Hammer hunters at low impact velocity?

[willfrye027]

Can anybody provide some examples of low impact velocity hammer hunter kills? 1800-2000fps or so? I love hammers and have killed some critters at higher velocity impact but am hesitant to push the limits without seeing others results. I just feel more comfortable with lead at 2000 fps because of years of crappy copper bullet performance. Hammers are a different beast but I'm still building my own experiences with them and have not stretched them out on an animal.

 

[26Reload]

Following...tossing idea of testin' in a few rifles.....
Can imagine a...
26Nosler will send some very fast...
65284s should be lethal....
Ultra lite 280ai would be awesome with liteweight bullets.....

 

[Huntnful]

Can anybody provide some examples of low impact velocity hammer hunter kills? 1800-2000fps or so? I love hammers and have killed some critters at higher velocity impact but am hesitant to push the limits without seeing others results. I just feel more comfortable with lead at 2000 fps because of years of crappy copper bullet performance. Hammers are a different beast but I'm still building my own experiences with them and have not stretched them out on an animal.

I shot a coyote a little over 500 yards with a 169 HH. The impact velocity would have been around 2100 FPS. It stoned him with a golf ball sized exit hole after only passing through about 6" of actual tissue. I'm also working on gaining confidence in them. So far so good. 4 coyotes from 50 to 540 yards. Only one that ran was the 50 yard shot. Made it about 25 yards before piling up.

Following...tossing idea of testin' in a few rifles.....
Can imagine a...
26Nosler will send some very fast...
65284s should be lethal....
Ultra lite 280ai would be awesome with liteweight bullets.....

I'm pushing the 169 HH at 3300 FPS out of the 28 nosler.

 

[112Savage]

I recently killed a nyala at about 240yds. The shot entered center of shoulder and exited in front of opposite shoulder. He ran about 40yds through heavy brush. Impact velocity was 2166fps
9.3x62 258gr shockhammer at 2600fps

 

[willfrye027]

I recently killed a nyala at about 240yds. The shot entered center of shoulder and exited in front of opposite shoulder. He ran about 40yds through heavy brush. Impact velocity was 2166fps
9.3x62 258gr shockhammer at 2600fps

Hammered him!

 

[Treeslug]

I recently killed a nyala at about 240yds. The shot entered center of shoulder and exited in front of opposite shoulder. He ran about 40yds through heavy brush. Impact velocity was 2166fps
9.3x62 258gr shockhammer at 2600fps

And you did that with a left-hand rifle. Wonders never cease. There is hope for me after all.

 

[bsnyder]

Funny this should come up as I was getting ready to post a thread about long range hammer kills. I haven't killed anything at long range yet with hammers just 16 oz water bottles. According to my drop chart impact speed should be around 1700 and I caught petals in what was left of the bottle. I believe Steve shot an elk a few years back at 6-700 through the chest and stoned him but don't quote me on that. Hopefully this fall I will have some data on a bear and deer.

 

[Jakeweb09]

Doesn't Steve say as long as you keep over 1800 FPS you should be good? I'd trust his opinion on this. Maybe we will here from the man himself on here @RockyMtnMT

 

[112Savage]

It's entirely bullet dependent. The 9.3 has a 2.5mm hollow point which will act differently than the new 375 lever hammers, the traditional shockhammer, or a 25 caliber hammer hunter

 

[RockyMtnMT]

We test everything down to 1800 fps. We have never tried to see how low they will go. It is the only place that we inflict out opinion on our customers. We feel like 1800 fps is a good minimum for quick kills. If someone is comfortable with lower they should test it themselves to make sure the bullet is doing what you want. I would recommend this with any bullet, nor just ours.

Big bores are a diff story. They start out big!

 

[Wedgy]

Do not underestimate the effect that barrel twist has on bullet performance. Just because it flies straight and makes round holes in paper does not mean it has enough stability to perform on game. A bullet near the edge of stability can tumble or make a 90 degree turn once it hits instead of going straight, penetrating, and expanding. Most list the MINIMUM twist for stability and may not be optimal for expansion. You won't rip a Hammer apart by spinning it too fast and there's negligible velocity loss(Litz concluded a 1.33 fps loss per added inch of twist).
Picture is an elk at 987 yards with a 227 grain HH from a 7 twist 300 RUM, shot was quartering to and uphill.

 

[Nomosendero]

And you did that with a left-hand rifle. Wonders never cease. There is hope for me after all.

Yea but it was a right hand twist, at least the bullet was guided correctly!!

Just kidding of course.
That is a nice animal and a very classy rifle!

 

[yorke-1]

I think the 1800 fps is a pretty good number, but that's only one of the things to consider. A bullet with a lower RPM at 1800 fps will behave differently than a bullet with a higher RPM at the same velocity. I've tested bullets that were theoretically fully stabilized and shot well, but turned into "banana bullets" on impact, hinting that they weren't really stabilized as well as I thought.

I think it's becoming more and more apparent that a barrel's twist rate plays a significant role in a bullet's terminal performance. This just gets more critical with mono metal bullets because of their longer length for any given bullet weight. I'm really beginning to wonder if the light weight bullet "velocity kills" theory is linked to the bullet's relative stability more than the actual impact velocity. I have my own view on this based on what I've personally seen, but I don't have enough data to make a substantive argument either way.

 

[Left Hand Dave]

I took a whitetail doe at 500 yds with an XP-100 in a 7 SAUM using the 143 HH. StrelokPro put the velocity at 1940 FPS with a stability factor of 1.94. I was a little concerned about the velocity but apparently didn't need to be. The doe went no where but down. The shot was through the ribs no shoulder. I have taken 2 other deer with this rig from 300 yds with the 143 HH everything has been DRT.