Hornady 165 Grain SST in 308, what are you pushing this bullet to?

[diggler1833]

Superformance is available to the reloader. I'm using it to reload 30-30 but have yet to put it across the chrony to check speed. New to me caliber so I'll have to use factory data for speeds to compare to.

You are absolutely correct in the availability of Superformance powder as it has been out for more than a decade.

However, that one powder is not what is used in many of the Superformance cartridges that Hornady sells as they still use their own blends which are unavailable to the consumer.

What calibers can I hand load or reload with Hodgdon Superformance powder? - Hornady Manufacturing, Inc

Hornady started loading the Superformance line of ammunition in 2010. Hodgdon followed up with the introduction of a Superformance powder available for hand loaders. However, the one Superformance powder that Hodgdon sells is not usable in all rifle ca...

www.hornady.com

Second paragraph.

 

[Moparman485]

Here’s a gel test of the 165sst in my ar10. Have seen the same combo take many hog and deer. Blood trails to die for (pun only a little intended) your pushing hotter, which in my experience with an sst, will mean much more initial wound damage and a bit more fragmentation

 

[Okie4570]

@dennishoddy actually helped me trail the last deer I shot with a SST out my 7mm-08. 30y broadside on a doe right behind the shoulder. She ran 100y to the road, crossed it and ran another 100y to the timber/creek, crossed the creek and went another 50-70y after that. No blood trail until just before the creek. Little hole in lttle hole out.

 

[swampratt]

^^^ getting stuff like the above with my 30-30 and 150gr 30-30 bullets.
Velocity was too slow to make the bullet come apart.
I had to hit bone and break something..Spine break was a good shot.
We all know what I am saying but I will say it anyway.

I needed more velocity on impact or a lighter thinner jacket on the bullet to get it to come apart.

One reason I LOVE the 55gr V-max you stick one behind the shoulder and No bone hit the internals are turned to red gravy.
In my .308 I have shot the 178 A-Max at 2700 fps and it destroys meat but bone was hit for both kills.
Bang flop.
168A- and 155 A max same thing.


I do not really like the crease behind the shoulder shot because I know they will run.
I can put my shots in a quarter sized spot on a critter and sometimes i will test the performance of a new bullet by hitting the crease.

I just used a 129 gr Hornady SP in 6.5x55 and hit the heart and found the jacket in the off shoulder under the skin.
I could have used a 140 gr but small light bullets I have great luck with.
This is from the 6.5x55 Swede. The lead core is gone and it did the job.
No heart left in that one just red jelly.

 

[diggler1833]

@dennishoddy actually helped me trail the last deer I shot with a SST out my 7mm-08. 30y broadside on a doe right behind the shoulder. She ran 100y to the road, crossed it and ran another 100y to the timber/creek, crossed the creek and went another 50-70y after that. No blood trail until just before the creek. Little hole in lttle hole out.

What you described is not too uncommon (except for the running distance part) with bullets that are designed to fragment. It is unfortunate when it happens for sure, and I'm glad you and Dennis found her.

I like the SST, just like I like the Nosler BT...they come apart and the core exits, but a significant part of the bullet grenades inside the thoracic cavity. Blood trails aren't usually going to be as good as a monolithic or even a bonded SP (from my own experience)...but the amount of internal damage is greater. After a few hundred or more hogs I have developed a preference for bullets that come apart...I usually seem to recover the ones that I shot while they were running away more often when I'm using a bullet that fragments.

Fortunately for me, I've yet to have a deer run more than 50 yards (I use the NBT), and that was ONE time when I hit it further back in the lungs & also did liver damage. That buck made it maybe 60 yards.

My only SST deer kill was a front of the lungs doe out of a 6.8 SPC at about 90 yards. I recovered it 40 yards later, but like your story had very little blood trail even with the core exiting. It was luck that I found her because visibility in those greenbriers was down to about 3 yards. I've probably killed ~125 - 150 hogs with the SST out of the 6.8 and 6.5 Grendel.

Either way, we all have our own unique experiences and develop preferences around those.

 

[Okie4570]

What you described is not too uncommon (except for the running distance part) with bullets that are designed to fragment. It is unfortunate when it happens for sure, and I'm glad you and Dennis found her.

I like the SST, just like I like the Nosler BT...they come apart and the core exits, but a significant part of the bullet grenades inside the thoracic cavity. Blood trails aren't usually going to be as good as a monolithic or even a bonded SP (from my own experience)...but the amount of internal damage is greater. After a few hundred or more hogs I have developed a preference for bullets that come apart...I usually seem to recover the ones that I shot while they were running away more often when I'm using a bullet that fragments.

Fortunately for me, I've yet to have a deer run more than 50 yards (I use the NBT), and that was ONE time when I hit it further back in the lungs & also did liver damage. That buck made it maybe 60 yards.

My only SST deer kill was a front of the lungs doe out of a 6.8 SPC at about 90 yards. I recovered it 40 yards later, but like your story had very little blood trail even with the core exiting. It was luck that I found her because visibility in those greenbriers was down to about 3 yards. I've probably killed ~125 - 150 hogs with the SST out of the 6.8 and 6.5 Grendel.

Either way, we all have our own unique experiences and develop preferences around those.

Yeah I'm a Partition, Accubond and ballistic tip guy. Figured I'd give the SST a try being similar to the Accubond and Ballistic tip, but think I'll stick to the other three I mentioned lol.

 

[rockchalk06]

Here’s a gel test of the 165sst in my ar10. Have seen the same combo take many hog and deer. Blood trails to die for (pun only a little intended) your pushing hotter, which in my experience with an sst, will mean much more initial wound damage and a bit more fragmentation

My man. Thank you for that! Thank you very much

 

[Moparman485]

My man. Thank you for that! Thank you very much

No problem in the slightest, happy to help!

One more thing, the block damage and split in half wasn’t me cutting it to show the channel. The energy from the bullet split it wide open like that. Sst are my primary hunting projo in many calibers.

 

[EKing]

I loaded some 165 SSTs with CFE 223 powder a couple years ago. For some reason I didn't record the group size (must have been happy with it) but I did record the velocity.
The shots were 2,665, 2,682, 2,645, 2,677, and 2,704 feet per second.
That is an average of 2,674 fps from my DPMS G2.

 

[rockchalk06]

Bullets should be here tomorrow. I'll wait until my trimmer gets here, but I have decided on 5 test loads using 4064 and Tac. Both should put me just north of 2600 FPS on high side. Well below max of my 4 data sources.

I appreciate everyone's help!