I read in an old handloader mag that the sst is tougher than the standard interlock because of antimony added to the lead. Is this right? I am having trouble deciding on whether to run the 139 sst or the 154 interlock as a "do everything" bullet in my 284 win. The 154 sst is very long and I am limited to 2.8" col. Any advice would be appreciated. I hunt sheep up to moose. Thanks in advance.

They are all good. I have only run through about 2 boxes of the SST's and it seems like the second box were the harder improved version. I like them because you can usually find a matching load with the Interbonds and SST's, sometimes the same load. With Moose thrown in the mix I would concentrate on the 154's first and try to find a load for the SST and either the Interlock or the Interbond that would shoot to the same point of impact.

The SST's would not be anywhere near the top of my list for a moose bullet.

I've found the mid-weight 30 cal SSTs to be softer than their regular flat base Interlock counterparts at 308 speeds.

I'd use the 154 flat base in 7mm.

I've found the 139gr SST to be a fast opener. I'ved killed a half dozen or so deer out of my 280 with those bullets and while they all exited, they definitely opened up quick.

I shoot the factory 139SST light Magnum load in my .280 for deer because it is so accurate.On shots that angle from the back of the ribcage crossing to the off shoulder the bullet will not exit and many times cause a large entrance hole.Most times it looses its core.I have shot a couple of hogs at ranges over 300 yards and the bullet only penetrated about 6 or 7 inches on chest shots but killed the hogs.I suggest the heavier bullet on anything bigger than deer.

In tests I ran in newsprint, the .264 140 SST lost its core and, but the 140 Speer held together considerably better. If you prefer standard cup and core, that's the way I'd lean. Although the 160 Sierra Hollow Point Game King is supposed to be a very tough bullet, along with th 175 Game King. In my .280, I liked 175 Mag Tips for tougher game also. But if you like the 154 Interlock, I'd stay with it and not mess with the SST for larger game like moose.

The 140 grain Partition is my choice for a "do everything" bullet in the 284. It works well in my Remington, Ruger, Savage, and Winchester rifles.

Jeff

Not trying to dissuade from Hornady bullets (the Interlock is my favorite) but take a look at the 145 Speer Hot Core in the .284 WIN. I chose this bullet over the Hornady for use in my M88; it is short for it's weight fitting the .284 case well and hopefully will make the transition to the new Speer Deep Curl, which should be an improvement in quality. The 145 HC worked well on the one buck I killed with it this season (one deer is not much to go on, but the HC has been a decent bullet for years). I had my best luck using H4831SC in this load.

+1 The 140 NP is my go-to bullet for my 7x57 and 280 Remington rifles. Accurate and reliable.

I can only speak from experience with the 30 cal's (150's and 165's), but the standard Interlock BTSP has shown to be a good bit tougher than the SST. The SST opens pretty quickly on deer. The Interlock always exits, the SST often stays in and seems to lose more of it's core. They've both worked great for deer but the Interlock seems tougher.

The BC of the 165 BTSP Interlock matches up exactly with the .224 75 AMAX so I've settled on the Interlock for that reason...

Haven't tried the Interbond.....

JCM

There is no way I would use the SST on anything larger than deer, in fact, I wouldn't use them on deer after seeing a couple shot with the 139 grain sst out of a 7mm-08. My brother killed a couple of deer with them but the bullets seemed to act erratically. One deer, shot at 50 yards and hit broadside in the lungs the bullet never crossed the chest cavity, but instead, exited straight down through the brisket. My brother kept saying as we were looking for the deer "I know I hit him good" and we were making fun of his shooting ability while looking for this deer. We ended up finding the deer 75 yards from the shot and saw how the bullet exited out of the bottom of the brisket. You would have thought there would have been a good blood trail but there wasn't. After that, my brother switched to the 140 grain Core-lokts and 80 deer later he's as happy as he can be. I'd have to be really convinced that they toughened them up before I'd try them, and certainly not on moose!

Thanks for the tips guys, it looks like the 154 interlock wins out of the 2. I will give you a little history on this so you know why I am thinking this way. Over the years I have used many different bullets in this rifle but I always go to high end bullets for hunting(B-X,tsx,NP,GS,etc...). I have killed sheep, goats, caribou, elk and moose with it with no trouble but the guys I hunt with all shoot the same animals with standard bullets(mostly federal classic factory 30-06). The nice part of it is they practice with one bullet. I on the other hand, try to practice with cheap bullets then re-check zero on the premiums, then do a little work to the rifle or scope etc and start all over again. I waste too many premiums, and I am not even practicing with them. I wonder if it is all necessary. I think I will load one standard bullet and keep everything simple.

Don't know if he's still around here, but Jon Sundra wrote several years ago that he had taken more game animals with the 154gr spire point than any other bullet. He's a big 7mm nut, and that seems to be his go to bullet in all case sizes at all velocities.

The SST is softer than the Interlock in my experience. I used the Interlock for several years in my 7mm-08 and then switched to the SST to try it out. I found that the SST would not reliably pass through a deer but the Interlock would pass through 95% of the time. A lot of times all I would find of the SST was a flattened out jacket with no lead in it. It did a good job on deer but if I were to want to hunt something bigger, I'd pick the Interlock over the SST any day of the week.

My experience too with a 139gr from a 7mm-08 and a 150gr from a 308 both had a MV of 2500-2600.

RH

That mirrors my limited experience with the SST. However, I went out and bought a box (130-gr. .277") the very first year they were out after reading that initial G&A hog hunt article on them that, in retrospect, was obviously hyped up. So, I have no experience with the current offerings. Maybe they've made them a little more stout, but I'd be hard-pressed to try them again, since I'm so happy with the 140-gr. and 150-gr. InterLocks.

Scott

In my experience the SST's in different weights vary greatly.

In the 270 there is a world of difference between the 130 and the 150 SST.

In 7mm, there is a world of difference between the 139g SST and the 154g SST, and again between the 154 SST and the 162g SST.

I have had nothing but GREAT luck with the 7mm 154g SST in a 7 Mag loaded to 3150 fps.

I loaded the 162g SST's for two guys going to AFrica that had a hunt set up for 6 plains game each including Kudu and Eland using a Weatherby Mark 5 in 7 STW. The velocity of the 162g SST's that they shot was 3200 fps. Each guy shot his rifle one shot each on each of the plains game, and all animals dropped in their tracks. The PH was so impressed that he wrote an article in a PH magazine that gets distributed through out Africa.

In my own personal experience in the 7 Mag, the 154g Lead tip(Interlock) will shoot holes straight through large hogs shoulder with an exit, and are also a great Elk bullet. For deer, I prefer the 154g SST out of the 7 Mag with a max load of R#25 and a Win Mag primer.

In the 270, the 130g SST will completely destroy the insides of a deer, like shot with a 150g 300 Win Mag, but rarely exits. The 150g SST does exit deer in the 270, but with less internal damage, I shoot the 130's.

Shot placement is the key

1 of the 1st bullets that I used when I started reloading was the 154 grain Hornady RN for my sporterized Venezualian FN 24/30 carbine in 7x57. It was a great bullet for whitetails back in 1971 and I suspect that it will still do the job today.

Jeff

I was at the Hornady factory a couple weeks ago and the gentleman that I spoke with said that the sst was designed to retain about 50% of it's weight, the interlock 70%, and the interbond 90+%. I have been using 139gr sst in my 7mm-08 for the past several years for deer. I have always gotten complete penetration and my longest tracking job has been 10 yards. Ranges have been between 60 and 230 yards. I have been very happy with the results, your mileage may vary.

Thank you for the offer. I don't have what you are looking to trade for though. Good luck with the sale and if you decide to split them up I would be interested in the 162s.

Sorry trying to respond to a pm... and got crossed up.

How does the FTX compare to the interlock/SST?

Do you guys realize this thread was started over a decade ago?

Day late and a dollar short.

7MM:

154 sst vs 154 Interlock flat base

154 sst is a great deer bullet out of the 7 Mag that I have found, 63.0g of IM/r4350@ 3100 fps.

Now numerous elk have fallen with the 154g Interlock flat base, 72-73g of R#25 @ 3200+ fps, win mag primer in Rem, Win, and Browning abolts, 7 mags.

The 154g Interlock will shoot hole through both shoulders on a 250 lb boar, broadside shots...nuff said. The 154 SST dumps a lot of energy on the animal and none of them had a surface splash from 50-400 yards.

The 154g Interlock flat base thinks it is a partition.

EastMS explained what happened in his second post. He posted in this thread by accident.

Yes, I know--but apparently most of the responders since then never read (or understood) his post. Instead they kept responding to the OP's question--which he'd already resolved way back when.

My comment was partly due to the SST having evolved somewhat since 2010. Back then it had already changed considerably from the original version, but in recent years my experience is that it's at least as tough as the Interlock.

However, apparently none of that matters much on threads like this, whether started today or whenever, since the responses always include several essentially saying, "I used an SST when they first came out, and never again!"

Both bullets shoot/perform just fine. Like them both but use SST when range or wind might be a factor.

Well, since this general topic pops up fairly often and the revived thread is half off the rails anyway I'll pitch in another $.02 only slightly related. Good of place as any.

I started my son out with a 7mm-08 because the .243 I started out with had a habit of not getting exits with standard 100gr cup and cores. Along the same lines I decided to have him use Hornady's American Whitetail ammo due to many good comments on the toughness of the 139gr Interlock.

His first deer ends up being a spike going 130ish on the hoof, the thing comes around the corner of our pop up blind quartering away at less than 15 yards. When he gets on it it's about 20 yards out, at the shot it mule kicks and takes off towards some thick stuff. The buck only made it about 40 yards where we found it easily despite no blood trail and not seeing it go down. Turns out the bullet hit about 2-3" behind the near left side ribs and angled forward into the offside shoulder, no exit. Lungs were liquified.

Cutting it up in the garage I found the empty jacket in between the ribs and right side scapula, no trace of the core. I realized that the impact velocity would have been pretty high due to the closeness of the shot, but the fact that came apart before striking bone surprised me a little.

I wouldn't go so far to say that it was a bullet failure, just that the same result probably would have occurred if I'd started him with my old .243. Basically it confirms what Mule Deer keeps mentioning, that that similar cartridges are more alike than not. Probably goes for bullets too.

It would seem to me like it would help if when companies adjust the make-up of a bullet they would indicate on the box that a change has been made and offer a siteto visit or a phone# or address to contact that would explain the change.

5sdad,

That's rare. In fact I can only recall as few companies that did something like that, Swift with the Scirocco and Scirocco II--and even then there was some fudging, at least in the gun-writer world.

When Sciroccos were introduced, they were promoted as a higher-BC "deer" bullet, since Swift already made an excellent heavy-game bullet, the A-Frame. When the SIIs appeared a few years later, I was informed personally by a higher-up at Swift that the SIIs were tougher, because so many hunters used them on game larger than deer, due to the BC. But the editor of one of the magazines I write regularly for told me the same guy claimed the SIIs were designed to open up wider, to make a bigger hole in deer, which reduces penetration. (My experience is the first explanation the difference is correct.)

The other company was Barnes, when they introduced the TSX, which solved a couple of problems common with the original X-Bullet, both accuracy and fouling. That said, in my experience they'd pretty much solved the accuracy variations by then--though not the fouling.

Would guess the reasons most bullet companies don't announce changes in hunting bullets is that most hunters would insist on buying the "new and improved" version, even it wouldn't make any difference for their hunting (and might not work as well) as the previous version.

The FTX is an Interlock

John - thanks for the reply. I would be the one hoping that the price on the "old" bullets would drop as I would scoop them up in a heartbeat over the new and improved bullets.

Yes, the FTX bullets have an interlock ring, but so do the SSTs. The FTX is an entirely different bullet than the "standard" IL It has a soft tip so as to function safely in tubular magazine rifles, to wit::

"Hornady® FTX® bullets revolutionized lever gun ballistics, creating a new level of performance for these popular firearms. Lever gun enthusiasts can now harness the accuracy, power and long-range performance of a tipped bullet that's safe to load in tubular magazines.

Hornady® offers the same Flex Tip® technology for handguns that revolutionized lever guns. Typical hollow point pistol bullets deliver good performance at modest velocities, but have a tendency to expand too quickly and sacrifice penetration at the higher velocities achieved with lever action guns".

Great info, thanks John.