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

I used the 130 SST for the first time last year out of my 270 Wby mag. Chrono velocity is 3400 fps. I shot an 8 point Whitetail through the lungs from 115 yards. Deer ran less than 20 yards and dropped dead. Complete pass through with a silver dollar sized exit hole. Totally destroyed the lungs. Great performer. Plan to use them again this seaseon.

Mark, I've shot one mule deer buck with the SST when they first came out. I used a .270 130 grain. Mule deer was at about 80 yards broadside. I poked him right behind the shoulder and the only bones involved were ribs. He went straight down at the shot. Totally shredded the lungs. Under the hide on the entry side there was a rectangular hole thru the ribs 2 inches wide by 3 inches long. Quarter size exit on the far side rib cage, no exit hole on the far side hide. There was just a little bit of jacket material left in the rib meat on the far side under the hide.

We run the SST in the 280 and 7-08. Very good success. All animals DRT. Been very pleased on performance with all animals taken.

I"ve shot a bunch of muleys and whitetails with a 7mag 139gr SST Heavy Mag. Never a problem from 80-428 yards.

The 180 grain SST in .30-06 is amazing. Great shooting, full penetration, not a lot of tissue damage. That is the only one I have seen kill stuff.

The 120 grain hot cores look really nice recovered, if you can get them to shoot well.

Stick with the 120 ballistic tips. We know what they do ;o) Flinch

Dober,

Here's pics of a 129 6.5 SST after it was dug outa some test media.. I know test media isn't a critter so take it for what it's worth.. Media consisted of 2" of wet(soaked) phone book, then a 3/4 piece of plywood(used to simulate bone, haha) then 20 more inches of wet(soaked) phone book.. As you can see it shed all of its lead core.. But, I was extreemely surprised to see that it penetrated as deep as a 125NP. It did not dig as deep as a 140NP.. Also on this trip to the Range.. SU35 hammered some media with either a 120BT or a 140BT with his 6.5-284.. We were both suprised at how well the BT held together... Interesting thing about wet phone books is that it actually leaves impressions of what appears to be a shock wave.. To say the least the SST shock wave inprint was impressive and for only retaining 45.7grs of it's original 129grs it's penetration was also impressive..

Again not a critter. But I came to the conclution that the BT is tougher than the SST.. The trama caused by the SST was more impressive than the BT.. I think if your gonna hammer deer and Lope's at long range the SST would perform very well and expand nicely at slower velocitys.. Guess it all depends on how much meat you wanta wreck. [img:left][/img]

Off topic, but that SST looks exactly like the Amax's I recover.

I use 139 SST's in my 7RM with no issues.

Recovered this pair out of two different deer at about 100yds. Both traveled from stem to stern and the deer were DRT.

SSTs and BTs both shoot great in every rifle I've tried them in.

For hunting, though, AccuBonds get my vote. They are just as accurate in my rifles and I don't worry about them coming apart.

If I wanted a bullet to come apart I'd use a Berger or an A-MAX. The Bergers are designed to do that and based on what I saw last weekend the A-MAX are pretty good at it, too.

Dober,

I am not quite sure what you're planning on running these SST's in regarding the rifle. I see you are using them in a .260 REM.

I have extensively tested some .264 bullets out of my Remington M7 .260 with some interesting results. At the time of most of the testing, the rifle was pretty much factory including barrel but has since undergone extensive work making it into a sub-6lb mountain rifle.

I have killed deer with the 120g NBT, 130g NAB, 125g partition and the 100g TTSX. i have tested practically all .264 bullets that are sub 130g with only a couple of exceptions (one being the SST).

I have tried the 120g Speer Hot-cor with very acceptable results group-wise but have not tested them on live game. I got them to shoot right at an inch using RL-15 which I have found to be a very solid powder in my rifle. Many folks will tell you to look at RL-19 which is no joke however I feel that in my short barrel I am loosing much of the performance RL-19 has to offer compared to RL-15. I was getting something around 2765fps out of my factory 18" barrel.

Of the selection of bullets I have used and harvested game with, I am most pleased with the 120g Ballistic tips. They are cheap compared to more premium bullets (TTSX and the NAB) and are actually pretty durable. I run them 2800 fps out of my 18" factory tube and they are a delight paired with Varget. They shoot very well also (consistently around an inch). Granted I am not running them at .264mag speeds (and I wouldn't!) they hold together quite well. I haven't taken any questionable shot with them however all shots have been perfect pass throughs.

This fall I intend on shooting a few with the 129g Hornady Interlock. Many tought this bullet to be the answer to all .264 needs. I couldn't get the darn things to shoot for anything until I switched stocks on the rifle to a MCM hunter edge and converted it from BDL to ADL after hunting season last year. I can easily get to around 2825 with the 129's in my short tube.

I forgot to mention that all of the velocities were taken below 40*

I have cut my teeth on this round but can honestly say it's become one of my favorites. I will be glad to help as needed. What kind of rifle are you shooting it in?

Ruck

Me too...except maybe on a coyote

RH

The 129 is hard to beat at these speeds and sets a good baseline....the ORIGINAL IL...SP. It rivals the 125PT in performance.

Personally I like the 130AB but would not hesitate to use a 120BT either on deer sized game. The 129 GMX is a different animal. THe SST would be great on lopes and yotes IMO but I think softer than a BT.

The TTSX and TSX in 120/130 are big killers. My pick if I wanted insurance of THRU and THRU penetration from any angle, any hit, any size deer or hog.

I like all around though - again, the AB - it's tipped, VERY accurate, holds together similar to partitions, and it flattened a WT for me at around 250 yds from a K1A Swede. It shoots VERY well in both 8 and 9 twist bbls FWIW in the event you have a 9" bbl.

ANYTHING 120-160 will kill fine however, assuming it's steered well, but the SST IMO is one of the softer options. From a slower Grendel or BR case, or a 260 in a handgun, expansion would be very good given reduced speeds, as an amax would also.

My daughter and I killed 2 deer last year with the 129SST. Both shot out of 6.5x47Lapua's. Her shot was 333 yards from her 26" bbl at 2935fps or so. In and out ribs both sides. Traveled 45 yards or so. Mine was fired out of my 21" barrel at about 2900fps. Shot was 553 yards, hit ribs going in and coming out. deer went about 15 yards. Plan on hunting with them again this year.

Regarding premium bullets- I was very impressed with the 100g TTSX and a max load of Varget. I killed a mature doe at about 130 yards with a full pass through. Shot was quartering slightly away. Full pass through and exit through offside shoulder. Practically no meat damage except for the shoulder and no tracking! Best of all, I can smoke the 100g bullets out of my rifle and it's been my experience that when you drive these monolithic bullets at insane speeds, the results are often good. YMMV.

Around here one might get shots under 100 yds....in fact probably more often than not, so bullets that work well far, may do alot more meat damage up close, if you do run into say a shoulder, etc.

I like the harder AB if one might need to bust thru alot of bone, I believe it will hold up better and come thru w/more retention.

They say you can eat right up the the bullet hole w/a copper bullet....thought about that the other day, if lead (VERY small bits that escape detection) might get into meat from hi vel impact hits.

No doubt you can see when meat is damaged heavily. Do wonder what one might not see. Likely not a significant amount of lead but who knows.

I use both and believe the BT may be just a bit tougher that the SST, but both have worked great and i would use whichever one my rifle liked the best.

My son used the Hornady factory loaded 139 grain SST Light magnum in 7x57 on a whitetail about 5 years ago or so. The deer was a small doe, coming head on, and he shot the deer square in the chest slightly right of center (deer's perspective) at perhaps 25 yards. The deer did a backwards half-somersault, landed on its back, twitched, and expired. On gutting the deer we did not find a trace of the bullet anywhere. There was no exit wound. Obviously it did the job, but my sample of 1 suggests the SST may be an exploding bomb. If I were to use it on deer, I would avoid bone.

Mark, out of my 7mm08 I can not tell any difference in terminal performance on game between the 139gr SST and the NBT. Both shoot accurately and bullet performance, on mule deer anyway, has looked pretty much identical. It's kind'a like asking who's tougher Richard Simmons or Michael Jackson.

My experience with the SST is the 130 grain in the 270wby taking off at 3500fps. The deer was not too far away and it died but wow talk about bloodshot. I haven't shot the 130BT for a direct comparison and realize that my scenerio was close to worst case for bullet failure. I think it will work well on antelope and deer but wouldn't trust it in a need for deep penetration especially at high velocity. It certainly killed in a hurry but was rather violent.

LOL, Big Sky's analogy is good.