New Hornady bullets

[Horsethief]

Hornady SSTs are on par with Nosler Ballistic Tips. They're both fine for thin skinned animals, but they're not bone-crushers and the bullets are likely to break apart. The real questions behind this are how much penetration do they get with the fragmentation and is it enough to drop an animal with a well placed shot.

Thicker jacketed bullets with a soft nose, like the Hornady Interlock, Remington Corelokt, Sierra Game King or Pro Hunter, and the Speer Hotcore, are going to hold together better for the penetration a hunter wants and still mushroom to make the lethal wound channel.

Bonded bullets and heavier constructed bullets are more than are needed for big game, but there is no such thing as too dead or dead too fast, so an AccuBond, Interbond, or Swift Scirocco are all going to be just a good as the cup and core bullets.

I once made the mistake of using 150gn BTs on mule deer at a close range with a 300 mag. The exit wound was great, but I got lucky with a bad shot and got the mulie anyway.

 

[Guy Miner]

Actually Horsethief, I find the newer Nosler Ballistic Tips to be very stout. The jackets have been thickened tremendously, and they hold up very well anymore. I remember when they came out in the 1980's, and concede that though accurate, they were a little fragile then. I don't believe that about them anymore.

This 165 gr Ballistic Tip held up real well, fired into the jugs at 20 yards, a test that has destroyed other bullets:


Last fall, Steven, Storm and I hunted mule deer & pronghorn with small, light Ballistic Tips. Steven had a .280, Storm a 7mm-08, and they both used light, 120 gr Ballistic Tips. One shot kills and complete penetration in each case. I used the little 115 gr Ballistic Tip, and again got one-shot kills and complete penetration. My son uses the itty-bitty 95 gr Ballistic Tip from his 6mm Rem, and routinely gets quick, one-shot kills, and you guessed it, complete penetration.

From my experience, these days I rate the Ballistic Tips as a much tougher bullet than conventional, thin-jacketed cup and core bullets.

You were undoubtedly asking a lot of any conventional jacketed 150 gr bullet, at close range from a .300 magnum. Yowza! :shock: I saw real destructive results from the old-style 165's from a .300 Win mag, back in the early & mid 1990's on mule deer. They were too lightly constructed for that kind of impact velocity back then. Not sure a 150 anything (other than a mono-metal bullet like the Nosler E-Tip) from a .300 mag is a good choice, particularly if ranges are short. I used to use 150's from my .300 Win mag on coyotes & ground squirrels... Yes, ground squirrels. They worked. :mrgreen:

FWIW, Guy

 

[Horsethief]

Guy--I agree that I made a bad choice with the 150gn BT in a 300 mag. A friend uses the 180gn SSTs in his 300 mag and those bullets do very well on white tails.