30 caliber 150 gr. Hornady SST performance

[rickt300]

On one deer anyway. A 110 pound doe angling to my right was hit just behind the shoulder and the bullet exited just in front of the hind leg.  The entrance hole was small but the bullet made an 1 1/2 inch hole in the ribs, traveled diagonally thru the deer centering the diaphram and liver then some intestine before exiting out the flank leaving a one inch exit hole in the hide. Internal damage appeared to be generally a 4 inch diameter of destroyed material for most of the bullets travel in the deer after it went thru the rib cage. I would say the bullet traveled thru better than 20 inches of deer and performed in the manner of a controlled expansion bullet. It was loaded on top of 59.0 grains of IMR 4350 in a Winchester 30-06 case and shot out of a 24 inch barrel with a guestimated velocity of more than 2900 fps. Range was 75 yards.

[RevJim]

 That's great performance Rick! I've only shot one animal with an SST bullet, the 139 SST in Light Mag ammo for a 7mm08. It was a sheep ( Texas Dall) right at 200yds. It showed signs of coming apart at the exit area, but it did penetrate fully. I felt it was a good deer bullet, just might, I don't know of course, be a bit too soft on elk/hogs. At any rate, that's impressive performance on your doe.

[Lloyd Smale]

careful youll get replys from guys who shot one or maybe even two deer with them. shot one in the but and didnt recover it and shot the other right on the shoulder and ruined a couple lbs of meat that are going to tell you that cup and core bullets are two fragile for a 100lb deer and you need to spend at least 5 bucks a bullet to get something that will actually kill them;)

[BBF]

Those deer sure got much tougher to kill in the last 50 years.