Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Hornady 165 SST

Thinking of running some 165 .308 Hornady SST interlock into the high shoulder @ 2780 fps.

Anyone doing this with good results?

The 165 SSTs I've loaded were launched at about 2740 fps. My friend who hunted using the loads never took that particular shot. From the various angles of chest shots he did take we found the bullets to be on the soft side. No blowups with failures to sufficiently penetrate, but we did find an expanded bullet retaining maybe 25% weight under the far side hide on a pure broadside, just behind the leg type shot.

That said, these were SSTs when they were relatively new, at least two packaging changes ago. Like Ballistic Tips the SSTs may have been stiffened since.

Pick a better bullet like the Interlock. The 165SST is the worst bullet I've used.

The original lead tip interlock is a tougher bullet than the SST. The 165 SST is the only bullet I've used that stopped in a deer. That includes shots taken with a .223 and 25-20.

It ain't like the regular Interlock. I blew one up on a 100 yard lung shot at started a 2650 on a 100 pound doe last year. Its a varmint bullet to me.

Pick a better bullet for breaking bone.

Hope they don't bounce off mule deer because that's what I'm running in Idaho in a few weeks. Guess I'll find out because my 308 loves that bullet, .5moa which is as much as this guy could ever expect.

MM

I tend to disagree, the SST's I"ve shot were too hard on hides to be even a varmint bullet.

Expect separation and fragmentation if you use them!

Well, opinions are like, well, you know. But if I had to pick 10 bullets in 165 flavor, the SST either wouldn't be on the list or it'd be because I only came up with 9 others.

It'll likely work just fine but I've seen them in action. Perhaps they've changed the structure of the bullet in recent years but I won't be finding out.

Well, they shoot the same, POA, POI, fps, as the Federal 165 TBT out of my rifle. I guess I can use them on paper and the TBT on shoulders.

That would be a good move

They haven't bounced off the last 10 or 15 whitetails I've shot with 150 grain SSTs out of a 30-06. Haven't exploded either as none failed to create exit holes, rather big ones at that. They are good bullets but heck, all of em are.

Shooting a deer with a 165 grain from .308 or 30-06 is kinda like killing a fly with a hammer. Doesn't make any difference to the fly if the hammer came from Plumb or Stanley as long as you hit it!

I have never shot a deer with the SST that got away and i have never recovered a SST bullet .

[/quote bea175]I have never shot a deer with the SST that got away and i have never recovered a SST bullet .[/quote]


I'm interested...... 165 SST 308, high shoulder? Accubond and TBT I have no problem with, but I don't see the speed with the 165 Accubond, and the Federal P308TT4 HE 165 TBT has been discontinued. I have no experience with the 165 SST except on paper.

I'm not sure I understand the question. You are using a .308 Win right? You are not going to have any problems killing any deer on the planet with a high shoulder shot with any 165 grain bullet if you place it properly. Pick one you like and go have fun!

A friend of mine had a bullet test of sorts using the Hornady SST from a 243 on Springbock

After his results on 100 pound antelope I will never use an SST in any diameter or weight in any rifle

There are far far better bullets in this world

I won't use 'em either, ever. Too many good choices out there.

I'd shoot lungs with them, if they were all I had. But I've shot shoulders with the 165 SST in a 30-06 to gruesome effect. They will certainly kill, but they are a bit softer than I like. Bet they'd be great for reduced loads or long-range impacts where such attributes are warranted.

I'd never waste my time with them.

I have shot several deer with them in 6mm rem. they work perfectly! I have a couple that I have recovered and they look like a picture perfect mushroom. and they are super accurate.

I wish they'd get around to building the Interbond again.

I wish they would stop dropping interlocks!

I have used the 150 grain SST loaded mildly out of my 30-06 (2600 fps) on feral hogs and deer. I never had any issues other than if you hit a shoulder it was toast. This seems to happen with any cup and core bullet. It seems to me this bullet was designed to be used for longer shots where velocity has dropped some so it is designed to be a bit soft for the 50 yard hits. First two clues are a bullet designed to have a pretty high BC and a boattail. I have always thought it is odd to expect a bullet made to expand on ribs out past 400 yards also act like a monometal at very close range and cleanly blast through shoulders. The Partition will do this but it doesn't have an especially high BC.

I had a friend who wounded a buck with his 30-06. He said, it was a chip shot, broadside , 60 yds. Right into the front shoulders and all he saw was a puff of hair. He never found it. It was a SST. but I think it was a 150 Gr. Not sure anymore.

I've seen some weird stuff in my hunting career that I would not have otherwise believed. Once I shot a deer which was perfectly broadside in a clear shooting lane with a 180 grain roundnose core-lokt with my '06.....50 or 60 yard shot in the woods. I hit the deer in the crease of the shoulder but the bullet hit a rib and deflected 90 degrees towards the guts and I found it perfectly mushroomed under the hide on the OFFSIDE HAM! Entrance hole tight behind the shoulder right where I aimed.

I essentially was dealing with a gut and liver shot deer that I thought I had double lunged, and my expectation was to find blood all over the woods. He ran well out of sight, got on a dirt road and ran down it about 300 yards without spilling a drop of blood. I looked for a couple of hours down all the trails I could find in briar choked planted pines that I thought the deer may have taken in the general direction I saw him run, not knowing that when he came to the road he ran in the opposite direction....a LONG way! Later I got my Dad to help me look and finally called off the search. Dad said I had missed which was a totally reasonable opinion based on what he was seeing....no deer, no blood, no sign of a hit. But, I had a solid rest on the rail of my climber and a "chip shot" and saw the deer react. I knew I had hit it.

I was despondent over losing the deer which is still the biggest 8 point I have killed to date but I would have felt the same had it been a doe. I strongly considered quitting hunting. I mean come on! If you can't kill a broadside deer with a heavily loaded 30-06 with a solid rest at 50 yards, maybe the sport is not for you right?

Anyway, Dad decides to go on a nature hike, probably because he got tired of hearing my bitching, and he walks down the road the deer took and finds him laying in the middle of it!

That experience caused me to have mercy on people with outlandish tales such as yours and mine. I can tell you that while I was looking for that deer, I was cussing me some core-lokts, 30-06's, life in general, considering the purchase of an elephant gun to deer hunt with and maybe quitting hunting. I'll never forget that day. Nothing but absolute sheer dumb luck found that deer. Had my Dad walked out of the woods with me he would have been buzzard food. My best hunting story to date by far!

Usually, the sad tales of lost deer are caused by a guy who gets feverish, shuts his eyes, flinches, bitch slaps the trigger and misses his "chip shot", but poop can and does occur. When it does, no caliber, bullet, or hunter is immune.

My sst load and my partition load both 165gr. And both over 42.5 gr of imr 4895 hit at almost the exact same point of impact. I'm taking both and will use either I feel are called for.

MM

My 308 and 300 win mag love accubonds and deer hate them

I found the 165 SST to be very explosive. They will kill the hell out of deer but what a mess! The 165 Interlock is my favorite deer bullet.

In my experience, the Amax is tougher than the SST. You will probably be fine from a 308, but avoid bone.

I have had SSTs come apart and not penetrate the offside with broadside lung shots in a 7mm Remington magnum, 30/06 and a 6.5/06. I've had Amax bullets exit from shoulder shots and tough angle shots with my 6.5/06 and 280 AI.

I agree with this but I've never understood why someone would purposely hunt a bullet that needed discerning placement. OTOH, nearly every group I see posted here is easily .5 MOA, so nothing could possibly go awry in the field.