Any opinions on Hornady SST for deer hunting?
 

I know, not another bullet thread. Its the old Ford vs. Chevy, Republican vs. Democrat type debate. :biggrin: But I have to ask anyway. I made a comment on another thread where a deer was taken with a 300 gr Deep Curl about me using a 250 gs SST and received the following response:

Now I bagged a nice little buck on Saturday at 61 yards and got a complete pass through. I didn't hit anything but rib cage and I didn't get the devestation that the Deep Curl showed in the other thread, but a pass through is a pass through, right? I know the Deep Curl gets a lot of love here but I selected the SST based on feedback last year on this forum. I think the Deep Curls were just starting to get attention then.

So should I be worried or will the SST do the job on a big deer? It is too late to change this year as I am in the middle of the season here and I am dialed in with that bullet. But I would definetly change for next season if the consensus is that another bullet would do a significantly better job.

It's my preference, even iffin there ain't nothin wrong with hollow points

I have never had a problem with them and they shoot really good out of my rifles.

I would Use the SST this year and look at the .250 gr deep/curl or the barnes.250 gr TEZ for next year.good shot placement with the SST should net you a deer no problem..

I think the SST is a great bullet. Although I have never taken game with one. I have seen a lot of photographs of game taken with the 250 grain shockwave and it did a great job. If you are confident in the bullet then that is all you need to know.

No matter what bullet you shoot, there will be opinions. And an opinion is just that, an opinion. Personally I like the 200 grain .40 caliber Shockwave and if I were field hunting, that would be my bullet.

I use the SST or the regular yellow tip shock wave or the 250 gr FTX for practice and the Blue tip bonded Shock Wave for hunting. It is a very similar to the 250 gr Deep Curl but due to the plastic tip has better BC. I have use both of these bullets over a number of year they have never failed me. I do believe that some people under load bullets designed for muzzleloading I load for 2000+ at the muzzle. That is the main reason XTP and soft lead bullets did not work well for me.

I have taken several deer in the past and they did the job perfectly. I would use it no problem

Doesn't Hornady make the bullet for TC as well?? So isn't the SST and the TC bullet the same??

I know we all like to talk alot about bullets. And I don't want to start any big argument. But how does a bullet fail when you go and pick up the deer??

It is impossible to know where you hit an unrecovered deer. Simply impossible. So you blame the bullet??

I simply have never seen a bullet placed in the proper spot---FAIL. I just have never seen it??

One may expand a little more or less depending on many conditions. And I have seen the same bullet do different things when it was shot into the same spot-only difference was a different deer. I think there are way to many other factors involved than to simply say a bullet failed?? Just an opinion. Tom.

Personally... and it is only me... I would not use a pointy bullet from a ML. With the velocity we are shooting I prefer a bullet that provides more frontal area. The additional frontal are adds to the hit the animal takes, improves hydrostatic shock, and leaves a lot of energy in the animal before it departs.

On the other hand if I were shooting beyond 200 yards - give me a pointy bullet... by then it has slowed down and the frontal area will not matter as much as it will have time to work as it passes through the body.

For a commercial mass production bullet the Deep Curl offers a bonded construction and controlled expansion - so it will not pan cake.

As mentioned Nosler Partitions, Barnes and Knight Bloodlines will and are designed to do pretty much the same thing only a bit more reliable than the Deep Curl.

There are better bullets out there than the SST but there's also worse bullets. One of the guys in our group swears by them and has killed a pile of deer with them. I can't recal him ever losing a deer to them.

I'd say if you gun shoots them well and you have confidence (personal experience) then stick with them.

Sabot I am just not sure about this "premium" bullet analysis. And i am not saying you said that. I am just talking here. However I have shot several deer with Barnes MZ bullets over the last dozen or so years. And I have seen the bullet on a couple different occasions simply not open up at all. One hole in, and one hole out. However the deer only went a small distance and expired. The shot was in the right spot. And isn't the Barnes bullet designed to open up fast??

I wish I would have recovered more bullets in my lifetime. So I could speak more eloquently(or at least more knowledgable) about bullet expansion. However I simply have not had any problems when any bullet of any design was put in the right spot.

To the OP. Hornady makes great bullets. I would not have any problem using their product if it shot well in my rifle. Tom.

The shock is what I am looking for. I switched to Nosler Partitions in my .30-06 after not getting pass throughs with Winchester Silvertips. The devastation from the Nosler is awesome and I swear deer that I hit with it right or nearly right don't even take another step. If I can get a muzzleloader bullet to do that, then I would switch for sure.

The deer I got Saturday took about 5 steps so I am not complaining, but I only hit one lung and missed the heart so I can't really say what it would have done with a better shot placement. But I would like a bullet that can partially make up for improper placement though I don't want to depend on that. I will say, the hole through the lung was very big, you could put your thumb through it.

i've used the 250 grain Hornady SST along with the 250 grain TC Shockwave for about 8
years: They have killed a lot of deer and wild hogs for me.

The SST has a soft rubbery nose; the Shockwave has a hard plastic nose, otherwise they are the same bullet. i've tried to determine the difference in effect on hogs and deer. Still do not have a good feeling for that. However, judging from about six long shots on hogs and deer, i believe the soft plastic nose of the SST allows for better expansion at long range.

I do not want to get sideways with all the Barnes fans out there, but you are not the only one that has that experiance. Sometimes a Barnes does not seem to expand especially at close ranges or where the bullet still is traveling at a very fast velocity going through a thin skinned animal. Copper is still less likely to move on impact than lead. That is the reason the Nosler works so well. The lead in the front cavity will cause expansion. It has already been tested that the Nosler and Swift A Frame will expand through a wider range of velocities than does a Barnes.

And yes the Barnes will open fast! if it is at the right velocity and hits the right resitance.

And believe me Barnes are great bullets - but not a bullet that I would use if I had a couple of other choices.

They can make the nose on a Barnes open sooner but then you will get it opening to fast. I believe they have done the math and the homework to get it to be the most efficient they can in a given velocity range.

Another thought I will throw out if you had shot an elk with that same bullet - i think you would have seen a big difference in the operation of that bullet. Another thought, and I do not know at what range you are talking about but I would suggest if the range were in the 100 yard area and greater the Barnes into a Whitetail might have shown you something entirely different.

Part is still the frontal area of the bullet. I remember a Barnes 300 grain bullet that had a huge hollow point in it - it was an awesome bullet for elk.

Totally agree.... but with the 3 mention preimium bullets - I think you have a bigger margin of error in the exact placement of the bullet.

And I will not use Hornady bullets at all because I have yet to see a Hornady that will not strip itself in some circumstances... somewhat rare but it does happen

But that is just myself - doe not mean a thing to anyone else.

sabotloader - The picks of the Hornady's are enough to get me to pursue other options for next season. Now the question is, Deep Curls or Nosler Partitions? I absolutely love Nosler Partitions in my .30-06. As I mentioned above, deer hit with that almost never take another step. Can I get similar performance out of a muzzleloader?

Myself, i have only killed 7 deer with the SST. I have been hunting and killing for near 50 year. I have been doing autopsy for near 45 year. What i mean by this is after seeing the innards of dead deer a few times, i started examining these innards. These examination have led me to opinion about bullet performance.

Every deer i have hit with an SST followed me home to my freezer. However, i concluded after 5 kills there had to be a better bullet. What i recall thinking after opening these dead deer, is this bullet is not the best. That season, after them 5 kill using the SST, i killed 2 more using the partition bullet. The difference in tissue damage was quite obvious.

Deer seasons since have seen me using XTP, Deep Curl, and Partition bullet. My bullet of choice has become the Deep Curl. If the time ever came to where i had to limit my bullet to one, my choice will be the Deep Curl.

These forum have been very instructive to me. The amount of learning i have experienced is quite astounding. On these forum i have read more than once that the 200g SST was a cut above. the larger SST sizes. This year i purchased my first 45 caliber rifle. This naturally led me to use the 200g SST. This bullet has killed 2 deer handily this season. This season has also seen deer killed with a partition bullet. My bullet of choice is the Deep Curl.

Right now my rifle is loaded with Deep Curl. The Deep Curl has worked and worked and worked for me. However, it very well could be, that if i hunt the prairie during the rifle season, i will use the 45 caliber rifle, and the 200g SST. There is no doubt in my mind, but what the 200g SST will kill deer, or pronghorn, if i do my job.

The rest of this rifle season will see me using either the Deep Curl or the 200g SST. When muzzle loader season begins, i will switch to a rifle with iron sights, and that rifle is sighted in using Partition bullet.

In my opinion, the Deep Curl is a better bullet than the SST, or the XTP. The XTP, and the SST, have killed many many deer. If my rifle were sighted in for either, and i were in the middle of a season, i would be quite confident that either the XTP, or the SST, will put deer into the freezer.

Besides being deadly on deer, the Deep Curl are economical. I shoot them year around. I cannot bring my self to shoot the 'expensive' bullets at paper. What could be better than shooting the exact same bullet at deer, and at paper?

OK - but remember I still believe it is on a rare occasion that this might happen... but I just do no when so I moved. I believe there are better bullets out there.

Problem... Nosler quit building there Partition bullets that you could use in a ML, that I one of the reason that I made the switch to the Lehigh or the Knight Bloodlines.

I believe any one of the three bullets can cause so much instant tramatic shock to the animal that MOST times but not always it overides the animals 'Flight Respone"

Now Im gonna take some Crap on this one as I dont know much about Bullets other than the 240gr XTP's have Never Let Me Down so there what I use. These Pics are from Last Late ML Season as My Buddy was shooting at the Big 9pt Buck I ended up getting but He Missed. He shot and about 30 yds away He hit a Locust Tree with a 240gr XTP powered by 150grs of Pyro Pellets.
Now I Burn Locust in My Woodstove but Not all Locust, it's one of the Hardest Wood Trees in our Area, you actually get Sparks from the Wood when you Chainsaw through it and we use it for End Post on Our Grape Farms, there's still 30 year old Locust Post still out there standing. Anyway from the Pics you can see what the 240gr XTP did to that tree, if they will do that to a Locust Tree Imagine what they'll do to a Deer.

BreechPlug you are a tree murderer. Shame on you. Tom.

Tom, Barnes markets 4 bullets designed for M/L use. the expander mz,spit-fire mz,spit-fire tmz and the spit-fire tez.the only bullet that can on occasion fail to open is the spit-fire MZ and the reason is it's designed to be very streamlined with a very small hollow point. the other 3 M/L bullets i mentioned with the larger hollow points are bullet proof (excuse the pun);) i suggest staying away from the spit-fire MZ..

If you're going to use Barnes bullets on deer or hogs, try the 225 grain .430 XPB. Yep, it's a pistol bullet with a big hollow point: However, for the guys who demand an exit hole; the solid copper base does that.

i've killed several hogs with the 225 grain .430 XPB bullet. In my limited experience,
the bullet usually sheds its petals but the base continues through the animal unless it's a really big one.