Hornady SST

[4extreme]

for what its worth anymore...I shoot a 270wsm 150gr sst muzzle speed 3053 ft/sec with 59.5 gr of 7828. I`ve shot moose and deer( no elk yet ). the last moose I shot it broke a rib going in and a rib going out at 125 yards. Deer have never ran more than 30 yards before dropping.

[smartduoduo]

Go with eld x or m way better than sst

[FellSwoop]

I find that Horniday in general including SST in factory loads group better than others with my VZ550 300WM, Cooey 308 Win, Rem742 6mm, 223, and SKS x39. Terminal performance has been good with the 300, 308 & 6mm (had not tried the rest on game). But a couple years ago, I got a large (300+ lbs) mule deer doe at 40 yards or less with the 300WM. This was a mess that destroyed a shoulder and a lot of meat due to bullet fragmentation. The skinned and cleaned deer bleed all night on the hook after it was washed down. It was surprising how much meat was turned to mush. I got rid of my SST in 300WM after that but will happily use it in my lighter calibers. I am on the fence with the 308. On the end, it has to fit within the expected energy of the terminal impact.

[skidderman]

Accurate but a grenade if bone is hit.

[weedcatcher]

Looking on the Hornady website, they have factory ammo listed for each cartridge starting with 6.5 Creedmoor for SST loads designed for heavy game up to 1550 lbs. That would be for moose and elk. The makers of the bullet say the SST is for moose and elk. Not just in heavy for caliber loads, but 130gr .270 in Superformance ammo, for example.

I'm not saying there aren't better choices out there, but for someone to say that these bullets were never designed for that application is incorrect. The bullet makers themselves say they are.

[Salavee]

Originally Posted by weedcatcher

Looking on the Hornady website, they have factory ammo listed for each cartridge starting with 6.5 Creedmoor for SST loads designed for heavy game up to 1550 lbs. That would be for moose and elk. The makers of the bullet say the SST is for moose and elk. Not just in heavy for caliber loads, but 130gr .270 in Superformance ammo, for example.

I'm not saying there aren't better choices out there, but for someone to say that these bullets were never designed for that application is incorrect. The bullet makers themselves say they are.

Maybe that's because they are selling them. Most of those who have used them
on larger Game feel they are too frangible. Pick a winner.

[CritterCommander]

Meh. The results are in. SST is about my all time favourite round. Some animals have had a lot of damage but that was me, not the round, if you blow out a shoulder blade at 60 yards going to see a lot more damage than lungs at 200. Just saying.

Have shot Elk, Moose, Deer with SST's from various calibres, 30-06, 300 WM, 243 Win, 270 WSM, 7mm RM, 300RUM, etc etc. Bottom line. Very effective killing. Big wounds every now and then, but very dead.

[weedcatcher]

Originally Posted by Salavee

Maybe that's because they are selling them.

Point taken, sure. But it seems to me that most bullet makers UNDER ESTIMATE their bullets abilities and recommend for CPX2 game only when it seems like they'd be well suited to CPX3 game. Like the Federal Fusion 180 gr in 30-06 for example. They're bonded and I'd have no problem using them on a bull elk or moose, but Federal says those are only for deer and antelope.

[sns2]

Originally Posted by weedcatcher

Looking on the Hornady website, they have factory ammo listed for each cartridge starting with 6.5 Creedmoor for SST loads designed for heavy game up to 1550 lbs. That would be for moose and elk. The makers of the bullet say the SST is for moose and elk. Not just in heavy for caliber loads, but 130gr .270 in Superformance ammo, for example.

I'm not saying there aren't better choices out there, but for someone to say that these bullets were never designed for that application is incorrect. The bullet makers themselves say they are.

And trailer salesmen will happily tell you that a 1/2 ton can safely pull a 33' - 10,000 lb trailer... doesn't make it true.

[Vacation]

Dropped a Elk 60ish yards broadside with the 95 Gr SST out of a 243. Shot a few Deer with them as well. No complaints.

[GrouseHunter]

They shot like crap out of my 300 WM, you could not pay me to use them after what I experianced. I highly reccomend Nosler ABLR's.

[badbrass]

They shoot great out of my 6.5X55 TiKKa!

[MK2750]

What could Hornady possible gain from selling a person a bullet that will fail?

They have bullets for everything from varmints to dangerous game. Animals are not getting any tougher and cup and core bullets have been killing the lot of them for many many years. One of the most trusted is the InterLock. The SST is basically an InterLock with a plastic tip. Having driven both long ways through big Whitetails, I find their performance near identical.

If you remove the shoulder, legs and skin from a Whitetail or Elk we are looking at less than a foot for a through and though. A quality LR 22 can and will kill them stone dead if they travel through heart and/or lungs.

Having said all that, if you want a stouter bullet by all means buy an InterBond ELD-X or GMX. They are every bit as accurate and will retain weight and penetrate even better. Unlike the trailer salesman that wanted to up his sale by getting you into more trailer than you need, Hornady will be every bit as happy with you purchasing one of their other bullets, probably more so as they are more expensive.

I know people like to prepare for the worse case scenario but one should consider the best bullet for what they are trying to accomplish. I shoot animals in the chest. If I don't have a shot, I wait until I do or pass completely. Once into the chest cavity an SST absolutely sickens the animal and DRT is the end result with no more than some rib meat gone.

The results I have witnessed from the so called "premium bullets" is lots of tracking if the shoulder or spine isn't hit. I'm too old to be tracking an animal for a mile and much too old to be dragging him out an extra mile.

It seems to me that most people that did not appreciate the performance of the SST had pulled them from a dead animal or else are just speculating from something they read. I have yet to hear anyone say that they made a good shot and the animal ran off like nothing happened when using SST. Surely if these are "gernading" on impact like people are claiming more would be written of these failures and/or Hornady would improve the design. They do seem to know a thing or two about bullets.

[GrouseHunter]

Its not the ammo guys. The ammo these days are EXCELLENT! It's whether your barrel likes that type of bullet. Go with the round that your barrel loves the most. My gauge is .25 MOA @ 200 yards or better. But that is just me.

Unless you dont know how to shoot, then its you and not the barrel hehe

[elkhunter11]

Originally Posted by GrouseHunter

Its not the ammo guys. The ammo these days are EXCELLENT! It's whether your barrel likes that type of bullet. Go with the round that your barrel loves the most. My gauge is .25 MOA @ 200 yards or better. But that is just me.

Unless you dont know how to shoot, then its you and not the barrel hehe

The truth is, that most hunting rifles, using hunting loads, are not capable of averaging .25moa at 200 yards, regardless of who is doing the shooting.

[Dick284]

Originally Posted by GrouseHunter

Its not the ammo guys. The ammo these days are EXCELLENT! It's whether your barrel likes that type of bullet. Go with the round that your barrel loves the most. My gauge is .25 MOA @ 200 yards or better. But that is just me.

Unless you dont know how to shoot, then its you and not the barrel hehe

You must be really po’d then, because 0.25MOA regardless of distance is rivalling what SBR shooters hope to get.

[GrouseHunter]

True that is exactly why i swap out the factory barrels with Wilson Match Grade Barrels

[catnthehat]

Originally Posted by elkhunter11

The truth is, that most hunting rifles, using hunting loads, are not capable of averaging .25moa at 200 yards, regardless of who is doing the shooting.

Crap my best match rifle may be able to make a 3 shot .25 MOA group at 200 but
A: I don’t drag a bench and bags into the bush with me
B: more importantly, I am no longer capable of shooting a.25MOA group consistantly at 200!
Cat

[elkhunter11]

Originally Posted by GrouseHunter

True that is exactly why i swap out the factory barrels with Wilson Match Grade Barrels

Regardless of what barrel you choose, even most full custom hunting rifles with carefully developed handloads won't average .25moa.

Crap my best match rifle may be able to make a 3 shot .25 MOA group at 200 but
A: I don’t drag a bench and bags into the bush with me
B: more importantly, I am no longer capable of shooting a.25MOA group consistantly at 200!
Cat

I have owned one rifle that shot a lot of .25 moa groups, and that was full custom match rifle in 6.5x47 that Paul Reiben built. It weighed about 13lbs, and I was using match bullets.

[GrouseHunter]

[QUOTE=elkhunter11;3867324]Regardless of what barrel you choose, even most full custom hunting rifles with carefully developed handloads won't average .25moa.

I agree with you sir, I want and expect the best and in this day and age it is attainable. Great ammo, great barrels and a little shooting experiance it all comes together.

In the meantime shoot what your barrel loves is all I have to say

[catnthehat]

[QUOTE=GrouseHunter;3867332]

Originally Posted by elkhunter11

Regardless of what barrel you choose, even most full custom hunting rifles with carefully developed handloads won't average .25moa.

I agree with you sir, I want and expect the best and in this day and age it is attainable. Great ammo, great barrels and a little shooting experiance it all comes together.

In the meantime shoot what your barrel loves is all I have to say

No disrespect intended GrouseHunter but expecting consistent .250 groups out of s hunting rifle with hunting bullets is akin to chasing a ghost !
This comment comment is not just blowing smoke, I have a “fair amount “ experience shooting match competitions and hunting rifles alike built by some of the best gunsmiths in a North America .
Cat

[Big bore dinosaur]

Buddy dropped a nice cow elk at 80 yards with his 3006 with the 162 sst.. still went 100 yards...shot placement was a little back ,,but piled her up ..
Neighbor blew the shoulder of a w.t.deer at 70 yards....I don't blame him, moster rack..180 for sure ,,he should not have looked at the horns!!! Center of mass @7mmrem. Still went 150 yards

Sst is nothing more the a big game varmint bullet.. rapid expansion ... meat grinder within 150 yards at magnum velocities..
Its a rib to rib bullet for sure if your hunting for the meat..
To each there own thought ***
I prefer a monolithic boolit

[marky_mark]

[QUOTE=GrouseHunter;3867332]

Originally Posted by elkhunter11

Regardless of what barrel you choose, even most full custom hunting rifles with carefully developed handloads won't average .25moa.

I agree with you sir, I want and expect the best and in this day and age it is attainable. Great ammo, great barrels and a little shooting experiance it all comes together.

In the meantime shoot what your barrel loves is all I have to say

Guys are also full of it too
After all, everyone’s an expert on here

[GrouseHunter]

[QUOTE=catnthehat;3867341]

Originally Posted by GrouseHunter

No disrespect intended GrouseHunter but expecting consistent .250 groups out of s hunting rifle with hunting bullets is akin to chasing a ghost !
This comment comment is not just blowing smoke, I have a “fair amount “ experience shooting match competitions and hunting rifles alike built by some of the best gunsmiths in a North America .
Cat

No disrespect to you sir either, you do it your way and I will do it my way OK?

[sns2]

As a mod, I don't like to wade into the fray very often, but I haven't given up on posting altogether.

I read so much on here about 1/4 moa groups at 200, pie plates offhand at 500 yards etc... etc... etc...

Why does no one ever posts pictures of these feats??? If I could shoot like that, I would post pics. I'd love to see that type of accuracy, but I'm just not capable of it.

Alas, I don't think I will be seeing pics anytime soon.

[elkhunter11]

Originally Posted by sns2

As a mod, I don't like to wade into the fray very often, but I haven't given up on posting altogether.

I read so much on here about 1/4 moa groups at 200, pie plates offhand at 500 yards etc... etc... etc...

Why does no one ever posts pictures of these feats??? If I could shoot like that, I would post pics. I'd love to see that type of accuracy, but I'm just not capable of it.

Alas, I don't think I will be seeing pics anytime soon.

Oddly enough , the claims of .25moa groups at 200 yards reminds me of the person that made the claims of the offhand groups at 500 yards. Other members have mentioned the same.

[bitterrootfly]

Originally Posted by elkhunter11

Oddly enough , the claims of .25moa groups at 200 yards reminds me of the person that made the claims of the offhand groups at 500 yards. Other members have mentioned the same.

If only there was a modern invention that one could use to permanently prove their groups all at the press of a button... oh wait

[catnthehat]

[QUOTE=GrouseHunter;3867355]

Originally Posted by catnthehat

No disrespect to you sir either, you do it your way and I will do it my way OK?

Absolutely , I am well aware of my limitations as I get older and like to shoot my animals as close to me as I can .
Cat

[weedcatcher]

I took a whitetail buck yesterday at 115 yards. 7-08 using Hornady 139 sst superformance ammo. It was standing broadside to me and I hit it at the back edge of the shoulder blade. Bang. Flop. It was dead before it hit the group. Not a twitch.
I did the gutless method so I dismantled it right there and never actually "gutted" it. Recovered the bullet on the off side under the hide. Cup and core separation but the cup was right there with the core.
Caliber size hole going through the layer of muscle attached to the shoulder on the entrance. The entrance hole through the rib cage under that was a bit bigger than a toonie coin. Busted a rib. Lung material was protruding out.
On the off side it busted through another rib and the hole was about loonie size.

Did the bullet work? I think so. Was there meat lost? Minimal. I've killed many deer with gamekings and they do similar damage. Same with Hotcor bullets.
My opinion is that a federal fusion or anything "tougher" would've exited the off side hide, but can't know for sure. So many factors at play.

Because of the frangibility of the sst did that ensure all of the energy of the projectile was applied and delivered to the deer contributing to the DRT performance? If I had used a "tougher" bullet that didn't expand as much and exited the other side, would the deer have run causing me to track it?
So many factors that influence outcomes. Impossible to say for sure.

Myself, I was happy with how the bullet performed.

I took some pics and will try to post them some time later.

[sanjuanworm]

I just shot a deer at 50 yards facing me with my 300 win mag SST. Deer dropped right there. Broke 6 ribs and did the lungs in. No meat damage except maybe brisket. It's my bullet of choice.