Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting SST Hornady

I shot 6 deer with the 150 SST out of a 308, They were accurate and killed quickly, I had exits on 5 of the 6 and the sixth hit the shoulder going in and the lead core exited and I found the jacket under the skin. My feeling is that the 150 is a decent choice for deer in the 308 or 300 savage, if I were loading for the 06, I might hedge my bet by going to the 165. If you like quick expanding bullets that kill pretty quick and you can avoid highly raking shots where lots of penetration is needed they might be a good choice. If you want a bullet that will make two holes and penetrate on the tougher shots, or hunt where black bear or big pigs are a thing, there might be surer choices.

I have used them extensively on deer in several different chamberings and I find them to be excellent killers of deer sized game.

As stated, stay with heavy for caliber bullets and place your shots in the vitals because they are a rapid expanding bullet.

I helped a couple guys on a black bear hunt several years ago. One of the fellows was visiting from the prairies and the goal was to get him on a bear his set up was a 300 win mag with 150gr sst's of all things Ended up finding the visiting shooter a decent bear and he shot it a bit far back on a quartering away shot. Things worked out better than I would have thought actually it was about a 120 yd shot and the bullet entered behind the last rib, clipping the stomach, vaporizing the liver, one lung and exiting the shoulder. Not a pretty shot but the bear made it around 60 yards and piled up for good. Damage to the quarter that it exited was extensive, a couple softballs worth of blood shot meat. As someone said back there wait for a broadside, don't shoot them in the meat and they work fine, still wouldn't recommend them for bear tho

I shoot 140 grain SST's out of a 270 WSM at 3150 fps. Most of the whitetails I've shot with that load are about 200-250 yards away.

I've gotten full penetration on every one. I generally shoot the deer just behind the shoulder. No huge wounds, typical smaller entry and larger exit. Deer generally run not more than 50 ft.

They're very accurate in my rifle.

Dan

I'd be interested in how they work in 180gr fired from a 308Win. According to Knowledge Base Ballistics Studies the slower speed of the 308Win is actually good for the 180gr SST.

Rob96 ,

They will work great , I shoot 208 amax out of my model Seven 308 - copied off of MontanaMarine . The little 308 is a destoyer with heavy for caliber fast opening long range bullets .

Thanks everyone for the information!!!

Great to hear.

Do the SST's typically like a lot of jump?

Was building loads for 7mm-08 with 139 SST. Anything close to 2.8" shot poorly. Best groups were .070 off at 2.75"

Next rifle getting the SST treatment is a 260 Rem with match chamber. Likes everything around 2.805-2.815, including 130 Accubond, 130 ELD-M and some others. Measurement to lands with the 130 SST gives COAL of 2.818. First groups at typical lengths were poor which got me to thinking about what the bullet likes. Interested to hear what others have learned about the SST.

Good to hear about a positive experience even at higher velocities. The 140 is one that got a makeover as the originals were bombs. I think Hornaday beefed them up the second year of production.

Prose: Not too much experience with loading them but I treat them like any other pointy boat tail bullet and go from magazine length to way off the lands with 0.05 to 0.5" sometimes being the sweet spot. I think in general the accuracy potential is there just a matter of finding it.

Like Mike said. If you're stepping up that high in weight, I would look at the ELD-M line as well. With the 178, you should be low enough MV to take any shot with that as you would with the SST. The extra BC will extend your range if that matters.

I can say this for teh amax though, the 208s will not open with an MV of 1000 fps. FWIW.

The SST's are not soft! I hunted with a guy who using a 300 Win Mag shot 2 mule deer, an elk and a moose, all DRT and full penetration. The moose was shot at 80 yards thru the shoulders and the bullet exited with one very bloody and dead moose!

Chase I use 140gr SST and BTSP exclusively in my 270 for our big deer up here in Sask. with stellar results. Mature bucks weigh +- 300lbs. Most shots are complete pass thrus. The deer do not travel far after being hit with these bullets. 25yds or less. And accuracy is always under an inch at 100yds. Cheers.

Thread going in reloading:

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...10192/gonew/1/hornady-sst-bullets#UNREAD

I have used the 165gr sst for years in a 30-06 and will continue to do so. Switched to them from 165gr ballistic tips because I wasn't getting the terminal performance I wanted. I have only had 2 not exit. Both large bodied bucks, the first quartering toward entered in front of left shoulder and stopped under hide in front of right quarter, the second was quartering away and I hit the base of the neck. Bullet ended up at the base of the skull. Both DRT. I have zero complaints about them.

I had poor performance using 150 SSTs, from a short .308. There is no way that I will use them again, as there are plenty of better bullets available, such as Interlocks Supposedly, they have beefed up the jackets a little and that would help. They are probably OK if you want lots of damage, but the lower velocities are best, if you want to use them. I shot them at 2550 and they dynamited on small white-tailed does. To me, that is very poor performance for ANY bullet. They do shoot accurately, though. I think that the ELDM is actually a better bullet and it is a target bullet.

That is not my experience with the current 150 gr. SST. Do you just hate tipped bullets? Were you intentionally shooting shoulders? You do know that shooting bone destroys meat no matter what don't you?

Overkill?

SOme bullets hitting bone destroy much less than others. Results are still dead deer.

We ran some SSTs, 130s and 150s, in 270 for my buddies dad. He was getting older and didn't always hit em perfectly.... thought that more expansion might net shorter trails. It seemed to help some, but the meat damage on a shoulder shot was more than any of us liked. But it helped with less trailing.

Then I ran the mono light and fast theory for grins since I prefer barnes over abotu any other choice anyway.

Come to find out a 95 ttsx in a 270 they don't usually go very far and even so if hit to far back, OR if hit to far forward through bones there really was not significant meat damage.

Of course YMMV.