Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Hornady 95gr. SST 6mm performance?

In deer sized game? What say you?

Through what cartridge?

As a rule, SSTs are a bit more frangible than BTs.

I have to tell you I love neck shots on deer and that bullet would work very well for me. I can see lots of bang flops with it. There is no need to shoot a deer in the shoulder unless your goal is to ruin meat.

Gary O, in whitetail bucks roaming Missouri, I like to use the Nosler Partition mainly but the wife has used Hornady bullets too because her model 70 .243 loves em to the hilt.

I've shot a handful of TX deer and hogs with the 95 gr SST out of a .243 between 45 and 250 yards with excellent results. Exits have been the norm on behind the shoulder shots. I shot a decent sized sow on the shoulder @ 50 yards and it wrecked a fair amount of meat, but still penetrated into the vitals and she didn't go 20 yards.

I wouldn't be too worried about them "blowing up" if I were you.

Good luck,

Goose

I have a little experience with the 150 grain .308 out of a .308 Winchester, and it was quite frangible at close range.

Accurate, but very frangible. Prolly a good long distance bullet.

There is a definite possibility for error in drawing a conclusion about the performance of a whole line of bullets from the performance of a particular model.

The 165 grain .308" version seem "soft" IME as well. But the 95 grain 6mm may turn out to be a bit tougher. I only have one sample so far, statistically insignificant I know, but the performance of that 95 grain SST on a large doe my friend shot impressed me: complete penetration of the chest cavity on a quartering away shot, wrecked innards, broken shoulder bone on the way out, no excess bloodshot meat. This was from a 243 at a little over 100 yards IIRC.

I know, and I really don't have too much experience with the 30 caliber bullet, but it is human nature to come to such a conclusion. But I did shoot 3 deer with it at close range and all three were failures, so that's 100%.

I can also see where a solid plastic tip driven into a bullet could initiate expansion, which would be good at a low velocity, but not so at high speeds.

It's probably best that I didn't throw that variable in there, as the question addressed the 95 grain 6mm specifically, and a good example is the difference in Ballistic tips of various sizes.

But I still have that experience in the back of my mind. That said, I do try to keep an open mind, and if it were proven that the 95 sst didn't have those tendencies shown by the 30 cal 150, I would maybe try it. I just won't use deer as my test medium anymore, which is what happened with the 30 caliber.

My buddy shot a deer last week that I called in with a 95 sst out of his 243win.. I was not impressed. Bullet zooked on bone, made a mess, and the deer required a second shot to put down before he bailed off a cliff. I gave him the toldja so, and I'll be loading him 85 tsx's for next season.

Neck shoots are good on stationary deer. If they are moving to or away from you they they often are during the rut, I don't like them.

Shot presentation?

Does zooked mean it didn't get into the chest cavity?

I called the buck in, so it was heading in, and it gave my buddy a quartering head on shot. (we weren't sitting next to each other) Bullet zooked on shoulder, and failed to do much damage beyond shoulder. Most of bullet fragments found in shoulder.

If you're looking to run a polymer-tipped 95 gr 243 cal projectile, check out this thread:

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/4583439/1

It is true that you don't want to generalize performance of the whole line based upon one particular "configuration," but I've run the 165 gr 30 cal and have been told they are, as a rule, more frangible than NBTs.

If you go w/ rib or neck shots you should be good. I ran a 165 SST through a large sow's neck at close range and it did what I'd want it to do. Chose that shot purposely though.

Thanks for the detail.

I'm really getting the 243 itch, and the performance of the 85 grain Barnes offerings as recounted on these boards is pretty impressive.

I run 105 Amax's out of my 243AI. I need to start running the 85tsx.

I think that bullet brings the .243 to a whole new level.

Wnen they were introduced, we tried one box each of the 95gr SSTs in a .243 and the 117-gr in a .257 AI. Both ruined more meat than either the BT or the Partition alternatives. We returned to the 95gr Partition in the .243 and the 115gr Partition in the .257 AI. I think that I will try to 85gr TSX in the .243 when the PTs are shot up--sounds like it works.

I shot an average to big doe with the factory loaded 243 HDY 95grSST. The shot entered directly behind the shoulder, exited about 1 or 2" farther back on the opposite side. She was 60 or 70 yards away at the shot & ran about 80 yards before piling up dead. The exit was about the size of a quarter. No meat was lost at all.
I shot another small deer using a 7mm08 & my hand loaded 139gr SST. The velocity on these rounds is about 2300 to 2400fps out of my rifle. Shot placement was almost the same on this deer. THe angle was different. the exit was about 4" further back.
The shot was at about 30 or 35 yards. The exit was the size of a half dollar. The deer took about 5 to 10 steps, fell & slid another 10ft. Again no meat was lost on this deer either. No bone was hit on either deer, that could make a big difference in bullet performance.
These have been my observations using this bullet so far this year. I have not been disappointed & will continue to use them until I want to try something else.
It really all boils down to shot placement, it may be a little more critical with these bullets.

Are you shooting both calibers at 2300 to 2400 fps mv? If so, that would indicate that their performance would be more towards optimum at longer ranges where the velocity has fallen off, if started at what the cartridge was capable of, which is my suspicion.

They are an accurate bullet.

No that velocity is out of my 7mm08 with my hand loads only.
The 243 rounds were factory loads, I have not ran these over the chronograph, but I am sure they are faster than 2400fps.