oldsmellhound

I was at the neighbor's field target shooting on Friday. As I was finishing up, the neighor woman calls me on my cell phone, frantic. Apparently, a deer had been hit by a car and dragged itself onto her property. So I go down there, and sure enough, a doe was sitting there, very badly injured - 3 legs were broken, and it looked terrible. I hate seeing any animal suffer like that, so I grabbed my ML, a powder charge, and the first bullet I found in my bag, which was a 200 grain .40 cal SST. I run back, and shoot the deer from about 5 yards away to put it out of its misery.

I was glad that I could do it, as opposed to letting the animal suffer for many more hours before it died. However, I wasn't too impressed with the performance of the SST. I shot from about 5 yards away, the bullet entered the back, right next to the spine, travelled through the chest cavity, and exited low in the ribcage. The exit hole was only slightly larger than the entrance hole - about .45 cal, it looked like. The already injured deer took about 45 seconds to completely expire. The SST didn't appear to hit any major bones, although it could have clipped a rib or two - I didn't field dress the deer, so I don't know. However, it seemed to just blow right through the deer without expanding much. This contrasts my experience with the .40 cal XTP - golf-ball sized exit holes and lots of internal damage.

I just thought I'd let you know - any similar experiences? Powder charge was 95 grains 777 - so that SST was moving pretty fast on impact.

dmurphy317

Did you try to dig the bullet out of the ground to see what happened to it? It would be interesting to see it.

I'm not sure I would call that a failure since it apparently didn't blow up. A 45cal hole through the vitals is going to get the job done and the way this one was shot is about as close to worst case as it gets and you still got full penetration. The only thing that would be worse would be if you hit big bones at that range. The bullet would be going somewhere close to 2000fps with that load.

Indiana SmokePole

I would like to see that Bullet also if you could find it ! @ 5' the bullet was traveling so fast that it probbably didn't have time ti expand good, and the deers Adrenalin was pumping so fast at that time that it would take longer for it to die anyways . ( Should have shot it in the head INSTANT DEATH )

frontier gander

How was the blood trail?

oldsmellhound

I did try to dig the bullet out of the ground - no luck. I saw right where it hit, but I couldn't find anything for some reason. I was really interested in seeing what it looked like too. And no, I wouldn't call it a failure - I just expected more expansion/damage at that velocity. I mean, it did kill the deer pretty quickly, and I have no doubt that when hunting it would get the job done. I'm just comparing it to my experiences with the 200 grain XTP - lots more damage and bigger exit holes. Just based on this 1 experience (not very scientific, I know) I would think that deer would tend to run further after the hit with the SST. I prefer a bullet that is going to cause as much terminal damage as possible.

I didn't shoot it in the head because I didn't want to make a big mess - the neighbor woman then asked me to throw it in the truck and dump it in the woods in the back of the field for the coyotes. I don't think the meat would have been good - it looked very bruised up, had the mange (or some type of skin disease) and had probably been there for a couple hours. It wasn't a pretty sight.

lemoyne

Well, I have shot a number of deer and boar with that particular bullet, usually around 2,000 FPS and it has done an excellant job for me so I wont think twice about using it again. Of course I have never shot one between the lungs or when the Adrenalin was up, but most have been bang flops shot through both lungs and just above the heart [my favorite spot]. I think conditions and shot placement make a big differance with all bullets. Lee

LaneNebraska

If anyone wants to unload their 200g SST's because of this report, please PM me! I will give you half price for all of them. These bullets are just poor performers and I just want to get these bad bullets out of the field

Yep! I'm here ta help

You can also email me at: [email protected]

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cayugad

I would guess the bullet was going so fast that it just plowed through. Actually, had it splattered that would not have surprised me. And like mentioned, that deer was so pumped that it was running on pure adrenalin.

oldsmellhound

If anyone wants to unload their 200g SST's because of this report, please PM me! I will give you half price for all of them. These bullets are just poor performers and I just want to get these bad bullets out of the field

Yep! I'm here ta help

HA HA HA. I really am interested in other people's experience with the 200 grain SST. I've heard a lot of reports on the .45 caliber 250 & 300 grainers, but not much on the "little guy". If some of you have had great performance with these, then that is good news. One non-scientific test doesn't prove anything. The reason is, I really, really like the way they shoot in my rifle - they are the most accurate I've shot. I just was uncertain on their terminal performance based on this latest experience. Thanks for all the replies!

lemoyne

If you want to get rid of your 200 grains at half price you should sell them to me instead of Chap, I am old and poor and I need about 500 of them I'll take all your FPB and BH209 at half price to. I like all that cutting edge stuff that people have doubts about.
I really would like to see that bullet too, every thing I shot with them has been a pass through and I can't seem to get a look at them; even the boar I shot between the shoulder and the neck it exited through his ham, of course it was an other bang flop. Lee