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HAMMER Bullets
@ 12:41 pm (GMT) |
Daniel SchindlerGreetings.I flat give up trying to find Partition bullets in .257 diameter. Varmint bullets - available. Big game bullets - not so much. I have Zero experience with Hammer bullets but have done a LOT of study on line. In short, Hammers act a lot like Barnes but shed the front petals - acting somewhat like a Partition. Quality bullets (Hammer / Swift / etc) are (for me) expensive but, when I'm hunting, terminal performance is a very high priority for me. The cost of some expensive bullets pale in comparison to costs of the hunt. Report after report, users are saying very good things about their Hammer bullets. If you have any experience - good or bad - please share. Thank you. Dan |
Replies
@ 01:39 am (GMT) |
David LandwehrRe: HAMMER BulletsHi Dan,I've read a lot about them on the long-range hunting forum and they seem very well regarded. The only complaint seems to be the bc is over stated. But mostly very good reports on terminal performance. I picked up some absolute hammers with the aim to drive them fast in 308 Win. I was loading over ADI Benchmark 8208 (8208xbr in your neck of the woods) and they were not showing signs of pressure despite being well over book Max. So they appeared true to advertised properties. However, my groups weren't great so I never put them over the chrony. But nothing was really grouping great and I only recently discovered a loose front rail on my rifle. So that was the cause of the bad groups and I haven't got back to the range to retry the hammers. The distributor I bought them off in Aus couldn't speak more highly of them and shoots them exclusively now. So he is one happy user. |
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@ 01:21 pm (GMT) |
Daniel SchindlerRe: HAMMER BulletsHello David.Just a brief note to say thanks for your reply and add a follow up to my original post. After further study and contact with folks I trust on these matters, I'm still of the opinion that the Hammer bullets provide the benefit of copper penetration and add the Nosler Partition type terminal performance. However, it also appears the Hammers have basically the same expansion liabilities other coppers do out past the 350 +/- yd mark. Not good news should a longer shot be your only opportunity. Still no perfect bullet - but the Partition comes close. Will keep looking for them in .257. The conclusions shared here are my opinions - please consider accordingly. Cheers! Dan |
@ 01:19 pm (GMT) |
Jake CareyRe: HAMMER BulletsI've heard pretty good attestation of their performance at longer ranges, albeit from people who philosophically differ from Nathan on maximum wounding vs penetration. I've talked to the owners and other users quite a bit and they do have a different threshold for preferred wounding than me or Nathan, but I think they're sincere. Their BCs aren't high but they've been accurate enough for me. I think that complaint has been blown way out of proportion. If you're not testing and making adjustments to DOPE before hunting at that distance you're in the wrong game. At any rate, few people are trying to use them on game at the distances discussed and researched by Nathan, but even fewer people are using any 257 at those distances. I won't say nobody has had expansion failures with them, but I will say I wasn't able to find any of them when I was considering buying them. I have talked to people who had inappropriate expectations or made dishonest comparisons. I don't say that to be argumentative, just that I tried really hard and ran into a lot of pretty contrived behavior before I could find people who had run into the limits that certainly exist. One person claimed to get poor test results but was obviously using a different brand of bullet. Stuff like that. It's also just plain hard to get shots on big game past 300 yards evidently. It's just extremely unusual, even in the western states.I am developing a 25-06, and I got the low-engraving 90 grain absolute hammer to 3620 fps, but settled back to a wide node with single-digit ES at 3575. Accuracy is extreme in 3 rifles for me. They outshoot ELDMs for me. The way I look at it, nothing is going to turn the 25 cal into an 800 yard weapon. Even a Weatherby isn't going to be carrying much way out there. But a soft, flat shooting mono is a great match for the 257 bore for me because I'm simply not going to use that caliber on game at very extended ranges, and it increases the number of shots I can take with that light of a bullet. The cow elk tags I'd get are on forested, steep units, it won't be a ridge-to ridge adventure. I feel great about the hammers out to the sensible limit for the 25. Thats just me of course. It's just not the gun for the type of killing I come to Nate to learn about. It's an absolute blast to use though. |
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