RockyMtnMT
Official LRH Sponsor
Last Sunday while at the range working on some rifles I received a text from a customer excited about the 3x4 blacktail buck that he took using his 8mm mag and 221g Hammer Hunters. He did not give me much detail other than he shot him at 250y running away and that the buck was cresting a hill on the shot and he just slid 60y down the other side.
Today I was able to have a phone conversation with him and the story is pretty good. The terminal ballistics of the Hammer are everything that we have been researching and working toward. Originally he thought that he had hit the buck in the flank and the bullet lodged in the far shoulder. It turns out that the hole in the flank was an exit from one of the petals coming off the bullet. He had actually hit him Texas style about 3" off the bung hole. Bullet traveled the length of the deer and lodged in the far shoulder. He told me that the force from the expansion of the bullet was so strong that it split the gut 10" and the guts were out of the deer. That the lungs were completely devastated. He thought when he got to the deer that he had hit him low and was lucky to have gotten him since the guts were out of the body. I wonder if a petal may have split the belly open. Hard to believe it split from impact pressure. Despite the heavy devastation he had very little meat damage in the rear quarter that was hit. To me this is the best part, as we don't always hit the best spots in a hunting situation, and losing less meat is a great thing.
Recovered bullet weighed 155g for 70% weight retention with a perfect flat frontal area that measured .3815" from an original .323". This bullet performed exactly like testing and could not have been better.
In the end hitting a running deer at 250y is a heck of a shot and bullet performance was fantastic. Here are the pics that he sent me.
It is a very nice buck too. Congratulations to Manuel.
Steve
http://www.longrangehunting.com/for...65532&stc=1&d=147546059531&stc=1&d=1475460595
Today I was able to have a phone conversation with him and the story is pretty good. The terminal ballistics of the Hammer are everything that we have been researching and working toward. Originally he thought that he had hit the buck in the flank and the bullet lodged in the far shoulder. It turns out that the hole in the flank was an exit from one of the petals coming off the bullet. He had actually hit him Texas style about 3" off the bung hole. Bullet traveled the length of the deer and lodged in the far shoulder. He told me that the force from the expansion of the bullet was so strong that it split the gut 10" and the guts were out of the deer. That the lungs were completely devastated. He thought when he got to the deer that he had hit him low and was lucky to have gotten him since the guts were out of the body. I wonder if a petal may have split the belly open. Hard to believe it split from impact pressure. Despite the heavy devastation he had very little meat damage in the rear quarter that was hit. To me this is the best part, as we don't always hit the best spots in a hunting situation, and losing less meat is a great thing.
Recovered bullet weighed 155g for 70% weight retention with a perfect flat frontal area that measured .3815" from an original .323". This bullet performed exactly like testing and could not have been better.
In the end hitting a running deer at 250y is a heck of a shot and bullet performance was fantastic. Here are the pics that he sent me.
It is a very nice buck too. Congratulations to Manuel.
Steve
http://www.longrangehunting.com/for...65532&stc=1&d=147546059531&stc=1&d=1475460595
PS: good shootin' gun)
