Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting Hammer bullets

my Hammer bullets were $115.00 for 100 bullets , these bullets in many of my rifles shot better groups than other brand copper bullets . i shoot a Ruger #1 once the rifle is sighted in i have mostly 1 shot kills so not a big deal on bullet price to use the best brand bullets.

I'm not worried about the price of bullets, just if I can get them to shoot like I want. For some reason I just can't find the sweet spot in my rifle for the Barnes ttsx or lrx. A typical 6 shot group at a 100yds using Hornady 103 eld-x or 108 eld-match bullets. I have 3 different Hammer bullets on the way to try. Steve Davis deserves a shout out for great customer service.

Same here. Good bullets are so inexpensive to what I pay for diesel these days I don’t hardly give it a thought if they’re accurate and killers on animals. I can shoot Hornady the rest of the year to save money.

I’ve killed 2 whitetails and 2 caribou with the 124 hammer hunter in my 6.5 PRC. Accuracy has been outstanding and every kill has been swift with excellent terminal results. I’ve been so impressed with the hammer bullets that I rebarreled my nula 24 to a fast twist 25/06 with the plan of shooting the 125gr hammer hunter.

Do they work great on game and are they accurate in your guns?
If the answer is YES, and you get them quickly, then paying a premium price is really not a big deal.
I have several friends that absolutely love how they perform on game.
I have not hunted with Hammer's yet, but they are going to be one of my go to bullets for mule deer and on up game.
Barnes LRX and the AB's are two other bullets I will use as well for mule deer and above.

Hammer certainly has some interesting bullets. I've shot many of the Hammer Hunters but haven't bothered with the "Absolutes".

I shot a doe that was facing me with a 124 Hammer from a Creed. The bullet entered the brisket and exited the rear hind quarter. Just started fooling around with their 85gr bullet in the 26" Creed. I had no problem getting velocities to 3,700 ft/sec. I'm guessing this is my first "fast" barrel because that is more velocity than I was expecting. I did load work-up in .2gr increments. The downside to this load is that velocity sheds FAST! IIRC it loses over 300 ft/sec in the first 100yds.

I wasn't happy with the accuracy of the 88 HH or 87 AH using Hunter powder in my rifle. The 101 HH is accurate in my rifle and I'll do some live penetration and knockdown testing in a couple of weeks.

And do not forget availability is awesome.

Weatherby picked them up for their loaded ammunition. In fact Adam Weatherby got his first kill last week with the prototype. Bang and done at long range.

Thanks for the update on Adam-Good stuff.

Another interesting point regarding the use of Hammer bullets:

Most of the Hammer fans recommend using a Lee FCD to crimp in the bullets. They also recommend using magnum primers where you normally wouldn't need them. Both recommendations are to compensate for the rather low neck tension/interface.

I have tested quite a few loads with, and without, crimping. The outcome from using a FCD and Hammer bullets is far from predictable. I've seen some loads get better and some get notably worse. Erratic velocities were one of the things that I noticed on some loads. I have shot some very tight groups before the crimping idea got popular. Apparently, it works for some reloaders because it is almost universally recommended by Hammer shooters.

With regard to the magnum primers - the suggestion to use mag primers in all Hammer applications has been changing. Smaller cases are proving to work very well with standard primers. And recently, it has been determined that when loading for the 6.5PRC that you can load to much higher velocities if you avoid using mag primers. Mag primers apparently cause the loads to pressure up too quickly.

I like the Hammer bullets, but you really need to test the idiosyncrasies of loading this bullet for yourself. The blanket statements that are all over the web about Hammers haven't proven to be gospel in my tests.

the Hammer bullets i have used have shot very well the right recommended barrel twist from Hammer bullets is very important. my experience with the lee crimp die has helped with all hunting ammo brass and different brand bullets too . when i use Hammer bullets in my target rifles i don`t ever crimp then , i don`t always use magnum primers either but i have only a limited experience on the primer part ? i have only shot 1 antelope with a Hammer bullet so far but once deer season opens in Minnesota i will no more . my drawing luck this year was very poor for out west !

I tried Winchester LM rifle primers and groups seemed erratic. I'll stick with using CCI BR-2 primers in my .243 ai.

I wish those guys, starting this bullet making company all the best.

Funny how this thread is in the Longe range hunting section. While they seem to be decent bullets, they are not in the running for true long range stuff; the less dense copper and BC robbing grooves are to blame.
Best thing about them is availability. I will try more but won't shoot them at 1000+ yards

My 243 loves the 88gr HH over 4831. 3400fps and tiny groups. From the start of load development all my test loads were under 1” also.

Try another powder with them and you might be surprised.

Thanks I'll give 4831sc a try, that's exactly what I'm looking for.

I've experienced excellent accuracy, low ES/SD using Ramshot Magnum in my 1:8.5 twist 243AI w/105gn projectiles. That powder would probably work with the 88's and almost assuredly would work w/the 101's.

Just throwing out another option of a powder that recently has had reasonably good availability.

You may have a point, though for most of us common folks anything over 250 yards is a long range shot. Then there really is something to be said to closing the distance & getting it done with minimalist approach.

The draw towards Hammer and Barnes copper bullets for me is the lack of potential failures. From my experience bad angles, high velocity and bone will cause 6mm bullets to fail.

Pete, did you have any indication that the petals broke off and radiated outward like shrapnel? On one of the two cow elk for which I used Hammers, I found a petal under the far hide. The bases of the bullets on both elk exited. I usually field dress with the gutless method, so have no internal damage to report.