Hammer bullets

[cubdriver84d]

I shot a dall, moose, and wounded a grizz with them last year. They shot good, but I am kind of mixed. Can't blame the bullet for shot placement and will never know where I hit the grizz, rolled him 3 times, sucks. Is really the exit on the dall that makes me think. yes a hair high, but just questioning if more frontal would have helped. He dropped like a ton of bricks. Got back up about 10 minutes later. Another ram was in the way preventing a second shot tell we finally moved close. This pic is close to 30 minutes later. I get it i somehow missed the vitals, again thinking wider channel through might have helped. 199 sledge hammers cooking out of 300 norma mag at 415 yardsView attachment 191054View attachment 191054

Did you reach out to Steve? I bet he would be interested in hearing about these and I’d be interested in hearing his thoughts.

 

[swampthing]

I just found a load for my 6.5-300 weatherby waiting to crono it then go hunt with it and see the on game results hopefully at a moderate distance

Do share please!

 

[cubdriver84d]

I shot a dall, moose, and wounded a grizz with them last year. They shot good, but I am kind of mixed. Can't blame the bullet for shot placement and will never know where I hit the grizz, rolled him 3 times, sucks. Is really the exit on the dall that makes me think. yes a hair high, but just questioning if more frontal would have helped. He dropped like a ton of bricks. Got back up about 10 minutes later. Another ram was in the way preventing a second shot tell we finally moved close. This pic is close to 30 minutes later. I get it i somehow missed the vitals, again thinking wider channel through might have helped. 199 sledge hammers cooking out of 300 norma mag at 415 yardsView attachment 191054View attachment 191054

I also think there’s generally less info out there on how the sledge (now shock) hammers perform. Most seem to shoot the hunters, which should give a little more initial hydrostatic shock due to the larger petals that peel back and shear off.

I suspect hammers actually make a better wound channel than most other bullets. They’re actually cutting tissue with the flat frontal area and sharp edges whereas mushroomed bullets tend to just displace tissue. Hammers always seem to make a small exit, but that’s not necessarily indicative of the damage that was done internally.

Was the sheep quartering at all? If it was broadside, you probably just barely missed the lungs.

 

[Bsnyder]

88 grains of ram shot LRT with a coal of 3.58. Based on drops puts its out of the muzzle at 3450.

 

[Sykes]

I've had good success using the 143 hammer hunter in my 280AI at 3120 fps. I shot a cow elk at 70 yards with incredible results and my brother in law shot his bull elk at 360 yards. He took 2 shots before tipping over even though I'm sure the 1st was enough.

I also killed 2 coyotes with one shot from 90 yards with the same rifle. Funny thing there is the first coyote ran 60 yards or so before dying but the second coyote dropped on the spot. I have some 152 hammer hunters loaded up in my kimber 300 wsm to try this year, they are cruising at 3375 fps but now that summer is here the load is a little warm so probaly going to back it down somewhere around 3300.

 

[bradb]

It was quartering a little, just one of those strange hits that seen great but was a hair off.
Steve had suggested sledge to leave more shank for penetration with grizz on the menu.
I get the hole cutting idea versus mushroom and have shot plenty of things with the x bullets.
Just if the pedals don't create damage its a tiny hole going through. I really think I would rather have bigger frontal area.
This was from a quick follow up shot on moose, he was going to be quickly dead from first but wasn't waiting. It performed like designed.

I sure lean towards SMALLER wound channel

 

[thinhorn_AK]

For a moose at 100 yards, which is likely to penetrate bone more, a 181 gr hammer .308 or a 180gr TTSX .308 ?

The Hammer would have less weight retention?
The TTSX would cut a bigger post-bone wound channel due to the larger mushroom?
Would the Hammer "small petals" penetrate a moose scapula?

Or is this all moot and the TTSX versus Hammer terminal performance would be nearly identical at 100 yards in a moose shoulder?

Thanks.

I dont think it would matter at all on a broadside moose shot at 100yds, the cheapest factory Ammo would do fine in that situation, for moose I just load up some partitions or accubonds to book recommendations then go hunting.

that being said I’m trying to compare the 168g ttsx to the 166g hunter for my hunting season this year, both shoot well out of the 2 guns I’ve loaded them up for. I do find the hammers are very easy to get shooting well, I had a box of the 181g hammers leftover and I just loaded them up for my 30-06 with some rl19 and went to the range, they all shot into one ragged hole, if I was going that route, I’d be happy with those buckets and that load. The Barnes 127g LRX worked perfectly out of my 6.5 with very little tweaking as well.

 

[AK_Skeeter]

I think testing at the range, a sample size of more than 1 under identical conditions is important.
For example, sample size of 1, several different studies:
depth of penetration thru wetpack with .308 bullet (Nozler Partitions, 308, 30 06, 300 Win Mag)
Partition Weight Impact Velocity Penetration (inches) RetainedWeight%
165 gr 2450 17.0 77%
165 gr 2790 18.9 70%

165 gr 3111 16.5 67%
180 gr 2680 16.0 68%
I was surprised that a fast 165gr partition was similar in terminal performance relative to the slower 180gr partition
but as expected the heaviest bullet penetrated the most:
220gr 2570 19.0 66%
220gr 2470 20.5 70%
source:http://www.rathcoombe.net/sci-tech/ballistics/methods.html#medium_bore_table

I wonder whether TTSX would penetrate significantly more than Hammer because TTSX retains more bullet weight?
Or do Hammers penetrate more than TTSX because of their sharp cutting edge?
Or is their no significant difference between TTSX and Hammers in terms of penetration?

 

[cubdriver84d]

Getting back to the OP's question about twist. I just came across this thread on LRH where Steve (RockyMtnMT) discusses how they've found that properly stabilized bullets really aid terminal performance. (There's also a few others out there.) So, even if your rifle will stabilize a bullet and shoots it well, if it's only marginally stable, you'll be sacrificing terminal performance. He also shows his incredible dedication to ensuring he's producing great bullets by troubleshooting some less than ideal performance that another poster in the thread experienced.

Hammer Hunter Vs. Sledge hammers? (350 yard max)

All, I will be making some reloads for my wife's 6.5creedmoor used for whitetail hunting. Range on whitetails will be out to 350 yards. What are the differences in the Hammerhunter Vs. the sledgehammer bullets? Looks like the sledgehammers have a larger opening to the hollowpoint. Does this make...

www.longrangehunting.com

 

[JakeSCH]

@AK_Skeeter from my experience where hammer bullets shine is their ability to produce higher BC for similar weight mono’s. Typically will get a G1 delta of .03 to .07 more for a similar mono weight of a TTSX or LRX.

I have also seen a small increase in velocity for similar powder charges compared to a LRX (~ 30 to 50 FPS more).

To date I have used TTSX / GMX to harvest most of my animals. I can’t imagine copper bullets really performing better on impact but it f you can get the higher velocity with a higher BC it may be worth it for some.

For example, compare 6.5 127 LRX vs 124 HH and the 175 LRX vs 181 HH.

 

[bradb]

Again I was shooting the sledge hammers so the BC is not good. Steve also said that the sledge's throw up a sail at distance. In my 280 AI they were kind of a pain to get right past 600. In the Norma I shot them to a bit over 900 and they still shot pretty good. But not a rip on the bullet at all so don't take it that way, but the sledge hammers have a bad BC and its not the intention of that bullet for reaching out. The others they make are much better

 

[JakeSCH]

Again I was shooting the sledge hammers so the BC is not good. Steve also said that the sledge's throw up a sail at distance. In my 280 AI they were kind of a pain to get right past 600. In the Norma I shot them to a bit over 900 and they still shot pretty good. But not a rip on the bullet at all so don't take it that way, but the sledge hammers have a bad BC and its not the intention of that bullet for reaching out. The others they make are much better

For sure. I was just offering up a reason why one would buy Hammer over Barnes. I would probably shoot barnes before a sledge hammer myself.

 

[S.Clancy]

I shot a dall, moose, and wounded a grizz with them last year. They shot good, but I am kind of mixed. Can't blame the bullet for shot placement and will never know where I hit the grizz, rolled him 3 times, sucks. Is really the exit on the dall that makes me think. yes a hair high, but just questioning if more frontal would have helped. He dropped like a ton of bricks. Got back up about 10 minutes later. Another ram was in the way preventing a second shot tell we finally moved close. This pic is close to 30 minutes later. I get it i somehow missed the vitals, again thinking wider channel through might have helped. 199 sledge hammers cooking out of 300 norma mag at 415 yardsView attachment 191054View attachment 191054

I hit a BIG 6x6 bull elk this fall with my bow with the same impact area and he walked off like nothing happened. I'm guessing it's just variation in individual anatomy, but it was heartbreaking. I did hunt the same bull 10 days later, but never got him killed.

 

[freddyG]

For sure. I was just offering up a reason why one would buy Hammer over Barnes. I would probably shoot barnes before a sledge hammer myself.

I agree. Barnes need speed to open up, especially at distance. I don’t see the benefit of low bc bullets that shear petals off easy, because they are made for close shots anyway. For those closer shots, it’s easy to maintain velocity, so the barnes are better because of the much larger diameter when they open. Easy opening copper bullets do help tremendously at distance though.
This past hunting season I tried the 110 tac-tx in my 308. These were made for the 300 BLK, so they open up at very low velocity. I got good groups at 3450 fps using TAC, but they sheared petals completely off at closer than 150 yards. I did plan to shoot an elk with them at distance, but it never happened due to only having close shot opportunities. I used the 168 Ttsx instead. Maybe next season I’ll try again.

 

[swisski]

I started using hammers this year, the 124 HH in a 6.5 Creedmoor. I had bad luck with LRX’s in the same rifle, couldn’t get them to group. I loaded the Hammers just under mag length, which was recommended by Hammer and shot this group out of my factory Tikka once I found a velocity node. I haven’t killed anything with them yet but I have 3 tags this year so hopefully I’ll have something to report back on.

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Do you mind sharing your recipe? Were you using Varget? I also shoot the Creed in 6.5 and just started development for these 124gr Hammer Hunters. Thanks

 

[cmahoney]

Do you mind sharing your recipe? Were you using Varget? I also shoot the Creed in 6.5 and just started development for these 124gr Hammer Hunters. Thanks

Lapua SRP, 43 grains of RL16, BR4 and I think 2.889 COAL.


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