So in my testing with Hammer bullets my test procedures went as follows. These tests were done in my 257 Allen Magnum, 270 Allen Magnum and 7mm Allen Magnum.
i would take freshly formed brass, using a corn meal forming method. With a batch of test brass prepped and ready to load, i would enter the test with full expectation to destroy this brass in the testing process. The reason is because my goal was to find the absolute max velocity for my wildcats using one uniform source of brass for whatever bullet tested.
would start with a very safe starting load and then increase powder charge 0.5 grains at a time shooting each load over the chronograph and recording velocity readings. I would continue increasing powder charge until i went from the primer pocket on the once fired case being tight to the first hint of primer pocket loosening with a simple 0.5 gr increase in powder charge.
once i reached this point i would take the last four powder charges and repeat at least three times to make sure the results were the same in that the primer pockets would show first hint of loosening at that same 0.5 gr increase point, if it was different, i would repeat an additional two times to get a good average.
with this point found, i would record the data and velocity results.
then would repeat with a slightly slower powder. repeat the entire test process and get the same data to the same point in brass strength. If max velocity was higher with the slower powder, i would then test an even slower powder and repeat the process until i reached a point where the maximum velocity started to drop off telling me i was out of the useful burn rate for that wildcat.
i found quickly with the hammer bullets that a slower powder rarely increased this maximum velocity so i would step down to a slightly faster powder repeating this same test procedure to find max velocity. usually finding that velocity would increase significantly as the powder burn rate increased. Something not common with my large capacity magnums using lead core/cup jacketed bullets.
This was the common result with every test i performed with the hammer bullets, in every single test, using faster the conventional powder, velocity was significantly faster then with same weight lead core bullets when loaded to that same primer pocket fail point.
not only that but with the lighter bullet weights, velocity spreads were tighter then with conventional bullets with slower powders. Now these tests were not designed to find top USABLE velocities out of my rifles, it was to compare bullets loaded to their max limits in chamber pressure determined by same brass tested in same barrel. Certainly a pressure barrel would be more accurate finding exact pressure levels but this is more then accurate enough to compare how bullets compare to each other as far as max pressures are concerned.
to find my max usable load for my customers rifles, i use a load that offers a minimum of 8 firings per case. Using lapua or peterson brass, this is consistently a similar percentage off this absolute max velocity limit. At this point, i could care less if the pressure is 75,000 psi as long as the brass will offer a minimum of 8 firings per case but i know my pressures are well south of 70k.
in every one of these tests, the Hammer bullets were significantly faster then any lead core bullet design of same or similar (+/- 5 grains) weights. To that point, they were also faster then the barnes tsx or lrx when tested the same way with a variety of powders tested.
i also tested some conventional chamberings with the Hammer bullets and in my testing, the velocity advantages increased as the case capacity of the round tested decreased. By that i mean, a 284 with the 177 gr hammer would show more of a velocity advantage over conventional bullets then the in my 7mm AM testing the 177 gr hammer would over conventional bullet weights. My big 7mm would certainly still have a 75-100 fps velocity advantage but the smaller round would be in the 150+ fps range compared to conventional bullets.
one can not say these results are meaningless when all bullet designs are tested to the same exact case failure point, in repeated tests to confirm that failure point. Then all bullets would be retested with a variety of powders, some faster, some slower, all to the same case failure point.
again, i was not testing for usable velocities and pressures, i was loading to the same pressure failure point and comparing the results bullet to bullet so as close to apples to apples as possible.
once again, please to not read this as me saying i recommend loading to this level of pressure. This was simply for testing purposes in EXTREMELY strong rifles, those being my Raptor LRSS platform which has a receiver strength on par with most cheytac class receivers. Still, my recommended loads to customers are far lower then the test results obtained during these tests.
and i repeat, in every test, the Hammers produced the highest velocity levels ranging from 75-150+ fps velocity advantages over conventional lead core bullets of same or similar weight and on average 50-100 fps gains over barnes tsx and lrx bullets.
all that said, i use hammer bullets, i use nosler bullets, i use hornady bullets, i use berger bullets. All have pros and cons, all have situations they may or may not be the best choice. Point being, if you need a hard fast bullet option, give the Hammers a try and see what they do out of your rifle. If your not happy, dont use them, if you are happy, great!!
