I shot a doe this year at about 90 yards with a 130 gr. SST out of my 270 Winchester @ 2900 fps at the muzzle. It was a textbook broadside shot with an exit hole the size of a small fist. It struck me as quite explosive.
As a side note, I shot a buck later with a 130 gr. Nosler Partition out of the same rifle @ 2900 fps at the muzzle. Another broadside shot that left an exit wound about the side of a half dollar. This was at about 75 yards.
I am very fortunate to find a load for both of these bullets that are easily under a MOA and have exactly the same point of impact at 100 yards. When I am in the field, I will load 3 Noslers down and one of the SST's in the chamber. If I've got something that I don't want any questions about performance, then I'll shuck the SST and load the Nosler.
Why do you ask? Well, were we hunt we can also take turkeys and varmints. I'd hate to waste a good Nosler on one of those. Every now and then, I'll take out a crow for practice. For some reason the sound seems to call the deer in. Go figure.
I used a 180 grain in a .30-06 at 200 yards on a Doe Antelope in Wyoming this year. I hit it in the shoulders both going in and out. The exit wound was about the size of a golf ball. I have taken five deer with lighter in weight Ballistic Tips and have found these to be much more damaging than the SST, but with only one kill it's hard to really compare just yet. Accuracy was as should be expected with that type of bullet. Around an inch at 100 yards if I did my part with a Ruger NO. 1.
To date I have taken 7 whitetail with the 139 gr SST in my .280 Rem @ 2970 fps. All were chest cavity shots between 40 and 263 "lasered" yards. Animal weight ranged from 90-183 pounds. Some quatering either to me or away and some broadside @ 50/50. All of the broad side shots were almost identical. Bullet size entrence, 2"-3" hole on inside of ribs on the same side, 1"-2" hole in off side ribs & a bit smaller through to the exit hole. All quartering shots were similar except the one that hit zero bones which had the same internal performance but smaller exit hole. The bullet liquified any organ (hart & lungs) in its path and all were complete pass throughs. This will continue to be the bullets I use on deer sized game. They are good & consistant performers.
I've used the 150 SST's in my 308 and 30'06 and 165's in my 300 WinMag with excellent results from 50-150 yds. on axis and whitetail deer and antelope. I highly recomend them for deer size game as they are also the most accurate factory loads I've tried in two of my rifles. On a chest shot they seem to give almost explosive performance, all have been shoot throughs but left large exit wounds and no tracking required. I would not use them on larger game such as Red Stag or Elk however.
Posts: 1242 | Location: Houston, TX, USA | Registered: 04 April 2002
I used the 150 SST in a 270 Win. on an antelope. The shot was from 312 yards and the animal was slightly quartering away. 2 to 3 inch exit wound and very good internal damage.
Just this past weekend I used a 165 SST in my 308 to take a medium size doe in Kansas from about 90 yards. The shot was nearly straight on and the bullet performed perfect from the point of the on-side shoulder to the back of the opposite side ribs leaving a 2 inch exit and destroying the heart, lungs and liver.
This past June my father shot 180 grain SSTs in a 30.06 during our hunt in South Africa. He had 9 one shot kills on game from Wild Cat through Blue Wildebeest and at ranges from 35 yards to 285 yards. On the deer sized stuff such as Impala, Bushbuck, Blesbok, Springbok, Warthog and such he got good exits from any angle. On the bigger stuff such as Kudu, Black and Blue Wildebeest and Waterbuck the bullets mushroomed perfectly and penetrated very well.
All these bullets were loaded in Hornady factory loads. I think from this limited use and observation those are wonderful deer bullets when shot from standard rifle calibers.
That's odd. You guys have better luck than I. Earlier this year I used my .308 Encore (15" barrel) to take two large feral goats in Texas. I was shooting 150 grain SSTs. They are very accurate in this gun, but I'd never hunted with them before.
The first goat was at about 25 yards walking towards me and slightly quartering. I shot him off center in the front of the chest, expecting a pass through the front of one lung, the middle of the other, and an exit near the back of the ribs on the off side. What I got was minimal penetration, one lung hit, and a tracking job through the mesquite that ended when I kicked him out of his bed and put another one in his neck at about 30 yards.
The second was at about 60 yards straight broadside. I shot him right behind the shoulders, which resulted in another one lung hit and not exit. He was dead when we found him because of internal bleeding, but that was only because we spent 30 minutes tracking and putting down the other one.
Based on these two animals, I switched to Ballsitic Silver Tips, which are also very accurate in my pistol. I've yet to take any game with these bullets.
Any ideas on why my experiences with SSTs didn't end with the results of others I see on this and other boards? Am I just lucky that way? Input is appreciated.
Posts: 3308 | Location: Southern NM USA | Registered: 01 October 2002
They worked good for me in my 14" 7-30Waters Contender...139gr SST with near max load W-748..full penetration of both shoulders and bones on whitetail buck at about 50 steps...dropped in tracks. Also same results with same load and gun on another whitetail buck with heart shoot...he stumbled about 20yds and fell. Also had full penetration and excellent results on 5 or 6 other bucks with 139gr SST in 7mm-08 700 rifle and same results on a buck and hog using 117gr SST in Wby257mag. The biggest exit hole I've had on any game is about 50cent size at most.
boilerroom, The .25 SST just came out on the market in late Nov and early Dec. That was kind of late for this season. There might be a few springbutts out there who got some loads together in enough time to experiment on some game but I wasn't one. Though I now have a few loads made up and ready for testing in my Sako... FWIW, the Hornady website says thay are now coming out with a bonded core bullet...Interbond or some such.
Posts: 457 | Location: Kentucky | Registered: 25 February 2002
