Can A Bullet Be Zipping Too Fast? Hammer 99 Hunter @ 3170 FPS On Hogs

[HARPERC]

....Great video - those velocities aren't too high. Sounds like you just need to get a better bullet than the hammers. That is disappointing performance.....

Disappointing in which way? Bullet unrecovered for evaluation, linear penetration unverified. Its a smaller for caliber (99grain) bullet, from a moderate cartridge, making one of the tougher shots in the game. Full paunches tend to stop bullets. Is there another 100 grain 6.5, you feel would have performed better in the circumstances?

 

[UplandFreak]

Disappointing in which way? Bullet unrecovered for evaluation, linear penetration unverified. Its a smaller for caliber (99grain) bullet, from a moderate cartridge, making one of the tougher shots in the game. Full paunches tend to stop bullets. Is there another 100 grain 6.5, you feel would have performed better in the circumstances?

Did you miss the part if the video where he says that they are performing like an FMJ? Maybe you should watch the video before you comment or blindly defend hammer bullets. I think it is about the 5 min 30 sec mark. I can think of several bullets that would have performed better than that. You can't?

 

[HARPERC]

Yes I did watch the video. Including the part about bullet being unrecovered, as much as I respect, and enjoy his video's, we don't know what happened to the bullet.

No I can't think of a bullet in that weight class I would recommend for that type of shot. Fact is that bullet wouldn't be on my list for that type of shot. Not a Hammer issue, a Berger issue, or a Nosler issue, it's an objectivity issue.

The shot was called as a "Hail Mary" I don't know if the saints interceded, so what we have is a small for caliber bullet, and a low percentage shot. The hog from what I see turned legs to sky on impact, crawled a few yards, then ceased to move in less than 30 seconds, unless it was finished in some other fashion not on the video, was dead, required no tracking and was readily recovered.

If we include other bullets, and weights, my preference making that shot would be the 160 Hornady, Woodleigh. or the 156 Norma Oryx.

We should always be so disappointed.

Again Ed absolutely love your video's, watch them all. I appreciate you putting it out there for discussion.

 

[Frog4aday]

Looked like they blew some pretty decent holes to me. Hogs are just tough and shot placement is very important. <SNIPPED STUFF> I have dropped them in their tracks and shot another one only to look back and they are trying to get up and away.--Even with 30/06 and 7 mag. Even with good shot placement and even with partitions! Most of the time they just crumple but some of them are just tough!put four holes in one with a 243 and he got up and charged me!

This says it all, really. Anyone that has hunted hogs enough has seen the same thing - they are surprisingly tough for their size. Great shot placement WILL and DOES kill them, but unless you take out the spine or brain, expect them to keep going for a bit, regardless of caliber used.

I've done the double lung with complete penetration using a .308 Win (cup and core bullet) and had the piggy run off. We did eventually track it down and finished it with a .243 Win, but the hog was still alive over an hour later. Buddy shot one with his 7mm Rem Mag only to have the hog jump seemingly straight in the air, turn, and come right at him upon landing. Bizarre. Another shot put it down, but it shook my friend enough to make him switch to a .300WSM, even though the cartridge and bullet he used are more than 'enough' for hogs. When something the size of a hog demonstrates the staying power of much bigger animals, it gets your attention.

And for all that, there are the times where the hog goes down and doesn't twitch after some dude with a .223 shooting 64gr Power Points takes his heart/lung shot. But...shoot enough hogs and you'll see things that will make you re-think how tough the little bastages can be. They have my respect. I don't think the Hammer "failed". It expanded, flung off it's four petals and the shank fully penetrated, as they do. It just takes hogs a bit to 'decide' they are really dead sometimes.

 

[Scott E Ames]

Great video. Hogs are a tough kill sometimes. The boars have such a thick connective tissue shield in the forward 1/3 of their body to defend against the tusks of their opponents that they can absorb incredible injuries without apparent damage. One 300# boar took a 160 gr. Nosler partition (7mm) dropped in his tracks with no exit at 75 yards. I hung it from a tree for coyote bait and shot it 3 more times to "open" it for the dogs and never got a pass through. Another was shot with a 175# Scorpyd crossbow and a 3 blade 2 1/2 inch expanding with full pass through and still went 100 yards bleeding like 3 "stuck pigs". The only reliable exit wounds came when we were shooting them with 416 Rigby's and 400 grain triple shocks getting ready for an African hunt. Drop to the shot is a CNS or major skeletal shot (or use an elephant rifle) otherwise they usually get a 50-100 yard mad dash in.

 

[RockyMtnMT]

The wounds that we see in the video show that the bullets did not pencil or perform like a fmj. Looking close at the video I think the neck shot hog that was not recovered was hit low of the spine so it didn't shut him off. The two that were recovered had marginal hits that ended with success.

I don't remember when Ed got the 99g Hammer Hunters, seem like it was quite a while ago. The 99g is one that we changed the hollow point depth on early this spring. We made it deeper so that it will shed a bit more weight on impact. May have been enough to get more shock into the cns on that neck shot.

Great video as always!

 

[5.56×250]

I know, old thread, but I found it looking for info on 99 hammers before I start load development on my Grendel.
Now, just wanted to add a story on the resilience of an old boar hog.
I was hunting some fed land here in Ga a few years ago, late season , for a meat deer. I had heard a few hogs had been seen in the area. We don't seem to HOLD a hog population here, but pods appear from time to time.
Sitting in my climber , I had just watched a group of 6 nice long beards work their way off the hill behind me and after they wondered off, I heard a rustling in the leaves from the same location. I thought a stragglers turkey was working down the hill and almost didn't even turn to look. Imagine my surprise when I found myself staring at a 300lbs boar hog scarring white oak acorns . I had my favorite late season meat gun. A 45-70 with 300gr hp Winchester factory ammo. Heavy, slow bullet that expands good on anything. Little meat damage and drt performance as the norm. I punched through both gristle plates at 75yds. The pig twitched , gave a short grunt and trotted off like he was headed to a watering hole for a wallow ! I honestly thought I had missed the chip shot somehow. I walked over , just to verify my miss and c ound a hand full of black hair and a blood trail the width of a car hood headed down the hill. A little over 100yds down the blind man blood trail and there he laid , dead as a hammer. It blew my mind that I had penitrated both plates and barely got a reaction to the shot. They are some more kinda tough. Hit them clean and they don't live. Hit them marginally, and they probably won't die in a time frame that will let you get a good recovery.

 

[Northkill]

Too fast? Nope. Run em faster.

A little hammer goes a long way

Greetings all. I got to try out the 22 cal 52 grain hammer hunter yesterday on a 200 pound razor back and I must say that for that size bullet I am impressed with the damage it did. Impact was just below the right eye and the exit was on the point of the left shoulder, the right side of the...

www.longrangehunting.com

 

[HARPERC]

In the year since the thread was started, there is ample evidence Hammer Bullets are expanding while being launched at 4000-4500 fps.

 

[Northkill]

In the year since the thread was started, there is ample evidence Hammer Bullets are expanding while being launched at 4000-4500 fps.

Yes, sir. Saw it was an old post, but since it woke up again figured good for an update on behalf anyone looking for pertinent info. Surprised Mr. Zen never followed up...

 

[Zen Archery]

It's an older bullet design. Video is over a year ago. It definitely did the job to the ones it dropped. The one that got away is what surprised me. It's dead just not dead right there.
I've got the Absolute Hammer 123 zipping in the 3350 range so too fast. Nah.

I still have these if I ever come up with a decent medium to test them in I'll get around to it.

 

[Northkill]

It's an older bullet design. Video is over a year ago. It definitely did the job to the ones it dropped. The one that got away is what surprised me. It's dead just not dead right there.
I've got the Absolute Hammer 123 zipping in the 3350 range so too fast. Nah.

I still have these if I ever come up with a decent medium to test them in I'll get around to it.

Awesome. You're a good guy. Keep up the good work man.

 

[5.56×250]

I have flip flopped on my cartridge choice for my first load development with the baby 6.5 hammers. I'm rebuilding my 6.5 creed into a light weight carry around hunter by swapping the sendero weight excalibur 24 inch tube and 5lb aluminum chassis for a 21" no.3 Bariteen cut rifled tube and magnesium chassis . Gonna be a switch barrel AND chassis rifle, lol.
Anyway, looking for some pet load data from anyone who has worked up loads for the 99gr hammers in the 6.5cm. What velocities did you get without pressure signs ? Don't worry, I won't be jumping on anyone's load recipe without easing up to it methodically . Just getting ideas of what others have worked out with the unusual pressure characteristics of a light hammer in front of a CM range case capacity.
Thanks!

 

[Carlos88]

3 Hogs down, Kinda.
Really curious if I am zipping this little pill way too fast for hogs?
It was my fastest hunt to date. Literally 5 minute walk down to property and pew, pew, pew...
When I get back from my Prairie Dog Hunt, gonna try and run this through some ballistic gel.

View attachment 191522

Too fast? Nope (far as I'm concerned). I'm talking mono-metals. Cup and core? Maybe. Depends on the cup and the core. Target bullets? Yes.