Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Hornady SST bullets

Well you could be right, but Hornady certainly doesn't promote the SST as a varmint bullet. And I doubt if many folks will chose their 180SST/330WinMag or their 338WinMag/200SST as their prime coyote rifle.

I just think that their regular Interlock design would be a better fit for the higher velocities of the Superperformance line. But they probably didn't think the plain ol' Interlock have enough pizazz.

A boatload of whiteys and mule deer have been killed by our 139 gr SST's in Heavy Mag 7mag pushing 3250fps over the years. Unbelievably accurate in my Tikka (no surprise). Never had a problem with them at all at ranges of 80-482 yds. After all, it is a tried and true interlokt design.

I didn't like the amount of bloodshot meat. 139 SST at 3000-3100fps out of my .280 Rem. Entered in front of the onside shoulder and exited behind the offside. Baseball size exit and lots of mess. Dropped right there, but I prefer a little less mess.Range was around 125 yds.

That's been my exact experience as well, with the same bullet out of the same cartridge chrony'd at 3K. No deer went far but it did leave a mess at times. You can't have everything .

Not arguing with some meat damage, but that's not my first thought when shooting at a 190" muley, know what I mean?

I just meat hunt most of the time. Usually put in for doe tags. I've shot a couple of bucks where meat damage would have been a plus. They do work, just a bit messy. I was really hoping for less damage because they shoot tiny groups.

As one would expect when any bullet is put on the chopping block in one of these blogs, you get mixed reactions..The reason for that is most bullet makes seem to work better in some calibers than they do in others..

I love the Nosler partition but only in 30 caliber and over. The 75 g. Barnes Xs work great in my 6x45 on deer, but not so well in some of my other calibers..Same with the .284 130 gr. Speer it works great in my 7x57 and even my 284 on deer, but failed in the 7 mag, as one might expect since they work on the slower calibers, about all you can do is use a little common since but the best way is to try them and decide for yourself. Keep shots off the shoulder and behind it, if you want less explosive effect.

I don't care for bloodshot sides on animals I intend to eat such as deer or plainsgame. I want as little bloodshot stuff as I can get and a quarter size exit hole, so I tend to use a medium heavy bullet as opposed to the lighter faster bullets, such as the 180 in the 06, the 150 or 160 in the .270 and the 175s in my 7 mm's...It has worked for me.

Well, frankly, what did you expect? Shoot a deer with any frangible bullet at 3000-3100 fps and this is what you will get most of the time.

I agree with Ray's post above. If you want less bloodshot meat, shoot a somewhat heavier (or tougher) bullet at somewhat lower velocity. I have been shooting deer with medium-speed 7mm bullets for years.

So many guys seem to be duped into the idea that you have to shoot light bullets at high velocity to increase range. Nothing can be further from the truth! It is the heavier bullets with higher BC and SD that perform better at longer ranges, not the lighter bullets. The argument seems to be that the lighter bullets shoot flatter which makes hitting at longer ranges easier. BULL CRAP! ALL bullets drop below line-of-sight at some range, and the difference in that range between a 139 grain bullet at 3000fps and a good 154 or 160 grain bullet at 2700fps is less than most riflemen can/will notice. But the difference in terminal performance is MARKED with the advantage going to the heavier bullets. If you want less bloodshot meat, save your 139 grain SSTs for targets and varmints and get yourself some good 160 grain Speer Hot Cors, 154 grain Hornady Interlocks, or even 175 grain Hornady Interlocks (my current favorite). All these shoot plenty flat from a 280 for a 200+ yard zero, and they kill game just as reliably at 300 yards as they do at 30. This is experience, not supposition and conjecture.

I was hoping that they would hold up as well as well as the 120. B-tip. They didn't. A doe is not a very heavy target and 140 is pretty standard in the 7's. The OP asked for experience, I gave it.

280shooter,

Sorry if I offended. I may have temporarily lost sight of the OP. Thanks for sharing your experience.

No problem at all.