Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game SST Vs NBT (which is tougher?)

I can't speak to the question on 6.5mm bullets, but the SSTs I've run through game (165 gr 30 cal at approx 2850) have performed beautifully. They're basically equal to the old (read: more frangible) NBTs.

That having been said, if you like shoulder shots and exit wounds these aren't likely for you any more than a Berger VLD would be. Stick with the monometals and other premiums for that stuff.

Personally, I like a "shoot and DRT," frangible bullet. Pigs, deer, and varmints have all hated these bullets and of about a dozen kills nothing has required more than one shot.

There is a guy on a New Zealand website that does a lot of culls and shooting and guiding, who talks extensively about the SST.

It seemed to me that each SST is designed softer/harder based on what Hornady guesses the main use will be. Some of the 7mm sounded very hard, some of the others sounded soft like a varmint bullet. He also writes about annealing the front half of certain SSTs to get them to soften up so that they peel back better and hence penetrate more without blowing up.

Differing construction for different big game is very common among bullet manufacturers, which is why I always laugh a little when somebody cites their experiences with, say, 130-grain .270 SST's as an example of what can be expected from all SST's.

Even Nosler Partitions differ quite a bit in construction, depending on what game the Nosler bullet engineers think most people will use that particular bullet on. In general, the bigger the game, the more forward the partition is placed, but there are also occasional differences in rear-core hardness.
There are similar construction differences in Ballistic Tips and AccuBonds.

A lot also depends on muzzle velocity and range. A couple of years ago in Wyoming one of my hunting companions recovered a 180-grain SST from a .300 WSM from a bull elk. The mushroom was perfect enough to please even a TSX addict, and the bullet probably retained at least 80% of its weight. The elk was shot at 400 yards.

How would a guy anneal a bullet with a polymer tip? Seems like that would be a bit difficult.

I've not used SSTs much (but the 150 30 cals have worked well on deer sized animals when I have). A friend of mine uses the 117 SST in his 25-06 and I've seen some impressive performance on 1,000 pound HI bulls; definitely not a bullet that seems to 'blow-up'.

Here is a 180gr .308 BT and a 165gr .308 SST. FWIW From experience the 165 BT has a jacket profile that's about identical to the 180gr. Its pretty easy to tell which one is the tougher bullet.