# 250 gr Hornady SST results



## throwdown (Nov 9, 2012)

I have been using the 300 gr Hornaday SSt's for a couple years now. But wanted to try a little flatter shooting bullet, so I switched this year to the 250 gr. I'm currently shooting a CVA Electra with 100 grains of Pyrodex. The shot was 115 yards, and I don't think that I can ask for much more. The terminal ballistics were devastating, this 8 point took 6 steps and expired. It blew one of the lungs in half, and jello'd the second.


Entry hole


Lungs

Exit hole


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## 7Mag Hunter (Nov 9, 2012)

Nice !!!!!!!!!!

Got an Electra last Xmas (from Santa !!) and yet to have deer in
sights...Going to use it next week on WMA hunt.....
Love the way it shoots....Instant ignition....No more pop----bang.


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## throwdown (Nov 9, 2012)

Hands down the most accurate muzzleloader I have ever seen.


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## Gecko (Nov 9, 2012)

Nice job man.  Those are nasty.  Congrats on your buck!


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## weekender (Nov 13, 2012)

throwdown, My wife and I have been shooting  Knights for the last 12 yrs or so and have never been pleased with the accuracy. We're lucky to get a 6" group at 100 yds using 245 gr Areotip Powerbelts with 100 grs Pyrodex pellets. Tell me about your accuracy at 100 yrds with your CVA and Hornady 250s.


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## Apex Predator (Nov 13, 2012)

Greg, 

I'm shooting a CVA Wolf and am getting 1 1/2" 100 yd three round groups out of mine.  Two 50g 777 pellets and a 250gn T/C Shockwave sabotted bullet, which is a Hornandy SST.


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## jeshoffstall (Nov 13, 2012)

weekender said:


> throwdown, My wife and I have been shooting  Knights for the last 12 yrs or so and have never been pleased with the accuracy. We're lucky to get a 6" group at 100 yds using 245 gr Areotip Powerbelts with 100 grs Pyrodex pellets. Tell me about your accuracy at 100 yrds with your CVA and Hornady 250s.



Weekender, I would guess the problem is with the Powebelts, not the Knight rifles.  Try some Hornady SSTs or TC Shockwaves and see if things do not tight up.  Powerbelts have been reported to not seal well in Knight Rifles.

Google Randy Wakeman - I have read several of his articles on muzzleloading and learned a good bit from them.


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## weekender (Nov 13, 2012)

thanks for the replies Apex & jesh


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## Gecko (Nov 14, 2012)

Definitely agree with the other thoughts on this.  Its the bullet not the rifle.  I have a Knight BK 92 that shoots sub MOA with several bullet powder combos.  Loose 777 with Hornady SST ML 250s or Harvester Scorpion PT Gold 260s are the best in mine.  The standard sabot with the Hornadys work great but the Harvester Crushed Rib works better for both.  Just some thoughts.  Every muzzleloader manufacturer uses different tolerances.  Yes it is a .50 but when measured is actually smaller or larger depending, there is a variance.  Knights and T/C tend to have tighter bores.


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## weekender (Nov 14, 2012)

Gecko, mine is same as yours BK 92, I'll try your suggestions and let you know results.


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## Michael F. Gray (Nov 14, 2012)

Pictures say it all.


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## throwdown (Nov 17, 2012)

Weekender, sorry I missed your post. I easily get 1" groups shooting the SST's, I'm amazed at the accuracy, but more importantly amazed at the ballistics of this bullet. I have taken three deer with the SST's, two with the 300 gr, and one with the 250's. Not one of these deer took more than 6 steps, matter of fact, this is the only deer that took any steps. All shots were vital area shots, and ranges were from 55 yards to 115 yards. There is nothing more than I can say about these bullets but they absolutely perform!


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## weekender (Nov 18, 2012)

I got some SSTs, now if I can get some time to try them.


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## Gecko (Nov 18, 2012)

Weekender you still lighting your BK92 with #11 caps.  I converted mine to 209.  I still have the old setup but found a deal on the new system.  I like it much better.  It uses the full plastic jackets and is much cleaner to ignite.  Hope those Hornadys work out for you.  Let us know how she does.


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## weekender (Nov 27, 2012)

I converted to 209 many years ago, right after my wife's misfired on a real nice 8pt. It knocked the whole back out of the #11 cap but didn't fire. All she had left was a "doughnut" of the outside of the cap. She was DISAPPOINTED! She has the cap taped to a card on the mantle that says "my 8pt".  I went straight and bought the conversions for 209 and we haven't had a misfire since. Still haven't had time to shoot any, been working from before daylight till way after dark. I will have some time over Christmas and shoot some then.


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## Gecko (Nov 27, 2012)

Wow, I bet momma was NOT happy.  I have never had a misfire with either system, but did not shoot the #11's very long.  Too bad that thing didnt light for the buck.  That should have happened at some place like the range.  Anyway, we've been busy as well.  Hope you get to send some of those 250's down range soon, I think you'll like em'.  Post you results when you get time.


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## shane256 (Nov 28, 2012)

My friends/family have been having a time with muzzle loader bullets... we've used a number of different kinds (Power belt and Shock Wave) but the saying for us is "muzzler loader shots don't bleed". With all the deer we've gotten, it's hard to disprove that. Every once in a while we'll get a good bleeder but the vast majority of time, there's little/no blood. The deer are all hit well... boiler room shots, etc. Most of the time it's complete pass through as well. A doe I got last week I shot through the ribs with a 250gr Shock Wave cup-n-core bullet at 80yds (3x50gr powder pellets), complete pass through on a perfect broadside shot. Entrance hole was .45cal, exit hole was  over an inch in diameter... found almost no blood at all... a drop every yard or so... but where I hit her, there were a few bits of lung sprayed on the ground and when tracking her and we found "blood", it was usually more of a gobbet of lung than blood... never a bit more than the size of my little finger nail and spread out usually 1 or 2 yards between each drop. This is pretty common for us... not just me but about a half dozen or so of us all have similar experiences... just little/no blood. We still recover most of what we shoot but it REALLY bothers me the number of times some of my friends/family shoot at deer but we can't find any blood and can't recover the deer.

I'm going to give the 250gr  SSTs a try (just ordered some from MidwayUSA) to see if they work better based on what you guys say here (I'm usually not a big fan of SSTs but maybe they'll work better in a muzzle loader).


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## snuffy (Nov 28, 2012)

shane256 said:


> My friends/family have been having a time with muzzle loader bullets... we've used a number of different kinds (Power belt and Shock Wave) but the saying for us is "muzzler loader shots don't bleed". With all the deer we've gotten, it's hard to disprove that. Every once in a while we'll get a good bleeder but the vast majority of time, there's little/no blood. The deer are all hit well... boiler room shots, etc. Most of the time it's complete pass through as well. A doe I got last week I shot through the ribs with a 250gr Shock Wave cup-n-core bullet at 80yds (3x50gr powder pellets), complete pass through on a perfect broadside shot. Entrance hole was .45cal, exit hole was  over an inch in diameter... found almost no blood at all... a drop every yard or so... but where I hit her, there were a few bits of lung sprayed on the ground and when tracking her and we found "blood", it was usually more of a gobbet of lung than blood... never a bit more than the size of my little finger nail and spread out usually 1 or 2 yards between each drop. This is pretty common for us... not just me but about a half dozen or so of us all have similar experiences... just little/no blood. We still recover most of what we shoot but it REALLY bothers me the number of times some of my friends/family shoot at deer but we can't find any blood and can't recover the deer.
> 
> I'm going to give the 250gr  SSTs a try (just ordered some from MidwayUSA) to see if they work better based on what you guys say here (I'm usually not a big fan of SSTs but maybe they'll work better in a muzzle loader).



Not the best picture but check out this blood trail.
http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=720880


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## shane256 (Nov 28, 2012)

We get some of those rarely... not joking... maybe 1 in 8 deer. The rest are either very light blood (drops here and there but not too hard to trail), practically none (like my doe... seriously... every yard or so was a drop of *lung*... not much blood... how that works, I still don't know), or no blood at all... which makes them really hard to recover.


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## rosewood (Dec 14, 2012)

Maybe it has nothing to do with the bullet construction or the fact it is black powder.  Maybe it is because of the large hole.  Maybe it tears up so much inside the deer that most of the bleeding is internal and it doesn't follow the channel that the bullet made out the side (the bleeding falls between the internal organs).  I suppose a smaller bullet will allow for more clotting along the wound channel (from organ to organ etc) and plug any leaks outside of that channel and the blood flows through the path of the bullet????  Could also be related to pressure, in a larger hole, the pressure drops to zero faster than a small hole.  Blood pressure makes the blood shoot out a small whole, but with 0 pressure on the large hole, it just doesn't push blood out???  Just a few thoughts.


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## throwdown (Dec 16, 2012)

I don't believe that pressure is the contributing factor when it comes to a blood trail. My experience has been that the larger the hole, the more blood as long as penetration is achieved, on animal, or human. But I get where your coming from. Who knows, but the process sure is fun.


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## miles58 (Dec 17, 2012)

I don't know about anyone else, but to me that's pretty pathetic performance.  Put a properly performing bullet through the lungs and there should be little to no lungs left.

Last year posted pictures of what a Barnes T-EZ did.  That bullet left a fist size chunk of one lung, and shredded the heart.  That's what I expect out of all my bullets whether M/L or C/F.

Blood trails when you get that kind of performance are just naturally going to be iffy.  If you disconnect all the plumbing in the chest blood pressure drops to zero instantly, and until the chest fills to the level of the holes or sloshing brings the blood to the hole you get nothing out.  My experience had been some have excellent blood trails some have zero blood trail, but all die in about fifty yards because they can't go any further.  The ones that leave blood trails Ray Charles could follow have the right side of the heart damaged, the great vessels at the top of the heart damaged but not completely destroyed or one of the major arteries damaged.  I intentionally shot one a few years back so that it would destroy the descending aorta. That vessel carries all the blood to the deer behind the diaphragm.  That deer made it the same fifty yards.  The blood trail was still good because the heart still was pumping.

When you destroy the heart and lungs dropping BP to zero instantly you produce a lot of shredded tissue.  That shredded tissue is capable of clogging a huge hole.  The deer I posted the Barnes pictures from had a hole a golf ball would easily fit through from the entrance to the exit.  The deer did not go down at the shot despite being shot through both shoulder blades down low on the blade.  There was zero blood trail for about 3 jumps.  Then, there was a decent (not generous though) blood for maybe three more jumps on both sides of the deer.  After that, not so much as a drop that I could find.  The deer made it another 20-30 yards beyond last blood.  There was no way to shoot it better other than to head shoot it.  The shot was flat dead perfect if you wanted it down now.  Both shoulder blades had golf ball size holes down close to the joint.  the contents of the chest were completely destroyed.  Tissue can and will plug even very large holes.  You don't want to deliver a less damaging wound hoping for more blood trail, that's insane.  You do the best you can and deliver the most damage you can within reason.   After that,  you go find what you shot, and that requires the same preparation necessary to putting the right bullet in the right place.

Dave


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## shane256 (Jan 2, 2013)

I got to check out the damage of some of those SSTs (250gr). I shot a (an average size for us... 72lbs with no hide, guts, feet, or head) doe at about 15yds one morning. I shot her and knew she fell (heard her fall). I went over and saw her down already so I went straight to her. Where she fell, there was a little bit of blood. She was very slightly facing away from me when I shot. The bullet went in about two inches behind the left front leg and just below about half way up between the chest and back and exited just behind the right front leg bone. I couldn't find any blood trail away from where she fell back towards where I shot her. I went over and found where she was when I shot, which was about 20yds away, and found a spray of blood there and that was easy to see. However, I couldn't find any blood connecting the two places... where she was hit and where she ultimately was laying.

I can't say any of the bullets we've tried are "bad" because they result in dead deer... sometimes, like this time, very quickly. It's just that where we hunt, the lack of a blood trail can result in a lot of time spent looking.

Still... I need to shoot more deer with these SSTs to see how well they work. Just one isn't a good sample size


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## shane256 (Jan 7, 2013)

I heard that Shock Wave (non-bonded... the yellow tip ones) are actually rebranded SSTs... is there any truth to that? Not that it means a lot, but sitting side by side, other than the color of the tip (and the plastic sabot sleeve), they look identical in every way. The SSTs are sold cheaper around here, though... like $12 for 20 vs. $15 for 15 for the Shock Waves.


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