Anyone have experience with Hammer bullets?

[SkullKeeper]

I just received an order of .435 caliber bullets by Hammer. After measuring a few I’m finding that they are .4350” diameter. I was hoping they would measure .4345” … now I’m a bit concerned about shooting them. My 425 WR was made in 1990 so not an old rifle… any thoughts on this ?

 

[Wyfox]

Shoot them, that is smaller than a human hair difference.

I shot the moose in my avatar pic with a Hammer 181gr 300wm, worked great.

 

[Tundra Tiger]

No idea. I bought my first Hammer bullets a few weeks ago - 128 grain .338 bullets. I developed a load for my .338 Marlin Express. I hope to hunt with them Wednesday. 2950ish fps out of a tube fed Marlin; I never thought I would see such velocities out of a Marlin lever. And they group pretty well.

 

[kdenn]

Have used Hammer bullets in 300 PRC with great success. I’ve not measured the bullets to the ten thousandths place. Call Steve Davis he’s usually available to talk and seems like a great guy.

 

[F. Vaccaro]

My Nephews daughter has taken two elk, two shots with them with her 6.5 Creedmore. They like them.

 

[Elkeater]

I use hammer bullets in multiple rifles. have used 199gr in a .300 win mag for a lot of stuff from antelope to elk to bears to oryx. Excellent results. My current go to is the 140gr Hammer HBC in my 7-08ai. It’s pretty devastating. Have used the 63gr absolute out of a .223 rem in deer, hogs, javelina and aoudad to good effect as well. Load some up and give the a shot. I’ve always found them easy to find an accurate load for and usually they like to be driven fast at near top end powder charges.

 

[Sailfish9453]

2024 my son and I went to East Cape.
He use 6.5 PRC that he built using 125gr
Hammer bullets. The name is very appropriate, he took a Sable, Black Wildebeast, Blesbok and a Impala with one shot kills.

 

[Capt_Oscar]

Did they have any reload data for that bullet in your cartridge? The variance in diameter you are looking at is smaller then probably 90% of barrel bores. Most are gauged to +/- 0.002". Only the most expensive, match/target barrels are air gauged +/- 0.0005" end to end. I doubt you'll see any issues. Especially using starting loads and working up to pressure signs.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

I bought a trial package of thirteen 307 gr 404J. They didn't group well but the barrel on my Mauser build was not broke in and turns out the load data was way too hot. Hoping to give them a go again this spring at the range ... if it ever stops snowing. Not a dangerous game bullet but I'd like to find a load that can be pulled out of the pocket if a nice kudu shows up at 200 yards.

 

[1dirthawker]

i bought some 458 400 gr bullets for my 458 win.

they shoot 2410 fps. i shot a brown bear in a guiding/backup situation. one shot and DRT.

then traveled to kodiak island and shot a couple sitka black tailed deer, one at 150 and the other 175 yards. both hit once of course and both DRT. yeah, a 458 win is enough for deer! and tho anemic the 400 gr bullet, did not bounce off of anything shot with it!

they have plenty of their pressure relief grooves, i suspect you have nothing to worry about them when shooting them.

 

[MacJenkins]

I’d shoot them without any worry.

 

[SkullKeeper]

Did they have any reload data for that bullet in your cartridge? The variance in diameter you are looking at is smaller then probably 90% of barrel bores. Most are gauged to +/- 0.002". Only the most expensive, match/target barrels are air gauged +/- 0.0005" end to end. I doubt you'll see any issues. Especially using starting loads and working up to pressure signs.

No they do not have any load data. I’ll start with the lowest same weight bullet load I can find and ease up from there.

 

[Elkeater]

No they do not have any load data. I’ll start with the lowest same weight bullet load I can find and ease up from there.

Do you have any nosler or Barnes load data available to you? In the beginning before hammer had load data available it was standard to start with nosler data for a similar bullet weight and work up from there. I have found the hammers tend to line up with nosler data well.

 

[Elkeater]

Also the copper hammer uses is noticeably softer than Barnes so if you’re still worried about engraving pressure you could go with Barnes data and know that the engraving pressure of the hammer is going to be lower.

 

[SkullKeeper]

Thank you @Elkeater ! Good to know !

 

[Hyde Hunter]

i bought some 458 400 gr bullets for my 458 win.

they shoot 2410 fps. i shot a brown bear in a guiding/backup situation. one shot and DRT.

then traveled to kodiak island and shot a couple sitka black tailed deer, one at 150 and the other 175 yards. both hit once of course and both DRT. yeah, a 458 win is enough for deer! and tho anemic the 400 gr bullet, did not bounce off of anything shot with it!

they have plenty of their pressure relief grooves, i suspect you have nothing to worry about them when shooting them.

you can easily get over 2500 fps with the 404 Hammer bullet, my picture was a one shot kill at 30 yards with the Hammer.

 

[SkullKeeper]

Shoot them, that is smaller than a human hair difference.

I shot the moose in my avatar pic with a Hammer 181gr 300wm, worked great.

Did you recover the bullet? If so. can you post a photo?

 

[Wyfox]

Did you recover the bullet? If so. can you post a photo?

 

[SkullKeeper]

I ran 3 of the 410 gr Hammer bullets down the tube today. I was using a very low starter load of 68.5 gr of RL15 and my velocity average was 2080 fps.

 

[RLL]

I ran 3 of the 410 gr Hammer bullets down the tube today. I was using a very low starter load of 68.5 gr of RL15 and my velocity average was 2080 fps. View attachment 758488

That’s a good start. Hammers do well with some speed and are very forgiving to load and tune to a rifle. I’ve switched over to shooting nothing but Hammers and CEBs Raptors in all rifles. .224-.458. The terminal performance speaks for itself.

One thing I’ve noticed in all cartridges I’ve loaded with hammers, is those bullets favor the faster burning powders for their class to achieve optimum burn, velocity, and precision. Even Varget tends to edge out RL15 in performance even though they are about equal in characteristics. Speaking on a 416 b&m and 375 Ruger.

The low engraving pressure from the PDR bands make it easy to exceed what most “book” maximum velocities are without observing excessive pressures. Some of my classical reloading partners get nervous about it but there are some good barrel pressure measurements showing this. I think you can easily hit 2300fps with great accuracy and manageable recoil.