Bullet Expansion - Hammer Hunter vs HHT

[David_h]

Curious if I can expect better expansion from Hammer HHT vs my current 199 gr Hammer Hunter? I'm a little surprised at the minimal expansion in my Hammer Hunter (pic below).

Bullet recovered from my Elk. The Quick story: spotted lone 6x6 at 15 minutes after sunset. Took shot at 520 yards. Hit high spine, bull arched up and was still on feet quartered away. Took a second shot (this bullet) hit left rear quarter. Bullet did not seem to penetrate far nor did it expand. I did notice that hollow point was filled with flesh. Hoping the HHT might be better.

 

[Elkeater]

That's pretty interesting. I've been a big fan of the 199 hammer hunter in my .300 win mag. Never had an issue with any hammer bullet actually. How far did it penetrate? Impact velocity?

For the record I enjoy hammers and use them in multiple guns but I don't think they are perfect so now I'm curious.

 

[nwmnbowhunter]

Very interesting.

I'm 19 for 19 with the 199 hammers and no evidence of them not opening and shredding petals. Furthest was 450 yds.

Any idea approximate impact velocity?

 

[zr600]

This could be interesting. Hope the hammer guy responds to this. What was your impact velocity?

 

[Triple BB]

I was shooting 199 grn HH's out of my 300 RUM. Shot several deer with it last year. All bullets exited the animals. Switched this year to 203 grn HHT's. Shot a whitetail buck in Oct, pass through. Just shot a cow elk three days ago at 654 yds that was quartered to me. Bullet entered at the front shoulder and exited in front of the opposite hind quarter. Decent exit hole, one lung had a 3" hole through it. Neither one took more than two steps...

 

[David_h]

Terminal velocity about 2450 fps based on Berger ballistic calc. This bullet found next to hide maybe 6" from entrance at rear of quarter. 300 PRC 1-8" twist.

 

[nwmnbowhunter]

Very interesting that it tried to open but couldn't.

 

[6.5saum/300rum]

If the bullet looked like that and didn't penetrate it would almost have to be tumbling. How far have you shot these bullets on paper?

 

[Koda_]

Any chance there was brush in the way?
Its possible the hollowpoint tip got mangled in the feeding process, or if it was damaged slightly before using and unnoticed... the new HHT tip eliminates that risk. It sounds like the first one did its job so Im guessing tip damage on the second shot.

 

[sierracharlie338]

If the bullet looked like that and didn't penetrate it would almost have to be tumbling. How far have you shot these bullets on paper?

This was my thought but I don't have any experience shooting hammers either.

 

[Weaver93]

I have used them in .22 CM up to 7 SAUM and have not witnessed that kind of performance. Not that it won't happen, but I've not seen it. I can't imagine a 199 in .300 PRC at 520 yards not penetrating much.

Glad you got your elk!

 

[adam32+P]

That's the 3rd one like that I've seen in the past 3 weeks.

 

[Petey308]

Soft copper, small hole, no broaching, no other method/mechanism to assist with reliable expansion. This all equals to being susceptible to the tip necking over and actually resisting expansion and working properly. If you don't believe me, explain this and the others out there like it so that we can understand. Blaming wrong twist rate and a bad batch of copper is not acceptable to me because it means the bullets are too finicky and require everything to be just right. That's just never going to happen realistically and reliably out there. Sure, if you're way off on twist rate maybe, but I haven't seen anyone being way off on the twist rate requirement.

I have seen this multiple times with Hammers and is why I currently avoid them. Sure, they've worked very well for many people, but there's a lot more poor results than you actually see in this forum. The bigger the sample size seems to get (people using them) the more results like this we are seeing. I don't use many other bullets anymore for similar reasons. This is not a jab at Hammer specifically, just my thoughts on this thread and experience given. This is something that can be fixed. This is only a jab at the current performance of this bullet design. The tipped versions have the potential of fixing some of these issues, but it'll depend on what else they've done to them. I have some for examining and testing, I just need the time to get to them.

I'm sorry this happened to you, but unfortunately I can't say I'm surprised. I hope you figure out a good solution moving forward, whatever that ends up being.

 

[Mike Matteson]

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