Hornady SST Superformance

[Brian in Montana]

My .308 seems to like this ammo. I'm shooting the 165 grain loads about 1 MOA. The .308 is new and I've never hunted with it. I've had some good results in the past with Hornady ammo, I've shot a handful of deer and one elk with the Hornady Interlocked - American Whitetail, and been impressed with the results on the business end. The SST, there seems to be a lot of whamo in the ammo. It's moving pretty darn fast for a .308, but I was wondering if anybody has hunted with them and how they performed on game. Was the wound channel good? Did the bullet expand? Maintain it's density? etc.

 

[marksjeep]

I've settled on 95 grain SST bullets for my .243 after many trials and tribulations with several copper bullets and a few other lead ones as well. I shot a pronghorn with the load at 210 yards this fall. It was a quartering-to shot. The buck never took a step, he dropped in his tracks. I was frankly amazed at the damage that little bullet did, internally. It passed through, so I was not able to recover the bullet.

 

[Doublecluck]

For what it's worth, a few years back my cousin came out to hunt. He was using 7-08 with 139 gr sst, I put him on a big buck at 80 yards , he took the shot and the buck jumped and ran about 10 yards, I told him to shoot again and the buck just ran off after that shot. We waited a few minutes and went to look for blood. After several hours of searching we found no blood, no fur, and no buck. After verifying his rifle was dead on, we decided it must have been buck fever. 3 days later he takes a 61 yard shot at a buck and I could see the hit through the binos and it was about as perfect as it could be.The buck just stands there, I tell him to jack another and that shot was just behind the other. After about 15-30 seconds the buck takes a few steps and falls over. When we cut it open there was bullet flakes everywhere in the internals. Both bullets appeared to have fragmented in very small pieces and there were no exit wounds and very little blood. There was a lot of question in my head about the first buck after seeing how that buck had reacted to those hits with those bullets. Not really clear evidence but that is my experience with sst bullets

 

[Gunner46]

I've just read waaay too many reviews of them slipping the core and fragmenting to give them consideration. I'll stick with Nosler. In 30yrs I've recovered exactly 1, and it went stem to stern through a whitetail.

 

[devon deer]

SST's do not hold together well, i personally would not use them on a deer/elk.
Cheers
Richard

 

[Walkathon]

I used SST's out of my .270 win one year. Shot an antelope at about 200 yards quartering away. found most of the copper jacket in the skin on the far side- no lead left inside of it. Antelope only went a few steps and died. I then shot 2 deer with the SST's same year. Didn't find either bullet and both deer died quickly after being shot in the lung area. Didn't hit shoulder bone.

 

[Flatland Crusoe]

I used SST's out of my .243 for a whitetail about 5 years ago. The shot was at 75 yards with an impact velocity around 3000 fps with a good broadside heart shot. The bullet entered, broke apart but didn't exit the other side. That whitetail when way to far (200 yards) considering the shot. Since then I've switched to Barnes copper mono's without issue.

I know that on instance does not make a trend, but the SST's are not well put together rounds for high velocity lighter rounds. They are probably OK otherwise especially in 308. I felt they were a really unremarkable bullet, didn't group exceptionally well and don't have a high BC. Hornady's standard boattail soft point on the other hand is cheaper, groups better and holds together better and their Amax/ELD-X bullets are also very good bullets with high BC's and similar construction to the SST's.

 

[sbhooper]

I think that the SST is one of the worst mistakes Hornady has ever made. Will they kill? Yes, BUT I want a bullet that will stay together and penetrate, no matter what the target. My one and only try with the SST bullets showed terribly explosive behavior, even at lower velocity. In spite of what the ads say, they are NOT Interlocks. Interlocks are just as accurate in any rifle that I have tried both in and on top of that, perform like they should.

I would never consider them for an elk hunt.

 

[Brian in Montana]

Well, crud. I hate to hear that. I like what they do on the firing line, so I was hoping they'd perform down range too. It does seem everybody that's had them go to pieces when they hit an animal was using a cartridge rather faster than a .308, but I reckon a weak constructed bullet is simply that. The only other Hornady bullets I've used are the Interlocked softtips. Those group well out of my .243 and .300 WM and all punched a good wound channel through the animal (several whitetails, 2 mule deer, and 1 elk) and didn't leave behind any fragments or anything else to be concerned about.

 

[bowhuntmontana]

I have killed 6 elk and a bunch of deer and antelope with 180 gr Interlock SSTs from my 300 Win Mag. Recovered bullets retaining about 50% of their weight, just under the opposite hide on 4 of the elk. I would love the bullet to hold together a little better, but they have done a great job killing critters and they are very accurate for me.

Here is the exit wound on an antelope from this year, You can see they do make a mess of things.

 

[maxx]

I know of guys that have killed a lot of hogs with them. Personally I haven't shot anything with the rifles but I have killed a handful of deer with the 240 grain 50 call muzzle loader bullets.

We shot a few deer with lower powder charges. The last one punched a hole and didn't do much damage. Since we were shooting slower bullets we switch to the XTP hollow points.

I know of a lot of guys that have had some issues with the SST muzzle loader bullets.

 

[Addicting]

The SST has a sweet spot as far as velocity, too fast and you get a gaping hole too slow and you get expansion like this. This is a 45 SST out of a muzzleloader after passing thru a shoulder on a mature whitetail at 300 yard using 150 grains of 777 magnum powder. Advertised muzzle velocity is over 2000 FPS with 100 grains. This same bullet at less than 50 yards is almost unrecognizable "if" you find it. I have only been able to find remnants so far and a very large exit wound. I only have used them in this fashion so it may be different in rifle loads.

 

[406LIFE]

I have used them in my 270 and shot a handful of antelope and deer with them. All were oneshot kills. I don't have anything bad to say about them. I will be shooting them out and then moving the the AB, which is what is in my 300, just for consistency.

 

[sagebrush]

I've killed many mule deer and antelope with 130 gr SST out of a .270. Very accurate and all one shot kills with the exception of one deer that the shot broke the spine (forgot to compensate for a 70 yard shot). That deer would have died from the first shot but I choose to end it quickly. Farthest shot was my best mule deer to date at 525 yards. Of the few bullets I have recovered, most had very little lead in the jacket. Usually I get a complete pass through with a good wound channel, vitals look like jello from the hydrostatic shock. About 80% of the animals did not take a single step, including the mule deer taken at 525 yards. I would not hesitate to use them again.

 

[JohnCushman]

I tried the superformance boxed ammo out of my Savage 25-06. I couldn't get them to group worth a crap. I don't know if my barrel's rate of twist was wrong for such a fast bullet or what. I had a buddy handload some with the SST bullet that were significantly slower and the groups tightened right up. I shot an antelope with one and got a bass through, but it looked like the bullet exploded when it hit a rib on the out going side. I didn't feel good about using them on another animal, so I just shot them up at the range and switched to Federal Fusions and haven't had a problem since.

 

[shootbrownelk]

The SST's seem to explode like the early Nosler Ballistic tips did. I went to copper.

 

[maxx]

I tried the superformance boxed ammo out of my Savage 25-06. I couldn't get them to group worth a crap. I don't know if my barrel's rate of twist was wrong for such a fast bullet or what. I had a buddy handload some with the SST bullet that were significantly slower and the groups tightened right up. I shot an antelope with one and got a bass through, but it looked like the bullet exploded when it hit a rib on the out going side. I didn't feel good about using them on another animal, so I just shot them up at the range and switched to Federal Fusions and haven't had a problem since.

I am not sure if the twist of the barrel affects accuracy of the bullet based on speed. From what I read it is based on the size of the bullet. Lower twist rates like heavier bullets because the bullet is longer and catches the groves better.

Does speed affect it also? I don't know the answer.

 

[Melman]

I've shot multiple whitetail with my .308 150g SST. on the 3 mature bucks I've shot, no shot was over 100 yards so the velocity was still pretty fast. 2 of the deer dropped in their tracks, 1 did a little 10 yard circle and dropped. no exit hole on any of them. for whitetail I like them a lot. fast and flat in .308. I've since switched to Federal Trophy bonded tip after seeing Randy shooting Elk with them. The Trophy bonded tip does the job for sure. I will say, I was shooting .5" or better groups with the 150g SST's the TBT ammo is not as good but still right under 1". bottom line I would recommend for whitetail from my experience

 

[mtmuley]

I have shot 3 deer at 150 -250 and 300 yards and 2 bulls at 45 and 100 yards with them in a .300 ultra mag. The deer were all dead right there. The 40 yard bull was running and dropped instantly hit quartering away in the lungs. The 100 yard bull was hit in the lungs and spun to leave and was hit again in the lungs from the opposite side, he made a couple more jumps before dropping.

The bull that was hit twice neither bullet hit a rib and both passed through. All other bullets were found, or I should say their remains were found as there were no parts present large enough to call a bullet.
There is pretty much no comparison between a .308 and a .300 ultra so that must be considered but I consider them a very fragile bullet.

Keep using the SST in the RUM, and something bad is gonna happen. mtmuley

 

[LazyV]

Amazing bullet as long as you don't hit major bone or muscle group. Do that with any speed any you are more than likely screwed.