Hammer Bullets Experience

I've just started to work with Hammer bullets but I must say that I'm fairly impressed. I have loaded the 143 HH bullet in my 7WSM and the 181 HH in my 30Nosler. With a bit of load work they were both capable of shooting under 2" at 400yds, which is the farthest backstop at our club.
A few weeks ago I got a chance to see how the 181 HH performed on game. I took a 342yd shot at a bull elk that was standing broadside. Bullet impacted just behind the shoulder but above the midline. At the shot, the bull took a few steps, stopped and fell over in under 10 seconds. He thrashed around for another 10 seconds and it was over.
Based on the many stories that I've read regarding the tenacity of bull elk I never expected such a quick kill.
I'll be leaving for a whitetail hunt soon. I intended to use a 6.5 Creedmoor with the Berger 135 Classic Hunter bullet. This combo shoots into 1.5" @ 400yds and I'm sure the little Berger is up to the task. However, Hammer bullets has a 110gr 6.5mm Hunter bullet that really has me thinking. Hmmmmmm
 
Sykes,

Thanks for the great write up and great job on your elk hunt! It is always great to hear about guys that have a rifle that they have worked so hard at trying to get their expected accuracy from to no avail, then try Hammers and get there with ease. I talk a lot about our ability to do load development and zero a rifle in under 20 rounds, and I think most guys think I am exaggerating. I am not. It is unusual for us to use more shots than this and almost always turns out to be a problem with the rifle or the optic.

Did your entrance hole on the elk have the appearance of an exit hole? Often on the high vel impacts this happens. The softness of the copper we use makes the bullets open so quickly that they cause this. We also often see lung pieces that are pushed out the entrance hole. Since the bullets deform so quickly into the flat front form that we designed them for, it causes a huge amount of pressure as the bullet is passing through the animal that there is only one place for the pressure to go, until the bullet exits, and it pushes lungs out the entrance. Your vel may not have been high enough to cause that. I assume there was no ruined meat with the lung shot?

We just designed a bullet for shooting fur. The bullet is designed to retain 100% so that it will not have the big exit hole ruining the hide. We came up with this idea after discussions with Tino, the owner of Trophy Game Safari in South Africa. They have not been able to find a bullet that would not cause a large exit on small cats, jackal, and the tiny little dykers. This bullet is actually a dangerous game bullet design with the tip of the bullet having a slight concave. They test well in media and will be perfect in the larger calibers for dangerous game. We sent some to Africa to be tested on the small animals in .243 and .270 cal. I'm not sure when we will hear back though. I may have to try and get out this winter and try on coyotes.

Steve
 
Varmint Hunter said:
I've just started to work with Hammer bullets but I must say that I'm fairly impressed. I have loaded the 143 HH bullet in my 7WSM and the 181 HH in my 30Nosler. With a bit of load work they were both capable of shooting under 2" at 400yds, which is the farthest backstop at our club.
A few weeks ago I got a chance to see how the 181 HH performed on game. I took a 342yd shot at a bull elk that was standing broadside. Bullet impacted just behind the shoulder but above the midline. At the shot, the bull took a few steps, stopped and fell over in under 10 seconds. He thrashed around for another 10 seconds and it was over.
Based on the many stories that I've read regarding the tenacity of bull elk I never expected such a quick kill.
I'll be leaving for a whitetail hunt soon. I intended to use a 6.5 Creedmoor with the Berger 135 Classic Hunter bullet. This combo shoots into 1.5" @ 400yds and I'm sure the little Berger is up to the task. However, Hammer bullets has a 110gr 6.5mm Hunter bullet that really has me thinking. Hmmmmmm
Click to expand...
I really like that little 110g Hammer Hunter. I think it is perfect for the Creed. Lots of guys shooting the 124's in the Creed but I think I would load the 110g if it were for me. I like the extra vel and it will make a great 500y load.

I wish we could figure out how to upload your video. Maybe one of the more techy guys here will chime in and give you a hand with how to do it.

Steve
 
RockyMtnMT said:
I really like that little 110g Hammer Hunter. I think it is perfect for the Creed. Lots of guys shooting the 124's in the Creed but I think I would load the 110g if it were for me. I like the extra vel and it will make a great 500y load.

I wish we could figure out how to upload your video. Maybe one of the more techy guys here will chime in and give you a hand with how to do it.

Steve
Click to expand...

I could send the video directly to a cell phone if you'd like. Just put the number in a PM to me and I will send it over. That may solve the problems I had in posting it.
 
The entrance hole was pretty normal looking but that exit was something I hadn't seen before. The tissue in the willows behind where the elk was standing was something I hadn't seen to that degree before either. All elk I've shot in the past through the lungs usually stagger around some or even run a ways so I was really impressed with this elk dropping on the spot!

Meat damage was virtually non exist, not sure I even lost any at all

That fur friendly bullet has my interest. I sell all my coyotes I shoot and it's pretty hard to not tear them up with a 22-250. Berger 40g target bullets do a good job broadside but if the angle is off I'm sure they could very easily skin and debone a close coyote quartered at me
 
Varmint Hunter said:
I could send the video directly to a cell phone if you'd like. Just put the number in a PM to me and I will send it over. That may solve the problems I had in posting it.
Click to expand...
OK. Send it to my phone. 406-261-0010. Then I can email it to myself and see what that does. I don't have any kids at home anymore to do this stuff for me. :eek:

Steve
 
RockyMtnMT said:
OK. Send it to my phone. 406-261-0010. Then I can email it to myself and see what that does. I don't have any kids at home anymore to do this stuff for me. :eek:

Steve
Click to expand...
OK - it's on it's way. I'm just happy that I'm not the only reasonably intelligent sportsman that is technology impaired.

In the same boat - my 2 girls are 30 yo and long gone from the household. LMAO
 
We took 15 antelope in WY last week, and 10 1/2 were shot with Hammer bullets.

270 Win (Wby Vanguard), 117gr Hammer Hunter, 3300fps, 0.784 in group at 200 yards prior to leaving home. This took 3 antelope, one of which flipped over backwards from a head-on chest shot.

7mm Wby Mag (Accumark), 131 Hammer Hunter, 3550fps. This took 7 1/2 antelope (the half is finishing off another member's antelope).

Damage to the off-side was frequently a 3-to-4 inch hole.
If the animal was quartering, expect innards to be hanging out the other side. Usually this was intestines, once it was the heart (really). They were almost always devastating.

The rule was that in the 7mm Wby, if an animal was hit by a Hammer it WOULD die, no matter what.

My only complaint so far with them is that the wide/flat meplat area makes the Hammer Hunter difficult to feed into one of our 7mm Wby rifles, so that one did not make the trip. At home I'd tried several different COALs in that rifle with no improvement in feeding. I had one personal failure-to-feed last week in my own rifle even though I had zero problems with that one before leaving home. So, I will be testing them closely and likely sending Steve some photos.
 
JJMoody said:
I'm running the same Bullets at 3530 fps in my 28 Nosler! My rifle liked the 168 and 180 Bergers too, but so many doubts on close range performance and meat damage and a few conversations with Steve, who was very easy to get ahold of and helpful, pushed me to try the 143 Hammer Hunters. I kind of had my mind set on H1000 and ran it up to 3580, found a 6 fps Es at 3512, but had more vertical than I would like, adjusted seating depth and found a 1/2" load. Took it out to 500, then 720 yds to get data. Also tried RL 26 up to a very hot 3668(don't do that) I like h1000 stability so I'll stay with this load. It's like a laser beam with a hammer at the end. Gonna try to put it to the test on some aminals here shortly!
Click to expand...

What twist is your barrel?
 
A few details:
30 Nosler semi-custom rifle.
181gr Hammer Hunter @ 3,200 ft/sec IIRC
Bull was spotted at about 460 yds but I couldn't get a good hold on him while shooting off my knees. Moved in slowly and he became visible again at 342 yds. Waited for a broadside shot and dropped the "Hammer" on him.
Video was taken with an IPhone attached to a Vortex Razor 60X spotting scope.
Impact was high, as can be seen in the video. It apparently didn't matter because he literally dropped in 10 seconds.

This was my only "on game" experience with Hammer bullets but you can judge its effectiveness for yourself. For me - I'm a believer. :)
 
Last edited:
Varmint Hunter said:
A few details:
30 Nosler semi-custom rifle.
181gr Hammer Hunter @ 3,200 ft/sec IIRC
Bull was spotted at about 460 yds but I couldn't get a good hold on him while shooting off my knees. Moved in slowly and he became visible again at 342 yds. Waited for a broadside shot and dropped the "Hammer" on him.
Video was taken with an IPhone attached to a Vortex Razor 60X spotting scope.
Impact was high, as can be seen in the video. It apparently didn't matter because he literally dropped in 10 seconds.

This was my only "on game" experience with Hammer bullets but you can judge its effectiveness for yourself. For me - I'm a believer. :)
Click to expand...
What state?

Steve
 

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