Hammer Bullets

[01Foreman400]

Been reading about Hammer Bullets for several years on different forums. They just announced a tipped bullet so I figured I’d give them a try. Ordered some .308 154 gr. HHT’s. Anyone else loading Hammer Bullets?

Patented Custom Bullets | Hammer Bullets

Hammer Bullets are custom designed bullets offering superior accuracy and ensuring minimal game waste. Our bullets have higher velocity and are lead free.

hammerbullets.com

 

[Jester896]

I have seen some talk about them. I haven't tried any. Isn't it on the same lines as a Barnes Mono? I would think that looking at them they might have less drag than a Barnes. They may also be a softer bullet or the larger open tip gives a quicker expansion or both. I wonder how much faster the tipped one would expand?

 

[Big7]

Coming from the machinist and tool making industry, I'd say it would be exceedingly hard to check every bullet 100% with a micrometer.

Some super high end CNC equipment comes with probes but that gets complicated on production runs.

I have heard good things about all the copper bullets and might try some when I run out of what I got stashed. Those high BC's and faster twist rates are all the rage now.

 

[earlthegoat2]

Ron Spoker talks about them all the time. I can’t speak to how reputable he is because I don’t know him but he has an interesting podcast.

 

[Big7]

Ron Spoker talks about them all the time. I can’t speak to how reputable he is because I don’t know him but he has an interesting podcast.

Ron Spomer.

He's pretty sharp and can explain things in layman's terms. He has a YouTube channel and a podcast. He's hunted all over the United States and Africa.

 

[01Foreman400]

I have seen some talk about them. I haven't tried any. Isn't it on the same lines as a Barnes Mono? I would think that looking at them they might have less drag than a Barnes. They may also be a softer bullet or the larger open tip gives a quicker expansion or both. I wonder how much faster the tipped one would expand?

Barnes are notorious for staying together. The Hammer bullets shed their pedals and the core does the penetrating. The tipped Hammer bullets are supposed to perform that way all the way down to 1,700 fps.

 

[Jester896]

 

[01Foreman400]

Here is what was posted by one of the owners on another forum about the new tipped bullet

It has been years in the making with early on failures that led us to say that we would never make a tipped bullet. We could not make a tipped bullet that worked as well for terminal performance as the other Hammer Bullets lines. No matter what we did the tip always retarded terminal performance compared to the Hammer Hunter or Shock Hammer lines. Until now! We have been working on the New Hammer HHT bullet design for nearly a year. They have been used on game around the world, proving performance above and beyond our expectations. In fact, they have proven to be better than our very high bar set by the previous Hammer Bullets line up. We simply refuse to market a hunting bullet that does not meet our expectations. Terminal performance always has been and always will be our primary objective. The Hammer HHT has been tested on hundreds if not thousands of animals from small varmints to 2000 lb eland. From hard angles on ribs, to heavy bone direct impacts, to light bodied small animals. The Hammer HHT performs flawlessly on all of these resistances from high to low vel impacts. In fact, they have displayed consistent low vel impacts better than the Hammer Hunter line of bullets. Low enough that we have given them a 1700 fps min impact velocity rating. 100 fps lower than we have previously advertised. This is for full deformation and shedding of the nose petals. Not slight deformation that some manufacturers call successful expansion. Simply put, the pure copper Hammer HHT works better than any other bullet on the market. In a wider range of impact velocities as well as heavy bone or no bone impacts.

After we were able to meet / exceed our lofty terminal performance goals, we were willing to market the extra benefits of increased bc, and meplat durability. Meplat durability has been a concern in the past. Our pure copper is very soft and could succumb to damage from rough feeding or dropping causing damage to the meplat and potential closing of the hollow point. Causing the bullet to not open properly on game. With drop testing and hard feeding from magazines, we have proven the Hammer HHT to be very durable in rough field conditions.

The initial launch has 11 offerings from .257 caliber to .308 caliber covering all of our most popular bullet weights and factory twist rates. We will be continuing to add bullet weights and calibers to cover a full range of applications. At this point the Hammer HHT line is still the very forgiving, multiple PDR drive band design that has proven to be the most forgiving, most accurate design from rifle to rifle on the market. As we develop the line we will add more designs that push the limits of potential velocity and bc.

 

[transfixer]

curious as to what data you would use to load them ? a similar Barnes bullet ? or one of the Lehigh defense bullets ?

 

[01Foreman400]

Ron Spoker talks about them all the time. I can’t speak to how reputable he is because I don’t know him but he has an interesting podcast.

I like listening to Ron.

 

[01Foreman400]

curious as to what data you would use to load them ? a similar Barnes bullet ? or one of the Lehigh defense bullets ?

From the Hammer Forum

With a rifle that is new to us the 1st thing we do is clean it until there is no copper from other bullets in the barrel. I recommend this anytime you are changing bullets. Once the rifle is clean then I check all the optic mounting screws and action screws to make sure they are torqued to the proper level.

Now that the rifle is ready to go and we have a bullet chosen that is proper for the twist rate of the barrel ( I prefer to use bullets that are running with a higher than the min required twist for the given bullet for hunting), I will look at published load data for a like weight bullet from a couple of sources. I generally find what I need from Nosler and Hodgdon data. Any of the published load manuals will give you a good start load since the Hammers will show less pressure than conventional bullets. I like to look for a powder that does not show a compressed load. Since the pure copper bullets will be a bit longer than the equivalent weight lead bullet, compressed loads generally will not get enough powder in the case to reach top end. This will also depend on the seating depth of the bullet. If you have a mag and throat that will allow you to seat longer that will help with case capacity. As a general rule the Hammers will like powders on the faster side of normal powders listed for the bullet weight.

We prefer to use magnum primers with most cartridges. I am not as adamant about this as I used to be. Some smaller cartridges will show early pressure signs with the mag primer. If that happens then just switch to a standard primer.

Now that we have our ingredients picked out I figure out the longest COAL that will function properly in the rifle without touching the lands. If I can reach the lands I will start 20 thou off. There is no good reason to touch the lands particularly in a hunting rifle. A primer failure can stick a bullet in the bore and ruin you trophy of a lifetime. I know this personally. The method to this madness is simply that if I have to make a seating depth change to get good accuracy, there is only one way to go.

Now we are ready to light a fire in it. I always load with a chronograph and log muzzle vel with each shot. We use the Labradar now, but the Magneto Speed will also do you very well. I run a modified ladder to find my load. I like to load develop at a min 200y. Everything looks good at 100Y. I aim each shot at the same spot shooting as well as I can. I watch the target and expect to see pretty close to an moa target even if we have spread of vel over 200 fps. At this point the target is not the most important thing though. As long as we are not shooting all over the place. If it is bad I just change to a diff powder. No point in making the rifle like what I want it to. We run our ladder one shot one charge at a time looking for pressure. In most cartridges I load up in 1g increments. Small ones in smaller increments. Using the muzzle vel, bolt lift, ejector marks on the case head, and the flattening of the primer. I don't as much attention to the primer as the other indicators. Vel is a very good indicator of pressure. You can't have monster vel without pressure. The Hammers will show 50 to 100 fps higher vel, in most rifles, over the load data. Nosler data is pretty hot data and will line up pretty close with the Hammers. I like to find pressure and back away from it. That way I know where it is. This is kind of a "feel" thing as to how much to back off when you find pressure. Some brass is soft and shows more presser than some of the tough brass. If I am getting an ejector mark in Nosler or Norma brass I don't worry about it as much as I do with ADG or Lapua brass. As we work this ladder up, I like to see nice predictable increases in vel with each increase in charge weight. If it is random in the vel as it works up I usually change to a diff powder. Some times at low pressure though it is not as predictable.

Once we have found the top end, I load a few of this load and shoot them for group and to check to see that the ES is not goofy. For a hunting rifle under 1000y ES under 30 fps will be fine. I like it to be less for sure and usually I can not get myself to settle on a load unless it is under 20 fps ES. Particularly if it is not punching solid sub moa. At this point we are usually done with the load development and just zero the rifle to go out and confirm it at long range. Once in a while we will get a rifle that is not shooting as well as we expect. If that is the case then I will start seating deeper about 15 thou at a time, or a quarter turn on the seater die. Almost always within two or three adjustments the group will tighten right up. If I am making seating depth adjustments I don't bother shooting more than two shots if they are not good. Can't make a bad group better by shooting at it more times! Now zero dead nuts and you are ready to go confirm drops. Very rarely do we shoot over 20 rounds to finish a load that is solid sub moa. I strive for .5 moa and really don't spend time and resources to try and get better than that. I would rather go out and hunt rocks with my .5 moa rifle than try to get it tighter. Most rifles we are done in less than 15 shots and zeroed, ready to go confirm drops at long range.

I think that pretty much covers it. You can try this method with other brand bullets as well. They probably won't be quite as easy as the Hammers, but it is still a good process to save time and money.

 

[01Foreman400]

curious as to what data you would use to load them ? a similar Barnes bullet ? or one of the Lehigh defense bullets ?

There is also a bunch of load data on the Hammer Forum that individuals have shared. That’s what I’m going to use.

 

[Big7]

There is also a bunch of load data on the Hammer Forum that individuals have shared. That’s what I’m going to use.

I wouldn't use other individual handloader's data.

One of the first things you are taught as a beginner it to use only data published by powder or bullet manufacturers. And never go past published max charge. At least until you learn signs of over pressure.

I used to be a speed freak but have found the listed data is a little more accurate. I only load 1 .243 concoction for speed now and shoot it in a break action single shot.

 

[01Foreman400]

I wouldn't use other individual handloader's data.

One of the first things you are taught as a beginner it to use only data published by powder or bullet manufacturers. And never go past published max charge. At least until you learn signs of over pressure.

I used to be a speed freak but have found the listed data is a little more accurate. I only load 1 .243 concoction for speed now and shoot it in a break action single shot.

The published Nosler data is a grain higher. I’ll start several grains below and work my way up. I’ll come up with my own OAL like always.

 

[Jester896]

I would use it...provided it fell into the info in post #11. I kinda use that method now for comparisons between Hodgdon/Nosler, Hodgdon/Sierra and Hodgdon/whomever.

It sounds like they may not need the jump that others do. I haven't seen anything about light for caliber and my take on what I have read here is they try to use closer to standard weights....unless I just think I'm comprehending

 

[01Foreman400]

I would use it...provided it fell into the info in post #11. I kinda use that method now for comparisons between Hodgdon/Nosler, Hodgdon/Sierra and Hodgdon/whomever.

It sounds like they may not need the jump that others do. I haven't seen anything about light for caliber and my take on what I have read here is they try to use closer to standard weights....unless I just think I'm comprehending

Jump is not as important as with other bullets from what I’ve read. Normally I shoot light for caliber copper bullets but this particular setup will be for my daughter and shots will be under 200 yards. It’ll still have plenty of velocity.

 

[Buckstop]

I’ve loaded the .243 88gr, .264 124 gr and .284 143 gr hammer hunters in several rifles. They’ve been as accurate or often more accurate than any bullet I’ve shot in them. I usually start with .020 jump. .020 to ..030 off the lands has been a sweet spot, but seating has not been sensitive on any I’ve tried. They’re easy to tune. They are long for weight so like most mono’s your usually shooting a lighter than typical bullet to work with most standard twists. Tradeoff is in velocity. Used Nosler data working up slow in a ladder over the chrono. I’ve had good results with slightly faster burning powders than I’d usually use in those cartridges. Steve at hammer has been helpful with with data too, as well as the online data. I shot a few does with the 124HH in a 6.5 Sherman last season, 4 bang/flops. 2 others went 50 and 60 yrds with good blood trails. All pass throughs.

 

[Jester896]

I sure am eyeballing those .30-30 bulats
just struggling with the $1 each

 

[01Foreman400]

If you’re a veteran or a first responder they give 10% off. They run specials periodically as well if you can wait.

 

[Jester896]

thanks...just signed up