Hornady SST

[marty]

Not having any luck with SST bullets out of my muzzleloader expanding on deer.  They have been the most accurate bullet i have shot but cant take the close calls on finding my animals. Anybody have suggestions for a polymer tiped bullet that is reliable?

[BOWHUNTER45]

where are you hitting them..? in the shoulder , behind the shoulder or dead center threw the lungs.. Do not know much about the muzzleloader sst but I shoot sst out of my rifles and i love them ...

[carpsniperg2]

Barnes tmz 250 or 290's or if you want lead dead centers The sst bullets are known for shooting great! But a lot of people have had the same problems with them not opening.

[marty]

Through the lungs in and out no expansion.

[marty]

Thanks carp I will be looking into them soon.  Early muzzleloader season will be here before we know it!

[carpsniperg2]

No prob, at close range a lot of the bullets threw the lungs will zip in and then right out. Most modern copper plated muzzleloader bullets start to open good at about 75yards. Much under that they just punch threw when you hit nothing but rib's. Had very good luck with the ones I have listed. I have taken 2 deer with the tmz's since the change. With the dead center's I have taken a lot more.

[deadyote]

I shot my bull at 167 yards last year and the bullet was flat on the back side if the hide.  I am still going to try the Barnes because everyone I have talked to has raved about them.  It's hard to change when I am shooting 4" groups at 200 yards with the Hornady SST's. 

[carpsniperg2]

I shot my bull at 167 yards last year and the bullet was flat on the back side if the hide.  I am still going to try the Barnes because everyone I have talked to has raved about them.  It's hard to change when I am shooting 4" groups at 200 yards with the Hornady SST's.

At that far any bullets should expand well. It's the close range shots that they just punch right threw because of the speed of the bullet at close range. When they are out there say 150 yards the bullet slows down and it gives them a chance to expand better.

[marty]

Had a buck last year in East Klickitat take one through the lungs at 110 yards and ran about 200 yards and lay down. So i waited where i could watch him after 4 or 5 minutes he got up and jumped a fence I was luckily able to sneak around and cut him off to finnish what i started. Both bullets just zipped right through.

[carpsniperg2]

Well if you are hunting in east klick, you should try patched round balls and save the big ones for someone else

[marty]

Might have to. Planning on drawing my moose tag don't think i will have the freezer space for a deer.

[Blsum]

For me personally I love the accuracy that I can get out of the Hornady sst bullets. However during some milk jug testing at 100 yards, I found that the recovered bullets didn't preform all that well.



As you can see there wasn't really all that much left of the bullet when I recovered it.

Before we could use the copper bullets I use to shoot the Dead center bullets. However the one bull I shot with them went a little farther then i would of liked. The same test I did with the sst's came up with this result in the dead centers.



But like carp said. The Barnes TMZ bullets are the bomb. Almost as accurate as the sst's but with deadly performance. The two deer that we got this last year dropped in there tracks. Both bullets where recovered and both looked almost the same as the bullet that I tested.



I absolutely love these bullets. You may pay a little more for them but it is all worth it.

Just for S's & G's here are the two deer we got with the Barnes bullets.

[MHWASH]

I've used the 300 SST on 1 deer, a small doe # about 40 yards. I did not recover the bullet, but looking at the carass the bullet expanded well. She ran about 50 yards.

[Sabotloader]

Not having any luck with SST bullets out of my muzzleloader expanding on deer.  They have been the most accurate bullet i have shot but cant take the close calls on finding my animals. Anybody have suggestions for a polymer tipped bullet that is reliable?

What you are discussing is not really that uncommon for most any tipped bullet shot at ML speeds.  You can read this same scenario on just about any forum.  It just happens, not always for sure, but enough that it raises some questions.

I use to shoot the SST or SW quite a bit - they are one of the most accurate bullet I have ever shot, but results were not the best for me.

I have always had a problem with the durability of the lead copper bullets at ML speeds. So I began torching testing the here locally.  Even when hunting elk in the old days with a centerfire 300 Win Mag – I found that I could shoot the lead out of the copper.  I use to shoot Hornady lead copper at elk – I would find the copper just inside the hide and the traveled on… the animal was dead – he just did not know it for awhile.

As a result I started testing bullets in a home devised torture test, and I admit it is was devised to destroy bullets…

This is the result of shooting 250 SST into a wet clay soil bank…  The copper was stripped from the lead…



Same results for the XTP series…



The only regular priced production bullet that I have tested that seemed to stand the test were Speer Gold Dot bullets now called Deep Curl’s…



Of course, the premium bullets like Barnes, Nosler Partitions, and the new Lehigh’s/Bloodlines can not strip…
I should also mention, I am not a fan of tipped bullets anyway at ML speeds and velocities.

I copied this from another one of my posts…

 

They look good, I have read about them before. Might have to look into them. I like the poly tipped bullets better then the hollow points. But might give them a shot.

Again this is really just one guys opinion... but I have shot a lot of different bullets, and coming from being a nut about bullet BC during my centerfire days.  It really did not take me long to figure out that at muzzleloader velocities and muzzleloader range (my self imposed max is 200 yards with a scope) BC is not all that critical.  It is what the bullet does when it gets there... Terminal Performance, well and accuracy of course.

For myself... I must admit most of my shots I would be 60 yards with some so close you could measure them in feet.  But even though my average harvest is 60 yards - I still load for 200 - just in case! you just never KNOW!!!  Because of that when I was using the SST/SW with poly tips - there were a few occasions that I shot an animal at close range and ended shooting a nice 45 cal hole – right through the animal.  The bullet got in and out of the animal so fast that it had no time to expand.

Thinking about this, I thought about the 460 grain Bull Shop conicals that I shoot during our ML season, why do the work so well over all the ranges?  I decided it was the meplat of bullet – that is what caused it to work so well… From there, I moved back to the HP to get the same effect – large meplat in the body creating one heck of Hydrostatic Shock in the organs…

What I loose in a lower BC – I more than make up in effect of Terminal Performance…

On the other hand if I were shooting a lot at 200 yards and beyond – yep! I want a pointy bullet…

[SkookumHntr]

For me personally I love the accuracy that I can get out of the Hornady sst bullets. However during some milk jug testing at 100 yards, I found that the recovered bullets didn't preform all that well.



As you can see there wasn't really all that much left of the bullet when I recovered it.

Before we could use the copper bullets I use to shoot the Dead center bullets. However the one bull I shot with them went a little farther then i would of liked. The same test I did with the sst's came up with this result in the dead centers.



But like carp said. The Barnes TMZ bullets are the bomb. Almost as accurate as the sst's but with deadly performance. The two deer that we got this last year dropped in there tracks. Both bullets where recovered and both looked almost the same as the bullet that I tested.



I absolutely love these bullets. You may pay a little more for them but it is all worth it.

Just for S's & G's here are the two deer we got with the Barnes bullets.

-Im Going with the Barnes for the same reason! Love the testing you guys do on those Bullets