Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Hornady SSTs

I'm DONE with the 250 gr SST. I killed three deer with it with ribcage shots, exit wound, no problem. Then last fall I had a doe at 125 yds quartering towards me slightly and I put the crosshairs right on the shoulder from a rock steady rest. Long story short, the deer ran across a 200 yard field (obviously hit but leg was not dangling) and was standing in the woods when I got over there 15 minutes later and ran off. The next morning 400 yards and two pieces of shoulder bone later I lost the diminishing blood trail. I shot the gun to make sure I was still sighted in and hit 1" high at 100 yds, just like I had left it. Never did I dream that I would hit a deer in that spot with a modern bullet and have that result.
I'm switching back to Barnes. I'll bet the bank that same shot with a monometal bullet would have resulted in a dead deer on the spot or close by. Just my 2 cents.

Myself and several friends all shoot the 300gr SST in our Savage MLs, using smokeless powder loads we're at 2250-2300fps. All of us have taken several deer with these bullets over the past few years with no problems. I don't recall anyone ever saying the bullets failed to exit the deer, in spite of several being purposely shot right on the shoulder. Accuracy has been exceptional too. The 250s seem to be much more inconsistent, especially from high velocity smokeless loads. Stay with the 300gr version and you should be fine.