30-30 contender and Hammers?

[jimmybrost]

I ended up with the 130 gr shock hammers, and i have some nosler 125's to try as well. It's a rifle season, in Missouri, from a blind, so I'll take a long gun along if things are out of my handgun range. Thank you for your info!

 

[RockyMtnMT]

We have never tried to see how low a velocity Hammers will open to. We have always stopped once we have full deformation at 1800 fps. This is the only place we inflict our opinion on our customers. We have always felt 1800 fps is a good minimum for clean kills with your standard high power calibers. The Shock Hammers will open pretty low with the large hollow point. I tell people all the time, if you are comfortable with lower velocity impacts, then set up a gallon jug of water in front of a box of newspaper and catch one. I would recommend this for any bullet on the market regardless of what they advertise for min vel.

I'm hoping the short barrel only costs you about 300 fps. If I'm right, this will put you closer to 2400 fps. Maybe better.

 

[jimmybrost]

Well, friends, here it is. 130 gr HH over 35.0 gr of CFE 223. Shooting about an inch at 100. Took it on my deer hunt and knocked down this pretty respectable buck at 128 yds. Somehow, (not typical of my history) I hit both lungs and his heart. He bolted and ran maybe 40 yards and gave up the ghost. Through a rib on the near side, bullet did not exit the back side, and I lost it in field dressing him. Pretty disappointed in myself for not recovering that slug, I really wanted to see how it expanded.
A million thanks to just_jon for his help with his QL and the load development.

 

[yorke-1]

That's about as good a shot as you can ask for! Great job!

 

[41Magnum]

Congratulations Sir, excellent work!

 

[Ernie]

Just a suggestion, but you may want to think about using a lighter bullet if you want to use a solid copper style. Most of them need at least an 1800 fps impact velocity to perform consistently. Something like the 101gr HH or the 120 Lever Hammer might work better, to keep the velocity up.

If you want a heavier bullet, the 161gr Haymaker from Apex Outdoors will expand down to 1000 fps. It was specifically designed for the 300 BLK and other low velocity 30's like pistols. I've tested the Haymaker quite a bit out of a 300 BLK and a 300 Savage Encore barrel and it's worked great in both cases.

THIS!

 

[Bud H]

I am betting you should go with a lighter bullet to maximize velocity if you are going with Hammers (or just about any other brand in a 14" barrel). If I recall correctly, I was getting about 2150 fps with 125 gr Ballistic Tips in my 10" T/C 30-30. They didn't appear to open up to well at a little over 150 yards on a mountain goat. For deer, I ended up going with 125 gr Hornady TNTs.

Right or wrong, in short barrels, I favor fast powders over the slower ones that work for a cartridge. I use RL7 in my 10" 30/30.

I switched from varget to RL7 in mine also.

 

[Bud H]

I haven't tried Hammer bullets, but Cutting Edge grouped really well, haven't taken anything with them yet, 10in 30-30 barrel.