Gel test Hammer vs Accubond

[manitou]

[QUOTE="bigngreen, post: 1939790, member: 13632".....The narrow, pitiful wound channel of the Accubonds is why I quite shooting them!..

I have to say I still have a twinge of surprise when confronted with evidence those big mushrooms aren't leaving the tracks we were taught. Unlearning is hard. It's the sometimes short wound tracks that occur with bonded bullets that have caused me to switch.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah... a guy shooting one bullet into ballistic gelatin trumps (probably) hundreds of thousands of clean kills with the accubond. A bullet infamous for great terminal performance industry wide.
My personal experience with Accubonds gives me no reason to ever change. Seldom does an animal take a step after the hit.

 

[Savage 12BVSS]

Yeah... a guy shooting one bullet into ballistic gelatin trumps (probably) hundreds of thousands of clean kills with the accubond. A bullet infamous for great terminal performance industry wide.
My personal experience with Accubonds gives me no reason to ever change. Seldom does an animal take a step after the hit.
[/QUOTE]
They work great for me as well, same sentiment. To each their own I guess, they are just a parition that shoot a lot more accurate. Thats why they make different bullets, we don't all like the same ones. Gliding metal cleans easier than copper and they cost a lot less as a bonus

 

[RCMSTER]

Yeah... a guy shooting one bullet into ballistic gelatin trumps (probably) hundreds of thousands of clean kills with the accubond. A bullet infamous for great terminal performance industry wide.
My personal experience with Accubonds gives me no reason to ever change. Seldom does an animal take a step after the hit.

They work great for me as well, same sentiment. To each their own I guess, they are just a parition that shoot a lot more accurate. Thats why they make different bullets, we don't all like the same ones. Gliding metal cleans easier than copper and they cost a lot less as a bonus
[/QUOTE]

Amen to that.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

I've shot an awful lot of Accubonds and for quite awhile I felt like they were the perfect hunting bullet. Accuracy was always good and easy to achieve, terminal performance was always good and was predictable, price & availability sealed the deal.

However, I am one of those shooter/handloaders that just can't resist trying out new bullets. I learned about the Hammer bullets here on LRH and started out with a single box. I had very good results on paper without expending pounds of powder in the process. I bought several boxes in different calibers just to try them in different cartridges. All of the bullets easily shot sub .5moa in my rifles. To be fair, all of my rifles are custom built and wear match grade barrels (except that 45-70 in my avatar :>). The real trial was taking a Hammer bullet on an actual hunt. I shot my first bull elk with a 181gr Hammer Hunter from a 30 Nosler rifle. The bull was at about 300yds. The shot wasn't perfect as it hit high lung but that didn't seem to matter. The bull dropped in 10 seconds and went still in another 10 seconds. Hammer bullets work!

I still shoot and hunt with Noslers, Hornadys and Bergers which all have worked well over the years but I have been shooting more Hammers lately. And just for the heck of it, I'm working with the 402gr Hammer in my 45-70 for use on an upcoming moose hunt even though I've killed my previous bulls with Accubonds and was very happy with the results.

 

[bigngreen]

bigngreen I switched from Partitions to Accubonds years ago when bullets were extremely hard to find.
I have never recovered a bullet from an Accubond and always have a great wound channel.
The farthest an elk ran after a lung shot was 20 yards but most fall within 2 to 3 yards and a few fell on the spot the bullet hit them.
I still load for and use Partitions on occasion but with my primary elk rifle I shoot Accubonds as I can shoot tighter groups over Partitions.
Still considering trying Hammer bullets
Old Rooster

I've recovered quite a few Accubonds, sometime they have been impressive sometimes not, they definitely have a narrower excellent window than many other bullets.
More than a few times I've had to dispatch elk guys though they could shoulder shoot because they had a bonded bullet, the typical offender is a guy shooting a 300 and 180 Accubonds. You put a bullet in the center of an elks shoulder that is opened before hitting bone but resists shedding weight and you'd better have a mag full, I found if you put some range on them so they don't open as big you will see the percentage go up on getting through a shoulder.
Shooting gel is interesting and does give you some clue as to what might happen, the only thing that really sways me is looking at the wound channel through an elk, that's what makes my mind up.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

I shot a bull moose broadside on the shoulder with a 250 Accubond launched at 3,000 ft/sec. The bull was originally spotted at 1,000yds and called down off the adjoining mountain top. He didn't appear again until he broke the treeline at 54yds. At the shot, the moose flipped over backwards and planted his palms into the turf. He never even twitched after that. The bullet traveled through both shoulders and was caught in the off-side hide. Remaining weight was 140gr. I was very pleased.

It's interesting how varied our individual observations have been with regard to terminal performance with any given bullet. All you have to do is mention the terminal performance of Berger bullets to see the fur fly. They work great on whitetails IMO but I won't use them on anything bigger even though many shooters have had good results on much larger game.

 

[HARPERC]

....OK I am a fan of the original barnes .0049 bullets, I think for dangerous game they are the best.....Has anyone compared the Serria Gameking to these all copper bullets.. If you do I think you will have a real surprise......

0.049" jackets, and 0.032 as calibers get smaller. Work well, but generally heavier for caliber, and modest velocities is where they work best in my opinion. Soft copper, and soft lead less prone to breaking into small fragments.

 

[Rich Coyle]

I fired a.032" 195 grain 7mm into the sawdust pile. It turned into a huge mushroom and weighed 125 grains. Impact was right at 3,000 feet per second.

 

[HARPERC]

My favorite is the .375 350 grain. Used to practice my off hand in a quarry on head sized river rock. Generally reduced to gravel, and the bullet resembled a Ninja throwing star.

 

[dougduey]

Very cool. Question, does ballistic gel in any way represent the resistance of bone or only flesh (which is what I would guess)? Reason I ask, is it seems if you shot behind the shoulder you'd get pretty good penetration and expansion, but I am curious as to how to measure gel test performance against a shoulder shot on a Bull Elk - which is pretty stout, as are the shoulders of Rky Mtn Goats and all bears especially the big ones. I know you'd have to be a fool to take a 7mm against a Brownie with 140gr bullets, I'm just curious on bone perf in general.

I put the 213 gr Hunter through both shoulders on a mountain goat with my 338 Lapua. Exit wounds was about 1.5-2". Destroyed the goat.

 

[beretzs]

Great topic, thank you all for the input. I just ordered and received awesome service from Hammer bullets. I have some 181's I plan to try out in my RUM the next few days. Right now, my fall back is the 180 Accubond at 3350, so if the Hammers can meet or beat them I will run them this fall.

 

[ButterBean]

Great topic, thank you all for the input. I just ordered and received awesome service from Hammer bullets. I have some 181's I plan to try out in my RUM the next few days. Right now, my fall back is the 180 Accubond at 3350, so if the Hammers can meet or beat them I will run them this fall.

You'll be running the Hammers this fall

 

[Deleted member 103481]

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[Fred3]

Since this is a LR forum I would like to see the hammer vs accubond at a velocity that mirrors a 500 yard shot say 2400 fps.