Hornady SST in 30-06 and 7mm Rem Mag

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DDWing

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Florence Alabama
Last year my wife shot two deer, one at about 30 yrds, and the other at about 50 yrds. I shot one at about 185 yrds. No recovery or blood trail on either deer. This morning i shot a large doe at 72 yrds, straight broadside, perfect placement in the boiler room, deer runs off, no blood trail. I searched for the deer, or some sign of a hit for almost five hours. No luck. Checked my rifle for zero, scope is dead on. Has anyone had any experiences on pass through with these bullets and no expansion? I have dropped a number of deer with the SST, but all were at longer ranges.
Thanks.
 
DDWing said:
Last year my wife shot two deer, one at about 30 yrds, and the other at about 50 yrds. I shot one at about 185 yrds. No recovery or blood trail on either deer. This morning i shot a large doe at 72 yrds, straight broadside, perfect placement in the boiler room, deer runs off, no blood trail. I searched for the deer, or some sign of a hit for almost five hours. No luck. Checked my rifle for zero, scope is dead on. Has anyone had any experiences on pass through with these bullets and no expansion? I have dropped a number of deer with the SST, but all were at longer ranges.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
This year shot a PA whitetail buck at 75 yds, angling hard towards me. Hit just behind right shoulder angling hard towards left hip. Probably should have shot in front of shoulder more to the front chest. Deer ran about 100 yds and dropped. No blood trail, no exit, did not find bullet. Extensive damage to one lung. Area I hunt is thick. Can be very difficult tracking with no blood trail or snow. Was shooting .308 win. May try 165 grain SST because I prefer pass thru. At that I angle maybe asking to much of bullet but at similar angles had pass thru from 30 06 using 165 grain Speer RN.
 
What bullet weight did you use? Light and soft cup and core bullets that tend to fragment upon impact at magnum speeds and fail to penetrate to the vitals causing a superficial wound that in some cases fails to kill the animal quickly and they can run long ways and not be found.

I have used the SST with great results just need to use the right bullet weight for the cartridge, for example.

On my 7mm-08 I use the 139gr SST pushed at just over 2,800 fps and at this speed most shot from 50 yds to 300 yds are DRT's with lungs turned to jello and above 300 to 600 yds they take a few steps and down they go, these are double lung shots avoiding the shoulder and I mostly get exit holes. The occasions I hit the shoulder the bullet still reached the vitals and did it's job.

Now on my 7mm Rem Mag I can't use the 139gr, it will fragment on impact at magnum velocities at shots under 200 yds, the bullet is too soft for high velocities. Now the heavier 162gr SST is perfect for the 7mm Rem Mag even at 50 yd shots, it will penetrate and exit even if it goes through bone. The heavier for caliber bullets are tougher and hold together better.

Now if you want to push a light bullet fast then use a bonded bullet like the Interbond, Accubond, Scirocco etc, these will hold together and penetrate to the vitals.
 
7mm 154 SST has worked well on one 7 Mag that I have, 63.0g of IMR 4350. Deer flop.

7mm 162 SST is a much tougher bullet, Two friends went to Africa and killed 12 plains game with the 162 SST at 3150 out of Factory 7 STW's.

139g Flat base Sp has worked well in 7 mags and the 154g Hornady Flat base SP is rated an elk bullet 65g of IMR 4350. The 154g SP will shoot holes through both shoulders on large hogs, Max Load of R#25.
 
LVJ76 said:
What bullet weight did you use? Light and soft cup and core bullets that tend to fragment upon impact at magnum speeds and fail to penetrate to the vitals causing a superficial wound that in some cases fails to kill the animal quickly and they can run long ways and not be found.

I have used the SST with great results just need to use the right bullet weight for the cartridge, for example.

On my 7mm-08 I use the 139gr SST pushed at just over 2,800 fps and at this speed most shot from 50 yds to 300 yds are DRT's with lungs turned to jello and above 300 to 600 yds they take a few steps and down they go, these are double lung shots avoiding the shoulder and I mostly get exit holes. The occasions I hit the shoulder the bullet still reached the vitals and did it's job.

Now on my 7mm Rem Mag I can't use the 139gr, it will fragment on impact at magnum velocities at shots under 200 yds, the bullet is too soft for high velocities. Now the heavier 162gr SST is perfect for the 7mm Rem Mag even at 50 yd shots, it will penetrate and exit even if it goes through bone. The heavier for caliber bullets are tougher and hold together better.

Now if you want to push a light bullet fast then use a bonded bullet like the Interbond, Accubond, Scirocco etc, these will hold together and penetrate to the vitals.
Click to expand...
150 gr in the Remington 30-06, and 154 gr in the Browning 7mm magnum.
 
keithcandler said:
7mm 154 SST has worked well on one 7 Mag that I have, 63.0g of IMR 4350. Deer flop.

7mm 162 SST is a much tougher bullet, Two friends went to Africa and killed 12 plains game with the 162 SST at 3150 out of Factory 7 STW's.

139g Flat base Sp has worked well in 7 mags and the 154g Hornady Flat base SP is rated an elk bullet 65g of IMR 4350. The 154g SP will shoot holes through both shoulders on large hogs, Max Load of R#25.
Click to expand...
We have been shooting factory loads in both of these rifles, but are getting set up to do hand loads. I haven't done any hand loading since the early eighties, and things have changed a lot since then.
 
DDWing said:
We have been shooting factory loads in both of these rifles, but are getting set up to do hand loads. I haven't done any hand loading since the early eighties, and things have changed a lot since then.
Click to expand...


I'm guessing your using the Superformance ammo so the bullet is going pretty fast so this might contribute to bullet fragmentation on impact or "bullet blow up" as it's most commonly called.

At what distances do you normally shoot at game at and what is your max distance?
 
LVJ76 said:
I'm guessing your using the Superformance ammo so the bullet is going pretty fast so this might contribute to bullet fragmentation on impact or "bullet blow up" as it's most commonly called.

At what distances do you normally shoot at game at and what is your max distance?
Click to expand...
On average most of my shots are between 200 to 500.
 
I have a thread about getting my buddies old rem 700 .30-06 up and running. We were able to get his group size down from 4 inches to 2 inches. He had several boxes of the Hornady superformance ammo in .30-06 185 grain I believe. The best we could do consistently was 2 inches. He shoots a nice buck at ~50-75 yards. He experienced the same thing. Clean pass through, no blood trail, exit hole a tad larger than entrance. Tracking job was about 150 yards. It's was planted pines so it was easy. If the buck had ran into briars or thickets it would have been a different story.

He's kind of stuck in his ways and doesn't want to change anything up during the season. So we are back to the drawing board as soon as deer season is over. Probably won't be using superformance again in his rifle.
 
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