Hornady SST Bullet Performance / 6.5 - 06

[whatnickname]

Looking for some advice on the 6.5 (264")129 grain Hornady SST. I usually use Nosler Ballistic Tip bullets for deer hunting. All of the craziness created by our beloved president Obama and the anti gun lobby created a shortage of Nosler products this past spring so I opted for the seemingly similar 129 grain Hornady SST 6.5 bullet. My load pushed this bullet at 3000 fps MV. Shot a 130 pound doe for meat this past Wednesday...100 yard broad side shot behind the shoulders. The bullet went through and through and completely eliminated the lungs just 2" below her spine. She was dead before she hit the ground...didn't even twitch. Seemingly outstanding performance right? This past Thursday a nice 8 point (160 pounds) stepped out at 144 yards. He was in the rut and only stopping to get a few bites of food. As he turned to leave, I got a quartering away side shot looking at his left side. I generally like quartering away shots. I lined up on the far side shoulder (the shoulder I couldn't see) and squeezed the trigger. The little 1909 Argentine Mauser I had built up did it's job again. When I got over there my deer wasn't dead. There was no exit wound. I finished him off with my handgun. This is very upsetting to me. I've killed dozens of deer in the past 50 years and this was only the second deer that didn't hit the ground stone dead. When we skinned him at the processing plant, I discovered why. The bullet core separated from the jacket and fragmented; a classic example of bullet failure in my opinion. The far side shoulder was never impacted by the round. The bullet entered the left side of his rib cage about 2/3s of the way back and (in line with the center of the right shoulder) just in front of his diaphram. Has anyone else had similar experience with Hornady SST bullets? Am I pushing this bullet too fast? Did I just happen to get a bad bullet? I've killed half a dozen deer with Hornady SST bullets and this is the first experience like this I've had

 

[horsey300]

I don't know what hornady recommends for impact velocity, but 3000 mv doesn't seem too extreme, HOWEVER, testing the sst in my brother's 338 at 50-100 yds revealed 2/3 bullets fragmenting all to pieces, all energy being dumped immediately but shallow penetration. Feasible for frontal or broadside or even quartering away but you have to plan the detonation point rather than bullet path. At the other end of the spectrum the gmx performed wonderfully at close range only recovering 2/5 bullets completely expanded and intact with heavy energy transfer trauma signs. For his final load, I gave him hot cors that have yet to be tested. I use hornady cup and cores but if I want a ballistic tip I buy a nosler. Same with the etip, the etip cavity creates better expansion to the rifling than gmx or tsx. I think your experience with the sst could be better if you slowed them down but otherwise I encountered your same dilemma.

 

[Peakbagger46]

I had a similar experience last year with a 180g SST out of my 30-06. Took a medium sized mule deer buck at around 80 yards. Placement was behind the shoulder on a broadside shot. The bullet deflected off a rib on entry and managed to exit out the spine!

He was DRT, but I switched back to Accubonds. Not impressed with a deflection off a deers rib bone!

 

[Wreck-n-Crew]

I don't know about hunting but I've had a hard time getting any accuracy out of the SST. I've had awesome accuracy from the V-Max. So figured Hornady, Match grade. But just Average MOA-sub MOA. YMMV.

 

[horsey300]

I had a similar experience last year with a 180g SST out of my 30-06. Took a medium sized mule deer buck at around 80 yards. Placement was behind the shoulder on a broadside shot. The bullet deflected off a rib on entry and managed to exit out the spine!

He was DRT, but I switched back to Accubonds. Not impressed with a deflection off a deers rib bone!

Congrats on getting an exit at all so close! Maybe because it was a 180.... still....I think the sst could use either a bit thicker jacket or better taper. Too bad Sierra doesn't put a polymer tip on the prohunters.....not that they really need to improve.

 

[farmerboy78]

I have a 6.5-06 that's full custom that I get multi use out of. Competition and hunting. I only use the 140 berger hybrid @ about 2900ish fps. I took a whitetail doe last hunting season @ 875yds and she was drt. Hit 2" behind the right shoulder and exited at the front of the left shoulder. Her legs just fell out from under her. Give the berger hybrid a shot if you twist rate will allow, I'm running a 1in8.5" twist bartlein!

 

[Ks5shooter]

I use SST'S in every one of my hunting rifles. One shot dead in their tracks everytime.

 

[salt&battery]

Looking for some advice on the 6.5 (264")129 grain Hornady SST. I usually use Nosler Ballistic Tip bullets for deer hunting. All of the craziness created by our beloved president Obama and the anti gun lobby created a shortage of Nosler products this past spring so I opted for the seemingly similar 129 grain Hornady SST 6.5 bullet. My load pushed this bullet at 3000 fps MV. Shot a 130 pound doe for meat this past Wednesday...100 yard broad side shot behind the shoulders. The bullet went through and through and completely eliminated the lungs just 2" below her spine. She was dead before she hit the ground...didn't even twitch. Seemingly outstanding performance right? This past Thursday a nice 8 point (160 pounds) stepped out at 144 yards. He was in the rut and only stopping to get a few bites of food. As he turned to leave, I got a quartering away side shot looking at his left side. I generally like quartering away shots. I lined up on the far side shoulder (the shoulder I couldn't see) and squeezed the trigger. The little 1909 Argentine Mauser I had built up did it's job again. When I got over there my deer wasn't dead. There was no exit wound. I finished him off with my handgun. This is very upsetting to me. I've killed dozens of deer in the past 50 years and this was only the second deer that didn't hit the ground stone dead. When we skinned him at the processing plant, I discovered why. The bullet core separated from the jacket and fragmented; a classic example of bullet failure in my opinion. The far side shoulder was never impacted by the round. The bullet entered the left side of his rib cage about 2/3s of the way back and (in line with the center of the right shoulder) just in front of his diaphram. Has anyone else had similar experience with Hornady SST bullets? Am I pushing this bullet too fast? Did I just happen to get a bad bullet? I've killed half a dozen deer with Hornady SST bullets and this is the first experience like this I've had

a buck in rut in December?

 

[whatnickname]

a buck in rut in December?

Smelled worse than a whore in church. Neck swollen...trust me. He was in the rut!

 

[Nature Boy]

The buck I shot 2nd week in December last year was still in rut.

Regarding SSTs, if you've killed 6 DRT and 1 MDRT (mostly dead right there), I'd call that 100% successful

 

[salt&battery]

The buck I shot 2nd week in December last year was still in rut.

Regarding SSTs, if you've killed 6 DRT and 1 MDRT (mostly dead right there), I'd call that 100% successful

do you live in south florida? I have never witnessed that. any doe that can be is pregnant by mid November. bucks rut here in NY and 5 other states I hunted in october

 

[Nature Boy]

West Texas

His neck was swollen, he'd been pissing all over himself and he was still chasing.

It was unusual, but not unheard of

 

[Tony k]

My experience with SST is similar to the OPs. They expand kinda like a varmint bullet, and I think they are supposed to.

I've found the SST in 270win to be more explosive compared to Sierra Game King's. I almost always find bullet fragments and massive wound channels with the SST. IIRC, Ive killed 2 pronghorn, 3 whitetails, 3 mule deer, 2 elk, and one black bear with 130 and 140 grain SST. All were drt except for the bear, who managed to go about 20 yards.

I switched to game kings because I didn't like the way the sst blows apart. however, the last elk I shot was with game kings and it ran about 100 yards with a broadside lung shot. As I approached, she stood back up so I put another one in her lungs, which did the job. Both shots had exit wounds a little bigger than a quarter. By comparison, the exit "track" of an SST is normally a larger, more ragged hole.

 

[MrBorland]

I just took a nice buck a few days ago with a 6.5 140 SST out of my 260 Remington. First time I used SSTs and it worked beautifully - heart shot at 100y, quarter-sized exit hole, and tremendous blood loss.

Reading between the lines here, elsewhere where the SSTs are discussed, it seems they do well when loaded to moderate levels. I didn't do much load development with this load, and didn't even get a chance to chrono it, but my guess is that it runs 2600-2630fps from my 20" barrel. I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that running a 129gr SST at 3000fps is pushing it's design limits.

 

[whatnickname]

I just took a nice buck a few days ago with a 6.5 140 SST out of my 260 Remington. First time I used SSTs and it worked beautifully - heart shot at 100y, quarter-sized exit hole, and tremendous blood loss.

Reading between the lines here, elsewhere where the SSTs are discussed, it seems they do well when loaded to moderate levels. I didn't do much load development with this load, and didn't even get a chance to chrono it, but my guess is that it runs 2600-2630fps from my 20" barrel. I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that running a 129gr SST at 3000fps is pushing it's design limits.

Just checked the Hornady reloading manuals 9 and 10. Both show the MV range for the 129 grain SST at 1600 to 3300 fps. One thing I do know is that this bullet acted like a varmint bullet. I'm inclined to agree with you for that reason. Also agree with what Horsey300 offered. Better to contemplate a detonation point with these bullets rather than a bullet path. Looks like my mistake was in concluding that since my actual MV was around the middle range shown in the manual that I had any reasonable chance of a pass through shot. Going forward I'm going to go with either the Nosler Accubond or the tried and true Nosler Partition

 

[Coltdriver]

Hey Whatnickname thats some pretty good results even if one was iffy. Bullets designed to explode do so with the first upset so maybe it hit a rib, grenaded and fragmented in the process. I have used Bergers but they are only good for a straight broadside shot as they totally grenade. I am with you on the Partitions, you get the best of the grenade function with a near certain pass thru. Thanks for the info, I have some SST's but never tried hunting with them.

 

[farmerboy78]

Down here in the south (arkansas) deer Rut mid to late November for the main Rut. Then a few weeks later the yearling does begin to breed and there's another small round of the Ruth in dec.

As far as bergers exploding, from my experience, they do. Well at least partially, the nose explodes and the base passes through entirely, on whitetails. I use there target designed vlds and hybrids for my long range hunting. And the amax is the only other bullet I use.

 

[Captcurt]

Smelled worse than a whore in church. Neck swollen...trust me. He was in the rut!

a buck in rut in December?

Pretty common around here. We have such a screwed up buck to doe ratio that we have 4 or 5 months of rut. I have seen bucks birddogging does from Oct 1st thru February. Had a large fawn in the yard in late April this year and saw small spotted fawns in October.

 

[salt&battery]

Pretty common around here. We have such a screwed up buck to doe ratio that we have 4 or 5 months of rut. I have seen bucks birddogging does from Oct 1st thru February. Had a large fawn in the yard in late April this year and saw small spotted fawns in October.

I think them deer got into the moonshiners firewater

 

[1911 guy]

There are no sure things when bullets meet living tissue. If you've killed 6 other deer DRT and this one dropped and didn't take off, that's a 100% anchor rate and over 85% DRT. Sounds like A Hornady commercial.
Like any other ethical hunter, we all strive for the immediate kill, if you're going to take an animal do it fast and efficient. But in the end we all simply play the odds. We try to stack the deck in our favor by bullet choice, caliber choice, passing on shots we're not confident in making. But a milliseconds after the trigger is pulled, it's out of our hands. We weed out the poor performers. I wouldn't call those percentages poor performance.

 

[Llama Bob]

The SST is a very lightly constructed bullet.

Personally I would use a more premium bullet that sheds less weight and will retain its jacket.

 

[horsey300]

Just checked the Hornady reloading manuals 9 and 10. Both show the MV range for the 129 grain SST at 1600 to 3300 fps. One thing I do know is that this bullet acted like a varmint bullet. I'm inclined to agree with you for that reason. Also agree with what Horsey300 offered. Better to contemplate a detonation point with these bullets rather than a bullet path. Looks like my mistake was in concluding that since my actual MV was around the middle range shown in the manual that I had any reasonable chance of a pass through shot. Going forward I'm going to go with either the Nosler Accubond or the tried and true Nosler Partition

I'd also throw in the 120 pro hunter.....the wife was penetrating within 1" of .270 130 hotcors at 100 yds on a 12" elm stump and at 50 yds, 2 exits on 1 muley with a .243 2987 fps 100 ph, the primary, from a hard quartering to, creating a grenade cavity mid far rib with either a piece of rib or jacket slitting out the far ham. Sierra just does it. And cheaper than a partition....I love partitions, truly, but I was in awe of the pro hunter...........ETA: pumpkins at 300 look like a btip hit em.

 

[whatnickname]

There are no sure things when bullets meet living tissue. If you've killed 6 other deer DRT and this one dropped and didn't take off, that's a 100% anchor rate and over 85% DRT. Sounds like A Hornady commercial.
Like any other ethical hunter, we all strive for the immediate kill, if you're going to take an animal do it fast and efficient. But in the end we all simply play the odds. We try to stack the deck in our favor by bullet choice, caliber choice, passing on shots we're not confident in making. But a milliseconds after the trigger is pulled, it's out of our hands. We weed out the poor performers. I wouldn't call those percentages poor performance.

I understand where you're coming from...six shots and six dead deer. Five of the six were stone dead before they hit the ground. I never take iffy or low probability shots. I let 'em walk out of a sense of responsibility to the sport and the animal. I didn't muff this shot. I put that bullet exactly where I intended and where, up until this point, the end result produced a deer that was DRT. This last buck I shot wasn't going anywhere, as apparently one or more core fragments had caught him in the spine just in front of his hind quarters. His hind quarters were in operative. It near broke my heart watching him struggle to get up. I carry a .44 magnum handgun for a reason and I'm glad I had it with me last week. A 240 grain hollow point pretty much settled the matter on the spot. That said there are just no words to describe how bad I feel about making him suffer like that, even if only for a little while. Not taking one deer cleanly really bothers me.

 

[CB900F]

Fella's;

I've tried a couple of Hornady SST bullets, the 150 grain .30 caliber and the 225 grain .338 caliber. Neither could meet my accuracy requirements. In 6.5 I've settled on the 140 grain Sierra GameKing & had excellent results both with accuracy and terminal performance. Though the 140 leaves the muzzle at a fairly modest velocity, 2725 fps, it still carry's well over 1100 ft. lbs. of energy at 500 yards due to the B/C.

Generally speaking, I suggest that most 6.5's will benefit from using anybody's 140 grain bullet over lighter offerings.

900F

 

[whatnickname]

Fella's;

I've tried a couple of Hornady SST bullets, the 150 grain .30 caliber and the 225 grain .338 caliber. Neither could meet my accuracy requirements. In 6.5 I've settled on the 140 grain Sierra GameKing & had excellent results both with accuracy and terminal performance. Though the 140 leaves the muzzle at a fairly modest velocity, 2725 fps, it still carry's well over 1100 ft. lbs. of energy at 500 yards due to the B/C.

Generally speaking, I suggest that most 6.5's will benefit from using anybody's 140 grain bullet over lighter offerings.

900F

Probably not a bad way to go. I went with the 130 grain because of my fondness for the 130 grain bullet in the 270. Kind of hard not to compare the two rounds all things considered. With the higher BC of the 6.5 bullet I figured it would likely be a better mouse trap. Don't get me wrong, I love the 270 but IMO if someone had invented the 6.5 - 06 first, I doubt the world would have ever seen the 270.