First kill with Hornady SST in .308 Win.

[Darkhorse]

I've shot Hornady bullets in my hunting rifles for at least 30 years, mostly the Interlock bullet in 7mm Mag. and .300 Win. Mag. and more recently the Interbond in .308 Winchester. I've used these bullets from close Georgia deer and hogs to Elk in New Mexico and Colorado. Bottom line is I've gotten excellent performance from both bullets. Regardless of the hit or distance they killed quick without a lot of ruined, bloodshot meat.
One bullet I've shied away from is the SST, I was afraid that bullet might turn out to be on the explosive side. The 150 grain Interbond shoots great and performs perfect and I had settled on this bullet for my .308. Then Hornady stopped producing these bullets and now they only do one short run a year. All my supply was finally used up and I was looking for another bullet. So finally I decided to try the 150 grain SST in the Superformance line.
So yesterday morning I had a smallish 9 point running straight towards me with only a frontal shot available. I shot him at 174 yards dead center in the neck without an exit wound and he went down so fast I lost him in my scope.
When I skinned him out he was a bloody mess on the inside. Close to half the meat is ruined. Not what I am looking for in a deer bullet. Thing is, the bullet performed exactly the way I had thought it would. I won't be hunting with this bullet again, I need to put more effort into getting my hands on some Interbonds, if not that maybe some Accubonds. Or maybe I'll just go with the old standby and load some 150 grain Interlocks.

 

[Big7]

I've shot Hornady bullets in my hunting rifles for at least 30 years, mostly the Interlock bullet in 7mm Mag. and .300 Win. Mag. and more recently the Interbond in .308 Winchester. I've used these bullets from close Georgia deer and hogs to Elk in New Mexico and Colorado. Bottom line is I've gotten excellent performance from both bullets. Regardless of the hit or distance they killed quick without a lot of ruined, bloodshot meat.
One bullet I've shied away from is the SST, I was afraid that bullet might turn out to be on the explosive side. The 150 grain Interbond shoots great and performs perfect and I had settled on this bullet for my .308. Then Hornady stopped producing these bullets and now they only do one short run a year. All my supply was finally used up and I was looking for another bullet. So finally I decided to try the 150 grain SST in the Superformance line.
So yesterday morning I had a smallish 9 point running straight towards me with only a frontal shot available. I shot him at 174 yards dead center in the neck without an exit wound and he went down so fast I lost him in my scope.
When I skinned him out he was a bloody mess on the inside. Close to half the meat is ruined. Not what I am looking for in a deer bullet. Thing is, the bullet performed exactly the way I had thought it would. I won't be hunting with this bullet again, I need to put more effort into getting my hands on some Interbonds, if not that maybe some Accubonds. Or maybe I'll just go with the old standby and load some 150 grain Interlocks.

I have not had that experience with the SST's. They are one of my "go to" projectiles in several calibers.

They perform just as advertised for me.
Full disclosure here. I don't own a .308/7.62X51 NATO. I shoot (projectiles) both regularly in 7.62X54 R in a .310 bbl. The case capacity of the .308 and 7.62X54R are very similar so I would expect the results

I may have a box or 2 of you need either SST or InterBond if you need a few.. Not for sale per Forum rules. I can spot you 8 or 10 for hunting. PM me your shipping/ receiving address. I have all kinds of "stuff" in different locations. Might take a week to find and sort out.

 

[Big7]

Oh yeah. I've shot them in a bolt action carbine. Variant, Savage 110.. With the box magazine and bbl. nut.?

 

[Darkhorse]

Thanks for the offer Big7, if I was really in need I'd take you up on it. But my plan was/is to hunt with my flintlock the remainder of the season if I took this buck. If I run into another buck and can get some distance I have 4 or 5 Interbonds squirreled away. Or I can break out my 7mm Mag., the last kill I made with that rifle was a bull elk in 1996. Both of these rifles are sighted in and ready to go.
Again, thanks for the offer.
DH

 

[Pig Predator]

Nice shot!

 

[NCHillbilly]

First, congrats on the buck!
I like the SSTs, but only in slower calibers. They perform great in my 7.62x39 AR. I've killed several deer and other critters with them, and they do a good job. I wouldn't shoot them in the faster calibers, though, I don't think.

 

[Buckman18]

I shoot 150 Superformance SST's in one of my 30-06's. Ive not had that experience overall in the dozens of deer ive shot with them regarding a lot of ruined meat. They perform well, and when they run, they usually leave a decent enough blood trail. The bullets ive recovered generally retain 75-80% of weight.

 

[JustUs4All]

I would expect that hit with about any hunting bullet to take down the deer immediately. Here are a few questions so that we can get a better idea of what happened to the bullet.

Was the meat ruined by bullet fragments or gut contents?
Did the bullet path cause it to impact the spine?
After traversing the neck/chest, did the bullet travel high into the back strap area or low into the gut area?

 

[frankwright]

I also wonder how a neck shot ruined most of the body meat?

 

[Darkhorse]

The meat was ruined or most of it anyway, by bullet fragments. I am not sure about the exact bullet path because it was dark but I am sure about some things.
The area around the entrance hole was bloodshot. The left shoulder was nothing but red jelly, probably total loss.
Instead of traveling straight down the spine it entered the chest cavity. The heart was in several pieces as were at least the front of the lungs. The diaphragm was difficult to be sure of due to it was already in pieces.
Beyond the diaphragm was plenty of loose stomach contents and chunks of jellied meat floating in dark blood.
A bullet fragment got into the spine about 2/3's of the way back but not too bad. But there was still blood and meat chunks all the way back.
It looks like the major damage was to the neck and shoulder area. The tenderloins appear to be intact as well as most of the back strap. I'm not sure about the damage to the front of the backstraps.
Hornady says these bullets are traveling around 3,000 fps which might be a little fast for these bullets. I have shot several deer and hogs of various sizes with the Superformance Interbond with nothing close to this amount of damage.
Looking at the hit from another perspective, If I had a broadside shot and impacted a rib would the damage be similiar? I shot a buck years ago with the 140 grain nosler partition loaded to the max. broadside at 25 yards. The damage was similar.
A couple of other things, I would not have shot a buck that size with a centerfire rifle. I prefer to let them grow a bit more. I also would not have chosen a frontal shot into the chest area. But I'm still getting a handle on this Sugar Diabetes thing and was having a hard time getting it under control that morning. So when things happened so fast I just reacted and shot a juvenile buck.
I wish I could get that one back.

 

[ringorock]

Hey, grats on the buck! I just shot an 8 pointer today with my t3x too. Sierra game king. I love them.

 

[NCHillbilly]

The meat was ruined or most of it anyway, by bullet fragments. I am not sure about the exact bullet path because it was dark but I am sure about some things.
The area around the entrance hole was bloodshot. The left shoulder was nothing but red jelly, probably total loss.
Instead of traveling straight down the spine it entered the chest cavity. The heart was in several pieces as were at least the front of the lungs. The diaphragm was difficult to be sure of due to it was already in pieces.
Beyond the diaphragm was plenty of loose stomach contents and chunks of jellied meat floating in dark blood.
A bullet fragment got into the spine about 2/3's of the way back but not too bad. But there was still blood and meat chunks all the way back.
It looks like the major damage was to the neck and shoulder area. The tenderloins appear to be intact as well as most of the back strap. I'm not sure about the damage to the front of the backstraps.
Hornady says these bullets are traveling around 3,000 fps which might be a little fast for these bullets. I have shot several deer and hogs of various sizes with the Superformance Interbond with nothing close to this amount of damage.
Looking at the hit from another perspective, If I had a broadside shot and impacted a rib would the damage be similiar? I shot a buck years ago with the 140 grain nosler partition loaded to the max. broadside at 25 yards. The damage was similar.
A couple of other things, I would not have shot a buck that size with a centerfire rifle. I prefer to let them grow a bit more. I also would not have chosen a frontal shot into the chest area. But I'm still getting a handle on this Sugar Diabetes thing and was having a hard time getting it under control that morning. So when things happened so fast I just reacted and shot a juvenile buck.
I wish I could get that one back.

I shot a big doe a couple weeks ago with a SST in the 7.62x39. Shot center of shoulder. Broadside. The bullet entered the shoulder, and exited through the center of the brisket. Impacted shoulder had a lot of bloodshot meat, ( about the same with any bullet,) and the whole inside of the chest cavity looked like cranberry sauce. No wasted meat except for part of the entrance shoulder and some brisket meat. The deer ran about 20 yards, leaving a blood trail that Stevie Wonder could have followed.

 

[jbogg]

I shot two good size hogs last May with the SST 165 grain in 308. Both were standing broadside and within 30 yards. Both pigs ran approximately 25 to 30 yards before piling up. There was not Any excessive meat damage. I stay away from the shoulder, so it was nothing but ribs on either side.

 

[Darkhorse]

It had been my intention to only take those broadside, behind the shoulder shots with the SST's and to stay away from the shoulders, back and legs. But for some reason I did something totally different.
Usually I'm a disciplined shooter and don't make stupid mistakes like this. Maybe it's the old age kicking in?

 

[Dub]

It had been my intention to only take those broadside, behind the shoulder shots with the SST's and to stay away from the shoulders, back and legs. But for some reason I did something totally different.
Usually I'm a disciplined shooter and don't make stupid mistakes like this. Maybe it's the old age kicking in?

First, congrats on a good kill....with tenderloin & backstraps in good shape.

I was sorta surprised to see you used factory ammo. I figured you’d have worked up something for that sweet rifle.

I would’ve thought the 150gr SST would’ve been well behaved at .308 velocities. I’m not familiar with the Superperfomance ammo, but I’m guessing it nudges it up to .30’06 territory.

You have me rethinking using it in my ‘06 rifles whenever I finally get around to doing working up loads. I may stick with the 165gr SST heads. I was going to try both in each rifle and see how they shot.

Glad to see you hunting and you got a good kill that will be tasty. Sorry for the lost meat.

Don’t sweat the getting older aspects of life. The fix for that is to stay active and do fun things. I’d say you have a handle on that.

Great hunting ahead.

 

[JustUs4All]

Congratulations on a good deer, Darkhorse. You made an excellent shot on that deer. I hope you didn't take my questions as complaints on your shot or choice of ammo. I was just trying to find out what happened inside the deer.

I have shot 150 gr SSTs in my .308 for a long time and I like the bullet. I shoot mine out of a 16-1/4" barrel and am not pushing my bullets nearly as fast as those Superformance ones. I have had very good success on shots from the side and quartering shots. I have yet to need to take one head on but would not hesitate to based on the performance I get through the side. I would expect more damage than I would like including gut shot damage since the 150 gr bullet should carry well back into that area.

Based on your description of the damage, I suspect the bullet might have contacted the spine in the lower neck and fragmented at that point sending fragments where they should not go. Enjoy the backstraps and the hams should be good to go. Congratulations again on a good hunt.

 

[transfixer]

I picked up some 125gr SST's to load in .300blk a while back, haven't gotten around to it yet, haven't tried them in anything else, I know I don't like using ballistic tips for the reason that they blow up so badly, damaging more meat than necessary, I guess the SST's do the same thing if driven at higher velocities, I know I will not use a ballistic tip in a .308 or 06, and now had added .300blk to that list, a deer I took last year with a 125gr ballistic tip crumbled up within 40yds, but the bullet came all apart and didn't exit the other side, no blood trail, and it was only going about 2100fps or so, I thought the SST's were supposed to hold together better than that, I guess I'll find out.

 

[JustUs4All]

Mine usually do. With my short barrel and relatively light load I am driving the 150 gr version at about 2,400 fps out of my .308.

 

[model88_308]

I believe that any of us could hunt with a well known bullet, be it a Core Lokt, Partition, Power Point, Accubond, Interbond, Game King, TSX, or SST for several seasons and many harvests and still not "know" the bullet thoroughly.

There are countless variables involved in every shot and every harvest. This make bullet "performance" all but impossible to blueprint. I made a quality hit on a big Kentucky buck with a favorite combination; .35 Whelen and a 200gr Federal Fusions. Long story short, I finally killed that Buck some 300+ yards away after blowing one of his times off as he attempted to get up at 5' from me.

I know better than to blame the cartridge or the bullet or even the original shot, and will happily use the same load again.

I don't have a lot of experience with the 150gr 30 Cal SST. I shot a big Tn buck with one out of a .300RCM @ 3120 FPS. It dropped that Buck in his tracks and killed a doe behind him as well at about 250 yards. I also know better than to think that the SST is the only bullet I should use now in all my rifles, because of that wonderful performance I experienced.

It's just the way hunting, hunters, animals and bullets work in conjunction that counts.

 

[bullethead]

I tried the SST bullets when they first came out. I loaded the 150gr in a .308 a little over 2800fps. I've always used Interlocks or Ballistic Tips in that rifle and was always pleased, but I am a sucker for new bullets.
Anyway my Son shot a buck at less than 50yds. 1st shot the deer just shook and stood there so he quickly bolted another round in and fired again. The buck bolted and fell over about 40yds away. Very dead but neither bullet stayed intact and neither penetrated to the other side on perfect lung shots. Both bullets impacted 2" from each other. They came apart with barely any jacket core left although the lungs were pulverized. We have not used them since.
The Interlocks have always performed wonderfully with very few ever recovered. The Ballistic Tips, since they redesigned them for larger game have done well also. The SST performed like the earlier BTips when the jackets were thin.