Advice for Hammers in 300wm

[Qubo]

Well @mtmuley talked me into ordering my first box of Hammers. Gotta work up a load for my 300wm. I haven‘t found the perfect load for it yet and with the shortage going on I want to work up a load out of components that can be easily found now and therefore found during future shortages. So I’ll be using IMR4451 as it was easy to get a couple months ago when I was looking. I’ve not used it before but supposed to be close to h4350 and I’ve done a little testing with that. I got the 166gr Shock Hammers as a lighter bullet fits my game needs and I don’t take shots over 350 yards so I think it’ll be perfect for me.

Any way, just looking for any advice. I am a novice reloader. There isn’t much info on IMR4451 and none on it with mono bullets that I can find. Going to start with 65gr of powder based on info for similar weight bullets and do the 10 shot method in .3 increments. Also my first time doing this method as I just got a new MagnetoSpeed. Suggested seating depth? For monos I’ve been starting at .050 off the lands but sounds like that’s not an issue with Hammers. So should I just go mag length?

Also I’ve got a box of 168gr E-tips I wan’t to test with the same charge and method. If I do both in one trip do I need to clean the barrel between the different bullets or is it ok since they will be the same powder? Thanks.

 

[Deleted member 20812]

Go 0.020” off or mag length. I’d go 0.5 grain increments. Definitely clean the carbon at least. I’ve tested one rifle of mine and I can alternate Hammers and Sierra Match Kings with no problem. I’d verify this though.

 

[Don Fischer]

I'm wondering not just about Hunter's but all the onolithic bullet's. If you load equal weight mono and lead core, with the same load, will the mono jump pressure up? Thinking with having to seat the mono deeper and the mono probably w bit harder than the lead core pressure might jump a bit. I don't fool with mono's loading. Not sure what would happen using say data for my 180gr 30-06 lead core bullet with a 180gr mono bullet. Doubt that mono bullet will compress as much!

 

[Deleted member 20812]

Not all monos are created equal. The grooves in the Hammers appear to significantly lower pressures.

When I was trying to get the Absolute Hammers to shoot in my .280 I did some playing with seating depth. I found I gained a good bit of velocity; 50 FPS for same charge weight simply by backing off the lands.