Hornady SST Bullets for Plains Game

[Art Lambart II]

Before everyone starts nailing me to a tree, I am using Nosler Partitions on my up coming PG hunt in SA. My family and I have had great success with Hornady Superformance and the SST bullet on deer and wild boar, does anyone have experience using the SST on deer size PG like Impala, Blesbok, Warthog?

 

[IdaRam]

Hi Art,
I can't speak from first hand experience on deer size game, but I can tell you SST's give highly explosive results on rock chucks and prarie dogs from both 7mm STW and 300 WSM. At "magnum" velocities I would be very concerned about them behaving like a grenade. On the other hand, at .308 velocities they might work ok.
I like your choice of nosler partitions a lot better
What cartridge/ rifle will you be using?

 

[ActionBob]

I'm with Dan on this.

I think it depends in what caliber... Do you know how they compare to Interbonds?

I used Superformance Interbonds in my 6.4 Creedmoor at 2950 fps on Warthog, blesbuck, bontebuck, 2 red hartebeest.. One was a pass through both shoulders, 4 springbucks (made pretty big holes), 2 fallow deer, common reedbuck (blew half the heart out the other side).... I will try GMX loads when I find some. I use SST and Amax for practice. Sighting in with 129 grain SST seems to get me right on with the 129 grain Interbonds

If SST's are softer, I would not recommend, if they will penetrate and hold together as well or better than the Interbonds, they should work fine at 308 velocity.

My wife used 150 grain GMX superformance 30-06 loads on black wildebeest, zebra, blesbuck, impala and fallow deer. Very effective. If you like superformance, why not use GMX bullets in Africa? They will hold together, mushroom perfectly but not as violently, and penetrate. We pulled a GMX out of bone on one of the critters and it held up perfect.

 

[IdaRam]

Interbonds and GMX I would shoot either in a heartbeat.
I think the SST is much more frangible that the Interbond...

 

[BWH]

If you are going to use Hornady. Stick with the GMX for PG in my opinion.

 

[Art Lambart II]

All great responses and I agree with all of them. The rifle in question is a 6.5 x 55 the only Hornady Superformance load for it is the 140 grain SST. This combination is deadly on deer, ram and wild boar but we had the same concerns expressed in the post above and hoped someone might have used the on a PG hunt.

 

[enysse]

I think it would be fine for the animals you mentioned. But the Interbond is better and the GMX is better than anything else...but you would probably have to handload.

 

[siutis]

Leave the sst at home. Bring nosler partition, A-Frames and TSX.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Old post resurrected: My daughter and I used the SST in a 7mm mag to take 8 PG, all one shot kills. (kudu x2, nyala x2, impala x2, blesbok, zebra). All shots were 100 to 230 yards. I then used the SST in my 270 for a Dall sheep hunt in the Yukon. Another 1 shot kill, this one at 234 yards.

SST bullets typically don't get make an exit wound, but many were just under the skin and dead is dead.

As others have mentioned, the GMX is getting favorable reviews and as I understand it, this is Hornady's version of a mono bullet similar to a Barnes bullet.