Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Mule Deer-Annealing .270 Hornady SST Bullets

Hi Mule Deer

I have needed to ask you about annealing .270 Win. 150 gr Hornady SST Bullets(and other bullets). After reading someone's internet article who I believe is an African PH whose wife has shot over 900 game animals with Speer .270 bullets. He talks about annealing the Hornady 150 gr. SST bullet. John do you have any experience with this situation? Also, I remember you stating in the recent past that you and your wife have taken much game with Hornady bullets. What is your experience with penetration, etc. I've used the Hornady bullets for 45 years on deer and have 100% satisfaction.

This article is from Terminal Ballistics Research .270.

I hope that you have some experience on this matter.

roanmtn

No reason to attempt to anneal a tipped bullet that already opens readily, which would be the goal, to get the bullet to open more readily. I believe the Terminal Ballistics Research talked about annealing the SST for long-range use, as in really long range use, as in getting them to open readily when impact speeds were well below 1800fps. Do you have a purpose for that? They work just fine as-is....

I can't see the video. How are they annealing them?

I remember reading that article. It was the guy from New Zealand (Nathan something?). I think he was candle annealing. Never really saw the point as I thought the sst was already pretty soft

Edit: just reread Huntnshoot’s post and that was the guy I was thinking about

Hi HuntnShoot

I really don't wish to shoot at anything over 400 yds., BUT, have done so and fortunately was able to collect my game. Two of these shots were in South Africa at Port Elizabeth on the Pacific/Indian Ocean(?) side of South Africa.

No! I have no use for over 500 yds And prefer all of my shots to be less than 200 yds. The closer the better.

roanmtn

to mathman

I didn't watch the video BUT the author stated the bullets were annealed using a candle,.How he did it I do not know.

roanmtn

In my limited experience, the 150 SST opens just fine past 400 yds when pushed out of a 270 Winchester without needing annealing.

I remember that.

If I gotta anneal a buillet, I'll just get another type bullet.

Not for me.

DF

That’s Nathan Foster. He does a lot of longrange shooting on game in New Zealand and lots of bullet performance analysis. He has a series of books that are full of great information.

Here's the tutorial on annealing from the terminal ballistics web site.

https://www.ballisticstudies.com/Knowledgebase/SST+and+Interbond+annealing+tutorial.html

Good luck and shot straight youall.

If you want them to open, annealing might work.



I suggest friction annealing.

Seat them over a stiff charge in 270 Weatherby cases.

They will open just fine.

roanmtn,

Have read Nathan's stuff off-and-on for a few years, and while some of it makes sense (admittedly because my experience with particular stuff is the same) I can't imagine why anybody would anneal bullets for longer-range expansion these days, when there are so many available that work very well without any modification.

Also can't imagine how heatin plastic-tipped bullets like that wouldn't affect the balance (and hence accuracy) in at least a few bullets.

Yeah, his stuff is pretty interesting.

But, IMO, he wandered too far out in the weeds with bullet annealing.

DF

I thought so, too. Well, that and his Berger conspiracy theories about which bullets were in which boxes and how they didn't "work" anymore.

I consumed that information quite eagerly because at the time I was using lot of SSTs in a variety of cartridges. But lots in the 270 Win on pigs.

It just makes zero sense to me to do this. The SST performed as designed. I couldn’t imagine how heating it up would make any difference for the better. And as John sets out above, could only change things for the worse if anything.

Who has the time anyway?

Too many good bullet choices out there to think you need to torch a batch for optimal performance.

DF

SST is too soft to begin with and the tip will melt if over done. I might see doing this with mono metal bullets but I would much rather have a single malt scotch by a nice fire.

Yep.

DF