Got my first deer of this season last night and was using a new round, Hornady SST 150 grain in 30-06. Previously I had used Winchester standard silver box and they went straight through, but these Hornady did a lot of damage. I lost a whole front leg, and I hate wasting any. Anyone else used these and saw the same expansion? Definitely no tracking needed. **just realized I posted in wrong forum, can a mod move it to hobbies and interest.
Congrats on the catch to bad you lost some of it. Welcome to the forum and dont worry the mods will be along shortly and move this probably to the game room.
I've loaded the 150g in 308 (46g 4064 - slightly compressed) and had good results with them. I've only taken one small buck with them but accuracy was very good out of a heavy barrel Encore.
Thanks for moving it over here for me. Boog, what kind of loading setup do you have. I've been trying to talk myself in to a single stage setup but I just don't shoot enough to justify it.
Congrats to you burnagain on your deer, to bad about the leg but at least you got the rest of it....I shot at a small doe yesterday and totally missed it.
Congrats on the deer! I've been looking for a better round for my .308 rem700 . Shot a buck at 100yds last year in NY and the bullet passed through without causing much damage. I was just shooting a standart round nose load. Tracked what little blood i could find and had to shoot him again. I'd much rather put em down with one shot and quick. It was a great shot but just not enough damage done inside. Sounds like i need to check out the hornadys
That's all I have, an RCBS single stage "Rock Chucker" bought about 20 years ago. Have a mix of RCBS and Lee die sets. Back then, reloading equipment was cheap, now its a fortune. I sold off several of my die sets and the powder measure equipment for a small fortune on ebay about 6 months ago when the "shelves were empty" everywhere. I got into reloading back then not for the savings and such, but because I was shooting Service Match Competion with 308 converted Garands and M1As. Service match quality was hard to find, and then it wouldn't necessarily shoot "perfect" out of your gun. You have to work up specific loads for you particular gun to shoot with the best. My favorite deer rifle is a M38 Husky Swedish Mauser in 6.5 x 55, I handload for that too. My "backup" gun is an Encore with a heavy 308 barrel. If your accuracy is good for 150g weights out of your 700 (rifle twist rate) then there are several bullets I have tried that I really like. They are the 150g Hornady SST, the Barnes XBT, the Sierra Gameking Spitzer boat tails, and the Speer Spitzer boat tails. These have all worked well for me in 308. Pick any of these, then carefully work up a load that "tack drives" out of that "700". If your gun does not shoot 150g well, than you may want to try 165g. I don't shoot 180g on deer. In the 6.5 x 55, I shoot the 140g Barnes XBT and the Sierra Gameking Spitzer BTs.
I have an older friend around here that has a lot of dies, but he let his loading equipment go too. I think I'm just going to wait until after the first of the year then maybe pick one up, I wont be range shooting until after the season and it ends here Jan 1 (Georgia). I can definitely recommend the hornady, as I had the same problem with my Winchester XP1's last year. This is the first time I've used anything more than $20/box, but it sure was nice leaving the bloodhound at home and not having to track this one. I had a hard time finding the SST, apparently its a pretty popular round, the only place I could track it down was Academy.
