Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Hornady SST bullets

After learning on the forum here that SST bullets can damage a lot of meat on a deer what velocity would be recommended for my .260 Remington with a 129 gr SST for a shot under a 100 yards?They shoot so well in my Ruger M-77 I had bought 400 of them for target shooting and hunting.Thank you

I'm not sure your .260 can push them fast enough to worry about it.

The only two deer I shot with SSTs were a 150gr from a 308 and a 139gr from a 7mm-08. Both had a MV of 2500ish so they were not pushed real hard. In both cases, I aimed behind the shoulder, hit a rib and the bullets came apart. I got both deer so it was not a "failure" but it was not the performance I want from any bullet. I will add that these were when the SST first came out. YMMV

RH

They'll never work.
Send them to me for my Swede and I'll kill deer all day long at 2660 fps.

I've ran the 129sst at 2900fps outa my 260. Never on game but into wet phone books with a piece of 3/4 inch ply behind the second pone book... 13-14" of penetration. Penetration to the same depth as 130ABs.. Infact side by side on two different occasions.. AB's held together very well just as advertised. Partition like.. The 129SST lost every bit of it's core. Not a single speck of lead left.. So I'd say yes they will damage alot of meat outa a 260 at 2900fps. I've seen 120BT's hold together much better at same speeds outa the 260. Actually was quite impressed with the 120BT's..

Again never on game but them phone books are mean sum-bitches!! That being said I'd say if you can hammer deer under 100 broadside in the lungs they most likely hit the ground with a quickness!!!

Better tougher bullets out there for the same price... But,

Plain ol' 129gr Interlocks are pretty dang reliable. Might try a box and see if they go into the same group. Then you could practice with those SST's you already have, and hunt with Interlocks...

I worked up a load of 130 gr SST's in my 270 before I read about how they don't hold together. Ignorance must have been bliss, they were the most accurate bullet I tried and have always performed very well on deer. No complaints. This was a few years ago, I think I read they toughened them up after initial complaints.

Used the old style in 270 factory and the new style in 280 AI.

Yes a soft bullet but Deer are a soft target. Only one strange reaction when the bullet might of hit a branch before hitting the shoulder of a Doe and veering off course, not surprising for any spitzer. Out of around 13 deer and a couple of hogs I would not hesitate to use them at all.

If you have the newer tweaked ones they should be good at 260 velocities. The old style acted similar to the highly touted Bergers so are still good for selective behind the shoulder shots. Go out and shoot stuff. If your really concerned the Inter-bond will usually group right in there with the SST and the Inter lock is never a bad choice either.

I used the 117 SSTs in my .257 AI (@3,050 fps) to take two pronghorns. On the long shot (315 yds), the bullet held together but lost a lot of weight and did create a lot of bloodshot meat. On the shorter shot (around 120 yds) the bullet came apart and produced perhaps a little more bloodshot meat. These were with the originals. If they have toughened them up a bit, I would think that they would perform about like Ballistic Tips of the same weight. I switched to 115 Partitions.

I use 129gr SST'S in my 264 Win Mag,very accurate,so much so it's my neck shot doe rifle.

I've no experience with the .264 SSTs, but the .308 150 grain are more frangible than I am comfortable with, the MV being 2810 fps. I shot 3 deer with that bullet and all three exhibited less-than-desirable results.

The Interlok is a different matter.

+1

I've used the 165 gr 30 cal version on hogs and they've performed nicely.

One of the best deer bullets and loads that I have ever used is out of a 7 mag with 63.0g of IMR 4350 in Rem brass with a 9 1/2 primer with the 154g SST touching the lands. Deer just fold up way out there...but I did have one jump straight up and land on his back...

Two friends went to Africa with a 7 STW each. Hand loads were with 162g SST. Game as large as Eland and Kudu were dead where they stood...PH wrote an article about both of their shooting and DRT kills.

I had a Model 70 that loved the 129g Hornady Interlock Sp at 3150, shot holes through deer at any angle.

I don't care about blood shot meat...which usually means they are very dead, very quick!

'61 - glad to hear that about the Noslers. I have been running Sierra 140's at modest speeds at these distances for deer with spectacular results. They shoot accurately and are consistent- but I found my Browning has a slower twist and for some reason felt the need to explore lighter bullets and bought the 120 Nosler BT's. Why- man....I don't know....just thought it would be somehow better- how??? - I don't know. BUT - the most accurate load I ever fired out of any rifle were three shots of factory Remington Accutips- which I think is a 120 grain SST??? Enough to really tick off a reloader like me.

was going to try the SST's when they first came out in my 6mm but many argued a smallish, plastic tipped, bullet like that might not be the safest bet on a whitetail. Since then I tried several bullets and found the 85 grain Sierra HPBT to be about the best thing going -go figure.

My experience from the same time period mirrors this. 130-gr. SST out of a .270 at modest velocity into a whitetail and an axis doe. Bullet disappeared inside the whitetail, without even any jacket material found. She didn't go anywhere and it looked like she swallowed a hand grenade. The axis doe, though, ran and I was lucky to find her. Standard InterLocks for me from then on.

I have a friend that moved to New Zealand. They have some large animals down there in the deer family that will go 450 lbs that you have to walk your self to death to get a shot on one up in some pretty rugged mountains.

He is not novice hunter and reloader by any means. He swears that the 95g SST in a 243 hammers these large deer types better than any rifle that he owns, and he has plenty. I could not even talk him into a 95g partition.

Remember, if you want complete penetration, go one step higher on weight for the caliber.

You will see a lot of posts on the SST where the bullets do not go through the animal, and they are laying right were they were standing, dead before they hit the ground. Many folks prefer to see a blood trail. You really get the best of both worlds by going one step heavier on bullet weight for the caliber when using the SST....complete penetration and Massive Shock to both hemisphere's of the nervous system.

If there was ever any truth to the statement, some bullets make a bad shot good", it would be the SST. I shot a doe last year on a dead run with my 7 Mag with the 154g SSt. I hit her dead center of the stomach, she never even kicked. You don't see that very often.

I have skinned a lot of deer. It is typical for a deer that is shot right on the rear edge of the shoulder to have it's heart and lungs completely blown away. Most of the time, you can not even distinguish what is what. The temporary wound cavity that is created by this bullet is massive.

My brother shoots the 150's in his 270, and my other brother shoots the 165's in his 308. None of us have ever had any problems, but we do go one step higher on bullet weight.

If you don't like "runners", look into the SST.

I have posted this before, where two of my friends went to Africa with each shooting a Weatherby Mark five in 7 STW loaded with the 162g SST. They each killed 6 Plains game including Eland and Kudu, and all the animals dropped in their tracks. The Ph was so impressed, he wrote an article on the cartridge's performance.

I have a friend that travels the country hunting deer and elk. His gun of choice on all deer is a 270 Win in a Weatherby Mark 5 loaded with 55g of IMR 4350 with a 130g SST.

SST's in the modest weight usually do not penetrate a deer, but the insides are total mush. He always hunts guided hunts, and every guy that skins the deer will ask what caliber he shot the deer with because they look as if they have been shot with a 300 Winchester Magnum with high velocity 150's.

When loading the SST's for my family's Remingtons, they always have their best accuracy seated to touch the lands, or jamming 0.003.

SST's, being quite frangible really don't seem like a good match to me for their new high velocity Superperformance ammo.

O'Connor loved a rapidly expanding high velocity bullet for deer sized game. Personally I think the SST is ok but the Nosler Ballistic Tip is better.

I have heard and read several reports now about how the Hornady SSTs and GMXs show a strong tendency to shoot into the same group in the Superformance ammo. It seems to me that the SSTs would be appropriate for coyotes and the GMXs for game animals. To me, it's a matter of choosing the right bullet for a particular purpose.