I started shooting Hornady SST’s in my 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser last year and was pleased with their performance – accuracy is outstanding and I shot a couple of smallish does that both were “bang-flop” affairs. I shot a mature buck with that rifle/bullet combo this weekend – the shot was only 75 yards but when I went to check there was no blood. I was hunting in a fairly open creek bottom and saw him run off so I checked until I finally found a few drops of blood and lung tissue maybe 15-20 yards away from the point of impact. I didn’t find anymore blood, but did find the deer piled up maybe 150 away. Shot placement was good- just behind the shoulder but the exit hole was only about the size of a dime. When I cleaned it, the heart was just pulverized and the off-side shoulder was totally wrecked and bloodshot. If I had bothered to dig into the shoulder I assume that I would have found bullet fragments and that nothing but the base was left to make an exit wound. I know that heart-shot deer can run a long way, but I’ve never seen the lack of a blood trail like this - if I had not been in a fairly open creek bottom I never would have found this deer.
Has anyone had a similar experience with SSTs? Is this just “one of those things” that happens or a function of bullet design? I can’t say the bullet failed, but I plan to find a bullet that holds together better before I use this rifle again!
Has anyone had a similar experience with SSTs? Is this just “one of those things” that happens or a function of bullet design? I can’t say the bullet failed, but I plan to find a bullet that holds together better before I use this rifle again!