Anyone used the Hornady 162gr SST for Elk?

[Bravo 4]

Having not shot an elk with a 162gr SST, take this as you may.
I have killed several whitetail at ranges from past 400 to under 50 and never recovered a bullet. I also try to shoot through both shoulders. On the two elk hunting trips I've been on, my 7mag shooting this bullet was a backup to my .338 EDGE. What I have noticed with the lighter (139 & 154 grain) SST's is they can come apart (jacket and core seperating) at higher velocity. I have loaded both those two bullets for friends as they want a bullet they say "dumps all its energy into the animal". I want a bullet to expand fairly quick but still has enough to push through. The 162's have done exactly that for me. If you stand the 139, 154, and 162 next to each other you will see the only difference is the shank length. Mass has an advantage in this line of bullets as far as penetration goes. 139's on elk? No... 154's? Maybe, but not if I had a choice...162's? Yep.

 

[Panchik]

Just a side note, my gunsmith swears by a-max's for elk. Says it works well long and short range. I was almost convinced till I cut one in half next to an SST. I immediately sold my stock of a-max's. Good luck.

An A-max was created as a target bullet pure and simple. It is accurate, but not made to perform on game. Using it on elk is totally irresponsible when there are well-constructed bullets out there.

The SST is supposedly an Interlock, but evidently that plastic tip makes it dynamite. I really like Interlocks and Hornady bullets in general, but I have seen them absolutely explode at low velocities on small white-tails. They may work OK if you are going to try to prove something by seeing how far away you can get from an animal before shooting it, but they fail at reasonable ranges.

I use a-max for both 300 wm and 308 for marals (similar to elk) for several years and very happy with them. Past Autumn I got two marals with amax one was from 300 wm with 178 gr bullet out of 250 meters and another was from 308 with 168 gr out of 660 meters. In both cases marals walked maximum 20 meters and dropped.

As for sst, my friend uses for maral hunting for his 300 wm 180 gr bullet and quite successfully.

There are available other bullets as accubond, barnes, balistic tip in our area but I will not move to them from a-max until it will be available in our shop.

Once it was interesting experience on maral's hunting. I shot downhill about 35 degree a maral on 250 meters with 180 gr barnes mrx from 300 wm. After first shot there was no any reaction, second shot was the same, no reaction and only after third shot the maral run and hided behind trees. It was taken by fourth bullet only. After the opening of the maral all four bullet enters were found but we could not find any bullets because they simply exploded. After that I do not use barnes any more.

 

[rooster740]

How many of you experts on this 162 sst have ever shot an elk or similar sized animal with this bullet? It seems to me that there are a lot of negative comments on this bullet from people who have never killed an elk with the 162 sst.
My dad used them with good results in a 7mm rm for several years under 400 yards from head shots to chest shots on cow elk. If you are a hunter that tries to destroy meat by making poorly placed shoulder shots, then this is not your bullet. He now uses a 270 with 130 tsx.
This fall I shot a walking (about to get away) cow at 200 yards with an intended "poorly placed" high shoulder shot with a 200 gr nobler ab with a MV of 2900 and was less then impressed with a little 90grain remnant bonded pellet just under the hide on the opposite side, from a bonded bullet.
I have killed several cows with 100 gr SMK out of a 25-06, heart shots do not get away. Pick your poison, on a chest shot a 162sst is good medicine.
As a side note yesterday I helped an 87 year old man shoot a wild mature bison and he chest shot it at 20 yards with a 30-06 with a single 165sst bullet to the chest. Went 30 yards, laid down and died in 5 minutes.

 

[upacreek]

Just a little update to resurrect an old thread. My dad shot his elk this year with his .270 from about op yrds. It was standing directly toward him. The bull was a little 4x5. The bullet went in between the shoulder and neck, traveled the length of the animal and exited the opposite end. Not sure if it was the abdomen or where. I helped recover the animal and can attest to 5 feet of blood spray due to the bullet exiting. My brother was holding the horses while the shot happened and can attest to the erreuption of blood from the bullet exiting as well.
My brother in law shot a nice deer from about 100yrds broadside this year. He was shooting 150gr sst's. The bullet was recovered under the opposite hide and weighs 106gr now. It's the only SST I have recovered in tact. Almost seems to be bonded. Pics coming.

 

[blhenson]

I've shot two elk with the 162's, and we've taken 6 deer over the last two years with 139's in a .270. The deer were taken with 6 shots, I shot one, daughter in law one, granddaughter one, and son 3. The bullets worked well in all cases, ranges were from 60 yards to 280 yards on the deer, and 115 and 240 on the two elk.

One elk went 50 yards, after a straight on chest shot. The other went straight down after a neck shot. Thus far I have had no issues with the bullets.

 

[Short Track Hunter]

This year, a hunting partner double lunged an Elk with a .308. Nothing special and the Elk dropped.

 

[upacreek]

Here are some pics

 

[upacreek]

Another

 

[upacreek]

This is another one

 

[Elkhunter1983]

If you want to shoot 162 gr ssts then i wouldnt hesitate to. If you hit an elk the boiler room with one at a reasonable distance, you should find a dead elk within a reasonable amount of time. I have seen very good results on elk with the 150 gr sst out of a 308 many times. All shots were under 300 yards but if you put the bullet where it needs to go you will like the outcome. I have had good luck on a few unsuspecting cows with my 280 rem with 139gr sst. I plan to try out some 265 gr ftx bullets out of my 444 high wall next week on a cow elk.

 

[skyfish25]

Went on first elk hunt this year. 162gr SST did wonders. It killed elk very dead. Shot through heart and lungs(yes both) was dead but stood there moment because it didn't know it yet.

 

[WildRose]

Topgun, please explain what you would consider a qualified bullet for elk. I loved the results of the gamekings (not a target bullet) but the ballistic coefficient sucked. The 160gr worked excellent to about 450yrds, but lost too much energy past that. I used them on 8 bulls and none of them went more than 30ft. The last couple years I have wanted to be confident out to 600 yrds. The SST has taken the last 3 of my dads bulls quite effectively. This is the first year I have used them and had no complaint. My thoughts are this....if the bullet hits with 1800 lbs of energy and the bullet fragments then not only has 1800 lbs of energy been applied to the animal, but the wound channel is larger than .75". As far as penetration I have never shot an elk with any bullet that did not pass the vitals and continue to be stopped on the other side inside the skin or shoulder. The other school of thought is to keep the bullet intact by a 'mushroom' shape which I have no objection to. By retaining this mass the bullet weighs enough to keep going. Boring a hole maybe 3 times the original diameter through the animal. If the bullet passes the animal with 20% of it's energy then only 1440lbs of energy was applied. And a skinny wound channel.

Please know I can only fall back on my own 24 years of hunting elk and what I have personally seen with the people I hunt with. If I am wrong in some way I would be interested what I could do or what bullet I can rely on out to 600 yrds out of a 7mm on elk. I have helped track enough elk blood and deer blood to develop a sharp disagreement with the two holes are easier to track crowd. One in particular we tracked what we thought was 25 gallons of blood. I was the only one with the balls (stupidity) to track that animal accross cliffs on my hands and knees to a place I thought the elk would have fallen hundreds of yards, but instead it went uphill where I couldn't and we never recovered that elk. We mapped a mile and a half on a map later. I watched my dad plug a bull 7 times with a 300h&h moving 3200fps. All seven bullets passed clean through and the bull went 50 yards uphill before it fell and died. Those bullets were grand slams. We never shot them at living animals again. Most of my game king kills were 1 shot kills. Some 2 shot kills, but never 3.

And to be clear I would never hunt with an a-max even though I know people who have success with them.

So if you have a suggestion for a bullet let me know, I am willing to take a look. I have wanted to try bergers, but every time I think about it I read on here how they failed someone. I am having a gun built and plan on using bergers in it just to see how they do for myself. I am interested in the accubond long range too, but haven't heard much about how they do on elk. So please give your input. I just never want to track an animal I shot, it would ruin my reputation, and my brother would have a hay day giving me crap. Most of his elk have to be tracked, stupid spitzers.

Stick with the interbond or interlock and you'll get better and more consistent results.

I've used them on dozens of big boar hogs in the 7mag and 7mm stw punching the shoulders without a bullet failure to date.

The SST's can be very explosive at high velocity and after having a couple of them explode in white tails at under 400yds in the 300wm I quit shooting them.