The rifle community is a tradition oriented group, and consequently slow to change. Part of this is because it is an old sport, and so attracts people who like the tradition, and, also, it is dominated by old guys who "have seen it all", and thus have closed their minds to change. Heck, there are legions of folks who say the 30-06 is still the best hunting cartridge, despite the many better cartridges in existence. (Not saying the 30-06 is a bad cartridge, just that there have been improvements in case, powder, and bullet design in the last 100 years, and the 30-06 is no longer the optimum design it once was.)
The traditional lead cup-and-core bullets were a game changer when they were introduced. They revolutionized ballistics, rifle design, and hunting methods. C-n-C bullets took over the shooting world, and rightly so. C-n-C bullets performed differently than the previous cast bullet designs, and thus needed to be loaded differently to realize their potential. It is obvious to us now, but only an ignorant person would load a C-n-C bullet like it was a cast bullet and expect C-n-C performance.
C-n-C bullets kill by gross tissue destruction. The terminal ballistics are defined by temporary and permanent wound channels caused by the rounded, domed, mushroomed front surface of the expanded lead core. Also, a C-n-C bullet will lose about 40% of its weight at impact, and that lost 40% contributes little-to-nothing in killing the animal. In other words, if you need a 100 gr bullet to kill the animal, you need to launch a 140 gr bullet, with the accompanying loss of muzzle velocity and increased recoil.
But, fortunately, humans are driven to innovate and technology never stops improving.
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here's where the tradition-bound hunting community does its face plant) Hammer Bullets, and similar monolithic designs, have a different structure and kill by a different mechanism compared to C-n-C bullets. These newer designs kill by hydrostatic shock. Upon impact, the bullet sheds its front petals, which go on to do their own damage, and the now-flat front of the bullet shank drives a hydrostatic shock wave through the tissue. (This in contrast to older monolithic designs which mimic C-n-C bullets by mushrooming). The hydrostatic shock wave is caused by the flat shape of the leading surface of the bullet combined with the speed of the bullet's impact.
The shock wave disrupts/destroys tissue over a larger volume than the wound cavity of a C-n-C bullet, and thus kills the animal quicker, frequently nearly instantly. It is common to see entire organs turned to jelly by the shock wave relatively far away from the bullet's path. Additionally, the bullet shank almost always exits to reliably produce two holes for better blood loss. Since almost all the weight of the bullet contributes to killing, a lighter weight bullet will do the job, which also means you get more speed, and you reap the benefits of the "V^2" term in "E= ½MV^2". In other words, Hammer bullets is game-changing new technology, similar to when C-n-C bullets were introduced.
The result being, don't shoot a Hammer bullet like it is a C-n-C bullet. For Hammer bullets, choose a traditionally light-for-caliber bullet weight, and run it super fast. As seen from some of the data posted here and in other threads, a handloader can run Hammer bullets surprisingly fast. If you choose to run Hammer bullets, your gun will shoot like a laser and produce extremely quick kills.
In addition to excellent terminal performance, most users report that Hammer bullets are extremely easy to work up an accurate load.
One kill doesn't prove anything, but this is an example of typical Hammer bullet performance:
(Please let me know if I should be posting this in a different sub-forum) Just got back from an antelope hunt where I took my first animals with a Hammer bullet. Terminal performan
hammerbullets.boards.net
There's some truth on all sides - dead is dead. Most bullets I've used killed well a high percentage of the time. What I've appreciated about the Hammers is the unfailing reliability. I've used many of the premium bonded & partition bullets as well as the Berger's, ELD-X's, ELD-M's, etc. They all did very well most of the time. They have their limitations for some or all of the following: rpm's, high impact velocity, shoulder hits, extreme angle hits, etc. What got me with the Hammers is the reliability and penetration to get the job done every time. At least for me, they've been 100 for 100 so far. 52 gr HH for 223 Rem up to the 169 HH in a 7-LRM. Once, someone using my rifle made a hit that would have resulted in a slow death / lengthy track with a conventional bullet, but one or more of the petals from the Hammer spread out and caught the vitals. That impressed me.
