My Tikka 7 mm mag put 7 deer down this year with 162 SST from 3 yds-170yds... all passed through with minor holes except one 8 pointer shot at 140 yds, which angled left of front shoulder and stopped under the skin back passed the diaphragm... and he ran 15 yds with no blood.... I was shocked that he ran at all.
I'm thinking that the bullet ex-spends all it's energy inside the body... which is good... but by the time it exits .... the bullet is small, and energy is way way down to the point of not blowing big holes out the exit side.
The one deer shot with 6.5 creedmoor with 140 sst @2600 fps, at 40 yds in lower part of front shoulder did run about 30 yds, with a small exit hole... not sure about blood trail... didn't look for it... just went to deer.
I loaded SST's in my two buddies rifles... 300 win mag - 180 sst... 6.5 creed -140 sst... and 7mm mag -162 sst... and they knocked things around pretty good... got no complaints on deer and hogs. I'm kinda stuck on the SST's... they seem to have it going on for an ALL-AROUND BULLET.
