Did a search and no go

[deadon]

Would someone post a link to the thread on the terminal performance of the 40 cal 200gr sst. Thank you very much, Rusty

[pposey]

I used it to take a coupled deer and a hog, worked well at 2300-2400, always came apart in the animal but something always exited, there would be pieces of jacket scattered, as well as some lead, always had a .40 entrance and a good wound cavity

[Richard]

Herman hit a deer two days ago with a 200 gr. SST at 225 yards.........IN THE HEAD and blew his brains out! DRT
Richard

[moto357]

herman is the man

[deadon]

Do the 200 gr 40 cal sst come lose or only in packets with sabote we can't use.? I have gotten my best accuracy with it over 54 grs H 4198. Posey, I believe you ask about the velocity of that load back when I was not interested, isn't that always the way about how fast is it going? Thanks, Rusty

[mike3132]

Nov 3, 2010 12:56:37 GMT -5 Richard said:

Herman hit a deer two days ago with a 200 gr. SST at 225 yards.........IN THE HEAD and blew his brains out! DRT
Richard

Yes, but the question is was he aiming for the head??? LOL ;D Mike

[zakjak221]

No wasted meat there. ;D
Way to go Herman!!

[spaniel]

I have seen good performance with IMPACT velocities from nearly 2000 fps down to 900ish fps. In 40+ deer killed with this bullet at ranges of 20 to 338 yds I have only had 2 that did not exit. Both were within 5 minutes of each other actually, a doe at 225 yds and another at 180 yds minutes later. Both shots went through both shoulders. One bullet was recovered under the far side skin, jacket only with lead exiting in one piece. The other stopped under the far side skin, the lead coming out when I cut around the bulle to remove it. Both were DRT.

The 338 yd shot was a pass-thru DRT between the ribs, BTW. I really, really like how this bullet performs across a comparatively wide range of velocities.

I cannot speak to what happens at impact velocities over 2000 fps. I would hazard a guess that if you hit the shoulder the bullet MAY not pass through but will cause extensive internal damage.

[etj401]

I'm not impressed with the 40 cal sst. I'm shooting 63gr of IMR 4198. I shot a deer at 120 yds and the entry hole was as big as a fifty cent piece and the exit was the same size. There were pieces of the jacket inside the deer. I shot another deer at 295 yds behind the shoulder. All I found was 5 small patches of hair with meat attached. The bullet will do the job out to about 250 yds but I'm not satisified with the performance on long shots. It appears that at the speed that I'm shooting (about 2750fps) the bullet is expanding on contact. I tried the Barnes 195gr large radius but cant get them to shoot. I want to try the new small radius but I'm not going to pay $65 plus shipping and tax to try them. When they come come out with the smaller packs, I will give them a try if I keep the 45 cal. I resighted the gun with the Parker 200gr Hydra-Con. I'm going to try it on a deer. There is a lot of difference in the drop at 300 yds between the sst and the Parker. I got the 45 cal Pacnor to be able to shoot flatter but it doesnt look like muzzleloader bullets are designed to be shot fast on animals. I have taken deer with the 50 cal and 300 sst over 300yds and have always gotten complete pass thru. The 45 cal and lighter bullets have me concerned at long ranges. Under 250 yds the 45 cal is great!

[lwh723]

Nov 3, 2010 18:27:49 GMT -5 etj401 said:

I'm not impressed with the 40 cal sst. I'm shooting 63gr of IMR 4198. I shot a deer at 120 yds and the entry hole was as big as a fifty cent piece and the exit was the same size. There were pieces of the jacket inside the deer. I shot another deer at 295 yds behind the shoulder. All I found was 5 small patches of hair with meat attached. The bullet will do the job out to about 250 yds but I'm not satisified with the performance on long shots. It appears that at the speed that I'm shooting (about 2750fps) the bullet is expanding on contact. I tried the Barnes 195gr large radius but cant get them to shoot. I want to try the new small radius but I'm not going to pay $65 plus shipping and tax to try them. When they come come out with the smaller packs, I will give them a try if I keep the 45 cal. I resighted the gun with the Parker 200gr Hydra-Con. I'm going to try it on a deer. There is a lot of difference in the drop at 300 yds between the sst and the Parker. I got the 45 cal Pacnor to be able to shoot flatter but it doesnt look like muzzleloader bullets are designed to be shot fast on animals. I have taken deer with the 50 cal and 300 sst over 300yds and have always gotten complete pass thru. The 45 cal and lighter bullets have me concerned at long ranges. Under 250 yds the 45 cal is great!

I'm sure somebody will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you can order the flat base BX in the smaller packs from Barnes. (Of course, there's still the shipping issue.)

IMO, you probably didn't put a great hit on the deer on the 295 yard shot. Maybe it didn't exit, but if you hit it behind the shoulder it would have done its job.

[etj401]

Barnes is only selling the new flat base in the bulk packs of 75 bullets for now. I talked to them yesterday. I shoot quite a bit from 250yds to 390 yds with the 45 Pacnor. The gun shoots great. I have shot a 4 1/2 in group at 390 yds with the gun. It will shoot MOA most of the time at these ranges. I'm pretty sure that I hit the deer behind the shoulder and I know the bullet didn't exit. With a pass thru there is always a blood trail. I just dont think the bullet manufactures are making muzzleloader bullets to be shot at the speeds that we are shooting. Someone needs to design a muzzleloader bullet to do the same thing that a high power rifle does because we are shooting the 45 cal just as fast as some high power rifles.

[pposey]

I was getting 2300-2400 fps with the 54 grains 4198,,,

[rangeball]

Nov 3, 2010 19:11:14 GMT -5 etj401 said:

I just dont think the bullet manufactures are making muzzleloader bullets to be shot at the speeds that we are shooting.

This is why I believe if the barnes will shoot for your gun it is the best choice for hunting. Stands up to speed, reliable expansion over a wide range of velocities, near 100% weight retention.

You have a pm

[larry]

:)Rusty,Here is a link from last yr. with some pictures and discussion of 200sst.
dougsmessageboards.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=smokeless&thread=3341&page=1

[spaniel]

Nov 3, 2010 18:27:49 GMT -5 etj401 said:

I'm not impressed with the 40 cal sst. I'm shooting 63gr of IMR 4198. I shot a deer at 120 yds and the entry hole was as big as a fifty cent piece and the exit was the same size.

Perhaps the mental image I am conjuring from this description is not accurate, but it sounds like it blew a hole twice the diameter of the bullet straight through the deer, with an exit? What is not to like? Personally I'm not one to feel I need softball sized exit wounds, I just want something that doesn't fragment on the surface and exits 90% of the time.

Regarding the 295yd shot, the deer was not recovered? It is very hard to blame non-recoveries on a bullet. A deer shot in the lungs is not going to go far, blood trail or no (and I have seen many deer shot thru-and-thru high in the lungs not bleed one drop). I personally have had a couple deer I thought I made perfect shots on that took off, and when they were finally recovered I found it was NOT the shot I thought I had made and it wasy MY fault, not the bullet. Conversely, I have had a 300 SST fail to expand and do any real damage but punch a .45cal hole yet I hit the deer in the lungs so it was down quickly.

Two weekends until I take the 200 SST to the field with smokeless for the first time, MV 2770 fps. I will report back, I typically get 200-300 yd shots where I hunt, though longer is possible.

[lwh723]

Nov 4, 2010 13:56:38 GMT -5 spaniel said:

I personally have had a couple deer I thought I made perfect shots on that took off, and when they were finally recovered I found it was NOT the shot I thought I had made and it wasy MY fault, not the bullet.

I consider this especially likely at 295 yards!

[spaniel]

Nov 4, 2010 14:03:43 GMT -5 lwh723 said:

Nov 4, 2010 13:56:38 GMT -5 spaniel said:

I personally have had a couple deer I thought I made perfect shots on that took off, and when they were finally recovered I found it was NOT the shot I thought I had made and it wasy MY fault, not the bullet.

I consider this especially likely at 295 yards!

Surprisingly, I have to watch myself more closely on the close shots. I get anal and meticulous on the long shots, I am more likely to rush or be over-confident in a close shot.

[boarhog]

I have tried SSTs and Shock Waves in both 45 and 50 cals. Just haven't gotten the accuracy some on this board report. The last several packs I ordered had a lot of radius on the bullet bases. I had lots of fliers and larger groups than I get with the same weight XTP. As for terminal performance on deer, the only one I can report was actually killed with a 160 gr Hornady FTX in a 30-30. I was pretty surprised by how well it performed. Hit a major leg bone and ribs going in and ribs going out. Impact speed was probably around 1900 fps @ 20 yds. I have been told that the FTX is the same bullet as the SST, but with a soft plastic tip instead of a hard one.

If I were going to hunt with an SST, I think I would not load to speeds above 2300-2400, perhaps a bit less. If I wanted to push max speeds, I would choose a Barnes of some kind.
Boarhog

[etj401]

I think a 40cal bullet should enter as a 40cal hole and expand inside the deer and exit bigger than 40 cal. I dont have a problem with the performance under 250 yds. Dead deer. A bullet entering three times the bullet size tells me that something is not right.

I hunt out of box stands and have sand bags in all my stands. I shoot a lot at 250yds to 350 yds. The gun will shoot MOA at these distances.

The 295yd shot deer was not recovered. I tracked it into the pines and saw where it stumbled a couple of times. I looked for 2 hours and for 300 yds in all directions. There are deer paths everywhere in the pines. Without a blood trail, there is no way to find the deer. I too want an exit hole 90% of the time. We dont have a lot of bullets available for the 45 cal unless we go sabotless. I dont think muzzleloader bullets or pistol bullets are designed to be shot at the speeds that we are shooting. I think speed will work with these bullets up to a certain distance and then speed works against the bullet. In the 50 cal heavier bullets helps at longer ranges. I'm going to try the 200 gr Parker and the new Barnes but I am not impressed yet at longer ranges. I dont see a lot of reports about deer taken past 250 yds.

[smokepole50]

Maybe you should try shooting sabotless with the Parker Ballistic Extreme. I hear they can be rather explosive at close range with shoulder shots but work well with lung shots inside 250 yards being pushed a 2950 from a Richards Custom .45 Smokeless ML.
Past 300 yards he says you can shoot for the shoulder. Of course if you slow it down a bit to 2600, and that might be pushing what your load will do as the bullet weighs 275gr, it will probably preform well at all ranges.

[dannoboone]

etj401:

" I tried the Barnes 195gr large radius but cant get them to shoot."

At first, I couldn't get them to shoot, either. Put calipers to them
and found every one of them to be less then .400, at least at one
end of the bearing surface. After rolling them between two files,
some harder at the smaller end of the bearing surface, I got them
out to .4005 overall, and used them in the regular blue Harvesters.
This did a great "accuracy" job on them, doing sub-MOA 100yd
groups. (I do damp patch followed by a dry patch between shots.)

Prior to the knurling jobs, they were doing 4-41/2" 100yd
groups.

[etj401]

I didn't try knurling the large radius Barnes. But I did file part of the radius off to about 190grs. I then filed all of the radius off to about 183 gr. I still could not get them to shoot. Rangeball is sending me a few of the new flat base to try. I really hope they shoot. I think the barnes would be better at holding together than the sst.
Shooting a heavier bullet sabotless would probably help but that would require probably another $200 investment in an adjustable die and press. I read all the post on the Swinglock adjustable die. There seems to be a lot of problems to get the bullets to the correct size. If I cant get a 40cal bullet to perform the way I want, then I will probably get rid of the 45 pacnor barrel and go to a 50cal pacnor. I have one 50cal Savage and know it will do the job out past 330 yds. The Pacnors just shoot much more consistant.