Hammer bullet shooters, how do you deal with BC?

[SDHNTR]

Those of you that shoot Hammers, how do you deal with their very “loose” BC figures that they publish when truing your drops?

I wish they tried a lil harder to publish more relevant figures. The equipment is obviously out there. I shoot them in a couple guns because the gun likes them, but I’ve found their BC numbers to be a good bit off in my guns and it can sometimes take some extra tinkering to true up drops. I know I’m not alone as this has been widely covered. This is not to bash Hammer, but how do you deal with it?

What I do is knock 10-15% off Hammer’s published figure to start. Confirm my 100 yd zero and get a good MV average. Then I go to 5-600 yds and use that manually reduced BC number to start. Check my solver and dial up accordingly. That usually gets me close, but not perfect. Sometimes it takes a few more clicks to get confidently centered. Then from there I will true MV to wherever I end up on my dial and pretty much forget about BC.

This is more or less the same process I do with any other bullet, but with anything else I can usually start with box BC or better yet Litz’ BC’s (which rarely need much of any further velocity truing), and it gets me closer than it does typically with Hammers.

Is there a better way? How do you do it? Or what BC do you use to get started and then true your velocity? Or do you keep your velocity and true BC? I’d love to cut a few shots out of the process.

 

[Shootinsurveyor]

AB has some of the Hammer bullets in the App with CDMs. I have the CDMs for .264 bullets and they are in there. They also have CDMs for .308.

 

[willfrye027]

For me they are a 500…maybe 600 yard bullet max under perfect conditions. The published BC has been good out to those distances for me. Farthest hammer kill for me was 525 yards with 151gr AH in my 30-06.

Beyond that there is just too much potential for error with wind drift and slight ranging error for me to use them comfortably. Plus they’re too expensive to practice a lot with.

 

[huntnful]

If you seem to have a good consistent reading chrono when truing data with other bullets and they are close. I would absolutely just drop the BC on the hammers. They are way inflated in my experience. Most of them are .03 lower than advertised. And I've shot and trued about 7 of their bullets in different rifles.

 

[SDHNTR]

If you seem to have a good consistent reading chrono when truing data with other bullets and they are close. I would absolutely just drop the BC on the hammers. They are way inflated in my experience. Most of them are .03 lower than advertised. And I've shot and trued about 7 of their bullets in different rifles.

Yeah, I know that thought process is unconventional, and I even got flamed for it thoroughly here not long ago, but I’m kinda leaning that direction.

 

[SDHNTR]

For me they are a 500…maybe 600 yard bullet max under perfect conditions. The published BC has been good out to those distances for me. Farthest hammer kill for me was 525 yards with 151gr AH in my 30-06.

Beyond that there is just too much potential for error with wind drift and slight ranging error for me to use them comfortably. Plus they’re too expensive to practice a lot with.

On game, you’re not wrong. But I also like to shoot some steel at longer ranges for practice and I don’t like changing ammo.

 

[SDHNTR]

AB has some of the Hammer bullets in the App with CDMs. I have the CDMs for .264 bullets and they are in there. They also have CDMs for .308.

I have the AB book, don’t have the app. I need another ap in my life like I need a kick to the nuts. Does it list the 124 6.5 Hammer Hunter and the 180 .308 HH?

 

[Bluefish]

I true up by using LabRadar. Shoot a few and then compare the actual velocity out to 100 yards, return 25,50,75, and 100 yard data vs the Hornady calculator starting with published bc. iterate with different BC’s until the real data matches the calculator. If I was shooting past 300 yards I would then verify drop, but I am not so I just stop there. It has shown me that the expected effective distance for a bullet may be a lot less than I thought.

I have been off by .03-.1 on hammers. It was like they calculated it based on shape, but didn’t account for the hollow point. Larger hollow points were further off. The tipped versions might be better. Have not tried them.

fwiw I figured this out on a different mfg bullet when the didn’t publish a bc and I was looking at the down range velocity. I was shocked to see rounds loosing 400+ fps in less than 100 yards. By the same token, my subsonic loads lose less than 40 fps in that first 100 yards And take almost 800 to drop 250 ish fps.

 

[JakeSCH]

I have the AB book, don’t have the app. I need another ap in my life like I need a kick to the nuts. Does it list the 124 6.5 Hammer Hunter and the 180 .308 HH?

The AB BC's in the sig2400 app are g7 of 0.209 for the .264 124 HH and g7 0.232 for the .308 181 HH...it does not have the 180 HH but I would expect to see that around 0.22

I am pretty convinced that they (at least use to, have not checked newer bullets) use to calculate BC's using actual drop distanced with sea level standard atmospheric conditions as inputs...

 

[SDHNTR]

The AB BC's in the sig2400 app are g7 of 0.209 for the .264 124 HH and g7 0.232 for the .308 181 HH...it does not have the 180 HH but I would expect to see that around 0.22

I am pretty convinced that they (at least use to, have not checked newer bullets) use to calculate BC's using actual drop distanced with sea level standard atmospheric conditions as inputs...

Thanks, that’s helpful.

 

[Gunaddict]

The 181 HH out of my 300 Rum drops are good from 500 yds to 735 yds. I used the BC off their website.

 

[JakeSCH]

The 181 HH out of my 300 Rum drops are good from 500 yds to 735 yds. I used the BC off their website.

Not surprised. That combo is likely only a 0.5 to .75 MOA error at that distance and can be less if you are pushing altitude or muzzle velocity.

 

[willfrye027]

On game, you’re not wrong. But I also like to shoot some steel at longer ranges for practice and I don’t like changing ammo.

Fair point. If I’m needing to true some data I start with a 10-20 round perfect 100 yard zero, known BC or known velocity, and record the actual mils required to reach 1000 yards or so. Then in your ballistic calculator adjust the velocity or the BC to true the data. I wouldn’t doubt BC needs to be changed a bit, but even 10-15fps of velocity discrepancy will cause quite a bit of vertical, and it takes a lot more BC for the same effect.

 

[SDHNTR]

Fair point. If I’m needing to true some data I start with a 10-20 round perfect 100 yard zero, known BC or known velocity, and record the actual mils required to reach 1000 yards or so. Then in your ballistic calculator adjust the velocity or the BC to true the data. I wouldn’t doubt BC needs to be changed a bit, but even 10-15fps of velocity discrepancy will cause quite a bit of vertical, and it takes a lot more BC for the same effect.

You’re right, but we’re also talking about some pretty darn big BC discrepancies here, from what’s published.

 

[willfrye027]

You’re right, but we’re also talking about some pretty darn big BC discrepancies here, from what’s published.

I guess I haven’t seen that, but also have not taken any hammers beyond about 700 yards. Personally I’ve never adjusted a BC for any bullet and usually find an error in my zero or muzzle velocity..but curious to see what you find

 

[doverpack12]

I’ve seen them very true (7mm 143 HH) and very inflated (308 152 gr SH) and everywhere in between on others.

Steve uses the 143 personally quite a bit or did in the beginning so that one could be better than many others for that reason.

 

[SouthPaw]

BC for most of the hammers I've shot/loaded for folks are ~.03 lower than advertised. It gets worse as you go down in caliber size, probably because the big hollow point negatively affects form factor more as you go down in size. Perhaps the tipped version will help, but I certainly wouldn't trust the advertised values.

 

[PLhunter]

With hammers we’ve noticed BC differences from rifle to rifle. Doesn’t make sense but it’s been the experience. Same loads all chrono’d etc…. Ultimately I just go off my own drop data when it comes to hammers and work up a BC that works for that. Has worked well taking game out to 600 yards. Beyond that I think you’ve got the wrong bullet.

 

[Team4LongGun]

I've heard/read this a few times now, and haven't experienced any BC's that were "loose" or incorrect. They have been spot on for me and shoot lights out.

Possible that like many things on the internet and even this forum, repeated comments may not reflect actual first hand usage data.

 

[Bluefish]

I've heard/read this a few times now, and haven't experienced any BC's that were "loose" or incorrect. They have been spot on for me and shoot lights out.

Possible that like many things on the internet and even this forum, repeated comments may not reflect actual first hand usage data.

The BC’s were way off on my 35 cal. .1 on one and .03 on the other. Now they shot well and I harvested a couple nice deer with them, so no complaints on performance. Ranges were sub 100 yards, so bc is not all that important. Showed me I needed to check speeds out to 100 yards and not just assume the mfg data was correct.