SST Blowup on deer

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I've experienced bullet blow up with Sierra Game King bullets. These are the boat tailed spitzer soft tips. Yet the animal collapsed and did not move again. I've not tried the SST bullet at all.

Jack
 
Berger has proven that ammo blowing up inside the animal yields very fast kills. The Ballistic tip got its bad reputation when it first came out. I do not know what Nosler changed, but the first ones were more like varmint grenades than medium to big game hunting bullets. The ballistic tip is now a very dependable hunting bullet. It explodes, but it penetrates deeply enough before it comes apart. When the Ballistic tip first came out, I loaded some 120's in a .264 Win mag. (I think it was 120's cant swear by it, been many moons ago)
I shot a whitetail doe at 60 to 70 yards. I hit her on the shoulder. She ran 400 plus yards and piled up. She ran across an open field is the only way I found her. The bullet his square on the shoulder blade and exploded. Penetration was less than 2" past the ball. The inside of the deer was obviously devesdated by hydrostatic shock, but the bullet itsself did little damage.
The ballistic tips of today will smash a shoulder blade and near exit.
 
Interesting discussion so far, certainly varied experiences....my experience with the SST was with my 280. Shot a whitetail doe, about 150 yds, hit the shoulder blade and she went down. Normal, I thought, until she got up, shot her again, lung shot down for good. Inspection showed the first bullet blew up and did not even penetrate the shoulder blade. These were factory loads. Had just gotten the rifle and had no time to work up a hand load.
This past season killed a buck with same rifle, 140 AB at 2830 fps, mild but accurate, hit the spine and generated a hole big enough to put my fist through. Distance about 165 yds. Didn't expect that from an AB!!

On the other hand, have killed probably a dozen whitetails with my 7STW, 140 BT at 3425 fps, ranging in distance from 30 to 300+ yds. All one shot DRT and never any damage like that AB.

Used Sierra 140 Pro Hunter for nearly 30 years in my 7 mag, and customized 7X57 Mauser with equally good results, same range of distances, all through and through. For the price and performance I now stay with the Sierras for these applications.
 
If my memory serves. When the Ballistic-tip hit the market it was billed as a bullet for all ranges. Meaning that you should load at a velocity for the range that you intend to shoot. So basically, if it needs 2000fps (a guess) to expand properly, you need to load to be at that speed when it hits the target. This whole thread makes me think I need to do some testing.
 
The newer ballistic tips have a chart available that will show you what the bullet looks like after impact at different velocities.
 
Chestnut Forge, I've been testing that bullet since it was available and in the early version and now the toughened up version. As I mentioned earlier, it's the bullet I use in most hunting rifles. I do have some generalizations that I believe and that I'll share:

- 55 gr Ballistic Tip in my 220 or 223 isn't quite enough medicine to anchor a deer or medium sized pig.
- 100 gr version in my 260 works fine on coyote on up to large pigs, but the 120 gr version works better.
- 130 gr version in my 270 works very well on anything I've shot, on up to a near 400 pound boar, up close and at distance. I have not hunted elk, but wouldn't use that bullet.
- Avoid quartering shots from the rear. Quartering shots from the front angle work pretty well.
- Don't shoot the deer parts that you plan to eat.

I don't load for a specific speed, but load for accuracy and most of my loads seem to be about a grain under max.
 
We'll I just got 200, 140 grain .264 caliber SSTs for my 6.5 Creedmoor. I will report back to you on their performance on whitetail in early December. The last two seasons I used factory ammo with the 129 grain interbonds. They, the 129 grain interbonds, over penetrate which is not ideal for the type of hunting and area that I hunt.
 
threads

Interestingly, I've got a similar thread going in the general rifle forum regards ballistic tips.

I've never shot the SST, so cannot comment here on that slug.
 
The AccuBond and the Ballistic Tip seem to be the same bullet. Just a different color tip. Maybe a little marketing tweek by Nosler here?
 
I don't think that they are quite the same bullet. The cup design and overall design of the bullet looks very similar. The cup and core in the Accubond are supposed to be bonded in some way. If so, it should hold together a bit better and penetrate better. I have plenty of use info on the BT's but have not used an Accubond. I get the performance I need from the BT, and I have a lot of them.

From what I have read, Nosler wanted the accuracy and BC of the Ballistic Tip in a tougher bullet. Whether or not Accubond meets those objectives, I don't know.
 
Reynolds is right, I've shot deer with both and there's little comparison. My findings are that the B-Tip from Nosler can usually be found in the off-side of the deer under the skin, while the Accubond has always passed through leaving a nickle sized hole. Unless you neck shoot a little buck at 60 yds, then expect devistation to look somewhat like what you'd expect from the B-Tip.:)
 
Lost a nice buck with the SST that I'm sure died somewhere but I never found him. Shot him at 35 yards and you could tell he was hit pretty good. No idea how far he went but never got him. :mad:
 
I've lost two deer in my life that I've found blood on. First was completely my fault. Rushed on a buck chasing a doe at about 30 yards. Bullet was core lokt factory ammo. Second was a handloaded 117 gr Sst in 25-06 pushing roughly 3000 fps mv. Shot was 180 yards quartering away. Deer dropped where he stood, got up and flopped around, then got up and walked off. Shot the rest of the rounds at a 55 gallon drum. Exit holes showed fragmentation.
 
I used to use Nosler's Ballistic Tips for my deer hunting, but some of my friends were showing good results with the ordinary Hornady interlocks. I ended up going with the 165 gr boat tail interlock and never found a need to use the premium style bullets again in my 308 behind a max charge of Reloader 15. I get twice as many bullets in the box for about the same price and they do their job on the animal out to 250 yards or so and out of my rifle, very accurate too.

I thought about using the 150 grain Hornady's but my rifle seems to like the 165 better for accuracy. No real monster deer in the Texas hill country, but there is the occasional 150-175 pounder to harvest, and the bullet does everything I need it to without the premium price.
 
Trobin, I shot two bucks with a .25-06 that behaved similar. They were shot with the original Ballistic tips before they toughened them up a bit.
 
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