Hammer Bullets - 137 HH or 151 HH in 308 Win

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Just picked up a waypoint in 308 win, 20" barrel and 1:10 twist. I am ton between these two bullets, this will be a muley and black bear rifle out to an absolute max of 450 yds ( not comfortable beyond that and prefer to get inside 400yd).

Given the 20" barrel, should I stick with 137's and run them as fast as accuracy allows, this is what i am leaning towards..
 

A382DWDZQ

WKR
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Dec 3, 2021
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I would go heavier. Your drop at 450yd with the 137, 151, 166, and 172 is going to be within about -27.8 for the 137 to -31.8 for the 172. But your energy with the 137 will be 1140, and the 172 will be 1424 and they should all be pretty comfortably above 1,800fps for good expansion there too.
 

A382DWDZQ

WKR
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ps I am assuming the following MV for this:
137 - 2950
151 - 2800
166 - 2650
172 - 2600
 
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Speed is king with any mono, stabilization or over stabilization produces drastically better terminal performance with hammers, so for me the choice is easy. 137 is the only option and will perform just fine.
I shoot the 152 SH in my 30-06 and load the 166 SH for my dads 300 Win Mag.
Short barreled 308 needs to step down in weight from those two for best performance.
 
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Agree with the above. 150 hammers have been ideal out of my 30-06, i would go lighter out of the 308. Consider the 124HH as well. While I’ve had excellent results on game with hammers down to about 2000 fps, they kill more dramatically at higher speeds.
 

452b264

Lil-Rokslider
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My son is using the new 135 gr. Hammer Hunter. It has a 2 mm hollow point instead of 1 mm, it looks huge.
He is getting 2925/35 and an average .5 inch groups. His rifle is a bone stock rem. 700
 

A382DWDZQ

WKR
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My estimates above are based on 20" barrel for the calculation.
The difference in velocity between the 137 and 172 at:
150yds - 2587 vs 2361
250yds - 2359 vs 2209
350yds - 2142 vs 2062

Hammer recommends > 1800 fps for proper expansion.
This is all just calculations though, and real world will differ.

I have heard that velocity is king with Barnes as well, so I took 130s out in the 308 and they did great at the range, but when I got out in the field with it, and the wind picked up, I wished I had something different for a 300+ yard shot.
 
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There are so many better bullets out there - I wouldn’t use either of them.
I agree. I used the 151 grain absolute hammer on a medium sized whitetail. They did the job but did not give the performance i wanted. They did not give the pass through with a good blood trail that i like. However, they did give me a dead deer so i would not say they performed bad just not the way I like.
 
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There are so many better bullets out there - I wouldn’t use either of them.
That’s debatable. My group of friends has about 30 hammer kills from point blank to 2000fps impact in a variety of cartriges. Nothing has been remotely as easy to reload for and the terminal performance is excellent. I still use Berger’s for dedicated long range guns but for general hunting ranges hammers are hard to beat.
 

S-3 ranch

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That’s debatable. My group of friends has about 30 hammer kills from point blank to 2000fps impact in a variety of cartriges. Nothing has been remotely as easy to reload for and the terminal performance is excellent. I still use Berger’s for dedicated long range guns but for general hunting ranges hammers are hard to beat.
peoples west of the rio grande use hammer bullets as it’s a regional thing , I can get 2900 with 150gr , making my .308win , good enough for a marginal 350 meter range.
hammer or monolith bullets IMO need lots of speed for game
examples.264win mag or 6.5PRC = bueno, 6.5cm or 260 rem = no bueno
 
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That’s debatable. My group of friends has about 30 hammer kills from point blank to 2000fps impact in a variety of cartriges. Nothing has been remotely as easy to reload for and the terminal performance is excellent. I still use Berger’s for dedicated long range guns but for general hunting ranges hammers are hard to beat.
Hammer bullets are super over rated and the owner is a complete Dbag.
 
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Hammer bullets are super over rated and the owner is a complete Dbag.
I’m sure you have your reasons to believe that. In my experience I’ve talked with the owner over the phone multiple times and he’s given me advice on powders to try for new bullets. He’s also exchanged opened packs of bullets that I didn’t end up using for something else that I could use. Seems like a great guy to me.

And how many animals have you killed with hammers to conclude they are overrated? They certainly have some fanboys..but who doesn’t want an easy to load bullets that kills well? And is always available through the supply shortages?
 
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I’m sure you have your reasons to believe that. In my experience I’ve talked with the owner over the phone multiple times and he’s given me advice on powders to try for new bullets. He’s also exchanged opened packs of bullets that I didn’t end up using for something else that I could use. Seems like a great guy to me.

And how many animals have you killed with hammers to conclude they are overrated? They certainly have some fanboys..but who doesn’t want an easy to load bullets that kills well? And is always available through the supply shortages?
Steve has blatantly lied about his bullet’s BC’s. He keeps trying to market them as a long range hunting bullet and they are not that. When called out about it, he consistently claims that it is impossible to come up with an accurate BC - no other bullet manufacturer has a problem with it. If you want a low bc hunting bullet, there are a ton of options out there. With Hammers, after 400 yards its like pulling a parachute. Steve is an arrogant SOB too - when Litz tested his bullet’s BCs and they came back significantly lower than Hammer’s claims on their website, Steve came out and said he knows more than Litz. There are several threads over on LRH that shows his true character.
 

Rieckman

Lil-Rokslider
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I have a 16" 308 that runs the 151 AH around 2850. I would guess with a 20" barrel you could be close to 3k. I haven't had any terminal results with them.
 

bluumoon

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There were some extensive terminal ballistics reports on hammer time forum by one of the Aussie guys that did not give great feed back to the 137s. Better with 151s and the lighter ones at hyper velocities.
 
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