# Owner ST-66 / ST-76 Treble hook test



## surfcowboy (Jun 29, 2005)

I recently received some hooks from a Manufacturer for testing Mag. 57 & Mag. 70HD. These are the names I gave these hooks for testing.

I decided to do an extreme hook test on these as well as on Owner ST-66 & ST-76 hooks a well know brand for big game fishing. The test I conducted was a hook point pressure pull Test. Doing this test allowed me to find out at which point the hook begins to bend outward until the point where the hook becomes ineffective. The surface on which the point came in contact with, was a hard stone make up. This is an extreme over representation of a hook point coming in contact with the dense bony part of a fishâ€™s mouth. All the hooks were 4/0 sizes, and new except one. The ST-66 which had never had a fish hooked to it. I started the pull test with a base line measurement, and the first pull for all hooks was 25 pounds. I increased the pull weights in 5 pound increments.

This a very photo heavy post so to see all the test photo's follow the link blow 
https://www.h4ltackle.com/2020/06/25/magnum-57-magnum-70hd-hook-vs-owner-st-66-st-76-extreme-test

The first hooks I tested were the Mag. 57 & Owner ST-66. They were tested to 60lbs. of pull at which point the hooks became ineffective to be use. Here is what I found with the Owner St-66 and the Mag. 57 hooks. At 25 pounds the tips on both hooks deformed just a little. At 40#â€™s the ST-66 shows the first sign of the hook starting to open about .9mm. At 45# mark the Mag 57 shows the first sign of opening about .5mm and the St-66 was just over 1mm. The progressing of hook opening are as follows:

50# (Mag 57, 1.1mm / ST-66, 1.9mm)

55# (Mag 57, 2.1mm / ST-66, 3mm)

65# (Mag 57, 3.5mm / ST-66 3.5mm)

Both hooks had almost equal results in the Tests. The Mag. 57 edge out the St-66 in the 40-55lb. range for not spreading open as much. The tip on the St-66 held up just a little bit better than the Mag. 57 Which can be seen in the photos.



















































Drag weight recommendation when using these hooks.

Workable drag:
35-40lbs for the St-66
40-45lbs for Mag 57

Max drag: 45lbs.

On to the testing of the Mag. 70 HD & Owner ST-76. To start off I want to say I was amazed how strong both of these hooks were. I started the test at the stander 25lb. mark and increased at 5lb. increments, and did this until about 50lbs. Through the range of 25-50lbs the only noticeable damage to the hook was some deformation in the hook tip. At which time I changed to 10lb increases. At 60lbs the ST-76 had the first indication of opening but so small maybe 0.25mm. 70lbs the Mag 70HD opened up maybe 0.25mm and the ST-76 opened to about 0.5mm. At this point I stopped testing do to loosing light, and I figured that is above the max drag of any spinning reel on the market today. After looking over both hooks the only noticeable damage was to the hook points. If you didnâ€™t measure the hooks when you got them you wouldnâ€™t noticed that the hooks had opened any. These hooks are a little on the heavy side .5oz / 14g compared to the first test set at .35oz / 10g. If you, and your setup can handle the weight, and you want the strongest hooks out there. The Mag 70HD & ST-76 are the hooks for you.
























Drag weight recommendation when using these hooks.

Workable drag:
60-70lbs. for the ST-76
60-70lbs. for Mag 70HD

Max drag: 70+lbs

Just remember continuous use overtime will weaken the hooks and the workable and max drags will be less.

If you have any questions please send me a message.


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