Hornady SST Superformance

Have shot 3 deer with the 162gr sst hornady superformance factory loads in 7 rem mag. 2 mulie bucks at less than a hundred yards both double lunged. Both ran about 40 yards. Both bullets exited. A whitetail buck at 340 yards hit high shoulder and it dropped in its tracks. Bullet did not exit and I never recovered that one.

Been shooting the SSTs for a long time in 270 and more recently 7mm remington. Incredibly accurate for factory ammo in all rifles I've shot through them. Always had great success on deer and antelope with them but was hesitant to try them for elk with my 7mm, but did so anyways because there so damn accurate. 154 sst at 3050 fps. Shot my bull at hundred yards this year with it and it did a great job. First shot was all heart and he was on wobbly legs, second shot I put through the shoulder and it crushed the scapula and anchored him. Didn't recover the bullet as I did gutless on him and expect that it fragmented every where which is fine by me. I think a lot of guys will lose game and automatically blame the bullet broadhead used when it could of been any number of factors. A great example is when an animal is lost with an expandable broadhead everyone will blame the broadhead, but when an animal is lost with a fixed broadhead every one will say it was shot placement. Same rings true for bullets IMO.

I load them in 130 grain for my 270 win, and 180 grain in my brother's 300 win mag, both are accurate and deadly on deer and elk both. keep them at the higher end velocity when reloading and they should be good to go.

I've used the 150gr SST Superformance out of my Tikka 308. I was getting around .8 inch groups with them. I've only shot two deer with them so take this with a grain of salt. The first one was a WY mule deer at 313 yards. Hit in the center of the shoulder and he dropped like a rock, didn't even twitch. The bullet went through the opposite shoulder and was found just underneath the skin. The core and jacket had separated, but it was the quickest kill I've ever had without hitting the spine. The second was a WV whitetail doe at 60 yards. Slightly quartering away, the bullet went in the ribs and out right at the back edge of the opposite shoulder. Exit hole was about the size of a 50 cent piece. Lungs were jelly. She ran at 60-70 yards with no blood until the last 10-20 yards. I wasn't impressed with that. Mule deer and the recovered bullet.

Mthuntinfool said:

I load them in 130 grain for my 270 win, and 180 grain in my brother's 300 win mag, both are accurate and deadly on deer and elk both. keep them at the higher end velocity when reloading and they should be good to go.

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Are you saying they wouldn't perform well at .308 velocities? .270 and 300 WM and significantly faster cartridges.

I think they should be fine, just as long as they are at higher velocity, ~2800 fps or so

Mthuntinfool said:

I think they should be fine, just as long as they are at higher velocity, ~2800 fps or so

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The issue with SST's is that they don't hold together well, so why would you be fine at higher velocities? Its more you should be fine at lower velocities. Modern hunting bullets almost all open up reliably above 1800 fps at impact.

The load them fast argument makes a lot of sense with bullets like copper mono's, but not a ballistic tip with a record of iffy weight retention.

Just going off my experience, we have shot quite a few animals with them and haven't had any problems.