3 holes in the target. I'd suggest a (I believe. Can't member for sure)300gr bullet should make ONE hole. My traditions buckstalker couldn't keep them on a 2'x2' cardboard piece at 100 paces. Missed top and bottom and left to right. My hawkens nearly stroked me loading them and they grouped 4" for 3 shots. A kodiack grouped them about 6". The 2 wolf rifles wouldn't group them and my buddies gun not sure of the make he said they weren't accurate. I wasn't there for his firing but he gave the rest back to me. All of the guns that we tried are known to be accurate. The kodiack is 2.5" grouping gun as well as the buckstalker. The rest will go 1.5" or so. My buckstalker key holed them as well. I thought I got a great deal $5.99 for 15 or 20 pack so I bought 10 packs. It was in a dicks or dunams in the states can't remember. I use only powerbelt platinums now. I've never contacted hornady as I'm pleased with all their other products I've used. I've written this off as 1 time thing. Ill never try a hornady ml bullet again but ill keep buying their jacketed center fire bullets
 
brybenn said:
The first shot I took with my eclipse left 3 holes in the target. I'd suggest a (I believe. Can't member for sure)300gr bullet should make ONE hole. My traditions buckstalker couldn't keep them on a 2'x2' cardboard piece at 100 paces. Missed top and bottom and left to right. My hawkens nearly stroked me loading them and they grouped 4" for 3 shots. A kodiack grouped them about 6". The 2 wolf rifles wouldn't group them and my buddies gun not sure of the make he said they weren't accurate. I wasn't there for his firing but he gave the rest back to me. All of the guns that we tried are known to be accurate. The kodiack is 2.5" grouping gun as well as the buckstalker. The rest will go 1.5" or so. My buckstalker key holed them as well. I thought I got a great deal $5.99 for 15 or 20 pack so I bought 10 packs. It was in a dicks or dunams in the states can't remember. I use only powerbelt platinums now. I've never contacted hornady as I'm pleased with all their other products I've used. I've written this off as 1 time thing. Ill never try a hornady ml bullet again but ill keep buying their jacketed center fire bullets
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Interesting and thanks for replying! It must have been a one time thing for sure. I have yet to exprience a single problem with them and I've shot well over 475 of the 300 gr SSTs so far. I guess like everything else made on an assembly line...something gets pucked up every now and then and an unlucky consumer winds up having a bad experience!
 
They all left the barrels in some form or another so I still had the fun of the boom and smoke and that's the fun of black powder shooting. For hunting I've found the powerbelt platinums to be very accurate and work very well. Usually I do a lot of black powder shooting in september and october. I know where my guns poi is all the way to 225 yards. I love shooting blackpowder
 
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