My son has been shooting Accubonds in his 270 with great success on deer, and I am looking at Hornady SSTs for my 243 for next year. Bullet construction-wise, is there a big difference between the two bullets?

Oh yea, one is bonded, and one is not. But I wouldn't hesitate to use either on deer. The accubond holds to together better.

My rifle shoots 5 shots in one hole at 100 yards with Win Supreme 95 gr BTs, but accuracy was not the question. It was bullet construction. Thanks anyway.

Now that is what I wanted to know. Thanks bigcountry and ridge runner.

Hornady SST is the same construction/design wise as the 95gr BT you mentioned above.

Hornady also has a bonded polymer tipped bullet -Interbond. It is designed for higher weight retentionthen the Accubond's 60%.

For deer all 4 will work.

I personally won't shoot a deer with a ballistic tip under 150 gr which is what I shoot in 300 WSM. As I said, I have my son shooting Accubonds in his 270, and the reason that he switched was because my brother and Dad have both lost deer using 130 gr ballistic tips. It may be a couple of isolated incidents, but my brother shot another deer that he did find with no exit wound using BTs. It seems that the BTs "rapid expansion" claim is too rapid to make it all the way through our east Texas deer. My Dad has started shooting CoreLoks, and my brother has gone to Nosler Partitions. Neither has lost a deer since switching.

Don't overlook the plain old Hornady Interlock. I have never seeen one fail on deer size game. Also they are usually very accurate and pretty cheap.

You know I am at a crossroads myself. I mostly kill deer with a bow these days. I just don't have good gun land anymore. But still love all my guns. I have killed with my 165gr gamekings in my 308. I have killed with my 130gr gamekings in my 270win. Can't say I have had a failure. But my buddy, I load for, well he comes over and helps, has reported to me, he has shot 2 whitetails broadsided with no blood trail, and ran to a thicket, and next day. He said the vitals were melted. But very little blood entrance or exit. So for the past 2 years, I have slowly transititoned most of my guns, 308, 300win, 300RUM's, 7mm-08, STW, even 45-70 from typical cup and core bullets to partitions and accubonds.

So he got me little worried. So I started thinking, I need something more. I have used these over a decade or more. So I started worrying about BT's too, as I used to use these also. But Mossy on here took a monster Minn deer that scored over 140 I think, with a 140gr BT out of a 7mm rem mag at 75 yards I think, and hit the front shoulder and exited out behind the lung. Total devistation with one of the most risky shots (that could break up a bullet) with risky velocities well over 3000fps. He made me a believer again.

I can tell you, that Accubonds may not leave a good exit. Sometimes I have seen little pencil holes in and out, but that was with 300RUM with 180gr bullet (an elk bullet).

I would go with lower sectional density bullet for deer if you go with the accubonds. For me, I went with 150gr for my 308, and not the 165gr I usually shoot. For 270, I went with a 130gr also. That way, I feel it will expand more reliably.

Essentially the SST is the Interlok bullet with a polymer tip that initiates more rapid expansion than the Interlok. Performance is akin to the Ballistic Tip.

The Nosler Ballistic Tip hasn't failed me innumerous deer sized game harvests. The majority have been with 130/.277 or 150/.284. I will continue to use them without reservation for our large bodied deer.