SST for deer
 

I was reading on another site about folks having poor results on deer with the SST's. I bought my son a 7mm08. The SST's 139 shoot great, but now I'm concerned that I should have went with another choice. What I'm wanting to know is how the SST's have worked for yall. He has a box and half left, but I dont want him to lose a deer either. Should I be concerned.

Back quite a few years ago I bought 4 boxes of 154grn SSTs (Hornady Custom) for a song to use in my 7mag. After the second doe I nearly blew the frontend off, I said ENOUGH. I was shooting other larger, faster guns in the same areas and using the Barnes X bullets and their then new Barnes TSXs and they were performing perfectly. Around the same time I also bought a Savage ML 10ii smokeless muzzleloader. The gun shot 250SSTs extremely well (40 someodd grains of N110 powder) but the bullets didn't perform to my liking. (I like 2 smalls holes in/out and destroying ANYTHING in the flightpath between those two holes)

I also have a box or so left of 139SSTs (Light Mag) that I originally picked up for my pet 280 (Rem Cust Shop). I NEVER had an exit wound, even when I shot a small yearling while "herd whacking" one afternoon. I likewise killed the biggest deer I've ever taken (score wise) in southern MO with that load and bullet, an OLD OLD OLD 154inch 14ptr that I nailed in the chest at 45yds. Again, no exit wound but the buck did only run about 40yds before taking his dirt nap.

I had a 7-08 but that was back in the early 90s. (I handloaded 140 Nosler Parts for it then) Now my youngest son has a new 7-08 this year and I have him shooting 120TTSXs (Barnes Vortx). If these 120s don't poke 2 holes in our big river bottom bucks I'll slide him up to 140 TSXs.

I'd equate the SSTs as Hornady's equivalent of the Nosler Ballistic Tip. Many like those, guys like myself DONT!
HL

I have not tried the SST bullet. But I hunt with two guys that have used the Hornady factory stuff loaded with the SST for a couple of seasons.

One shoots a 270 Win. and the other uses a 308 Win. Not certain of the bullet weight that they use.

I have seen probably 20-25 deer that these two guys have killed with this bullet. In most cases the entrance wound is indicative of a rather rapidly expanding bullet ..... sort of blown out, with a great deal of tissue damage not far beneath the skin. I had noted that there were not many an with exit wound, but those that had one ... it is fist sized. I helped them skin a few and the wound channel is a mess for sure.

As far as "killing" deer, no doubt that it is suitable for medium game. However, I prefer a less dramatic expanding, deep penetrating bullet such as the venerable (i.e. old technology) Nosler Partition and Sierra Game King. The SST seems to behave more like the Hornady V-Max varmint bullet that the Hornady SP's. It is probably note worthy that I suspect none of these kills was past 120 yards. Our clear shots where we hunt seldom exceed 100 yards.

This sounds exactly like my experience with Winchester Silvertips in my 30-06. I quit using them because they didn't always exit and switched to Nosler partitions and have been happy ever since. I will say though, the Silvertips knocked the deer down fine but were very devastating and left fragments behind. I lost a nice 6 ptr due to not having an exit wound though and that is when I finally made the switch.