Hornady SST

My son shot an axis and a whitetail this weekend, both in the neck with a 260. The129 SST dropped them both in their tracks but the bullet did not pass through. The axis was moving quite a bit but never got back up so I was worried it had not broken the spine. Is this normal for the SST and is the ELDX better?

And here come the neck shot police...

I don’t think the purpose of a polymer tipped bullet is to pass through. You want it to expand rapidly and dump all of its energy inside your target. Sounds like they did exactly that. If you want pass through, switch to a soft point. Much more likely to get an exit

Everyone knows me as a one trick pony partition partition partition... well ill surprise a few people. I like easily frangible bullets aka soft point cup and core, v-max, sst, ballistic tip etc. bullets for neck shots, you want to mess that spine up.

I would still like a bullet with enough substance to exit, I would try stepping up in weight a little, will give more energy a little less speed and likely better penetration and weight retention.

Neck shot critters have been known to flop and kick a lot, its the ones that fall and never move you need to be leery of.

Axis have a lot more desire to live than a WT. I would shoot whichever one your gun likes

The gun he shoots now likes the round. Unfortunately there are not a lot of factory options for the 260. It is a model 7 Remington so I will most likely be getting him a 6.5 CM next year in a full stock.

I know some people say don't neck shoot but (knock on woood) I have never lost one I shot in the neck and never had one get back up.

I've shot the 129 sst exclusively out of my 6.5 creedmoor and it has yet to not provide a complete passthru on every animal shot, which includes an axis doe right in the neck. Spine was completely severed and there was a silver dollar size exit. That was at a little over 100 yards.

I've been very impressed with the performance and it drops them in their tracks!

I'm not shocked that there was no exit. There is a lot of meat and bone in the neck to stop a bullet, especially one like an SST. I shot a deer with a .308 SST a couple of weeks ago (behind the shoulder) and it exited with a golf ball size hole, but it only had ribs and organs to go through.

How do you feel about buying handloading equipment instead?

.260 Rem and 6.5 Creedmoor are ballistic twins, literally.

Load a 140 gr in the .260 Rem, and you will be very pleased.

SSTs are fine foe deer unless you run them super fast.

I am also very impressed with the SST. I have shot 2 hogs recently and neither one of them went more than 10 yards. If they do run I am in trouble because these bullets dont seem to leave much of a blood trail. But as long as they are DRT no blood trail is needed.

I am leery of them in a smaller bullet because they haven’t left a blood trail on 3 deer shot by my wife and daughter. All 3 good shots and no big trouble caused, but I like a blood trail where we hunt.

I realize they are ballistic twins and I feel a little silly looking at the 6.5 but the 260 factory options are limited and I really don't have the time to handload. Also, the model 7 he is shooting has a shory light barrel that I am mot a big fan of anyway. In fact, the gun seems to have the recoil of a 270 or more because of the light weight and short barrel. I shoot a 300 so it doesn't bother me but my little guy is 12 and it might him. It just seems more options for the 6.5 in factory loads.

This is a bit of an apples & oranges comparison, but it’s the only experience I have with both of the bullets in question.

For a while I used the 180gr SST in 30-06 for hunting deer & pigs. Whatever it hit did not go far, but I found field dressing a bit messier than necessary at times with heart shots.

This was the first year I used the 143gr ELD-X in 6.5 creedmoor on a deer. Heart shot through & through, very little meat damage, and no bullet fragments. I was very happy with its performance.

Range was typically around 100y.

I’ll occasionally bring a deer home to process myself, so it’s a priority to me to not have bullet fragments in the meat when I’m trying to run it through the grinder. If I were shooting in the neck I would consider staying with the SST, in my experience they have been pretty devastating, and in the neck you’re not ruining any choice cuts of meat.

Agreed, and lay off of bone if possible.

I love the SSTs for deer and hogs. They've never let me down.

120 SST in the 6.8 is outstanding on deer and even big hogs

^^ This. I had a customer shoot a large S. Texas buck in the neck with a 28 Nosler and 195 grain EOL from 90 yards. The buck dropped in it's tracks, and guess what, the bullet did NOT exit! I was shocked, but the neck has a lot of dense meat and bone, and sucks up a lot of bullets.

If the animal went down in short order, I'd say it was a success!

Lots of people talk badly about the VMAX but the 178g AMAX at 308 velocities is awesome, it expands, does big damage and holds together and almost always punches through.

Agreed, in fact it's all I shoot anymore through mine. The only time the hogs don't drop is my fault.

If you're not finding the bullet you want loaded factory, Chad might be able to do that for you. It sounds like you are not happy with the rifle and bullet though. Does the young one complain of the recoil? Don't fix what ain't broke.

I've killed almost 50 hogs with 120 SST's in an 8.5" 300 BO and have gotten pass through on almost every one....and some of them were big hogs. I love the SST bullet.

yep, been a 6.8 user for almost 10 years, we have 3 in the safe and I have had numerous other hunting buddies get them after seeing how well they work.
I have tried pretty much every bullet for the 6.8 and ran hot handloaded 95g TTSXs for several years, I was lucky enough to have been giving a 500 of preproduction samples to test and provide feedback on.
But I hated chasing brass and HAVING to handload. I got a good connection at Hornady and the 120 SST factory ammo, while not loaded "hot" have put the hurt on everything I have shot, even bad shots on running pigs.

Speaking of neck shots, that was my dad's primary shot placement, of course he was a believer in light and fast, 22-250, 243, 25-06, etc.. I had shot a LOT of deer with the neck shot and had my first bad experience about a month ago. Shooting my new 7mm08, I shot a doe with the GMX 139g, it dropped, went to get it and to my shock it got up and ran away, I hit it again at about 30 yards and when I went over, there was a 1" hole almost dead center in the neck pouring blood out. My first shot apparantly "just missed" the spine and it would have surely bled out. My take was that the GMX was just too stoutly constructed for 7mm08 velocities and thin skinned deer. That and one I shot from a tower blind through the top of the head at 80 yards, exiting top of neck under jaw (DRT of course) and the lack of a bigger exit wound made me switch from the GMX.

I am lucky. My son is good kid and never complains about much of anything. I just figured he is going to outgrow the model 7 since it has a short stock. Also, I don't like the short light tapered barrel. He shoots it well so I guess he could just keep using it. I think dad just wanted a new toy. Lol. That's why I was considering a 6.5 with a heavier barrel and adult stock.

This is why I stopped running them in my 270. I had bought a couple of boxes of the Superformance line, 130gr, and the results under 200 yards was much less desirable. I even switched back to Winchester Silver tips for a few hunts. Hornady advertises these round to only maintain 50-60% weight retention under 400 yards, over 400 and it’s 80-90%. When I ran them through my 26 inch barrel, they chronographed an average of 3030fps, with a few pushing 3090. That’s a darn fast round for only huntin 0-200 yards. Now my wife’s 257wby goes the same speeds, but using a different bullet it has a much better effect on deer

Bingo, and nothing wrong with that. Enjoy!!

I love the 123 SST's out of my 6.5 CM. Lots of hogs shot with it and some deer as well. Great accuracy and good performance. I prefer the neck shots though or at least front of the shoulder for hogs. Last hog was 180 pounder and dropped on the spot.

FWIW....I have had Horizon firearms convert 3 Rem Seven’s of various calibers over to 6.5 Creedmoor’s.

I load 150 gr SSTs in the grandson’s 308, and run them a touch slow (closer to a min than medium load). He’s been killing deer and hogs for 5or 6years now. His rifle is a tang safety Ruger Int’l and is very light, so I keep the recoil down for him.

I would be interested in seeing any modified model 7 rifles. I was kind of under the impression they wrre not worth the effort to rebarrel.

Why not? It's just a more compact 700 short action.