What has been your experience using the SST's on animals? How good is penetration on hogs & WT's? I have been told they do not do well at all on thick hide hogs. Give me your actual experience, please. Thanks Daniel

Killed two WT's with the SST using a 300 BO. Had no issues, worked as advertised. Both shots were from around 75 yards.

The SST is one of my favorite hunting bullets. I have personally used them in many different calibers for hunting. The 125 SST in the 300 blk out is awesome. I have also used the 150 grain in 308 and 130 grain in 270 Win for years, when I hunted with a 270. It is a standard cup and core lead bullet. It's not a very fancy bullet, but it gets the job done.

I have heard from customers who did not like the performance saying that they did not get an exit and the bullet "blew up". But they recovered a dead animal. I also have seen this. But if you want a guaranteed exit, you'll need a more premium bullet that holds together better, like something bonded or a solid copper.

I had a customer that had a working load in a 300 RUM with a 180 grain SST. I told him that was asking a lot of that bullet in that round. After shooting a few animals, he agreed and we switched to a more touch bullet. If you use the SST within it's limits, it's a great bullet. I wouldn't hesitate to use them on any Texas critters.

I've had great luck with the bullets on hogs and deer. I haven't messed with the factory Hornady ammo in anything other than AR-15 calibers, but for that it's accurate, consistent, and affordable. Great choice based on my experience.

I don’t care for them in my 270 but really like them in my 6.5 Grendel. Results on WT and pigs have yielded good internal damage with big exit wounds. Speed really hurts this bullet in my opinion, it has a sweet spot and I think that is below 2600fps, that’s why the 270 had less than stellar performance

I have a 300BLK and I have a bunch of SST ammo for it. I am at the Ranch and will try to take a pig with it this week and let you know.

15 years ago, shot a medium-size buck behind the shoulder. He ran 30-40 yards and went down dead. Found a pencil-size hole straight through the chest, with little sign of expansion or internal damage. A week later, shot a 50-lb hog running at about 120 yards, hit him in the butt and he kept going. Found him later, still alive and finished him off at close range. The first bullet was up against his rear leg bone, bent, with no sign of expansion. I quit using SST's after that.

I've shot probably 75 hogs with the Hornady SST 120 grain Federal Premium factory loads. I have 0 complaints about the performance. The 4 hogs in the picture were taken Saturday night. The big sow was a behind the shoulder shot at 180 yards with a complete pass-through. She ran about 75 yards a piled up. The young ones couldn't figure out what was going on and 1 was shot in the shoulder at 200 yards, then the other two were at 220 yards- one through the neck and one a Texas heart shot. All went down right where they were.
It's a good round. I usually try for between the earhole and the shoulder, and usually don't get exit.

Ok, BigPig, you may have answered my next question. I am NOT a speed freak. I prefer accuracy and most of the cals I shoot are more accurate down around 26-2800 fps. Can't say now but years ago when I was working, US Army sniper ammo was loaded to about 2650 FPS. I think the 7x57AI I am shooting the SSTs in will be slow enough that I do not have to worry about blow up & will penetrate enough to take care of any pigs on the lease. I called Hornady this morning and was told to aim for soft flesh & stay away from heavy bone shots, if possible. I am going to load up some 150 Nosler Long Range Accubonds and see what they will do accuracy wise plus I want something the wife can shot in her standard 7x57 with out dreading to pull the trigger. Thanks Daniel

Unclebubba, I sure would like to see pics of those bullets after being shot if you do recover them. Thanks Daniel

I've killed around 60 or so hogs and a buck with a 300 BO with an 8.5" barrel and 125 SST's. The buck was a behind the shoulder shot and ran maybe 30 yards. Hogs are variable....some go right down, others run a little ways, others run off and never found.....of course shot placement determines the result on hogs.

Personally, I think it is a great bullet and performs great in my SBR.

The few bullets I have recovered from a blk out showed perfect mushroom shaped expansion. All were in pigs. In deer, they go all the way through with a quarter size exit wound. I've mainly ran them in a 16" bolt gun (about 2350 fps). The 125 SST and 125 BT were my 2 main hunting rounds I shot for about 4-5 years, including night hunting. They have worked very well.

I have had excellent results with it. 100-400 yards in .308 I have killed so many animals with it I wouldn't begin to count, but probably a dozen deer. Some were good bucks and this bullet consistently puts them down on the spot. As for hogs, same thing, dead where they stood. Shop placement has a lot to do with that, but I've done it with this bullet in .308, 6.5 Creedmoor and .300 BO I buy from the Dallas Reloads. In Creedmoor and .308 I buy off the shelf Hormady Superformance. Speed was discussed above. I have shot it form a 20" CTR, and a 24" 5R milspec. The velocity varies between those two from about 2900 (24"5R) to 2750 in the 20" CTR. I get great results in both. The DRT shots don't always have an exit on hogs, but who cares when it's dead on it's feet.

Shot a big bodied mule deer buck up in the panhandle with a 150 gr out of 308. Double lung, dead about 20 yds from where he was shot. Good exit. Shot a 125-150# pig with same combo and same results. Blood trail on the pig was a sight to see.

I like what I am hearing about the SST's. Hope my 162's do as well. Course sometimes the nut behind the trigger affects the outcome. Daniel

I use the Hornady Custom Lite ammo in 7mm mag. They use the 139 grain SST and it leaves my barrel at about 2800 fps. Just about perfect for anything I'm aiming at. Not too much damage at that velocity but it is still accurate and deadly. Hornady quit making the Custom Lite in 7 mag but I bought plenty before they became unavailable.

I've never shot a pig with them, but I shot several deer both in .308 and 7mm-08. I always got an exit and had no problem recovering the deer. No complaints from me.

423 dead pigs shot with 6.8 SPC and 120gr SSTs seem to fault your rumors.

I really don't think there is any better "bang for the buck" than the SSTs. Most of my experience is in .243 (max load, certainly above 2600) and .308 and I have yet to have any kind of "bullet failure" and not a single animal has shaken one of them off. I find them to be extremely accurate too.

I load 150 gr SST’s for the grandson’s 308. He has been very effective on deer and hogs for about 8 years. When he was younger, I used to send him to the stand with 1 bullet. He never missed.

Here’s the last 5 recipients of 120SSTs - last weekend. 6.8 SPC hogs

I use regular Hornady interlocks in my .270, which is basically the SST with no plastic tip. I've killed too many deer to count with them. Sometimes I get an exit, sometimes not, but the internal damage is always very good. My partner uses them in his Hornady superformance load for his .270 and has killed several big bodied Mule Deer with them, and performance is on par with what I've seen with the interlocks. My kids use them in the Custom lite loading in their 7mm-08's and the internal damage is good and they have killed several deer. Bullet is moving about 2650 fps at the muzzle, which is on the slower side.

The only time I had any issues with them is in the 6.5 Grendel. Bought a few boxes of Hornady custom ammo with 120 grain SST's. Had 5 jacket/core separations. Very little internal Damage. Was not impressed in the least and i sold the gun shortly after.


Hogs....I've killed my share but i head shoot most of them so the bullet choice is very secondary to shot placement, but the Hornady bullet does the job.



Hornady is one of my favorite bullet makers, imo the interlock is one of the best, most consistant Cup and Core bullets made and i have had the same experience with the SST's

I have shooting the Hornady 25-06 117 gr. factory ammo since they first came out. I have shot mule deer, whitetail & more hogs than I can think of. I get excellent accuracy, have had a hard time trying anything else because of their performance. In full disclosure I have been shooting the 143 elder in my creedmoor, and am one of those who is not that big of a fan. However after doing some research, I found they excel at longer range. Most of my shots are at 150yards or less, and while I have never lost an animal, just don’t like they way they come apart or don’t exit.

They hit hard and nothing moves. 120 sst

Might be the best I’ve ever used but only have about a 10 animal count

According to John Barnsness, the SST's were pretty soft when first introduced, but similar to Nosler's Ballistic Tips, Hornady has toughen up the SST's to where the mimic the terminal performance of Interlocks