Hammer Absolute Hunter Bullet

[Ralt71]

Has anyone had any experience loading these up? I want to give them a try in my short barrel PRC. They claim above average speed, great accuracy, and they claim make a great wound channel on game. Hammer's load data shows nothing for their absolute hammer bullets and they claim they are tricky to load and come up on pressure fast. For my distances it's not super important, if they are this tricky to make happy I may just go with the Hammer Hunter or Hammer Hunter Tipped. Before I rule the absolutes out, just curious what this community see's or knows.

 

[FOTIS]

I have been loading them for years. One of my favorite bullets. The absolute hammers show very little bearing surface. It is possible to realize speeds up to 200 fps or even more pending on cartridge. Often you have to drop down the scale to a faster powder because you may run out of capacity before maximum pressures can be reached. Examples are:
257 Bee 90 gr absolute hammer---3800 - 3900 fps , some are using 4350 series propellants to realize this speed.

257 Roberts 90 gr absolute hammer----3400 fps H4895.

As far as accuracy goes I will testify to this. I have never left the range without at least one load, of my tryout loads, not grouping at least MOA on the first day from a sound rifle platform.

 

[FOTIS]

These are nowhere near max

They expand more easily than ANY other monometal bullet I have ever used to include the Barnes LRX. Think 1500 fps or so. Performance is very impressive! Think of all hammers like a monometal Partition. At high speeds the front portion will break off. Thus the petals, as secondary projectiles, will create huge devastation in tissue. The rear shank becomes like a cast bullet that plows through.
I load these for me and my friends. We just came back from Texas hog hunting and my friend was using a 178 gr in his 30-06 at 2900 fps. The damage done to the hogs he shot has to been seen to be believed. Robert's fist fit in the exit hole and Robert 6' 5" 300 lbs. Just ask Jim (JD338), he was there with us.

 

[Ralt71]

So in your opinion, should I just go with the absolute hammers and trust I won't get the finky they mention or should I maybe try those and the regular hammer hunter? In 6.5 they called out R23 as a good powder, which just so happens I have roughly 3 pounds of it left and I don't use it on any other loads. Would love to build something up and burn that powder.

 

[Ralt71]

We just came back from Texas hog hunting and my friend was using a 178 gr in his 30-06 at 2900 fps. The damage done to the hogs he shot has to been seen to be believed. Robert's fist fit in the exit hole and Robert 6' 5" 300 lbs. Just ask Jim (JD338), he was there with us.

What part of TX were you in? I was just down there for a couple weeks. Went down to San Saba 4/17 - 4/20 to hunt. We did a combo Turkey and Hog hunt. It was a good time. I love the Texas Hill Country. I wish the family ranch was down there instead haha

 

[FOTIS]

A lot of people overthink the AH, and Hammer bullets have to warn potential users who have little to no loading experience, because of possible legal issues---imagine that in our day........

I had a 6.5 PRC Ruger go wild. This is the load I settled one before selling it. Not a max load but good accuracy, and it did everything I needed.
I used RL 26 started low and worked up close to 3200 fps with the 123 AH.

I would suspect you can do the same with RL 23, obviously with less powder. Start at 51 (or a little higher) and go from there.

Or do a ladder, for example 51-56 or so one round each, and see what pressure is like .

 

[JD338]

I’m a believer. I saw it with my own eyes. Robert is a big dude and I witnessed him putting his big fist in the exit.

JD338

 

[FOTIS]

What part of TX were you in? I was just down there for a couple weeks. Went down to San Saba 4/17 - 4/20 to hunt. We did a combo Turkey and Hog hunt. It was a good time. I love the Texas Hill Country. I wish the family ranch was down there instead haha

Dos Plumas Ranch. 5 years in a row. Going next year again, early May.

 

[Ralt71]

A lot of people overthink the AH, and Hammer bullets have to warn potential users who have little to no loading experience, because of possible legal issues---imagine that in our day........

I had a 6.5 PRC Ruger go wild. This is the load I settled one before selling it. Not a max load but good accuracy, and it did everything I needed.
I used RL 26 started low and worked up close to 3200 fps with the 123 AH.

I would suspect you can do the same with RL 23, obviously with less powder. Start at 51 (or a little higher) and go from there.

Or do a ladder, for example 51-56 or so one round each, and see what pressure is like .

I just ordered two samples packs, one of each. Had I been patient and read your post first, I would have just grabbed AH's haha

 

[FOTIS]

No biggie. If you need help just reach out anytime. Good luck.

The only drawback with them is price. In order to find the "right" copper, or blend of same, that expands in very low velocities, they had to look overseas. They shot tons of the stuff before settling on the right mix. I am not a metallurgist but that is how I understand it. From what I have read they found it in South Korea. Trumps tariffs raised the price considerably.

 

[Ralt71]

Dos Plumas Ranch. 5 years in a row. Going next year again, early May.

I only know about that ranch because of a project we did a couple years back. Have never hunted there or anything like that. I grew up on the other side of DFW from that ranch, but use to go right by it many times on our way to Midland.

My company did an expansion project on a compressor station right next to it, may even be on their land, and i was part of the start up on it. Three new compressors.

 

[FOTIS]

Cool. I like the owners, always have a great time and I do NOT have to drive 18 hours, like I use to to Texas hill country from Cheyenne Wyoming.