Poor game performance using Hornady sst bullets

I've had no problems with Hornady's SSTs in.270, but neither my .270 rifles like 130gr. The best accuracy is 140gr in one and 150gr in the other. Dead dropped a hog in So. Carolina at 90 yards as well. I recall one buck dropped at 50 yards and I was able to immediately walk up to him and his eyes were already glassed over.

On the other hand, I pushed a doe to my son and he was using a .270 with a 150gr Nosler Ballistic Tip. Hit at 30 yards and after we tracked the deer for about 100 yards, found it lying down and I finished it with a .44 Mag, the Nosler looked like the deer was shot with an arrow without a broadhead. I surmise the bullet was oo heavy and moving too fast to expand at that distance.
 
SST

Very interesting.

I'm wondering why I have never had an issue with the SST bullet when hog hunting using a 7x30 Waters and 139gr SST.
 
Unfortunately I've heard that way to many times with the Hornady SST. It sounds like it was too much bullet for the game you were hunting. I bet a 150 or 165 grain SST would perform and expand much better on deer.
 
I've shot one deer (first and only buck) with a 123 SST handload from my 6.5 Grendel 2460fps shot was a perfect broadside heart shot @ 30 yards.

Exit hole was nice and buck did run about 75 yards, but the blood trail was impressive and easy to follow. NO COMPLAINTS!

I've shot 4 other deer 2 with a Nosler Ballistic Tip and 2 with a Nosler Accubonds. Those 4 deer have COMBINED for a travel distance of less than 30 yards.

IME I'll take Nosler over Hornady.
 
jackstrawIII said:
A key in bullet selection is choosing a bullet that's built for the velocity that you'll be driving it at. A 30 caliber 150 grain SST is constructed differently than a 30 caliber 180 grain SST... which is constructed differently than a 30 caliber 123 grain SST.

- The 123 grain SST is made for 7.62x39 velocities. (very slim jacket will open at low velocity)
- The 150 grain SST is made for 308 velocities.
- The 180 grain SST is made for 300 Win Mag velocities. (thicker jacket takes more speed to open, really meant for larger game than deer)

If you shoot a bullet at lower speeds than it's designed for, it won't open. If you shoot it much faster than it's designed for, it will fragment excessively.

I'm thinking this is your problem.
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I want to thank every one for there post. I think you guys are on too something about the different weights. I always thought (example) a SST was a the same bullet offered in different weights. Do the manufactures have data for there bullets to help you select correct weight based on variables like cal, FPS, and game intended. I still have a lot to learn about hand loading.
 
One simple thing I learned long ago: CUP and Core bullets - SST, Interlock, Game King, Deep Curl, Ballistic Tip, Power Point, Corelokt perform well if impact velocities are under 3000fps. Second thing - medium game - medium weight bullets
 
Every thing I read on poor performance of the SST was fragmenting and no exit wounds. That would be opposite of what Im experiencing.
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I shoot 6.5 Grendel and Hornady SST is my primary hunting round. I will occasionally experiment with something else, but at this time, I have 5 cases of it right now that are serving as a foot rest under my computer desk, LOL.

I hunt hogs for several landowners. Except for lengthwise shots, the SST bullets will usually exit on the opposite side on hogs up to 200 lbs or so. After 225, it becomes iffy, but I have had broadside shots exit on hogs as large as 265 lbs.

When I do recover bullets, it is the exception, not the rule, that the jacket and core are still together. When I do find both together, there is a significant loss of weight as the bullet has lost a goodly amount of jacket and lead going through the hog. On a few occasions, I have ended up with multiple exit wounds from a single shot. I do a lot of wound channel analysis on the hogs I shoot, just to find out why they did or did not go down as they did.

In general, I would say that the Grendel SST makes large wounds, often facilitated by the fragmentation of the bullet. For the price of factory ammo in this caliber, I am quite pleased with the terminal performance, but caution for those after meat, the SST can disperse tiny bits of lead into the surrounding tissue. If I was a meat hunter, this would not be my desired round.
 
A few years back I bought a 6.5 Arisaka from my grandfathers estate. In the past he had used it for 30 years and taken deer every year without a problem. Most of that time he used Hornady Interlocks. Well I found the same load in a 140 grain SST seemed more accurate.

That hunting season I was with my dad and this nice 8 pointer walked into view at 48 yards and I shot the deer kind of quartering away and the deer took off like a rocket. My dad was excited but I was feeling sick. It had just snowed 2 inches while we were hunting and we got out of the blind to follow the deer and it made 13 long jumps before falling dead without a single drop of blood on the ground. My dad said we were lucky to find it. Later we found the bullet hit at least one lung, some other stuff and exited into the left leg under the hide. Only 80 grains of bullet was found practically inside out.

I've shot 3 bucks since then with the 30-06 that my dad passed down to me from his father because he said I needed some overkill. All in the heart.

So thanks to the Hornady SST I got a new rifle out of it for free. I still shoot the SST's in the arisaka but it's back to Interlock for deer.
 
I just stared loading SST 123 grainers for 7.62x39mm, and am getting decent accuracy out of them, hoping to use them for coyote hammers.
 
Hornady advertises that bullet as being suitable for all game animals between 50 and 1500 pounds. From pronghorns to moose. That right there makes me shake my head.

What surprises me more than anything is a 300# whitetail buck standing without moving while being shot 3 times thru both lungs with an ought-six. Not only did he not react to the shots, but did not react to a man reloading his rifle three times while crapping his pants only 50 yards away. Why don't I ever happen across bucks like that?
 
A very Wild 'n Hairy guess says the issue was the 'at 50 yards'. Bullet probably went through with little expansion.
"...constructed differently than a..." Not according to Hornady. "...it's an ideal bullet for whitetails, as well as most North American game animals..."
 
Load 30-06
IMR 4895 47.5gr
2659 fps
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Hornady's site does indeed mention "50-300 pounds" .....

I would think it wouldn't open very well at that impact velocity ..... but I've seen similar things with other bullets at higher speeds ..... I put 3 .277 150gr Sierra Gamekings into a buck one time without much reaction at all .... he flinched a bit on each hit .... after the third, he walked in a circle (giving me a good look at the exit wounds pumping out blood) and laid down and died .... all the bullets expanded well and made nice exit holes ..... he just did not seem to care about being shot all that much ....... strange stuff happens ..... it's hunting, and you will see stuff that people that don't go never will.
 
I like the 180 grain SST's. I shoot a 30-06 and get about 2850 fps. 1 elk down with a neck shot at 300 yards, another elk with one shot through the lungs at 40 yards (bullet found in tact against hide), a deer down with one shot to the heart and a deer shot between the eyes at 200 yards. SST's are cheap bullets that fly true.
 
Yosemite Steve said:
I like the 180 grain SST's. I shoot a 30-06 and get about 2850 fps. 1 elk down with a neck shot at 300 yards, another elk with one shot through the lungs at 40 yards (bullet found in tact against hide), a deer down with one shot to the heart and a deer shot between the eyes at 200 yards. SST's are cheap bullets that fly true.
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What kind of entrance and exit holes on your whitetail heart shot. The only reason I was shooting the 180 sst was there accuracy.
 
That was an old Savage 110. And I correct my velocity. My new chronograph says 2637fps average. My calculations from the books was way off!
 
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I used SST's in my 30.06 for antelope and deer some years ago. I switched to them after being disappointed by the early Nosler ballistic tips performance on game. I wasn't too impressed by the SST's either. I just shot them up target shooting as they were accurate enough. Now I use the Hornady GMX, the Nosler E-tip or Barnes TTSX bullets on everything from Moose to Antelope. I still use Nosler partitions in my .243, they are the most accurate in that rifle.
 
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