Hornady SST for 308 Win

The 180's will work fine in the 308 and if you reload your MV should be 2600-2675ft/sec roughly....I agree with those that say to stay away from shoulder shots...I always teach new hunters to aim just behind the elbow joint. A clean hit in the lungs or heart will do a lot less damage to the meat.
 
hawk-i said:
...I agree with those that say to stay away from shoulder shots...I always teach new hunters to aim just behind the elbow joint. A clean hit in the lungs or heart will do a lot less damage to the meat.
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Yup I agree now. What happened to me I was brand new to hunting and they guy I was with said thats where you shoot so thats what I did. Later I find out they are not ethical hunters at all. Now I will only take boiler room shots.
 
Ive shot deer with them and they are deadly. Ive had some go clean through-and-through lung shots while others have hit bone. A couple of years ago I shot a mid-sized white tail just behind the shoulder. She dropped after about ten yards. A day afterward I shot a second doe that was chased straight at me in the center of the chest at about 20 yards. That bullet quickly expanded upon impact and caused a considerable wound. My friend was pissed that I didn't keep the heart but there simply wasn't one left.

Another good one is the Hornady SST 12 gauge slug. I shot a 350 pound Russian boar with one a couple of years ago and it literally dropped in its tracks with a shot to its neck. When we butchered it I found the red, polymer/ plastic tip buried about six inches into its shoulder. I still have it. The other hog I shot the slug went in one shoulder and clean through the other. Devastating power. There is no doubt in my mind it would easily stop a bear.
 
cheier said:
I'll be loading them in 308 Win, hoping to do some black bear hunting with them for the spring season. How are some of your experiences with this bullet? What are some bullets of similar performance without the exposed lead tip (like Partition's) that you also find to be really good for a quick drop?
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For your intended purpose and velocity level, any of the plastic-tipped bullets should work fine, including the Nosler Accubond and Ballistic Tip.

Another option to consider, if you can afford it, is a Barnes TSX -- tipped or not. In a .308, you wouldn't need to go any heavier than 150 grains in a TSX for all game in North America, and an argument could even be made for a 130 grain, to keep the velocities higher (and hence extend the range at which the bullet fully expands). Unlike conventional bullets, the general consensus is that an impact velocity as high as possible is the friend of the TSX, rather than the enemy.

Having said this, an argument could be made for the plain-old Hornady 165-grain Interlock. I've shot a ton of them through every rifle I own, including my Garand, and have never had a problem with the lead tips causing accuracy problems. (I wouldn't worry about the ballistic effects of mashed lead tips at anything inside 300 metres, to be conservative, and how much game shooting are you going to be doing beyond that range?) Interlocks are among the cheapest bullets available, among the most consistently accurate, and they put animals down on the ground time and time again. They are certainly on the "soft" side as far as bullets go, but at .308 velocities, with a 165-grain, you shouldn't have any problem.
 
p-17 said:
Another option to consider, if you can afford it, is a Barnes TSX -- tipped or not. In a .308, you wouldn't need to go any heavier than 150 grains in a TSX for all game in North America, and an argument could even be made for a 130 grain, to keep the velocities higher (and hence extend the range at which the bullet fully expands). Unlike conventional bullets, the general consensus is that an impact velocity as high as possible is the friend of the TSX, rather than the enemy.
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I was actually considering these bullets as an option yesterday. I haven't considered the idea of a copper bullet yet, but watching through some of the videos, this might just fit the bill for a good high velocity option to play with. I like that I could probably run it around 3100 fps and not have to worry about scope adjustment out to 200 yards.

Pricing isn't as expensive as I thought they might be. They seem on par with, or a little cheaper than Partitions.
 
cheier said:
II like that I could probably run it around 3100 fps and not have to worry about scope adjustment out to 200 yards.
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Actually, with any modern rifle and a proper zero, you don't have to worry about holdover out to 200 yards. If you can get a 130-grain TSX moving in the vicinity of 3,000 f.ps., and you set a 250-yard zero with that load, you might not need any holdover out to 300 yards, as long as you don't mind hitting 3 inches high at 100 and 3-4 inches low at 300.
 
My scope is a 1-4x, on a bullpup semi with 18" barrel, so I don't really plan to push it out much more than 200 yards. I do have another bolt rifle with a 4-16x though that I plan to be able to go further with, but I'm not trying to develop this round for that rifle. I've already been load developing with 180 grain Partition's with that one.

I think I'm sold on the TSX now. Time to try and hunt some down... :)
 
I have shot 2 bucks with them out of my 30-06. The first one was about 180 yds right through the boilerroom and we tracked him for about 600 yds with next to no blood and when finding him discovered that the bullet never opened up and just pencil holed through him. The 2nd was only 20 yds and did the same thing but he didn't go anywhere. The second one I figure was just too close and didn't have a chance to open up.
 
colonel3006 said:
I have shot 2 bucks with them out of my 30-06. The first one was about 180 yds right through the boilerroom and we tracked him for about 600 yds with next to no blood and when finding him discovered that the bullet never opened up and just pencil holed through him. The 2nd was only 20 yds and did the same thing but he didn't go anywhere. The second one I figure was just too close and didn't have a chance to open up.
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Shot a buck at 39 yards with a 165 superformance and you could easily put 2 fists all the way through the deer. Also with an ought six
 
I managed to source a box of 130 grain TSX bullets at WSS. I should be able to push them around 3100 fps MV. Over 2000 ft lbs to 150 yards and a pretty straight line to 200 yards.
 
cheier said:
I managed to source a box of 130 grain TSX bullets at WSS. I should be able to push them around 3100 fps MV. Over 2000 ft lbs to 150 yards and a pretty straight line to 200 yards.
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Please keep us informed of your progress on this one. I hope you find a load that is accurate, reliable, and brings you lots of animals :)
 
p-17 said:
Please keep us informed of your progress on this one. I hope you find a load that is accurate, reliable, and brings you lots of animals :)
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I'm going out to the range today. I'll be borrowing a crony. I seated them to a COAL of 2.810, but crimping brought them closer to 2.805. I have 8 rounds done up starting at 48.5 grains going up in half grain increments to 52 grains. 52 grains is over case capacity, but the load data warned of it. Highly compressed load. Mainly testing for pressure in once fired Federal brass before settling on a high velocity load for some new Hornady brass.
 
Just an update from the range. I didn't put all the rounds down range for the 130 grain bullets. I believe 49 grains is where I would max out with Varget. At 49.5 and 50 grains, I ended up with a nice hole in the primer. At 49 grains, I was just under 3000 fps. I'd have to load more ammo at that charge to get a general idea as to what the range is, but the one that I did get was 2997 fps. The 49.5 grain round wasn't much faster, most likely because some pressure escaped through the hole in the primer. Fastest speed I say was 50 grains at 3048 fps, but I had some feeding issues after that.

I will have to load more at 49 grains and do some target shooting with it and see how well rounds hold up after throwing a bunch more down range.

Calculations I have through JBM has the velocity at about 2444 fps, 1724 ft lbs of energy at 200 yards. About 1.5" high at 100 yards with a 200 yard zero.
 
you might want to seat deeper. maybe reduce your pressure with a little more jump. i find mono's like a lot of jump and tend to be more accurate that way.
 
46.5 grains of IMR4064 in a Remington case with a CCI-200 primer produced a muzzle velocity of 2,921 fps when using the 130 grain Barnes TTSX bullet......From the leadsled, this load resulted in a 3 shot group consisting of a horizontal line with all three bullets crowding each other....striking 1.5 inches above the bullseye at 100 yards......these loads were fired in a 24" barreled bolt action 308 Win....

Using a load of 47.5 grains of RL-15 with all other components being equal, the muzzle speed was clocked at 2,950.....not quite as accurate as IMR4064.....

We have used the 150 grain Hornady SST bullet in our 308 rifles for deer hunting......Using 46.0 grains of RL-15, we reached a muzzle velocity of 2,838........This bullet works very well on deer at this velocity......anything at or under 2,900 fps at the muzzle makes for a dependable deer load.......Shots on whitetail bucks have ranged from 40 yards to 330 yards.....frontal hits on the brisket, or broadside rib cage hits result in very quick and humane kills.....I consider the SST bullet with the Interlock feature to be a tougher bullet than the equivalent Nosler Ballistic Tip offering........

The Nosler Accubond is even better.....the 150 grain bullet in the 308 with 45.0 grains of IMR4064 is one of the most accurate and dependable deer loads I have used.....

Work up to these loads if you intend on trying them.....

Rojogrande
 
If I were you I would forget the TSX and go with the SST or accubond. Lots of stories of TSX and the TTSX bullets not opening up at all or opening up so little they don't do much damage. I have used the TSX and TTSX as well as seem them used by others and they never impress me for quick kills or amount of damage. Even up at 2400fps they just don't always open up good enough. The SST, or Balistic tip or Accubond are the ones I would be using. Never been disappointed with any of them.

Here is a picture of a 162g SST taken out of my buck this year, (7 rem mag) have also used them on Moose and bull elk with complete success. Just stay with 165g or heavier for the SST. The velocity's your 18" 308 are going to put out will be perfect for them.

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