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I am deciding between the 270 140 grain Accubond or the 140 grain Hornady SST for Deer from 0-400 yards. I think they are both more than enough for deer, but under 50 yards I think the accubond will hold together better. Any first hand experience with these loads and the .270?
I don't think you could go wrong with an accubond for what you want to do. I have seen them work from 20yards to 450+ in a 270 w/140grn's. I have yet to recover one out of an animal that I shot with a 270 but jugding by the entrance and exit holes and the interanal organs the bullet did what it was supposed to do
I too would go with the Accubond in case of a close shot. Have used the 150gr. SST in a 30-06 and at closer ranges was pretty destuctive. Believe the Accubond would hold together better and provide deeper penatration.
We quit using SSTs because they do ruin a lot of meat at closer ranges (IME, just about anything under 200 yards). They do kill quickly...
The AB is more bullet than required for WT's but will surely do the job.

As already mentioned, SST's are very frangible & I'll use them only for paper punching or varmints.........the Nosler BT, the Hornady Interlock or InterBond are all much better choices.

And, regardless of what some may think, Partitions are still capable of killing game to0, but like the AB, are not required for WT deer.

MM

I can't see the SST being any more frangible than the NBT..

My buddy shoots the SST out of the 243 and the 300, and has taken several deer with them. Aim for the lungs or neck, just like you would with the NBT or the AMAX ect...

The SST's are plenty good for deer. Certainly tougher than A-maxs and the NBT varies as some are designed for vermin, others not. The SST's don't come in a vermin version and are priced to shoot to boot.
I've killed two deer using SSTs. One from a 7mm-08 (40yds) and one from a 308 (25yds). Both hit behind the shoulder, hit one rib and came apart. Both required long tracking jobs because only one lung was damaged. I quit using SSTs and went to the Interbond.

Use the Accubond.

RH
Originally Posted by FVA
The SST's are plenty good for deer. Certainly tougher than A-maxs and the NBT varies as some are designed for vermin, others not. The SST's don't come in a vermin version and are priced to shoot to boot.



In the last month, I've personally seen lots of deer get shot

SST or NBT or AMAX.. All pretty much the same, IMO, when it comes to performance on game. Hit the deer in the right spot, and things are OK. Hit a shoulder, and you have a giant mess. I'm going to go with the 162AMAX for all my 7mm, with the exception of the 120TSX in my 7-08, based on what I saw with my own eyes. Main reason being that I hunt in an area where it's always windy.

The most impressive kills this year definitely belong to the 130tsx though.
I have used a .270 Win 130 gr. to take a mule deer the 1st year that the SST bullets came out. Nailed a muley buck at about 80 yards standing broadside. The hit was behind the shoulder and the deer went straight down at the shot. No shoulder or spine involvement what so ever. The entry hole under the hide was a 2x4 inch rectangular and the lungs were mush. There was an exit hole thru the ribcage on the opposite side about quarter size and the jacket was found under the hide. It made the single largest entry wound I've ever seen. I wonder what it would have done if I had pulled the shot and hit shoulder bones. On the shot I made, it worked quite dramatically.
IME, with the exceptions of the 7mm 120s and the .338 200s, the SSTs and BTs perform pretty much the same when they hit a deer-sized animal. Both will ruin a lot of otherwise edible if they hit big bones. Both do kill things pretty much DRT with correct shot placement...
If you want minimum meat damage, a dead deer and lotsa penetration should the deer not cooperate and stand broadside, go with Barnes.
The TTSX or TSX will not blow up on bones in close and almost always (99.9%) make two holes to let out more blood if tracking is needed.

You also won't be stuck with a lot of expensive lead core bullets when the ban happens on all lead bullets. (it a'int just Condor country!)
I've killed mule deer with a number of different .270 bullets. I liked the Hornady SP and have recommended it, but lately I've use the Nosler Partition. Give it a try. I think it'll do everything you want done. If the only choice is Accubond or SST. go with the Accubond.
I just returned from a deer hunting trip in WV and had great results with the factory 270 Win Hornady 140 SST. Shot Five deer with it, 2 +150 bucks and 3 real nice does and none made it further than 10 yards. Complete pass through on all of the deer. The largest buck, 170 lbs. was standing broadside at about 150 yards and the SST broke both shoulders and exited leaving the buck DRT. Small entry and about a 3 inch exit hole. I mistakenly shot a doe straight on in the chest; I wouldn't recommend this, and the bullet exited through the spine at the rear of the deer leaving about a 10 inch, yes 10, exit hole. Made quite the mess. Overall, the SST did not destroy much meat.
I hate to waste meat as my family loves deer meat..My favorite .270 bullet for whitetail is the 160 gr. Nosler partition at about 2700 FPS, it is a sure killer, leaves a blood trail thats easy to follow, will shot through a deer from stem to stern, never fails...It may not be as impressive with the instant kills that novice hunters rave about, but they don't make many tracks and are easy to follow..you will never lose a deer shot withit and can eat to the exit hole..

For Mule deer in the open Sage of Idaho, I like the 130 partition.

I have not used the AB but any bonded core bullet will work well on deer...Deer are easy to kill and most bullets kill them well, even cup and core bullets work fine..the partitions don't waste as much meat IMO..
yeah I shot a doe last year with a sst at 100yd out of a 270 wsm..Largest hole in a deer I've ever seen.. And it was the entrance hole. Actually peices to the lung laying there where I shot her. She went 30 yds. Bullet went through ribs and stuck under skin in other shoulder. Core was gone. I'm very happy with them so far.
I agree with Ray;if meat loss is a concern,shoot a Partition.Plenty of early expansion and not much meat shot to hell.These plastic tipped, fragile jacket things tear meat up too much,and it isn't necessary.

Near as I can tell,there ain't much magic in an AB.....
Been running the 130 Partition for years out of the .270. H4831SC, WLR,etc. Very bad medicine..
Recent experience with the AB (same weight) tells me that it performs about the same, about 60-70% weight retention. Maybe not as many DRTs, but definitely good stuff.
My latest love is the "light for caliber" Barnes TTSX. I'm a believer in .284 and .308 calibers in this bullet. At the range that you're stating, you're right there with me on my deer hunting ranges. Another consideration, I know.
Don't discount the light TTSXs..they never fail to perform.
"No magic in the Accubond"?!

No way man. The Force is strong in them. smile

Between those two, run the Accubond. Less explosive.

I tried the SST in two different rifles; shot like ass. Haven't seen the AB fail to shoot yet in... hmmm... 7-8 rifles, including the two that wouldn't like the SST.
I need to get some AB's to try, but the factory SST's shoot MOA out of my Weatherby Ultra-Light
Yes, between the SST and AB I would run the AB smile
Faint praise, indeed <g>.
Well, I mean...I have a pile of the 140 7mm AB's;killed my biggest bodied mule deer ever with one.Lotsa damage and penetration from on side shoulder to off side ribs; good frontal area. Sorta like a Partition which is to say they both kill good,which is what I mean by "no magic" Same- same, on deer anyway. I have never used them on elk....I'd use them again for deer.
My partner uses 140gr Nosler Accubond for his 270 WSM. After two deer, we've seen two very different results. The first deer was hit too tight to the front leg and the bullet glanced off the leg bone and took a turn and clipped the back of the lungs and the liver as it hit the last rib on the off-side and stayed under the hide until it stopped against the off-side ham. We lost most of the off-side ham to blood shot. The deer ran about 100 yards from where it was hit to when it fell dead.

The second deer was hit a bit too high. The deer froze and began wailing loudly. Then it fell over dead. The entrance and exit wounds had blood shot areas the size of a softball. However, this was in the ribs and didn't lose a anything really important. Both shots at 200 to 250 yards.

I use 140gr Nosler Ballistic Tip loaded on top of 54gr of H4350 out of my 270 Winchester. It seems like the innards get a lot more soupy with this bullet than with the NAB. Same amount of blood shot. As long as I don't shoot meat with it, I don't lose any meat. My buddy used my rifle to shoot a nice blacktail buck. 140gr Accubond factory load through the neck left a 27 caliber hole entering and a 30 caliber hole exiting. DRT. Same thing with the same rifle and a forest grouse.

Shoot whatever is more accurate from your rifle.
I'm not sure where all the talk of "frangible" SSTs comes from. That hasn't been my experience. If anything, they tend to produce through-and-through wounds and terminal results. In reality, just about anything you push down a barrel in .270 is going to kill deer in acceptable fashion, and most modern .270 fodder will tear things up at close range. A lot of hair-splitting goes on in discussions such as this. IMHO, to cut to the chase... if you like to shoot deer in the shoulder, use a TSX or similar. If you shoot them in the boileroom, use just about anyhing else -- including the good, cheap, old-fashioned soft points that have been killing deer for most of the last century -- and be happy. My personal preference leans more toward whatever shoots most accurately out of given rifle.
Originally Posted by Jeff_O
I tried the SST in two different rifles; shot like ass.



Where the heck do you get this stuff? Blue scares deer, SST's won't shoot, etc., etc. You're more full of [bleep] than anyone I know.

Last Friday - 150 SST, 60 yards, broke 2 ribs going in, mashed everything in the middle and broke 2 ribs going out. Last group I fired measured .671 @ 100 (150 SST, 46.5 RL 15, out of a 7 pound rifle). Oh yeah, the stock is blue to boot.

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Guys - don't listen a [bleep] thing Jeff_O posts.
You don't understand though...it was the BLUE STOCK that stunned him in the first place!!! wink

Have you ever had an SST do any "coming apart" that you did not expect?
Originally Posted by DakotaDeer

Have you ever had an SST do any "coming apart" that you did not expect?


I shot another little buck a couple of weeks ago with the same load that was quatering hard to me and the entrance hit the point of the shoulder. The entrance was huge and I figured the bullet had nuked. To my suprise, I found the perfectly mushroomed SST in the opposite rear quarter when butchering him. It looked like it came out of Hornady add and probably retained 60-70% of it's weight (just a guess, didn't weigh it). They do expand rather rapidly, but hold together after that intial violent opening.
I shot 3 deer this year with 140gr 270cal Accubonds. On the first deer I saw the bullet impact and could see a yard long shaft of blood squirting out the entrance hole. It left a baseball size exit wound and there was an enormous blood trail that went further than I'd of thought but probably because it hit about right on the entrance but angle back because of the way the deer was standing. The other two were similar, large exit wounds, bullets penetrating side to side as expected on animals as light as deer, lot's of blood at the impact site.

My freind I was hunting with shot a small doe last week with a 95gr SST out of a 240 Weatherby. He shot it straight on facing him. The bullet penetrated to the chest cavity and shredded the heart but didn't penetrate past the diaphram into the guts. I was quite surprised that it didn't penetrate any further than it did. I'd be a little leery of using at least that bullet in that gun on anything larger than small deer. The heavier SST's may well perform quite differently at lower velocities but the 95gr SST was pretty frangible out of the 240 Weatherby.

That's just what I saw, YMMV. I'm going to keep shooting Accubonds...................................DJ
A 150 SST out of my .06 blew right through this guy a few weeks ago at about 120 yards. He ran maybe 50......

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A 240 Weatherby is a smoking and I'd probably use a premium out of it too. Standard velocity rounds, deer, and SST's are a great match though.
Accubond without a doubt!
The originator did not say which 270 he was shooting. Was it the 270 Win, the 270 WBY, or the 270 WSM?

The only reason I ask this is the 250fps makes a big difference at close range.

I shoot a 270 Win, Sierra 130gr SBT, 2930 fps, and it has never - ever failed me, even out to 386yds in 2008, that is close enough to 400 for me.

.270 Win and as I posted in my previous thread, I am very pleased with the 140 SST. I would like to try some Accubonds and I would also like to load some 150 grain SST's
DJ,

That 240 Wby. may be a little hot for the 95 SST, but the one my buddy put through the shoulders of a doe using a 243 this Saturday did a nice job. Here's part of my writeup from another post:

Quote

My buddy shot her quartering away at 162 yards and the shot was angled down slightly since he shot her from an elevated stand. The entrance was in the back edge of the left shoulder and out the front edge of the right. After the hide was off I found a pinkie sized entrance wound with little bruising and a slightly larger exit with externally visible bruising in a nickel to quarter sized area symmetrically around the hole.

The bullet passed below the spine and wrecked the front end of the lungs and blood vessels coming upward/forward from the heart. Further examination revealed broken bone and some meat loss in the exit side shoulder. It was busted up pretty well but wasn't the big "jelly mess" folks complain about.


mathman
I shot a whitetail last Fall with a 140AB out of my 270 Win.
Impact velocity was around 2700fps. The bullet hit the deer low and forward(right where the bottom of the neck meets the shoulder) and passed through hitting a little bone on the way.

Bloodshot damage about like most bullets, golf ball sized exit.
Ideal performance IMO.
The buck was DRT!
(grin)
I suspect the SST has gone through some of the same transformation the Ballistic Tip did when it came out. The early BT's were pretty tender, and so were the early SST's. But Nosler soon modified the BT's, and probably Hornady has modified the SST's. A little extr antimony in the lead core goes a long way in toughening up a bullet.
I took two critters the past couple weeks with a 270 and 130 gr. SST's launched at a solid 3100 fps.
A fair sized whitetail at about 100 yards. DRT'd with a high shoulder hit. There was a lot of damage on the entrance side with a plug of fur pulled into the entrance hole. The bullet exited in the front edge of the opposite shoulder with much less damage, about the size of a quarter.
I also shot a nice sized hog through the shoulders on the Campfire hog shoot. That was about a 50 yard shot and the hog also DRT with a couple of kicks.
That bullet did not exit. The guide did the gutting and I spotted the jacket when he was pulling the lungs/heart out. the core had dropped out but from the cleanliness of the front of the bullet it was apparent it was still there when the bullet came to rest.
I didn't see anything to make wonder about it's suitabilty as deer bullet.
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I shot this guy this year with a 180gr. SST from a 300 WBY at 110 yards. Hit the shoulder blew it to pieces (the Shoulder) bullet traveled up the spine and out the neck. He didn't so much as bat an eyelash after he was hit.
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Like the others I suspect the SST's have been improved and are now more like the interlocks which is a good thing. First box I got two mystery performances in deflected shots but still dropped the animals quickly.

I have only taken a couple animals with the Accubond and like them. I am going to go out on a limb and think that the Partitions at higher velocity might be the faster killer. This is sheer speculation and although I have shot a bunch of stuff with partitions I don't know how many more would be needed with the Accubond to even come close to a valid comparison.

My thought is the semi fragmentation of the Partition might beat the slightly larger frontal area of the Accubond. Maybe maybe not, all three are good for their intended purposes.
Theres always these guys.
http://www.gsgroup.co.za/02hv.html
and
http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/3576960/all/Things_I_have_learned
http://www.gsgroup.co.za/02hv.html
They work good in standard 270 WCFs to.
Ask me how I know.
dave
I've shot several deer with Accubonds. With decent hits, they don't take another step.

My first choice now is the Accubond.
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