The Un-official Rokslide Recovered Bullet Thread

[eoperator]

Been reading on the hammers, looks like a main feature of the design has less bearing surface fully engraved by the rifling because of the parabolic design from shoulder to boat tail. Meaning somewhere in the middle of the shank is the "high point" and it's tapering down to the nose into the boat tail from that point. Am I correct?

I believe all of the drive bands are the same diameter

 

[35WhelenAI]

If you were to work up a load for a 200 gr partition, for instance, would you come to a similar velocity or does the hammer have an advantage based on its design?

 

[TimberHunter]

If you were to work up a load for a 200 gr partition, for instance, would you come to a similar velocity or does the hammer have an advantage based on its design?

The hammers can typically be pushed much faster due to their designs.

I’ve heard great accuracy things about hammers, but not too impressed with the few recovered images I’ve seen. Think I’ll stick with the typical nosler/Hornady hunting style bullets


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[bbassi]

(In my best Monty Python impression) Now for something completely different...

All whitetails. The 2 on the right were this year. 95 yds through both shoulders (2 different deer). The partially opened one was a hard quartering to at about 80 yds. Hit him at the base of the neck and found the bullet under the hide on the opposite ham. Far left I don't recall the details.

 

[35WhelenAI]

Nice, that is some serious frontal area for the 20 ga Barnes.

I used to chase every last foot per second in my early reloading days. In the grand scheme traditional velocities seem to get the job done just as well as I get older and more critters under my belt.

However I have a 300 Win Mag I took the sheet metal filler out of the magazine box, longer follower and had the bolt stop shortened. It'll digest full magnum length cartridges. Has a tremendous throat in it as well by virtue of a little overzealous fire lapping. Barnes 180 grain XBT with a worked up to charge of IMR7828 seated to 3.600 overall length was my go-to load in the late 90's and early 2000's. Velocity was an easy chronographed 3000 fps. Took my first bull elk at 324 yds, nicest muley to date and a few white tails as well with that load. Hanging out around here has me mildly interested in working it into a longer range tool. Only downside, 1-10" rifling.

It is a great rifle however the 35 Whelen AI has taken my interest away for the past 19 years.

Back to the point at hand. What is your overall loaded cartridge length with the Hammer?

 

[eoperator]

Back to the point at hand. What is your overall loaded cartridge length with the Hammer?

If I had your 1:10 twist barrel I would be looking at 166 or 174 hammers

 

[35WhelenAI]

Thanks for that. Looks like your thought is with the slower twist, pushing the lighter bullet faster is the way to go. Is there a G1 ballistic coefficient for the Hammers? Most other bullets don't go to G7, specifically the Barnes TTSX or LRX I would be comparing the Hammer to.

 

[MightyMatt]

150 grain Winchester Deer Season XP out of a 350 Legend at 208 yards. Fired at a big bodied 3 1/3 year old 8point. Bullet punched thrive the near side shoulder blade and was found just under the hide on the off side behind the shoulder. Shot was slightly quartered to. Judging by the looks of the bullet i don't think 200 yards is the max capability of the round. It still had enough speed and energy to travel through the entire chest cavity and even shed its jacket. The plastic tip was found in the near side shoulder while processing.

 

[bbassi]

150 grain Winchester Deer Season XP out of a 350 Legend at 208 yards. Fired at a big bodied 3 1/3 year old 8point. Bullet punched thrive the near side shoulder blade and was found just under the hide on the off side behind the shoulder. Shot was slightly quartered to. Judging by the looks of the bullet i don't think 200 yards is the max capability of the round. It still had enough speed and energy to travel through the entire chest cavity and even shed its jacket. The plastic tip was found in the near side shoulder while processing. View attachment 359703View attachment 359704

That's really good to see. How far did he go after the shot and did you need a finisher? I'm having a 24" X-caliber barrel installed on a 700 as we speak and I can't wait to start load development. I'm hoping I can get 24-2500 FPS with 160s but we'll see.

 

[MightyMatt]

That's really good to see. How far did he go after the shot and did you need a finisher? I'm having a 24" X-caliber barrel installed on a 700 as we speak and I can't wait to start load development. I'm hoping I can get 24-2500 FPS with 160s but we'll see.

He made a 75 yard death sprint before he made a nose dive and flipped over mid sprint in the field. No finisher needed as he was just running on adrenaline. By the time he landed he was dead and the chest cavity was full of blood. I have shot probably 10 or so deer with it the last couple seasons. I was using it last season for doe tag filling to see how it performed and after a few I was confident it would handle the biggest bucks around. the first deer I shot was a mature doe at 170 yards and the bullet exited so I knew we had some energy to burn yet. The big 8 was the longest shot I have taken with it so far but I feel it still has energy to burn just based on my own experience with it. I don't think the Deer Season XP is the best bullet for shoulder shots at longer range but inside of 150 or less would get the job done. I finally found dies, bullets and powder for it to start working on pushing it a bit more. I have 300+ pieces of Winchester brass both fired and still loaded but picked up 200 pieces of Starline brass to load. I have 400 of the Hornady 165 gr. FTX bullets to load (hopefully the shoot well) and I have 4#s of Lil Gun, a pound of Win 296, a couple pounds of Power Pro 300 MP, a couple pounds of Accurate No.9, a pound of Alliant2400, and a couple pounds of H110. I'm hoping to push the Hornady's as fast as the Deer Season XP 150's if it is still within a safe margin and then I'll have to figure out the drop in relation to the turret I have that is made to work with the 150's. If its too much of a pain I will just get the data to Leupold and have a new turret made to work with the 165's. All in all I have been very impressed with the little cartridge. Sure it doesn't knock them off their feet like the bushmaster or bigger rounds but if I put a round in the rib cage I know I will have a dead deer laying on the ground within less than a hundred yards or so. I really wish Michigan DNR would get in touch with one of the ballistics labs or something and just leave it at straight wall cartridge without all the dumb Bullet diameter/case length stupidity. I have a couple of old Marlin guide guns in 450 Marlin and 45/70 that are not any more dangerous to use in the southern Michigan straight wall zones. I'm sure there are lots of guys with old lever guns that they would love to dust off and take afield to hunt with. They spend millions on biologist to study everything else but when it comes to making rules on caliber they just pull up a google search on range of a cartridge and rubber stamp it as law. Sorry about the side rant. Anyway I think the little 350 is a really sweet spot to be as far as a new cartridge goes. It is a big step up from the 223 as far as having a little more room for error and soft recoiling enough for anyone to use. I might post my findings in the reloading section in the spring when I get started on working on it.

 

[83cj-7]

My first ABLR failure x2. Found these on the ground where I tried to shoot a tough WV doe. They clearly bounced off!






Actually I found them under my steel target today. Fired from a 280 at 450 yards!

 

[jwatts]

Here's one for everybody. It wasn't recovered from a deer I shot, but rather one I tracked for a guy. The best that we can figure is the deer was shot through the base of the antler. It exhibited all of the signs of a spinal shock (temporary paralysis making the hunter think it dropped dead, gradually regaining usage of the extremities and dragging itself off, and bedding back up just past the shot site to recover and figure out what the hell happened). After the hunter told me how the deer reacted I automatically assumed high shoulder and above the spine, or a miffed neck shot. I asked if he had any sign of a hit (blood or hair) and he said all he had was the bullet laying on the ground. I couldn't believe it and had to see for myself. Sure enough there was a 150gr SST shot from a 30-06 laying on the ground, the core and jacket were separated and lying next to each other not a foot or so from where the deer was standing. My dog trailed about 100yd until we came up on the deer in a bed very much alive. There was no sign of injury in the deer's bed. No blood, no hair, nothing.

 

[lyle_destroys]

Here's one for everybody. It wasn't recovered from a deer I shot, but rather one I tracked for a guy. The best that we can figure is the deer was shot through the base of the antler. It exhibited all of the signs of a spinal shock (temporary paralysis making the hunter think it dropped dead, gradually regaining usage of the extremities and dragging itself off, and bedding back up just past the shot site to recover and figure out what the hell happened). After the hunter told me how the deer reacted I automatically assumed high shoulder and above the spine, or a miffed neck shot. I asked if he had any sign of a hit (blood or hair) and he said all he had was the bullet laying on the ground. I couldn't believe it and had to see for myself. Sure enough there was a 150gr SST shot from a 30-06 laying on the ground, the core and jacket were separated and lying next to each other not a foot or so from where the deer was standing. My dog trailed about 100yd until we came up on the deer in a bed very much alive. There was no sign of injury in the deer's bed. No blood, no hair, nothing.

View attachment 360235

Now that's a cool story