Terminal

I am new to this forum but not new to reloading. I haven't seen much info on Hornady's SST bullets so I will just post my experience, maybe someone else can benefit. For deer hunting (as well as a lot of other game) I shoot a Win mod 70 Featherweight .30-06 (push feed action) with a 22" barrel. I am shooting Hornady 165 grn SST's, Federal brass, Remington 9 1/2 M primers, and 57.4 grns of IMR 4350. This is Hornady's MAX load in the manual that I have, but I am not sure if it is the most current one as it was published before Hornady invented SST bullets. However, when the SST's first came-out I called Hornady directly and they advised me to use the data from their 165 grn BTSP so that's what I did. My rifle definetely prefers the hotter loads with this bullet, as the max load and one down from it give me 3/4" groups at 100 yards. According to the Hornady manual that I have (can't remember the edition but it's not too old), 57.4 grns of IMR 4350 out of a Win mod 70 with a 22" barrel should give me 2900 fps. I cannot verify this as I've been shooting off the hood of my truck and the Chrony keeps falling off before it can register. However, recoil was about the stoutest of any load I've ever put through this rifle, even counting heavier bullets. I took about a 200 lb 8 pt. whitetail buck with this bullet/load in northern Minnesota on 11/9/02. The buck was about 125 yards quartering towards me when I shot. The bullet entered a little low just behind the left shoulder, took-out the rear corner of the left lung, split the liver almost comepletely in two, and exited just in front of the right hind leg. I thought the deer was more broadside when I pulled the trigger, hence the behind the shoulder shot, but I did not have much time time to evaluate the exact spot to shoot for as he was trotting across a field and was about to disapear into some thick trees & brush. Anyway, at the shot the buck jumped-up, took two more bounds and went into a thicket. I gave it a half-hour and went to find my trophy. The buck had traveled about 50 yards, but there wasn't any bloodtrail until the last 20, presumably beacuse of the bullets exit location. The entrance and exit hole were about 1/2" in diameter. Does this mean that the bullet started to expand as soon as the nose started penetrating the hide of the deer? This is my first time ever using any kind of polymer or plastic tipped bulets on game so I don't know. Has anybody else had this experience? I'm used to caliber-sized entrance holes. When we skinned the deer we also found a few very small blood-shot spots up by the back so I think the bullet may have partially come apart.

Craig