New bullets in Elite

[Jim]

Well I've been struggling to find a great bullet for my Elite but I'm finally very verysatisfied and don't intend to try anything else after trying almost everything out there. Last year I used the 200 SST's with very good accuracy but poor performance on deer. The 200 SST's came apart and never passed thru and lost 75% of weight, no blood trails in southern cutover country with just 75 grns weighed T7. Well I bought some of Cecil's 260 grn. 40 -50s Elite hollow points during his recession sale. They looked great right out the pack. I ran my first test with them yesterday with 75 grns weighed T777 and they shot one ragged hole at 80 yards. I will try to work my load up a little hotter next weekend as my shots this year have been long in my 160 acre cutover. I love lead as I've killed many deer with it in the past and always had 100% perfect results with great mushrooms and probably near 95% or better weight retention. These bullets have a great ballistic coefficient for muzzleloaders and they were a very good price including sabots, I bought the large quantity on sale. Also if you run a spitpatch they load very easy but not so easy you have to worry about them unseating. First time I've ever tried them but I give them 10 stars. After the season I will work on a Blackhorn load with them for next year. (Cecil Epp - Precision Rifle Bullets) Thx for a great bullet Cecil if you read this thread, I love them.

 

[Reese]

Just curious. What volume does 75 gr weight of T7 come out to? Also where are you hitting these deer?

Maybe our PA deer are more fragile? I am using 110 gr by volume of BH209 with the 200 gr SST's out of a .45 cal muzzleloader and the result has been very good on the several deer I have used this combo on this year. Complete pass through and good blood trails when hit through the heart and/or lungs. They all traveled less than 60 yards after being shot.

Not suggesting you change anything. Use what you have confidence in. Just curious why our experiences differ so much.

 

[Busta]

Just curious. What volume does 75 gr weight of T7 come out to?

Reese,

75 grains of 777 FFG by WEIGHT would be real close to 100 grains VOLUME.

 

[Jim]

SSt's

I shot one medium sized buck 160 lbs at 65 yards quartering to me at eye level just in front of his right leg angling to come out behind the left leg. The jacket only penetrated about 4 inches and peeled back all the way to the base making five petals but lost two petals. The core made it to the rib cage on the other side but didn't get through the ribs. The core weighs just a tad shy of 90 grns and the jacket weighs 49 grns. The deer ran into cutover and only made it 125 yards but in a southern cutover 10ft with briars that just as soon be a mile. Had to wait till the next day and found the buck by crawling in cutover on deer trails, never one drop of blood. Second deer was quartering away doe behind ribs to come out just in front of shoulder again jacket seperation but core made it through chest plate but not skin and penetration of jacket was hard to tell in jellied mass. Did lots of internal damage but the seperation prevents full pass thru and blood trails necessary in south. If Hornady just made a thick control ring about 3/16 of an inch up from the base protruding into core about 50 thousandths to keep base solid and retain lead core this would be awesome. This might be a better fix than bonding as lots of people have had bad luck with bonded Shockwaves penciling thru. This would still give violent expansion but retain most integrity and a little sectional density in the rear to drive the whole unit. Just my thoughts and experiences. If I hunted in snow country or open woods of the midwest wouldn't be as big a concern.

 

[Critter]

8 deer so far with the 200 gr SW and every one of them has blown right through the deer and dropped em or they never got out of sight. I'm not doubting that your bullets did what you say they did, just curious why people get such extreme performance differences with the SST/SW family.

 

[jsteurrys]

Hornady redesigned the 200 gr SST for 2009. This is what the new catalog states: a projectile that penetrates better, retains more weight, and expands more agressively. It does not mention anything about how the construction has changed only that it has the Flex Tip Technology. It looks like I need to call Hornady to get the details on the changes.

 

[Jim]

SST's

Last year I tried the SST's in my rifle and had the same massive destruction on 3 deer but the bullet was just pieces all 3 times, the jacket shredded all 3 times early during penetration but only one buck made it 30 yards the other buck and doe DRT. This was a 270 with 130 grn SST. I switched to a Hornady 130 Grn Interbond and that is an awesome bullet. Massive expansion and held together great on a large buck and hammered him in his tracks. Lost some weight but not terrible.

SST's wound up being a good thing for me as my neighbor on the next lease shot a large racked 8 in the 3 yr old cutover with his 243. He could only see the horns and head traveling in the 4 ft pines and briars. He took a head shot and said he must have missed. The following week I killed the buck and when caping him out the jacket of the 243 was lodged against the back of the scull on an angle and the lead had traveled between the skull and skin up to the horn base. When the bullet hit looks like it was on a little angle not perfectly square to skull and 40% of jacket tore off and the bullet turned. I'm trying to attach a phot of a few SST's and one winchester silvertip rifle bullet. First is 200 sst, second is 243 sst from skull, third is 270 sst from broadside shot on buck at 70 yards and fourth is plain old 270 winchester silvertip from quartering away 200lb beast at 70 yards. FYI I shot two large bucks two and three days ago with 270 with handload Nosler accubond 140s at 2980 FPS and unbelievable. Superb expansion and turned 200 lb buck upside down at 120 yards and almost same shot as 200 sst and second same shot but close to 200 yards and he ran 20 yards. Both of these deer were a little straighter towards me and entered just to left of brisket and went all the way to back of gut ands stopped at skin. Large remaining bullet base around 5/16" long with great mushroom.

 

[Jim]

How to add image

Never added image to this site before but I clicked image and it never prompted me to add image just posted report. I do not see how to add image. Any help.

 

[BrewerGeorge]

Re: How to add image

Never added image to this site before but I clicked image and it never prompted me to add image just posted report. I do not see how to add image. Any help.

If it's hosted somewhere else, just enclose it's address in tags. Not sure if you can add an image that's not already hosted.

 

[Lee 9]

Critter
I have run into a lot of this with several different bullets, to me it has a lot to do with where you place the bullet, how good a shot you are, if you test and find a load that is both accurate and gives the penetration you desire and last but not least the shots you are willing to except. I believe in taking the same shots as I would with a bow excepting only the range and every bullet I have tried worked , some better than others, but all with in normally acceptable limits.
I think it is the middle ground of the theory that you could kill a elephant with a 22 by using it exactly right but only make him mad by shooting him in the tail with an anti tank gun. Lee