(Warning! Graphic neck shot photo included for bullet adjudication.)

November 5th - 11th. Texas Whitetail Country.

I was invited to do a bit of hunting with a friend this year in Texas Whitetail Country. Being that I'm a SoCal boy who's managed only to shoot bunnies I hemmed and hawed for all of about .2 seconds before agreeing to join him. I made one deal with him:

"As a new hunter, if you tell me to shoot, then I'm not going to question you. The trigger gets pulled." Plain and simple, I'm relying on my friend, a very experienced hunter with 40+ years of experience to aprise me of what needs to be done.

The Goal: To "blood" my vaunted .257 Roberts, whack a couple Deer, and put the big hurt on anything else that remotely resembles a Varmint.

My load: 42 gr. of IMR 4350 under a 117 gr. Horn. SST. CCI LR Primer. I'm pushing around 2,730 fps with this load, Sighted 2" high.

The Tally: Two Deer, Two Hogs, Two Racoons.

I went "6 for 7" on shots.

Shot #1: A 60# yearling Doe. In all honesty, I'm not proud of this shot at all. Sitting in a blind, dusk approaching and time rapidly running out on a Tuesday night my friend said "take the one on the left". The doe was 20 yards out. The SST hit the deer just above the right shoulder, tearing through the upper ribs, taking up the lungs and tearing the top of the heart off before exiting through the left side.

The Exit wound was 3" in size and riped through 4 ribs on an angle. Death was instantaneous.

The SST expanded instantly here, fragmenting in the chest of the doe before.

Again, I'm not particularly happy of taking such a small deer but I am happy that the deer was dead instantly.

Shot #2 & #3: A 125# doe. Two shots.
I was told, very specifically, to use a neck shot on Doe's when safely possible.

Lined up in a blind, the SST impacted the deer in the neck at 125 yards (152 paces). The Doe hit the ground, feet up and kicking. I've been assured this is an instant kill shot however I found it just a bit unnerving to see the Doe kick a couple times.

About 10 seconds later, I lined up a second shot on the back of the neck of the Doe. I don't like the idea of any creature suffering. The SST impacted the back of the neck, dead center and did not exit. The vertabrate that got hit literally vaporized. I mean, gone.

The deer still kicked for another 5-10 seconds. /sigh. THAT was the CNS firing, no doubt about it.





I wasn't kidding. I could see almost completely through the neck.

Shot #4: The Big Hog.
After shooting the second doe, I leaned back and relaxed. I figured the night was over and unloaded the Bob. I picked up my second rifle with the intent of shooting a hog with a my Marlin 336 in .35 Remington. Honestly, I figured to mix things up a bit. It was dark, I mean, really, dark. I'm looking up the road and catch an odd looking shadow that wasn't there before.

The shadow was moving. I hit it with the binoculars and lo & behold, it was a pig. I figured around 100-ish yards and lined up the Marlin only to learn a truly valuable lesson: Cheap scopes suck. I had a Burris Fullfield 1.75 - 5x scope on the Marlin and it was completely and uterly useless.

Crap! I grabbed the Bob again (Leupold VXIII, 2.5-8x) and cranked up the power. There was no doubt about it, it was a pig. Pretty good sized too. I fished around in the darkness of the blind, pulled out two rounds and thumbed them into the mag, slammed the bolt, and put the rifle on the edge of the blind.

Amazing what a decent scope will do. The pig lit up clearly and I sighted on the head. I wanted to catch the piggie broadside in the side of the skull. It turned left, exposing the right side and I lined up 4" below the ear and squeezed the shot.

The rifle jumped and the pig went down. Straight down. I could see the ears twitch a few times in the scope before going still.

My friend estimated the pig at around 150# - 175# in the tailights of the truck. I was superbly pleased with the shot given the conditions. Distance was paced at 148 paces (est. 123 yards). The bullet went 1.5-2" high, just how I sighted it. Wish I'd have remembered that at the time...

Daylight came around and ground shrinkage was not an issue. The was ground growth! This was a male hog estimated in the 250# range!



Of important note: the bullet did NOT exit.
My best guess is that the bullet impacted the spine right behind the ear. That hog ate a full 1500 footpounds behind the ear and the SST never exited.



Personally I wanted to do a bit of autopsy here - my friend was less than enthused. I surrendered the moment and left the pig un-autopsied. Death was apparant: acute lead poisoning.

IMO, the SST is not a good hog bullet. If I get the chance to do this again, I'd much prefer a 250gr. slug driven by my .350 Rem Mag...

As we hitched up the pig and took it for a drag that night, a 60# hogling ran out of the brush. This is a total side-note: I grabbed my friends .308 and drilled the hog with it through both shoulders. The exit wound was decisive. The .308 on a hogling busted both shoulders, destroying the lungs and heart and flipped the hog onto it's back.

It tried to "run" for the next 20 seconds with only it's back legs working at all. Nervous reaction or tough critter? You be the judge.



Shots #5, #6, #7. Racoons.
If it's a varmint, it gets hit. Them's the rules on the ranch.

Shot #5: Well, I was shooting downhill, on a small target, at 75 yards, at an awkward...Oh Heck. I just plain missed!

Shot #6 & #7: Tommy & Johnny stepped out underneath a tall deer feeder. Tommy decided to try and crawl up the leg of the feeder while Johnny tried to find some corn on the ground.

Tommy was target #1 and took a round in the side. He hit the ground...

Johnny turned to look at his friend asking "what happened to you!?!" which was all the time I needed.

Coon #1: no real damage. The SST punched through the Coon and didn't expand.

Coon #2: the SST simply exploded violently. I can only surmise the SST did it's job.

*************************************

Summary data: All I can say is that this is hardly conclusive evidence. As far as I can tell, the SST works as advertised as long as one keeps in mind the limitations of the Bob.

On deer, based on the impact on the vertabrae and the ribcage of the Does, the SST exploded on impact creating a devastating wound.

The hog showed a very small hole and a massive spine impact. If the round can't penetrate the spine...well, IMO, it would likely do the exact same thing on a larger spine or bone structure.

The SST works as advertised - as a light, fast expanding deer bullet. IMO, it's not the round to use on much other than thin-skinned game!

And there you have my rather non-expert breakdown on the SST.

On the other hand, I had a fabuous time on my first real hunt ever!

Excellent report and thanks for sharing!


Dont feel bad about the .257 not exiting the hogs head, I've shot them in behind the shoulder and in the face with my .338wm and 200gr BT's and had the bullet not exit

My bob have taken many a hog with a 100 grn Sierra GK and some exit some don't but all hogs died.

So what do you rally think of our Texas hunting. From what I just read you had one heck of a hunt and might be hard to beat. By the way that is a sweet looking gun.

Harold, thank you for the compliment on the rifle. It was my special gift to myself for, well, let's just say I deserved it!

It's a Remington Model 7MS, from the Custom Shop. I specifically wanted a Mannlicher stock in .257 Roberts...I topped it the best I could with a Leupold VXIII...

Truly a fine rifle.





As to Texas hunting: it's a spoiler. The Texas deer tags allow for 5 deer! In SoCal we get scrawny deer, single tags, and a 4-point (forkhorn) is a shooter...

My friend has already given me the invite to return next year. I'm rather looking forward to it already!

PS: Thanks for the thoughts on the 100gr. Sierra's. I had very good success with them on paper and may well go back to them. I thought I wanted a little more bullet, what with all the rumors of how big Texas Whiteails can be. After seeing how the SST performed, I'm reasonably convinced that Deer won't much survive a 100gr. bullet any better than a 117 SST.

RNOVI,

Great post. I thought I might ask if you have tried the Nosler accubonds. I find that the hornady sst's are more frangible than I like for shooting deer. IMO they are a little more frangible than ballistic tips. I have had excellent results on texas hogs and deer with the nosler accubonds in several calibers. They are reasonably priced, are typically easier to get to shoot accurately than partitions and are not as frangible as an sst or ballistic tip.

I recently picked up a ruger hawkeye in 257 roberts and used it to take a whitetail doe at 80 yds opening weekend. The following pics are of a 90# whitetail doe shot at about 80 yds. She was quartering away from me going to my left when I shot her. The bullet was a complete pass thru. She ran about 50 yds. Plenty of blood to track her.




ruger hawkeye in 257 roberts


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GWB

I have used the Accubonds and TSXs with great sucess out of my Bob. Both loads are 1/2 moa with 39/IMR 4064.

Perry

Nice rifle
Nice pictures
Nice animals and what a great choice.........257 Roberts.

I too would switch to a "harder" bullet, I'm shooting the same IMR-4350 load but with 117 Sierra's and getting great accuracy.

I have shot several bigger than your hogs with various convertional cup bullets & nave never had a complete penetration. I mostly shoot 115 partations on the farm because of hogs. My favorite conventional 257 bullets are the 117 sierra flat base & 120 speer hot core. Since 115 partations work in my rifles I have not tried Accubonds or TSX's. The only sst's I have tried were 150's in a 308 & they were far to explosive.

If you get this way give me an email & you can try out Ga. deer & hog hunting.

quote:

Again, I'm not particularly happy of taking such a small deer but I am happy that the deer was dead instantly.

There's actually some good argument for taking some younger deer. Younger deer actually have a higher mortality rate for offspring than do older does, so older does have much less fawn mortality. Many hunters only shoot older, "mature" does, so shooting some younger ones can preserve the age structure and balance of the herd. Older does are the clan leaders and taking out too many of the upper echelon of the herd can cause problems as well. And, this isn't really a problem in Texas, but in northern areas, late born fawns may not survive the winter so putting them in your freezer is far more humane than the alternative.

On another note, thanks for the report and great hunting and shooting! Texas is a good hog and deer state!

LWD

rnovi,
nice report
nice photos
great shooting
you might want to reload some 100 gr. barnes tsx,hint hint hint!
beautiful rifle,love that full lam. stock.
regards

Bob and Tom

Waited many years for a M70 in .257. When I retired 2 yrs ago, I found one plus a M70 Swift to replace the one I traded off 45 yrs ago for a Sako Vixen (bad swap). They are both 1949 transition rifles, both about 95%. Shown here not scoped, I have a vintage B&L 8A for Bob still trying to get the correct external mounts set up, and a Unertl BV-20 for Tom. Love the old M70's. They sit snuggled in my safe with my 1947 Hornet.

Bob & Tom

Well your bullet performance can't really be criticised. You might like the heaviest version of the Ballistic Tip. You will get better penetration and lots of destruction. I just like quick kills and a picture perfect bullet isn't necessary.