123 gr 6.5mm SST in the 260?

For decades I have shot the 120 gr Nosler Ballistic Tips in my 260, and since I have more, that will continue for a few years. But, in the 6.5 Grendel, I have had to use 123 gr SSTs, which do work very well on the hogs. Right or wrong, I am under the impression that the 123 gr SSTs were for the 6.5 Grendel velocities. Do any of you use that SST in a 260 or 6.5 CM? I guess I could call Hornady, but will ask ya’ll first.

I'd like to know more about this as well.

I've been loading 123 sst in several 6.5 cm last 5 yrs mainly cause I backorder from several places during shortage forgot about it then year or so later had 4k show up almost all at once. Have a hunting operation customers shoot my guns supressed. That bullet over varget has taken several thousand inches of horns. Most shots 100 yds I backed off velocity til bullet didn't exit with neck shot. Find almost all perfect mushroom right under hide. Most all drop in their tracks.

Well and good, but how does it perform when started out at 2900 or so?

For hunting, I actually prefer the lighter bullets in the 6.5's like the 6.5 CM and 260 Rem. Some shorter barrels can't get the velocities up high enough for the 140's to reliably expand at the lower impact velocities. When you drop down into the 120's and 130's, you gain speed which helps bullets open up and perform better. I've always liked the SST's as a hunting bullet. For deer and pigs, I think the good expansion with higher speeds create larger wound channels, which make the bullet more effective. I think the 130 grain ELD-M, 129 SST weight bullets would do well, and the 123 SST also. You may not get an exit wound with that set up, but it should perform well.

Thanks Chad

I’ve long been a fan of the 120 gr Ballistic Tips and the 100 gr BTs in the 260. They both do very well on deer and hogs, though neither seem to ever exit a hog of any size, but do exit deer. I do like some bullet speed, which I get with the 260. Since getting any BT in a weight I want is almost impossible, I migrated to the 123 gr SST for the Grendel, which is a bit short on bullet speed, but kills hogs really well. My concern, as I think I mentioned earlier, is whether or not a bullet that works great at 2400 fps MV might be a bit soft for use at 2800 fps MV if I use it in the 260. We can speculate, but if nobody has any hard data, I suppose I’ll just have to give it a try in the 260. I’ll work up a load and see if I can find a nice fat pig. All I need is cooler weather, since I have a big Boar eating corn most nights.

In a 6.5x55 pushed a little bit faster: I like the Nosler BT.
Not a fan of the SST in the sweede at those speeds. I hunt the pineywoods thickets. Inside 100 yards that SST is more explosive than I like. Up close they are messy. Often times it does not exit. Further away where it has time to shed some velocity, terminal performance is superb. I don’t want to get into a discussion about whether someone else likes that or not. I prefer an exit wound. My feedback on that bullet is based on that and where I hunt. Accuracy for me is on par with the BT’s.

I believe the 123gr was introduced with the Grendel SAAMI introduction in SST and A-MAX. https://www.hornady.com/bullets/rifle/6-5mm-264-123-gr-sst-grendel-lbc-lapua#!/

notice this part in the link "123-gr-sst-grendel-lbc-lapua" I know it works well in the Grendel, but like Smokey at the velocities of the 260, 6,5 Creed I think it might be a bit fragile used inside 200 yards or so. Not sure why the Lapua is included though as it gets almost the speed of the Creed, 260 and Sweede.

603, if you want to try it load up some and shoot some hogs and see for yourself. I have used the 123gr SST in the Grendel, and if looking for a reduced low recoiling effective lad in the 260 run the 123 SST at starting loads in the 2600fps area should work well but do have some doubts about it in the faster 6,5s at about 2 to 300 fps faster.

I think I have my answer, that it’s probably not tough enough for 2800ish fps. But, if I get bored and need something to do, I might load up a few rounds to try out on a pig.

Top is 125 sst bottom is 125 NBT. The nbt’s penetrated 2 to 4 inches deeper and retained an average 64% weight to the sst’ which almost all shed the core and retained significantly less weight. I’m sure they might both work, but in my preference the sst is poor performance.

Mine were started at 2200 fps.

139 screnar or 129 ABLR have given me best on game performance. 129 ABLR best on game erratic on accuracy. Screnar are very consistent

Not the same caliber I was considering but good to hear someone else having good luck with scenar bullets.

Would y'all shut up about the scenars...for the love of all

Two trains of thought on hunting bullets RC...one is wanting a bullet to transfer 100% of it's energy to the animal and the other to do its destruction and punch a hole on the other side to bleed from. Those two bullets are perfect to outline the two scenarios...you like two holes

If I hunted in an open field I wouldn’t care. I do like a happy medium. Barnes in the past expands disrupt too little and at the other end light cup and core bullets come unglued.

That is solid intel for anyone interested red!
Your picture illustrates the explosiveness far better than what I tried to say.

They was my experience with the 123 grain SST’s as well. I’m a big fan of hornady bullets and have shot the interlocks and SST’s with great success but the 123 grain SST is a poor bullet. Shallow penetration and complete jacket separation

Is that not what Hornady designed it to do, shed about 20% of it's weight quickly, expand rapidly and create a large wound channel. There are a few different theories on the most ethical and effective way to kill an animal. I am squarely in the camp of a large wound channel and no exit only because I've seen big, thick skinned heavy hogs and larger than average bucks drop on the spot when hit with an SST bullet. This hog is one of a hundred or more examples. Shot with an SST 129 gr. 6.5 Creedmoor, factory load. The shot was about 140 yards, dumped him right there.

How much variation is caused by velocity difference? I don’t have recovered bullets to compare but my boys 6.5 Grendel pushing the SST has yet to show any failures. That’s around 2400 FPS, as I recall.

In my experience it sheds closer to 80% and retains 20%. Not my cup of tea for a light hunting bullet. Unless central nervous system is disrupted we have to track, blood trails are nice to follow instead of walking circles looking blind in a mix of waiste to shoulder high grass and mast brush.

2400 fps sounds about right. I don’t know what’s different about that particular bullet, we shoot the SST in our 7mm-08’s with great success. My .270 shoots the 130 grain interlock with great success ( which is a SST without the plastic tip). Text book performance. I’ve killed probably 50 animals with hornady loads and never had any issues.

But the 123 grain SST has a jacket/core separation issue that is not supposed to happen. It’s possible me and red Chevy got a bad batch of bullets and the issue has been corrected. But that load combination in the Grendel is a POS.

This thread was about whether or not the 123 gr SST, which works fine in the 6.5 Grendel at 2400 fps, would work in the 260 at 2800 fps. Rest assured, it works fine on hogs when used at Grendel speed. I don’t think the bullet was designed for anything other than the Grendel, so I had questions about it being Ok in the 260. I suppose it might be too soft at the higher velocity, but I don’t know that for sure.

But one thing I do feel confident in is using it on hogs when I have the Grendel. I think I’m using it the way it was designed to be used.

If I had been able to use my choice of bullets in the Grendel, it would be the 100 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip, with second choice being the 120 gr BT. But, the 123 gr SST has worked so well so far, I’ll probably just stay with it. I shoot hogs and they fall over quickly.

The hog I posted above, at the muzzle velocity is 2950, energy 2493.

I reload the 123SST for a coworkers 260, one hole accuracy at 100 yards, he’s killed WT does and bucks, several large 175+ lb hogs and all have been single shot kills with little to no tracking needed.