My coworkers are interested in my Hammer bullets. The Hammer page used to advertise a certain amount of fps faster, all things being equal. So that's what I did...
This lead me to an experiment where I pulled three ELD-X bullets from factory Hornady 300 PRC @ 212 gr (actual average weight of 212.22 gr), and replacing them with Hammer Hunter 214 gr bullets (actual average weight of 212.44 gr), and didn't touch the factory powder, neck tension or crimp. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the seating depth the exact same ... 0.536" for ELD-X and 0.603" (for a difference of 0.067").
After shooting 3-shot groups using my LabRadar and using a magnetospeed barrel cooler for 7 minutes in between all shots, I got the following averages:
ELD-X = 2985 fps
HH = 3024 fps
Result: Hammer Hunters were +39 fps. However, I have suspicions that perhaps 7 minutes of cooling wasn't enough since every successive shot was a bit faster. So I'm still suspicious about the velocity test.
What I'm NOT suspicious about is the accuracy! Take a look at the three ELD-X shots on the right, and the 3 HH in one hole. With nothing changed except the bullet, my rifle began shooting lights-out, with a three shot group of 0.106".
Conclusion: I'm going to pull my remaining ELD-Xs and replace them with HH 214s!
Thank you Brian and Steve for an outstanding product!
