SST Blowup on deer

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I always end up with "through and through" wounds with the exception of the 360 yard deer. He went about 20 feet and piled up. The others drop almost instantly. The hog spun and ran 15 yards.
 
FWIW: A little off topic But it seems all those SST & ballistic tip type bullets show extreme fragmentation with close in big game. (50 yrds or less no matter what the caliber.) Their down range behavior I'm starting to think is worse than the typical narrow nosed hollow point even._"Yup think your local "experts" are correct with their presumptions there Sea Buck."__ My biggest disappointment with these bullets has been the amount of meat damage they leave in their wake. If your one that makes rib shots. There is a strong possibility of total destruction of one front shoulder or perhaps both. Neck shooter. In butchering perhaps you'll see everything forward of the brisket blood shot and made a whole lot less desirable for human consumption. I shoot a 270 130 gr. over open field Sea Buck. Shooting for me has been typically from 50 ft to 250 yards. I've seen these scenarios (above) time and time again over the years. {as I'm fortunate being one of those who is able to cut and butcher just about anything that comes my way} Yes Sir a new plan is in the works for this bushwhacker. I got some old Winchester silver tips here. {those original one's having a silvery looking metal tip.} No doubt for next deer season I'll be switching back to using those (S-T.) on my reloads. I expect I'll probably have to do some tracking occasionally because of my current bullet section. But to save some of the animals meat now being destroyed as things are. It will be worth a-little (brush) walk every now and then for that purpose alone. I guess we differ a little in our bullet selection Sea Buck. As commented: Your about to give them SSTs a try. I certainly hope they work out well for you. For me. Been there. Done that with Noslers. Now going back to near basic's.
 
"I have been told some local "experts" that SST's have been noted to "blow up" on deer. I would guess that would mean fragmenting and little penetration."


Yes they do.

Super accurate, but they do fragment very badly and very quickly.
 
The only SST you will ever find me using is the 250 gr .45 Hornady SST in my muzzleloader. Not enough velocity to fragment but very accurate.
 
From what's being said: Hornady SST, interlock, and Interbond, Nosler Accubond and Ballistic Tip, are nearly clones of each other with similar performance. So based on this premis what is left, Round Nose, and Partition types? I plan to load with some AccuBond's I got as a stocking stuffer( my wife liked the white tips!!) for long range game. Also some Interlocks for closer game. I used RN's for years on 25- 50 yd shots, with great performance, and minimum meat damage. I have no idea why I changed and maybe I'll go back to that load for that range.
 
Hornady SST, interlock, and Interbond, Nosler Accubond and Ballistic Tip, are nearly clones of each other with similar performanceQUOTE]

I completely disagree with this assesment. SST and Ballistic tip are pretty much the same thing from different manufacturers. Interlocks and Interbonds have very different construction. I think that Accubonds are just Nosler's version of the Hornady Interbond.
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The SST is in my humble opinion a poor copy of the Ballistic Tip. Maybe every box I have bought has just been the lemon lot, but I have never gotten what I consider acceptable accuracy from a SST.
 
but I have never gotten what I consider acceptable accuracy from a SST.
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I have always got nearly one hole accuracy with SST's, although I don't use them for hunting white tails at any yardage. I prefer a 140 grn boattail spire point in 270 for hunting
 
My problem with the SST has been flyers. Good base groups with regular flyers. I examined one box of them closely and discovered they vary more in weight than I am comfortable with, but what really caught my attention was you can actually see (and definitely measure) differences in some of the bullets.
 
@ Reynolds, it could be that your rifle just doesn't like them. I've had no problem in the AR... Yet.

A few years ago, a retired Chief Master Sergeant who mentored me when I was still a wet-behind-the-ears 2Lt tried to develop handloads for my 700 BDL in .308 using Nosler Partitions. Good bullet, right? Not for that rifle! It flat out refused to cooperate. Hornady Interlocks work great in the same rifle. Go figure...
 
Never had a SST come apart on any paper target. If I want steaks, I go to the supermarket, cheaper and much less trouble getting them (less cost and less work). Besides, I can only use 12 gauge slugs for deer around here.

They are super accurate, if the world should fall apart soon, I have a 35 Remington just waiting for it's chance at bat. No DNR would make me very happy.

But back to the SST's

270 Winchester Hornady 130 grain SST's at 100 yards (5 shot group) And, yes, I have a flier, but that was me not the fault of the bullet or gun.



I like them.
Jim
 
I've taken a truck load of whitetails with the Ballistic-Tip from Nosler, and I cant remember any of them exploding on bone or anything else, I always got nice penetration and weight retention, ( from the ones I was lucky enough to find) the Accubond bullet has a Polymer tip like the SST and Ballistic Tip but that where the similarities die. Hell the Barnes TTSX has a polymer tip, and its an entirely different bullet than SST's and B-tips, so theres no comparing the three.
I've taken four deer with the Accubond and never yet recovered one, never trailed any deer either....
My next bullet purchase will be the Accubond LR 150 grn..284, but for my .270, I'm going to try more Nosler Partitions,,,, not because I dont like any other bullet, but because my Savage really likes them;)
 
GlobeMaster, I have shot them in several different rifles. Same in all rifles. They were all 6.5 MM and .270 and they were manufactured at about the same time. Maybe it was a bug they have worked out by now. I notice many people attesting to the accuracy of the SST by validating it with three shot groups. I think, not certain but really think, you would see those regular flyers if you did test groups that totaled 20 to 30 rounds.
 
Please understand, THIS IS A VERY GRAPHIC PICTURE of a buck shot in the neck with a .284, 156 grain SST out of a 7mm Remington Magnum at close range. In the end the results were a tagged filled, but had the shot not been in the upper neck the meat loss may have been catastrophic.
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That is still quite a lot of sausage/burger meat gone to waste ..... :(

Nosler's Ballistic Tips do pretty much the same when hitting an animal at near 3K f/sec .... you'll be pickin' lead and bullet jacket fragments out of anything you want to save .... BTDT.
 
Compare that to my .308 with Interbonds. 4 deer between 30 and 105 yards. 1 head on through the chest, 1 through the head, the other 2 broadside. The 2 broadsides were through and through with typical results and damage. The head on stopped under the skin on the backside.
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Ewwwww.

Bet field dressin that was ..... aromatic.
 
I get excellent accuracy from the SST's in the grandson's 308, though I admit that it doesn't get used as much as the other rifles. I've long thought that it was an accurate bullet and almost as much so as the Ballistic Tip, which is pretty much the gold standard on hunting and varmint bullets. And in the other rifles, I shoot (and have shot for many years) almost exclusively Nosler Ballistic Tips. You don't want to shoot a deer in the backstrap or hindquarters with a BT. It will make quite a mess. And if you are shooting them in the hindquarters, I don't think you get to make any statement about bullet integrity or accuracy. And that statement that someone made about picking bits and pieces of the BT out of the meat is very wrong. I've shot over 200 deer with a Ballistic Tip and most of them were with my 270 or the previous 270 (at or near 3000 fps) and I haven't found a bullet bit in my food yet. Just shoot em behind the shoulder. A lung shot never fails. Don't shoot the parts you want to eat. Simple rule.
 
The worst damage I have done was on a whitetail buck at 150 yards with a .308 running Sierra Match King 168s. Hit him a little high and when I skinned him one of his front legs fell of with the hide.
 
Reynolds... That's noteworthy! Several rifles all doing the same thing is more indicative than a single in terms of data points.

As for my daughter's experience with them, she normally shoots 5-round groups since that's how many her magazine holds. She can normally hold 1.5" groups using the bipod off a bench. There is not normally a discernible flyer, at least one that could be attributed to the bullet and not a called flyer.
 
I have shot all of the above mentioned plastic tipped version bullets to some extent, and hunted with most as well.

From my own experiences while the Nosler BT and the Hornady SST are both VERY accurate from most everything I have shot them in, I do find that velocity is not necessarily your friend when doing so for hunting purposes.

That said if you are running the heavier for caliber BT's or SST's and sticking to mid load velocities your usually going to be fine with them. My daughters 6.5x55 shoots the 140gr A-Max through critters like it was a Pro Hunter. Nothing more than a 1.5" or so wound track. The velocity on them however is only in the 2450'ish FPS range though. Of course most wouldn't use the A-Max for hunting in the first place, but it works and works well for that particular application. I personally shot close to a hundred hogs with it the first year I worked up the load at ranges form several yards to out past 400 to verify they would hold together and NOT blow up as everyone suggested they would.

That all said, I firmly believe the others are no different. Drive them fast and expect damage. Simply the way they are designed, the plastic tip drive rearward and facilitates expansion, very dramatically in some cases. I shoot the SST's and the BT in several calibers and from around 2650 through around 2800'ish impact velocities, depending on the caliber, they work very well and don't mess up much even if your shot goes a little wide and pinpoints a shoulder blade.

I have tried the Accubonds in a couple of calibers and find them to be about as bad, drive them fast and get very rapid expansion keep them within around 2650 and 2900'ish FPS impact velocities and they work great.

If you want the same results time and time again go with the Partition or Barnes and don't look back.
 
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