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Hornady 300 44-300 XTP or 45-300 SST?

jakeway

jakeway

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Joined
Nov 22, 1999
Messages
3,944
Location
Hendersonville, TN, USA
I got great groups with 45-240 XTP in my 50 cal Optima, but I;ve been reading a lot of posts about poor performance on deer.

I wanted to move to the 45-300 XTP, but all I can find in the stores is 44-300 XTP or 45-300 SST. I like the hollow-point design of the XTP more than the spire-point SST, but I'm not sure I like the thicker green sabots that are required with teh .44 cal XTP bullet.

Does anyone have opinions on these two bullets, or do you know where I can get some 45-300 XTP bullets? (Even Bass Pro On-line says they are out of stock.)
 
I shoot the 44-300 XTPs with the green sabot and I love it. The black sabots sucked. So far I have always gotten a pass through with that bullet. No problems.

Shoot both and see which performs better. I got lucky with the XTPs. They shoot great from my gun and they make the deer bleed hard and fast. Once the combo started working I quit looking for something new.
 
I was looking at the muzzleloader stuff at Pointdexter's Bait shop this morning after checking in my doe, and I found a 50 pack of 45-300 XTP (bullets only, no sabots) for $10. Now I'll get some sabots and find the right combo.
 
Check out these guys for sbaots:

http://www.mmpsabots.com/

They have the right sabot to fit your needs.

As for the XTPs, that was the first sabot type bullet I started with. I never could get any consistency with them...Either they would pass through or I would be tracking for a while. This could have been due to shot placement as well. I think the XTPs are a better choice than PowerBelts for what its worth.
 
Honestly, my old encore shot both to same POI, and almost same groups (around 1.5" with the SST's and 2" with XTP's at 100 yards). I like the pretty red tip on the SST's, so that's what I used last year.

Shot my new prohunter ML this morning and used the 300gr SST's with 120g loose 777. Around 1900 fps, 1 1/4" group at 100. Looks like it'll be the go-to ML this year.
 
Everyone should be aware that there are two different versions of the 300gr. XTP. There's a magnum version which has a single cannalure and a non-magnum version which has a double cannalure. I prefer the non-magnum version but they're hard to come by and a lot of the time they're not available from suppliers. Some of the inline shooters over in the Carolinas swear by them and have a long track record of successful use. Some of Randy Wakemans articles detail usage of the non-magnum version. I've successfully used the magnum version on several deer and they do fine for the close range hunting situations I normally set up for.
 
I tried the 300 grn sst in my CVA opitma this past weekend.
They seem to be more consistant at 100 yds.
They are much easier to load after the first shot.
I am using 100 gr. of 777 with the 300 gr SST.
I hope to find out this Saturday what they will do on a deer.
 

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