I wanted to test out the Hammer Hunter bullets and see how they did in my 7mm Sherman Max. I picked the 169 Gr Hammer Hunter as I thought it would be a good all around bullet. I found a load that shot very accurate at 100 yards. Groups were measuring in the .2-.3 range. 63 Gr of RL23 with the bullet seated .040" off the rifling was getting me an average of 3120 FPS with ADG brass. Velocity was acquired with a Lab Radar. The estimated BC from the Hammer website was .285 G7.
This morning I loaded up 15 rounds and went out to shoot this load at distance. I zeroed the rifle and then entered all the info into my kestrel for my 800 yard target. I shot 1 shot and it was 10" low which meant that I would have to lower my BC. Kind of bummed about that. I lowered the BC from .285 to .230 to get 16.25 MOA for elevation. I shot 3 shots at the 800 yard target and it was about 2" above my point of aim and measured in at 2.5" for a three shot group. You can see in the picture that the rounds labeled 1 are the first three shot group.
I raised the BC to .237 to give me 16 MOA of elevation and turned my turret to 16 and fired three more shots. These shots were right on the money for elevation. The wind was blowing at 6mph from the 10 o'clock. This 3 shot group measured 3.4". The six shots even though I moved one click down after the first group still measured 4.3" which I was really happy with.
This is the same BC as I got from the 177 Gr hammer hunters when I tried them but for some reason the 169 Gr hammers are giving me 100 fps more. I do wish the BC had stayed .260 or higher but I can live with .237 since it will give me the needed 1800 FPS all the way out to 860 yards.
Next I will test these out on a couple of pigs at 700-800 yards and see how they do.
This morning I loaded up 15 rounds and went out to shoot this load at distance. I zeroed the rifle and then entered all the info into my kestrel for my 800 yard target. I shot 1 shot and it was 10" low which meant that I would have to lower my BC. Kind of bummed about that. I lowered the BC from .285 to .230 to get 16.25 MOA for elevation. I shot 3 shots at the 800 yard target and it was about 2" above my point of aim and measured in at 2.5" for a three shot group. You can see in the picture that the rounds labeled 1 are the first three shot group.
I raised the BC to .237 to give me 16 MOA of elevation and turned my turret to 16 and fired three more shots. These shots were right on the money for elevation. The wind was blowing at 6mph from the 10 o'clock. This 3 shot group measured 3.4". The six shots even though I moved one click down after the first group still measured 4.3" which I was really happy with.
This is the same BC as I got from the 177 Gr hammer hunters when I tried them but for some reason the 169 Gr hammers are giving me 100 fps more. I do wish the BC had stayed .260 or higher but I can live with .237 since it will give me the needed 1800 FPS all the way out to 860 yards.
Next I will test these out on a couple of pigs at 700-800 yards and see how they do.
