whatnickname
Member
Looking for some advice on the 6.5 (264")129 grain Hornady SST. I usually use Nosler Ballistic Tip bullets for deer hunting. All of the craziness created by our beloved president Obama and the anti gun lobby created a shortage of Nosler products this past spring so I opted for the seemingly similar 129 grain Hornady SST 6.5 bullet. My load pushed this bullet at 3000 fps MV. Shot a 130 pound doe for meat this past Wednesday...100 yard broad side shot behind the shoulders. The bullet went through and through and completely eliminated the lungs just 2" below her spine. She was dead before she hit the ground...didn't even twitch. Seemingly outstanding performance right? This past Thursday a nice 8 point (160 pounds) stepped out at 144 yards. He was in the rut and only stopping to get a few bites of food. As he turned to leave, I got a quartering away side shot looking at his left side. I generally like quartering away shots. I lined up on the far side shoulder (the shoulder I couldn't see) and squeezed the trigger. The little 1909 Argentine Mauser I had built up did it's job again. When I got over there my deer wasn't dead. There was no exit wound. I finished him off with my handgun. This is very upsetting to me. I've killed dozens of deer in the past 50 years and this was only the second deer that didn't hit the ground stone dead. When we skinned him at the processing plant, I discovered why. The bullet core separated from the jacket and fragmented; a classic example of bullet failure in my opinion. The far side shoulder was never impacted by the round. The bullet entered the left side of his rib cage about 2/3s of the way back and (in line with the center of the right shoulder) just in front of his diaphram. Has anyone else had similar experience with Hornady SST bullets? Am I pushing this bullet too fast? Did I just happen to get a bad bullet? I've killed half a dozen deer with Hornady SST bullets and this is the first experience like this I've had