Hornady SST questions

[Michael Eichele]

While I have tons of experience with the Hornady AMAX and BTSP's, I dont know anything about the SST's or the Interbonds.

I am interested in the SST's but I am looking for a bullet that will expand down to 1500 or 1600 FPS for sheep and deer. Does anybody know the expansion threshold for the SST's? Are the SST's and Interbonds similar to Nosler Ballistic tips and Accubonds repectively? I would use the Nosler BT due to their 1600 FPS expansion but they dont make them in the weight I am looking for so I am looking to alternatives. Hornady makes an SST in the weight I need and am hoping it will act like a BT.

M

 

[Long Time Long Ranger]

Michael, I have shot the ballistic tips and sst's quite a bit up in your country and all over. It depends on caliber and weight. Generaly ballistic tips 30 caliber and under have thin jackets and rapid expansion. In this range of bullets the sst's have a tougher jacket and do not expand as rapidly. I used the 150 sst on caribou at 3740 fps out of a 300 ultramag and the bullet went clear through on all shots. the ballistic tips would have blown apart inside the caribou at the velocities I hit them (350-650 yards). The sst's are similar to 338 and larger calibers 200 grain and higher ballistic tips which have a much stronger antimony lead core and a stronger jacket. Those ballistic tips hold together well.

Let me know the caliber and weight of the bullet your looking at and I may have had experience with it and can tell you exactly what it will do vs what the book says. I often find a big discrepancy there.

I want to do a lifesize mount of my dall sheep this year and am considering different options for performance considering minimal hide damage. At the same time being capable of shots from 50-500 yards.

 

[Michael Eichele]

I am looking specifically at the 338 cal 225 grain. I cant take the recoil of the 300 grainers in my 10# rifle anymore. I shot the 225 Nosler AB's and they flew great and the recoil was MUCH more managable. I would like to find a 225 that will open up at slightly lower velocities than the AB's for way out there.

Do you think the SST's suitable for moose (bones or no bones)?

 

[Long Time Long Ranger]

I have shot animals with both the 225 accubond and the 225 sst. From the bullets I have recovered or pieces thereof the 225 sst is a stronger tougher bullet than the 225 accubond. Shouldn't be and makes no since to me since nosler claims the 225 ab as a premium hunting bullet. But the 225 accubond has had complete bullet failure on several shots I have witnessed. Complete jacket seperation on an elk this year at 740 yards out of a 338 ultramag. Just pieces of bullet fragments was all that remained. Others may have good success with it but if it fails one time with me it carries that reputation. I have had good controled bullet expansion with everything I have shot with the 225 sst. Most are complete pass throughs but the exit wounds showed no sign of fragmentation. Recovered ones showed good controled expansion. In my opinion the 225 sst would be an excellent moose bullet. The bc and accuracy of the 225 ab is among the best but I am concerned about the fragmentation. The 225 sst looks like it should have about the same bc as the accubond and maybe they have it reported wrong. I have never tested it for bc but it is a very good looking bullet. BC is reported far less and I don't understand that just looking at the bullets. The 225 sst shoots very well in my guns concerning accuracy. My best groups though are with the accubond. But I am hunting and not shooting matches so to me they are about the same accuracy wise.

Most of my hunting is inside a half mile and I shoot the lighter bullets in my big 338's because of the recoil and the fact it allows me to get on target quickly using mil dots with the flatter trajectory. For me that is quicker and easier than turning clicks. The 225's will easily take animals at 914 yards because that is where I took my elk two years ago and it worked well. I have my 338 ultramag, one 338-300 ultramag, two 338 lapuas and two 338-378 wbys all set up shooting 200-225 grain bullets for this purpose. I have some set up with 300 smk's to shoot way out there. My rifles are 10-11 pound carry rifles and I agree the 300 smk will knock the living crap out of you even with a brake in a 10 pound rifle.

 

[winmag]

I origionaly went with 150gr SST's in my 270wsm, due to the high B.C., and same load data as IB's.(I couldnt find IB's anywhere). I worked up a load for them, 61gr IMR 4831, and they shot beautifully........ but when I shot 450 yds I recovered 2 of 24 bullets fired, and both had complete core/jacket seperation. Very unhappy so I swiched to 140gr accubonds, worked up a load, 64gr of RL-19 and shot 500 yds and recovered and weighed 5 mushroomed bullets. avg wt retained was 101.6 gr. Happy now.
**this was not a bullet test, I shot targets, and recovered bullets out of the dirt** But my velocity at 500 yds was (on paper anyway) 1428fps. I have no real data proving that speed, as I have no chronny, so my aprx speed was from the chart, and load data for the 140gr Accubonds.
Im happy now, but if I swich back to Hordady, I will shoot thier Bonded (IB) bullets or non bonded BTSP's. So I know what to expect for performance bonded or non bonded. Based on the game I hunt, and the yardage I usually see and shoot them, (600yds and less) I prefer a bonded bullet. If I were to strech the legs on my yardage a bit, Id consider the SST again. They do shoot beautifully!
I noticed Hornady offers SST's in thier Superformance ammo, but dont offer them in the WSM's.........Maybe its just my caliber choice???..........

 

[Long Time Long Ranger]

I checked the JBM calculator to answer your question. The 225 sst that killed the elk at 914 yards was traveling appr. 2120 fps at time of impact. It was a perfect mushroom under the off side hide. The bullet mushroomed to about .1" in front of the canelure. I know that is not down to your 1600 fps range but from that I would say it would open up and work on game. Load was 127 grains H-870 at 3470 fps out of a 338-378. 10,600 ft elevation.

Winmag, The 225 338 bullet is a much tougher bullet than the 150 277 bullet. From what you gathered I would shoot the ab in your case. I am changing over all my big guns from the 225 accubond to something else because I saw three complete failures with that bullet this year on game.

 

[FEENIX]

I don't quite remember who but I think one of our AUS or NZ friends uses the SST extensively on his big hunts.

Hopefully, he'll chime in.

Ed

 

[winmag]

I checked the JBM calculator to answer your question. The 225 sst that killed the elk at 914 yards was traveling appr. 2120 fps at time of impact. It was a perfect mushroom under the off side hide. The bullet mushroomed to about .1" in front of the canelure. I know that is not down to your 1600 fps range but from that I would say it would open up and work on game. Load was 127 grains H-870 at 3470 fps out of a 338-378. 10,600 ft elevation.

Winmag, The 225 338 bullet is a much tougher bullet than the 150 277 bullet. From what you gathered I would shoot the ab in your case. I am changing over all my big guns from the 225 accubond to something else because I saw three complete failures with that bullet this year on game.

Thanks for the heads up L.T.L.R., I own a 338win mag, that Im gonna load for as soon as I can afford to put glass on it. Mind if I ask what range your failures were at so I can choose a bullet accordingly? More information/research before I buy and load bullets for my 338win would help. Not trying to hijack this thread but it does pertain to data for Accubonds in Mr. Eichele's opener, so Im just continuing curiously. Thanks again

 

[signature542]

Hi

In the 270 win myself and other buddies use a lot of 130gn SST's

We have taken Thar, Chamois, Red Deer and Fallow... 58 gn of 2213SC very accurate .mild load.

All 1 shot drop on the spot...... had an exit on the red and rear leg recovery on the front chest shot Thar.


I use a lot of 180gn SST's in the 300wsm....

Last Sambar Stag at 236 yards took a low shoulder hit ...shattered leg taking heart etc and penetrated diagonally to under the skin on the opposite rib cage . Recovered weight under the skin 90gn...lovely mushroom the rest must be in the Sambar! I'm not worried about 100% retention as I have a bit of experience with bullets that are too hard!

He rolled after 5 steps and after I watched his leg crumple and jump in heart

Another buddy uses 180gn accubonds .. recovery around the same weight at 100 m...Blaser 300 win mag ..

Let me think..dead is dead.... 100 in a box versus 50... I get 19mm groups from the Howa 300wsm with custom wild dog stock... (68gn re19 with the 180 SST)

Its not broken, so I'm not changing to anything untill the SSt's fails me. Its not the be all and end all but they work well . 3 of us will not use the Barnes TTSX any more.

Interbonds in 270 win 130gn are also bang flop stuff..Hog deer last weekend!

I have used Accubonds before no issue... in fact the 160's in my T3 sporter 7mm RM shoot .389 so I'll keep you posted on this front. All good bullets I just like the fact that there a 100 in a box and thats more practice!


I have also purchased some 225gn SST's .338's whilst waiting for my custom Edge..just to find out if they work as well and i need something for run in. Another one that has worked well in the .338 win mag is the 250gn Hornady HPBT SST.. Night Force software is pretty well matched with this one.


Sierra 300gn are non existent down under at the moment.

 

[Miller Outdoors]

I'm not sure whether you'd get full expansion at 1600 or 1700 fps. My guess is no, it won't perform as well as a BT going that slowly.

As far as the SST bullet itself - it's quality. My son took a moose last year with his little Rem Model 7 6mm and the 95 gr SST - the bullet performed flawlessly. Granted, it was going way over the 1600 fps that you asked about.

Thinking more about it I think I'd opt for the heavier BT or V-max if I knew contact was going to be made at under 2,000 fps and if expansion/transfer of all energy was my concern.

 

[Long Time Long Ranger]

From what I have seen through the years the standard Hornady bullets (interlock,sst) overall hold together much better than the ballistic tips until you get to the 200 grain 338 ballistic tip. Ballistic tips will open up much quicker. Unfortunately they quit making the 200 grain 338 ballistic tip. Me and a number of my friends used that bullet out of all kinds of big 338's from the time it was introduced till we ran out of them. Perfect bullet performance from 50 yards to over 1000 yards every time. It was as good a hunting bullet as I have ever used in 40 years. So when I ran out of them I went to the 225 accubond for the high BC and thought the performance would be better since they charge for and call it a premium bullet. It is one of the worst bullets I have ever seen for performance on game. From what I have seen it will completely come apart into fragments on most shots. I am going back to the 225 sst, one of the Barnes bullets or something else. I will not shoot the 225 AB again at game. If you can find some 200 grain ballistic tips I would suggest you get those and use them and if anybody can find some I would like buy them.

With my 338- 378 I shot consistent groups in the 3"-4" range at 650 yards with a muzzle velocity of over 3600 fps. My best group was just over 3" at exactly 1/2 mile. The closest kill shot I can remember was with Sniper2 and I shot a large muley buck running at 100 or so yards through both shoulders with a perfect mushroomed bullet under the hide. The longest was shooting caribou over 1000 yards. Again with perfect bullet performance. Now that is what I call a good bullet to perform through all those velocity ranges.

The 180 ballistic tip opens quicker than the 200 ballistic tip and I think you can still get those. If you wanted a light 338 bullet that would perform well at low velocity that is the one I would suggest. At high velocity though I would be concerned of it blowing apart. I use it out of my 338 Gibbs and it does well at the slower velocities.

 

[winmag]

Hey L.T.L.R, I noticed Hornady now offers a 200gr ''flex tip/leverrevolution'' bullet in .338 And Combined Technologies offers a 200gr balistic silvertip, if your interested.

 

[Long Time Long Ranger]

Thanks, I haven't seen that one but that may be another Michael would like to consider also.