My son in law shot a nice White-tailed deer at 120 yards with a 30-06 using 150 grain Hornady SST Bullet.
The deer was stuck high on the shoulder and was visibly staggered by the shot. The deer went down where he stood and DRT.
Upon examination there was only an .308 entrance wound no exit, very little blood.

Obviously the round worked, dead deer. I'm used to Nosler Partitions and now Accubonds which I expect to fully penetrate the average White-tailed deer.

Any thoughts or experiences from the forum?

Thanks!

I'm wondering how many bullets would have exited with that placement.

I've used the same bullet from a .30-06 and had exits in medium sized bucks. I believe I've killed three deer with that particular load.

I've also used the SST in the .270 and in the 6.5 X 55 and with splendid success.....not all pass throughs but all DRT.

In one case I found the bullet in the deer and it was intact.....however the jacket did separate from the core with the slightest pull of my fingers.

My wife and I have used the 7mm 139gr SST's in the 7x57 and the 280AI on a number of deer and have never recovered a bullet..but then again we neved shot them dead on the shoulder either.. For us the SST's have worked just fine..

Z

My buddies and I tried the 115 grain SST's in our 25-06 rifles and found them to work quite well on CA deer.

However, when we tried them on wild hogs we were immediately dissapointed. They came apart much too quickly and did not penetrate well at all.

Having said that, I have had great success shooting wild hogs with the 115 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip in my 25-06.

quote:

Originally posted by R Flowers:
My buddies and I tried the 115 grain SST's in our 25-06 rifles and found them to work quite well on CA deer.

However, when we tried them on wild hogs we were immediately dissapointed. They came apart much too quickly and did not penetrate well at all.

Having said that, I have had great success shooting wild hogs with the 115 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip in my 25-06.

+1 on the 115 NBT. It's built pretty tough for a little bullet.

Those calibers I've tried them in (4) are very accurate. They expand very quickly in game. I class them as darn near explosively, but knowing that, match the bullet to the game.

KB

Super Sonic Trash. I you have to shoot a plastic tipped bullet,shoot Ballistic tips.

Jerry

Use them mostly in my .30-06 in 180-grain at about 2 700 fps. Haven't shot them into a lot of animals, mostly impala and they all exited there, dumping the animals in their tracks. Only two "big" animals I've shot with them was a kudu cow (head shot, so nothing to report there) and a big, dry blue wildebeest cow. She stood looking at us from across a dried-up pan about 120 metres away and I shot her sqaurely in the chest. The results were most spectacular! She dropped in her tracks with a broken spine and remained balanced upright as if posed for a trophy photo. Although we couldn't recover the bullet we did ascertain that it penetrated into the stomach, so nothing to complain about.

I quite like the SST's. I think they're better value for money than the Ballistic Tips and they are certainly just as accurate, if not more so, in both my .30-06 and my 7x64 than the BT's.

Just my experience.

I loaded some 150 grainers in a .308. On white tail, they absolutely exploded. The deer were very dead, but I think they performed more like a varmint bullet. I think they are renamed A-max target bullets.

I'll stay with the standard Spire Point for average velocities.

quote:

Originally posted by Rusty:
Obviously the round worked, dead deer. I'm used to Nosler Partitions and now Accubonds which I expect to fully penetrate the average White-tailed deer.

Any thoughts or experiences from the forum?

Thanks!

Interesting replies so far.....I'd say that the SST is quite close to ballistic tips in performance as they are not bonded bullets. They are however of similar construction and their advantage over standard interlocks is the greater ballistic coefficient and that translates to longer range.

That said, one probably shouldn't compare them to Nosler's partitions or accubonds as these are in a totally different class. One might want to compare Hornady's interbond to those offerings from Nosler. As I understand the interbond is essentially the SST and then bonded.

I have a few interbonds here but have very little range time with them and no time shooting big game with them so can't really offer an opinion except the few I've fired through my new M-70 in .270 Win seem to shoot quite well.

On another thread (a poll) folks are picking Nosler partitions and accubonds over all other choices by a very wide margin and the Hornady bullets are sucking the rear one badly. I'm guessing the customers have had the Noslers much longer and the experience is good and it's hard to try other offerings when we have a winner in our hands.

In the net result, I see the SST and the ballistic tip as an interim product.....the "bridge" between a fine C&C bullet and a bonded product......and for a deer hunter the difference is quite small indeed.

Our choices today are not between good and bad bullets....it's more like we get to pick from great and exceptionally great bullets...and the pricing makes the decision even more interesting.

Right now I'm looking at two boxes of Northforks (.366 cal and .308 cal) and six boxes of A-Frames in my bullet inventory and I'm seriously asking if they are actually worth the difference over the Accubonds. Many folks have reported that the Accubonds are equal to the partitions in terminal performance .....a praiseworthy recommendation for sure....It's got to be a tough business for bullet manufacturers.....competition is stiff!

This much I can say....my own bullet cupboard is getting blacker every year and at the rate things are going there won't be any SSTs in the house.....they will all be in black boxes and have pretty white tips.

quote:

Originally posted by Jerry Eden:
Super Sonic Trash. I you have to shoot a plastic tipped bullet,shoot Ballistic tips.

Jerry

I harvested a nice whitetail doe this fall with 165 gr. SST with my Schmidt Rubin 7.55 X 55 at 40 yards or so. The shot was made in the heart and lung with her standing broad side. The inards were mush and it passed through. The only real dissapointment was that the heart was in to bad of shape to eat. I really don't think this bullet would be a good choice for anything bigger than whitetail sized game.

So far we have had very good luck with them in the 270 Win, 30-06, and 300 Win Mag both on Deer, and some African game.

My experience with the SST is this:

If you drop a loaded round on a hard surface such as a tile floor, the little plastic tip breaks off easily.

That's all I got.

There are still some places here in England (and Scotland) where if you show up with such things they'll politely ask if you would, please, prefer to use the estate's rifle and ammunition instead!

SST is the only bullet that has remained in a deer that I shot with a 300winmag. 165 grn at about 40 yards, hit the far shoulder.

I went back to the standard Hornady interlock, which is a better hunting bullet for my purposes.

Have used SST's alot with the .270 for deer and deer only. Last one I shot on an average Sask. buck(230 lbs) a month ago quartering away from me at 80 yds went through ribs on both sides exiting through lower shoulder on far side. Large hole on exit side. Good enough for me. I'll go on to say I would not use them on anything bigger than deer.

I'm sure the SSTs are great deer killers. I don't believe the interlock ring is as effective at preventing core separation with the thin jacket and plastic tip.

The design turns the Interlock, which is a good balanced performer, to much more frangible bullet.

I think the very thick jacket on the NBT is better at keeping the bullet together.

Nothing wrong with the SST on deer. It's going to do a ton of damage and should be a quick killer.

They have worked fine for me except for a shoulder hit with a .270Win. The shoulder exploded and a second shot was needed to finish the job.

I do wish they where a little tougher because the three calibers I've used them in all shot fantastic with these bullets.

Terry

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:
This much I can say....my own bullet cupboard is getting blacker every year and at the rate things are going there won't be any SSTs in the house.....they will all be in black boxes and have pretty white tips.

My bullet shelf is getting blacker all the time too. But the boxes all have Barnes written on them, either TSX or TTSX. One of these days, if and when I can get organized, I may just have a big sale, and get rid of them all, except the black boxes with red and yellow or blue and yellow lables.

KB

quote:

I went back to the standard Hornady interlock, which is a better hunting bullet for my purposes.

For my $0.02 - I couldn't get the SST's to shoot worth a Hoot in my .30/06 Sprg. so I've never used them on game. I gave up after 2 boxes; mostly in load combinations that perform really well w/other bullets.

Like Dave mentions though; just kept on using the .308" 165 gr. Hornady Interlocks; which perform perfectly at '06 velocities & are very (if not, superbly) accurate.

Interesting. It seems like we just discussed this issue with inconsistent bullet performance.

Without getting to technical or scientific, the issue with everyones statements all fall back to bullet length. The SST is just as fragile as the ballistic tip and performs accordingly. These types of bullets are very deadly on game but do require a higher sectional density to hold together in game. I have been using the 150 grain Nosler Ballistic tips in my 270 for several years with much more consistent terminal performance on deer than the 130 grainers. I get complete pass throughs with devastating exit wounds where as the 130's on occasion break up inside and fail to exit. This would be the same as using 180 grainers over the 150's with the .308 caliber. The lighter bullets still kill but exhibit inconsistent results due to their length. Simply put, regardless of their weight, they all have to expand and the longer the bullet is to start with the more it can expand before it comes apart. This is especially true of fragile bullets such as these.

Now, if your fixed on shooting the lighter bullets of a selected caliber because you want to maximize velocity then choosing a more robust bullet would offset the inconsistency issue. Bullets such as a Barnes TSX, Hornady GMX or Bonded would all improve the terminal performance of lighter bullet selections for a given caliber.

quote:

Without getting to technical or scientific, the issue with everyones statements all fall back to bullet length. The SST is just as fragile as the ballistic tip and performs accordingly.

This seems to be the case. At least in my experience they are equal in scope and performance.

Both quite accurate and both quite fragile and both excellent for deer and nothing bigger.

As always y'all have provided a wealth of information and experiences!

Kindest regards,

Rusty

I've dropped quite a number of large NE whitetails and Mulies with the 165 SST in one of my 30-06's. They have performed wonderfully. Most were complete pass through's with slightly larger/above normal wound channels. They definately drop some energy into the animal. Shot placement was always good....except one. She was a big mulie doe and I was on my second to last day of the hunt. No deer for me yet. Walked up over a large sand dune in the Sandhills and it exploded with mulies going in every direction. One large doe was running straight away and I put the cross-hairs on her and squeezed...right as she jumped over a fence. Miss. Jacked in another round and just before she disappeared behind a small hill I timed the shot to impact when she hit the ground between mulie jumps. Perfect (and very lucky) Texas heart shot at about 175 yds. Sacked her up real good. Bullet entered directly into the B-hole with no exit. Only about 1/2" of ruined meat on each ham. Bullet was recovered when I boned her out directly behind the left shoulder blade. It weighed 117 grs and was a perfect mushroom. No core separation. I figured it went through over/around 24" of visceral cavity. No bone impact though. These bullets just seem to drop deer DRT. As most have said, it wouldn't be my choice on anything larger, but for deer sized critters and down, not including hogs as they are tougher than boiled owl s@%t, I really like them.
As EVERYONE sais though, shot placement is more important than any bullet and the way it is built. Heck I have dropped a couple real nice deer with a 221 FB and too light a bullet (34 gr and 40 gr). Neither one took a step. Neck shots with that little guy. No wasted meat either!!! Bonus.

The .270 rifle I tried working up a load for using 130gr SST prefers bullets to be close to the lands.
Due to the shape of the SST this meant the bullet being seated barely one caliber depth into the case mouth.
No matter what er changed, accuracy was barely 2MOA.
NPT groups were less than half of those from the SST that was enough to drop any further attempts with this particular rifle.

Never used on a animal, but accuracy has been good in my 338.

In my experience with NBT's the last 20 or so years this style of bullet is the best thing going for heart/lung shots, DRT performance. But if you like to take out the front drive gears, front shoulder you might not be happy especially with light calibers or light for caliber bullets.
In that case go with a stouter bullet.

I wait for broadside heart lung shots and am very happy with NBT's and would use SST's but why change from 20 years of perfection?

My earlier post "Super Sonic Trash" was based on the bullets performance on targets. Just unacceptable. While the Ballistic tips, always group well in ANY rifle in which I have shot them.

Jerry

I don't have a lot of experience with them, but have just begun using some to work up loads for me and my friend's guns and they shoot well, but I don't have any experience with their terminal performance.

in my expereince, tougher than BTs, nothing compared to accubonds .. they are wicked accurate in my 7x64

They work great for deer and hogs; for elk, moose, brown bear, big african antelope; go with something tougher like an A-Frame or Scirocco

In 2003 I went to Africa on a plains game hunt. I took 2 rifles. One a 270WSM with 140 grain Fail Safes. The other a 308Win with 165 Barnes X. My PH ask me to leave the 270 in my room because of the Fail Safes. He said there had been too many pass throughs with out expanding on the smaller game. One hunter in our group brought a 300Win using 165 grain SST. He got every animal he shot including a Kudu.This was in the Limpopo and most shots were at close range. I am not sure if he shot a Blue Wildebeeast. I think many of his bullets came apart but they did their job. His next plains game hunt to same location he took Fail Safes. I guess he did not get the word. I have shot 3 deer with some old Nosler BTs and all three deer fell down dead on the spot.Two were with 165 grain BT from my 308 and this year was a 150grain from my 284 Win. In one case I could see the exit hole from my shooting position. Of course 2 inch holes are easy to see. This year same thing 4 two inch holes through the upper shoulders and chest. I think the larger BT have thicker jackets and were made tougher after the first few years. I would think SSTs and BTs would be about the same and the Interbonds and Accubonds would be about the same but they are advertises as one has more expansion that the other. I once saw a Nosler ad that said you could use the Accubonds and Partions for the same thing. I think the biggest different about the Noslers and Hornadays may the price. On my last Safari one hunter was using a 375 H&H with 260 grain Accubonds and they were unbelievable in killing power. If you are hunting deer size game any of the four should work in an appropriate caliber. If you are hunting deer size game and larger use the bonded bullets and if your are hunting really large and tough game use really tough bullets.

I have several boxes of SSt's and BT's. I really want to like the Hornady version, I love their interlocks. But the truth is Ive had better results with the Noslers. Ive taken several Mulies with my 257 AI load, 115 grain bt @ 3000 + fs and the results are instant venison every time.

Ive done some bullet expansion/toughness testing with BT's on water jugs and even shooting into dirt! and all i can say is WOW! The plastic tipped bullets expand tremendously, HUGE mushrooms and I tortured them and got no core seperation! These tests I did were with 180 gn 8mm BT's @ about 2700 fs. The same day I did the same thing with 200 grain hot cores and the BT's held up better! I have always got better crono results with the Nosler version than hornadys as well.

Ive not given up on the SSt's though. I dont think they are as tough as the Noslers, and Im sure that they are subject to the same massive expansion, but I agree with the poster who said a bit more SD is a good idea with these bullets. I intend to try the 139 grain SST's with a .260 rem. If they perform adequatly at the range, I wont hesitate to use them on the next Mulie..