Speer 250gr RN Hot Cor

[D21ALASKA]

I was lucky enough to find some Speer 250gr round nose over the winter and decided to work up a load for the bait station. Hadn't seen a test of these on here, not surprisingly since they're out of production, and thought it would be a good first for me trying to catch one.
Shooting out of my 700 Classic in 350 Rem Mag. MV ended up being right at 2400fps and keeping it just over an inch at 100yds if I do my part. Plenty good enough for my planned 200yd max with it. Will only be 25-50yds at the bait station.
Jugs were at 15 yds so 2360fps and 3090lbft at impact. Went through the full 7 jugs and thankfully slowed it enough to find on the ground under the table. May or may not have penetrated an 8th but 7 is all I had. I was honestly only expecting it to go through 5 or so. I found shrapnel in the 4th/5th/6th jugs but 1 through 3 was completely destroyed.

Retained weight was 174.9gr for 69.96%
Total recovered weight was 186.6gr.



I think I'll call that good. Don't think a black bear is going to stop one side to side. Maybe a brownie but I'm up for trying to find out either way...

 

[gerry]

Looks like a good match for the 350 RM. It certainly performs well, good luck on your hunt and hopefully you can add some field photo's soon!

 

[KinleyWater]

I used 250 HotCors in 35 Whelen for my bear and it worked really well. I think this will absolutely hammer even a larger bruin. Let us all know how it works out in the real world.

 

[Thebear_78]

I have found the 250 hot core to be an excellent bullet in the whelen. Recovered this bullet after shooting thru a large drift log. Hard to expect more than that.

 

[gerry]

I used 250 HotCors in 35 Whelen for my bear and it worked really well. I think this will absolutely hammer even a larger bruin. Let us all know how it works out in the real world.

The end result looks like the spitzer version which has been used on lots of big grizzlies and brown bears. Maybe @D21ALASKA can field test them on a grizzly this year too! I wonder how many of those Remington 600 and 660's 350 RM's ended up in western Canada and Alaska. Of course I'm assuming that's what he is using.

 

[wvbuckbuster]

The bears are in trouble. Happy hunting. Dan.

 

[JD338]

That's some serious penetration and the perfect bullet for the 350 RM. The bears are in deep dark trouble with that load.

JD338

 

[hunter24605]

That's some serious horsepower, should prove very deadly on just about anything you'd care to sink one into.

 

[PJGunner]

I played some with the 250 gr. Speer sptitzer and the 250 gr. Hornady spitzer and round nose bullets with just about equal results from all three. Groups ere close to one inch for the most part with 1.5" if a worst case scenario. I kind of experimented with the 225 gr. Barnes TSX in one rifle and results were so good I forgot about 250 gr. bullets all together. In my custom Mauser they run to .50 to .75" groups and kill elk very dead right there. My two other rifles in .35 Whelen don't like the load as it's a bit too hot for those rifles.

On the Speer Hot Cores, I've only run the spitzer version as the round noses had already been discontinued. I have two friends who live in Canada who hunt moose whenever they can get a tag. Theeir favorite load uses the Speer Hot Core spitzer loaded fairly hot and have told me it's a great bullet for moose. One gentleman got lucky and drew a tag for Grizzly bear and his bullet choice was the 250 gr. Speer HC spitzer. Unfortunately, he didn't see a bear but did tell me he was perfectly confident his choice of bullet would work just fine.

I'll be play with the 250 gr. bullets in a month or so as I have a fair supply of the Speer and Hornady. I'll use them in the Remington M700 and leave the Ruger M77 for cast bullet use. I have a mold that casts a 280 gr. bullet, a semi-clone of of the Lyman #3589/358009 bullet, the difference is the custom mold casts the bullet with a slight flat on the tip of the round nose. I wouldn't mind taking a crack at an elk with that bullet or maybe a Black Bear. I also have the Lyman mold mentioned but the shank for the gas check is too small and checks won't stay on. I've used super glue which seems to make then stay on. I don't much care if they stay on or fall off after they've been shot. Looking to get them around 2200 to 2300 FPS which should make them good to around 200 yards.

JMHO, I think the Speer Hot Core 250 gr. bullets are just fine in the .350 Rem. Mag/.35 Whelen cartridges.

For the really big and ugly I also have about 80 Hornady 275 gr. RN bullets. Hornady dropped them even before their first load manual which about circa 1966. Too bad. Nice looking bullet that seemed to say, "I mean business."
Paul B.

 

[Alaska]

I was lucky enough to find some Speer 250gr round nose over the winter and decided to work up a load for the bait station. Hadn't seen a test of these on here, not surprisingly since they're out of production, and thought it would be a good first for me trying to catch one.
Shooting out of my 700 Classic in 350 Rem Mag. MV ended up being right at 2400fps and keeping it just over an inch at 100yds if I do my part. Plenty good enough for my planned 200yd max with it. Will only be 25-50yds at the bait station.
Jugs were at 15 yds so 2360fps and 3090lbft at impact. Went through the full 7 jugs and thankfully slowed it enough to find on the ground under the table. May or may not have penetrated an 8th but 7 is all I had. I was honestly only expecting it to go through 5 or so. I found shrapnel in the 4th/5th/6th jugs but 1 through 3 was completely destroyed.

Retained weight was 174.9gr for 69.96%
Total recovered weight was 186.6gr.
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I think I'll call that good. Don't think a black bear is going to stop one side to side. Maybe a brownie but I'm up for trying to find out either way...

It’s a excellent bullet Speer Hot Cor used the 250gr Spitzer exclusive in 350 RM in Rem 600. I sold both my Rem 600 a few weeks ago 350 and 6.5.
That was the last of my Rem 600 I had.
I also use the excellent 350gr Speer HC in the 45-70 Marlin with 48.0 of IMR 4198.

That Rem 600 in 350 Mag with Speer 250gr was my Alaska Bear Gun for many salmon fishing trips per year for big bear protection.