Hornady SST's for deer?

[federalfarmer]

I have a new-to-me Remington 700 in .270win that will only be used for whitetail deer in the midwest; and am wondering what you think of the Horandy SST's?

Found 3 boxes unopened for $17 apiece/ they are the 150 grain style.

Would buy them or suggest something else for similar money?

Features:
Streamlined for ultra-flat trajectories.
Premium polymer tip for rapid expansion and maximum energy transfer.
Match-grade jacket delivers surgical accuracy.
Heavy construction with InterLock® feature delivers deep penetration every time.

 

[BFE]

Great choice for whitetail deer, been using them for a few years now and love them.

 

[federalfarmer]

Good! I will have to get a scope mounted and try these out.

 

[tango2echo]

Great choice. I handload the 150gr and 168gr SST's in .308 and .30-06. Stays together much better than the BT. I download the .308 for the wife with the 150gr SST to about 2200fps. That has still wallopped a few 120-170lb deer out to about 200 yards. In one shoulder and out the other. I usually shoot the neck to keep from ruining the meat on the shoulders.

t2e

 

[Ridgerunner665]

Stays together much better than the BT

Sometimes too much...I have seen them fail to expand too many times to use them myself...they are accurate, but failure to expand..even after passing clean through a deer and into a pine tree....nope, not for me.

This happened with a 7mm Rem Mag.

 

[ColeK]

Quote Ridgerunner665;
Sometimes too much...I have seen them fail to expand too many times to use them myself...they are accurate, but failure to expand...

This happened with a 7mm Rem Mag.


I agree with Ridgerunner. Some years ago at going out of business sale I bought 2 boxed each of .270 Wins, .308 Wins and .30-06's. I did not find them to be that accurate.
I shot a doe at about 30 yards with a .270 W, Hornady LM 140 gr SST, chron at 3000 fps. The bullet entered between 4 and 5 rib and exited thru the 3 rib. A .308 bullet would not fit thru the exit hole.

 

[HGUNHNTR]

Great round and a great price! That should be enough to kill 50+ deer after you get her sighted in.

 

[interlock]

mixed reviews. They are a popular enough bullet. maybe the 2900 fps that your 270 will drive them at and thier long sectional density will give them better expansion properties than those driven very hard.

 

[BFE]

I shot a 1500 pound Moose using these ( SST 150 bullets X 2 ) through both shoulders and ended up under the skin so I was able to recover. They both lost about a third of their weight and mushroomed like they were designed. I was empressed to say the least that these performed so well on a large game animal not to mention going through both shoulders. I did this using a .300 WM instead of the .308 at over 400 yards so I had a few more FPS.

 

[hardluk1]

I have also been useing the sst in a 139gr molly 7mm heavy mag load from horandy for 8 years and have not had any problems. Shot deer from 20feet to 380yards with them. Work like a heavier version of a NBT. Just bought 5 more box's ,that should be good for several more years. Now hornady has there new superperformance ammo out with that as one of the bullets.

 

[Olympus]

It's now become my favorite bullet. I'm slowly switching over all of my rifles to SSTs.

 

[exbiologist]

The jacket is a little tougher than the ballistic tips from a little newsprint test I did. The core will still separate, but on deer I find that to be a good thing for explosive performance. It is not a tough bullet designed for severe quartering angles though. Pretty close to ideal for deer in my opinion (but I'm a Ballistic Tip fan)

 

[1prcntr]

Have taken many deer with 150 gr SST in .308. Great performer.

 

[hometheaterman]

I've never personally used them for deer. I just recently got some and tried them out at the range. I have the gun zeroed for soft points at 100 yards it's dead on. I shot these and they hit about 1.5" high but shot a pretty decent group. I think I may just leave my scope how it is and try these out during hunting season this year. At 1.5" higher either these or soft points should be able to be used.

I do have a friend that used them in his .243 and he loves them. Said they were the best bullet he has tried and normally he doesn't seem to like ballistic tips.
Another one who shoots or did I guess still shoots them in his 30-06 and loves them as well as one who shoots them in his .270 and likes them.

I've got another friend that uses the SST's in his muzzle loader and the leverultion or what ever they are called in his 30-30. He loves them both and says he has been really impressed with the offerings Honardy has to offer.

 

[Pumpkinheaver]

Love the 150 SST on deer in my 30-06. I have loaded the 150SST .270 bullet in the .270WSM for a buddy and it drops them in their tracks.

 

[federalfarmer]

Thank you all for the response's, I have been gone and hope to get some loaded and out to the range soon.

 

[bogus mcall]

I shoot the 300gr SST's out of my ML, and they are devastating on deer. Absolute shredding of the lungs! Nothing left but small chunks.

 

[Olympus]

250 gr SSTs out of my muzzleloader turns a feral hog's insides to jello.

 

[Arkel23]

Out of a .270 with 150 gr they should be fine and very accurate.

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

My 2 cents: I have searched the web and read a LOT of reviews on many sites of the SST's performance on large game, and they run about 90-95% positive, and only about 5-10% negative. The vast majority say that they expand quickly and well, and penetrate very well too - much much better than other "ballistic tips" like Noslers.

interlock, I forgot to post in your other thread about your Ruger's twist rate - I'm very sorry to hear that - must be frustrating. However, my T/C Icon in .243 has a 1 in 12" twist for some reason....I haven't shot it very much, but I've read several reports that it shoots 95 and 100 gr bullets fine. Not sure about the 1 in 14 though. I would guess that with a flat-base bullet like the Speer HotCor, you could go up to 85 or 90 grains and be fine, and that's plenty big enough bullet for small to medium sized ungulates... and it also hits a sweet spot on BC to velocity tradeoff to minimize wind drift.

 

[interlock]

Dr Tad,
1 in 14 is good to about 65-70 grains, 1 in 12 to about 75.

for 100 gr you should be thinking along the lines of 1 in 10 or 1 in 9. for the 105s look at 1 in 8.

so berger 62 gr for me. it is a shame, i had hoped to run 85 gr tripple shocks through it.

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

Well you should TRY 80 or 85 flat-based I think, before you resign yourself, is my point - you might be pleasantly surprised. Or did you already?