Hammer bullet shooters, how do you deal with BC?

[skeptic]

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.

This has been my experience as well. I love these bullets, they shoot well out of every gun I own. They just are limited by their BC. I bit the bullet the other day(*Pardon the pun) and "sacrificed" basically an entire box of 124HH out of my 6.5 PRC. I made it a point to shoot at ranges between 600 and 800, and the results were less than desirable.

What I have found with the hammers is that their drops are easy to calculate in calm conditions, but once you factor in some wind (even 5mph and under) they become unstable for lack of a better term. I don't know if it is the shape of the bullet or what, but they just don't seem to stabilize as well as other projectiles I have shot,

One of my other loads is a 140 Elite Hunter and that bullet is pretty much spot on via my Kestrel out to 1000 all day every day. Man, if I could find a bullet that seems to perform as well as the hammer and stabilize as well as the Elite Hunter I would be thrilled.

 

[Wrench]

I personally run velocity from 0-600 and bc 600 & beyond.

If my drops hit as predicted to 6, any deviation should be due to bc.

Also don't think of bc as a static constant. It is variable and changes with conditions such as twist and velocity.

 

[skeptic]

Also don't think of bc as a static constant. It is variable and changes with conditions such as twist and velocity

Correct. I think one often overlooked factor on drops is also wind. The wind direction as it relates to the target bearing can have much more impact on your drops than most people account for I think. This is where I see the biggest differences in Hammer Bullets vs a bullet that has a higher known Ballistic Coefficient.

My solvers that run Applied Ballistics (Kestrel, Kilo 2400) actually account for this. With my Hammer Bullets I can see as much as .2-.3 tenth difference in drops depending on wind direction. This only becomes exacerbated as the distances increase. What this means is at distance if you have your wind inputs incorrect that could make up to a .4-.6 difference in your correction in terms of not only drift, but drop.

It took me forever to figure this out as I was shooting one day because I was getting a different correction on my Kestrel vs my Kilo. I realized I had the wind direction plugged incorrectly in my Kilo, as my Kestrel took this into account in Live mode and the Kilo you have to manually plug in those data points. Hammers are just much less forgiving if you get this part wrong in your shooting solution.

I will echo some of the other comments though, there isn't a bullet out there I would chose over a Hammer from about 0-500 yards in reasonably calm conditions. As much as I like them, I just wouldn't consider them a "long range" bullet however in the "traditional' sense of the definition. I am interested to see if their tipped variety's handle this variable with more predictability.

 

[wyosam]

I’ve found listed BCs, or some minimal correction work fine for my use. But I also don’t shoot these beyond 600, and mostly way under that, since I use them only in hunting rifles and don’t have a need for long shots on game in the places I hunt.


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[Mule3006Elk]

I use Kestrel.
True velocity.
Done.

Very very easy!! I love the Kestrel TBO. Adjust for all environmental factors on the fly.
Makes it stupid simple.