Hammer bullets?

[Addicting]

I think HONEYBADGER was having a similar issue. Hammer CS is 406 261 0010. mtmuley

I just resize without the ball and seated it deeper to catch all the rings. I also bought a Lee Factory crimp die. Jury is still out on that step, though.

 

[mtmuley]

I did that and the bullet had to have all 4 rings seated in the neck to keep it from moving. Where it needed to be seated just shy of the 4th ring you could pull and push on it and watch it move.

Something not right. Great groups, but that isn't common to Hammers. mtmuley

 

[homers]

@mtmuley...

7mm-08 what would be a good choice for the hammers?

120, 131, or 143 in the hammer hunter?

Barrel is 1-9 twist.

Thinking of splitting the difference and going with the 131.

I was asking myself the same questions regarding my 7mm-08. I told Steve what I wanted to hunt, he suggested the 131 hammers (actual weight is 134). Did my first load ladder per Steve's suggestions. Velocity started at 2900 and went to just above 3100. Found 2 nodes I'm going to test in the next batch.

 

[Addicting]

Something not right. Great groups, but that isn't common to Hammers. mtmuley

It was in my 260ai so the necks are a little shorter.

 

[longbow51]

I wonder if he will ever make enough to offer them in factory ammo? I know you can spend the price of a pretty nice scope to get load development and a hundred rounds, but it would be nice just to buy 20 rounds of ammo for the same price as other premium loads, e.g. Weatherby. Especially true given the seating problems noted above.

 

[mtmuley]

I wonder if he will ever make enough to offer them in factory ammo? I know you can spend the price of a pretty nice scope to get load development and a hundred rounds, but it would be nice just to buy 20 rounds of ammo for the same price as other premium loads, e.g. Weatherby. Especially true given the seating problems noted above.

Right now Hammer is a two man operation. Loaded ammo is a big jump. mtmuley

 

[longbow51]

Right now Hammer is a two man operation. Loaded ammo is a big jump. mtmuley

Figured.

 

[antelopedundee]

I wonder if he will ever make enough to offer them in factory ammo? I know you can spend the price of a pretty nice scope to get load development and a hundred rounds, but it would be nice just to buy 20 rounds of ammo for the same price as other premium loads, e.g. Weatherby. Especially true given the seating problems noted above.

If you seat the bullets so the loaded round fits in the magazine there would be a mile of bullet jump in a Weatherby. I'd want to verify accuracy before buying a box or even offering them for sale. Thing is that they'd have to use someone else's brass. There is a place in Tejas offering 6.5-06 custom ammo but using Hornady 25-06 brass. Not something I would do.

 

[noharleyyet]

Monthly Hammer threads not going away....

 

[antelopedundee]

It was in my 260ai so the necks are a little shorter.

If you size with no ball you can always let the bullet be the expander. You need to be careful so that you don't end up collapsing the shoulder, esp. with an AI case. I had a couple Nosler [and Winchester] 6.5-06AI case shoulders collapse when expanding up to .263.

 

[Addicting]

If you size with no ball you can always let the bullet be the expander. You need to be careful so that you don't end up collapsing the shoulder, esp. with an AI case. I had a couple Nosler [and Winchester] 6.5-06AI case shoulders collapse when expanding up to .263.

The Hammer Hunters I’ve used have such a generous boat tail that it works almost as a mandrel when seating. With other bullets I could see that being a issue. Thanks for the heads up, I hadn’t thought of that.

 

[longbow51]

If you seat the bullets so the loaded round fits in the magazine there would be a mile of bullet jump in a Weatherby. I' want to verify accuracy before buying a box or even offering them for sale. Thing is that they'd have to use someone else's brass. There is a place in Tejas offering 6.5-06 custom ammo but using Hornady 25-06 brass. Not something I would do.

I actually meant priced like Weatherby, just to clarify. Looks like we won't see this though.

 

[antelopedundee]

The Hammer Hunters I’ve used have such a generous boat tail that it works almost as a mandrel when seating. With other bullets I could see that being a issue. Thanks for the heads up, I hadn’t thought of that.

I have done that and even flat base have enough bevel that it's not an issue. If you use a Redding competition seater die they recommend against that practice.

 

[VikingsGuy]

I did that and the bullet had to have all 4 rings seated in the neck to keep it from moving. Where it needed to be seated just shy of the 4th ring you could pull and push on it and watch it move.

If you are using Lee dies that may be the problem. I have had 2 or 3 Lee FL sizing dies slightly over-expand the neck enough to cause TTSX bullets to spin in place. In talking to customer support, they acknowledged this is a semi-common problem for their dies and mono bullets. I have moved away from Lees because of this.

 

[VikingsGuy]

I wonder if he will ever make enough to offer them in factory ammo? I know you can spend the price of a pretty nice scope to get load development and a hundred rounds, but it would be nice just to buy 20 rounds of ammo for the same price as other premium loads, e.g. Weatherby. Especially true given the seating problems noted above.

Find a local friend who reloads, buy a box of 50 Hammers, load with the powder and charge on the lower side of Steve's recommendations and to standard SAMMI length, and give it a go. Won't have the tuned precision of full handloading process, but probably as good any other non-optimized factory.

 

[ImBillT]

I’ve never seen high neck tension help anything with jacketed lead bullets. Does Hammer recommend this?

Lee....whatever your problem, there’s your problem.

 

[MO Betta]

Not to jump on a Lee hate bandwagon, but have you mic'd the expander ball to see if it is oversized?

 

[VikingsGuy]

Not to jump on a Lee hate bandwagon, but have you mic'd the expander ball to see if it is oversized?

It was on the first one - and a little out of round. I didn't bother measuring the others as a consistent failure mode. CS told me to round and make smaller with fine sand paper/emory cloth - I decided to switch the Redding instead.

 

[Addicting]

Does Hammer recommend this?

Steve recommended it to me, he said he runs .004-005 neck tension.

 

[ImBillT]

Steve recommended it to me, he said he runs .004-005 neck tension.

There ya go. He likely knows what he’s talking about.