Hornady SST, good or not???

While deer are not particularly hard to kill, the SST is quite fragile, IMHO.
If bone is hit, they do disintegrate easily, particularly at higher velocities.
I am not a fan of this bullet for hunting, but some have used them with success.
Regards, Eagleye.
 
What's a "blackie" - are we to assume bear or blacktail deer? It would be a good quick killing deer bullet, not my choice for bears. Expect lots of meat damage. They are a quick opening bullet that some people like, very similar to nosler ballistic tips.
 
canadaman30 said:
Anyone use SST's for hunting deer/blackies, do they hold together at high velocities, 2800+ft/s on bone hits (shoulder) ??
Click to expand...

No they don't hold together. They have exploded through
the shoulders of the black bears I've used them on with
my -06. Like vaporized the bone and the leg flops around.
A mess in smaller animals and maybe a penetration issue
in larger ones. Hornady GMX works great, like Barnes TTSX.
 
Apparently if you keep the velocity under 2800 to 2900 fps they don't grenade and work quite well.
I'm in the process of working up a load with them so I have no hunting experience yet.

The interbond would probably be a better choice for you if you plan to shoot through bone, though.
 
Eagleye said:
While deer are not particularly hard to kill, the SST is quite fragile, IMHO.
If bone is hit, they do disintegrate easily, particularly at higher velocities.
I am not a fan of this bullet for hunting, but some have used them with success.
Regards, Eagleye.
Click to expand...

I second Eagleye's opinion----shot a mule deer doe at a lasered 308 yds in Wainwright with 25-06 and 117 SST (which shot very accurately in this Sako)---literally blew the front shoulder off---not yet convinced I shot two more deer with SST's---same sort of gory mess--these experiences ended hunting any big game with SST's.---Bent Barrel
 
Eagleye said:
While deer are not particularly hard to kill, the SST is quite fragile, IMHO.
If bone is hit, they do disintegrate easily, particularly at higher velocities.
I am not a fan of this bullet for hunting, but some have used them with success.
Regards, Eagleye.
Click to expand...

This is exactly my opinion as well. Well stated Eagleye. And, in my case, I shot two whitetails with the SST. Broadside shots, devestating effect, dead deer... BUT, the SST projectile is not a projectile I would trust to punch through a shoulder...

Cheers
Jay
 
Eagleye said:
While deer are not particularly hard to kill, the SST is quite fragile, IMHO.
If bone is hit, they do disintegrate easily, particularly at higher velocities.
I am not a fan of this bullet for hunting, but some have used them with success.
Regards, Eagleye.
Click to expand...

Agree. I tried them and went back to the old nosler partitions which have never let me down
 
Wow kind of suprised with all the negative on SST's. I have shot SST's through my .270 for the last 4 yrs. i have yet to have to track a deer or loose meat from SST's. Now that being said my rounds are leaving the barrel at just over 2900fps. In those 4yrs I have shot 6 deer, 2 yotes, and a fox. Now on yotes and fox that round barely slowed down, all shots on them under 100m. Now on deer I have shot deer from 50m-413m.

I love SST's for my rifle and with 130g I would have no hesitation shooting bigger game with the same load! Interesting info though.
 
Shot my deer this year at 400 yards, using hornady superformance sst 120gr. ammo at about 3200fps. No issues at all, dead in his tracks before he hit the ground.
 
And 400 yards is a range where very frangible ammo might just work better than something more substantial. Close range shots with the same bullets may very well make a surface crater and fail to penetrate.
 
I find that the 117 gr SST's group better than any other bullet in my Mark V .257 Wby. The bullet does exactly what it was designed for, breaking up on impact and creating extreme damage. I've shot several deer in the boiler room and they go down, hard, with minimal meat damage. Hit one in the shoulder you're gonna have a dead deer, but a mess.

Craig
 
I've only used SST's in my muzzle loader and have switched to the TC Bonded Shockwave. Although the 250gr SST's killed the many deer i was hunting i found them to be too fragile and have recovered many of the bullets or cup as the core was gone leaving lead fragments throughout the wound channel. I like the areodynamics of these bullets, especially for modern black powder hunting that is their plus side. Here are some pics of the ones I was able to recover;
IMG01203-20120929-2055.jpg

The one lone bullet out front is a 300gr XTP
 
I was impressed with how the 140gr SST's would perform from my 270 win. Going to run them next season from the 300 win.
 
Your gonna get complete cup core separation my friend. At .300 mag velocities especially.

Part of the reason I went with Barnes TSX with mine.

"Lead Frag City" with SST's, Nosler BT's, Win Power Points or any other basic cup core bullets. Just my opinion of course ;)

With todays selection of bullets for handloaders why not "go hard or go home" with a better bullet.
 
Last edited:
I tried SST's for the first time last year in my 7mm-08 (139gr.)....so far I've only shot one moose, one black bear, and one wolf with these bullets....while there are bullets that will hold together better I was impressed with the SST's effectiveness on downing game. None of the animals needed to be tracked as the moose and the wolf went down on the spot and the bear went about 15 feet. I would not have an qualms on using them again in the 7-08.
 
I took a Whitetail buck at 150 yards with a 117g SST from my .25-06. The bullet hit the front shoulder and ended up under the skin on the off side. The whole front end was a mess, but it did drop on the spot. I will never use them again
 
All SST lovers should know the Hornady GMXs perform
like Barnes TTSXs but usually have the same weight and
b/c of the SSTs. The only rub is they cost 2X as much
to buy when hand loading. The OP asked about bear
and moose I believe, not deer. Any bullet will work fine
when the animal is double lunged; a shoulder hit may
be a different story.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom