Welcome to the forum

Maybe once one of the major ammo and gun companies begin mfg of 300 HAM'R a dedicated MIGHT be something to consider, in the meantime this thread is going to have to do.

As to plated bullets, I tried the Berry 150gr and they shot OK at 2000fps, but not great and the price isn't really much less than the 110gr Hornady SP, 125gr Speer TNT or 130gr Speer HP all of which shoot very well. Hornady just came out with a 125gr FMJ BT #30196 that shoots good and is priced right. Loaded to 2.255" over 23.5gr of SW SOCOM for 2400fps from a 16" bbl they shoot very well and function great.

Mr. Wilson,
It is awesome to have direct contact with the designer of a product and be able to pick his brain about it. A huge thank you goes out for taking the time to interact with us on this forum. That demonstrates your sincerity and genuine pride in your products and really lays the foundation for customer loyalty.

I have read all 37 (and counting) pages of this thread, watched all available videos, and read any review I could find regarding the 300 Ham’r and have a question:

I mainly hunt whitetail and have the occasional encounter with black bear and coyotes in Virginia. I hunt in smaller box-like homemade stands and travel in a UTV(John Deere Gator.) These situations make my longer bolt guns cumbersome, so I love the maneuverability of a shorter barrel. Shots are usually around 50-100 yards, but occasionally I get the chance at a 200-250yd shot.

Last year I hunted with a 12” 6.5 Grendel and loved the maneuverability, but after trailing a buck a half a mile on a work night into the neighbor’s thicket, I began seeking better terminal performance.

In my hunting situation if you were forced to choose one 300 Ham’r setup, what would you do?
1) 16” barrel in 1:15 twist using 130 hot cor or 135 gr Ham’r bonded?
2) 18” barrel and use 150 SST or 150 BTSP?
3) Wait for your production run of the 16” in 1:13 twist and use 130’s or 150gr bullets?
4) 14.7” barrel or are we losing too much performance by then for hunting purposes?

It seems like you are moving towards the 150gr selections for your hunting needs and am wondering if in my situation I should do the same.
Thanks for your input.

First off tks for the kind words, but overall you'll find people on this forum to be a very respectful and courteous group, unlike many of the dedicated AR forums........

First question is do you ever plan to put a suppressor on the rifle? If so I'd lean toward a 16" bbl. If not then absolutely go with a 18" for the extra velocity. Basically a 18" with no muzzle device is the same length as a 16" with a flashider/brake. I think you give up approx 50yd of range by going 14.7" vs 16" so it wouldn't be my choice for a hunting rifle.

As to bullet selection, that's a very hard ? since I can't decide myself which one or ones I like the best. The problem is we have too many good choices, especially for deer!!! However with the potential for bear you basically have the same dilemma I have, in your case what if a 300-400# bear shows up, in my case what if I get a chance of a 300-400# tough boar hog. In either case we want good penetration and terminal bullet performance. This is why I've kinda gravitated toward 150gr and use them exclusively in my night hunting rifle with thermal. I like the extra margin for error and rarely shoot past 125yds so long range trajectory or retained velocity isn't an issue.

All this being said I like all of the following bullets for hog/deer hunting and wouldn't hesitate to put any of them into a black bear:
130 SPEER HAM'R HOT-COR
135 SPEER HAM'R BONDED
135 HORNADY FTX (overall the most accurate of these)
150 HORNADY SST
150 SPEER BTSP (normally the second most accurate and the flattest shooting due to the high BC)
150 SPEER GOLD DOT (BLACKOUT VERSION)

Come deer season in Oct I'll have my day rifle loaded with the 135FTX

If being asked that old ? of "if you could only have one?", I answer like this (subject to change)......... For deer or hogs or anything under 400# I'd go with the 150BTSP, for 400#+ I'd go with the Gold Dot for the deep penetration, weight retention and controlled expansion. I buy the Speer 150BTSP in OEM case qty of 2300 and keep my Dillon 750 set-up for to load this bullet all the time, so you might say it's my favorite............. Nothing in TX except Nilgai that I won't hunt with it.

As to twist rate, the 1-15 will shoot any of the above well with no stability issues unless your using a bbl length under 16" and the temp is sub zero.

ParkerVA

Your hunting sounds exactly like mine right below you in NC. This past season I hunted with both a 16" and a 18" 300 HAM'R. In my stand I couldn't tell the difference between how the two handled. I ended up with a young 8 pt. taken in Fancy Gap VA and a larger 8 pt.on my property in Western NC.

Both were taken with the 130 gr. HotCore and I consider that bullet as a true "killer." But this summer I do plan to test a few of the heavier loads just for the fun of it.
As for the occasional black bear?? This one dropped in its tracks.

150gr SST from 125 yards. It did a great job.

Based on Wilson’s comments I bought 135gr FTX, 135gr HB and 150gr BTSP ammo. The middle target is the 135gr FTX, top left is 135gr HB and the left targets are the 150gr BTSP. I think I will go with the 135gr ammo for deer season!

Every bbl has their preferences, looks like yours likes the two 135gr loads pretty good

Did you find the point of impact was very close between all the rounds? I've found most are within an inch windage-wise and then of course the heavier bullets have lower POI the farther out your target is.

The rifle is sighted in for 150gr ammo. The 135gr looks to be an inch high at 100 yards. This works for my type of hunting. I really like all the different ammo for this rifle. The 110gr CC groups well but a little too much off to the right. I would adjust if I were to hunt with it. Very pleased with the 135gr ammo!

I just received an email that 11.3" Ham'r barrels are in stock. But it looks like they're still 1-15 twist? I'm not worried about sub zero temperatures necessarily but you never know when you might need to drop the Ham'r on something.

i'll have to agree, and yes, much appreciated

there should be some award for reading all 37 pages... and not suffering brain damage!!

and now... back to the movies...

Djones with some impressive shooting. Those Russians are good at what they do

I just checked and the ones in-stock now are from a run of 1-15 that was already in process when we decided to switch to 1-13 and a run of 1-13 is now in process but probably 4 weeks from completion.

There is no issue with bullet stability with a 1-15 twist unless your shooting the longest 150gr bullets in temps well below 0 and even then well past the effective range. Never had an issue with mine, but then being a Texan anything below freezing is too cold for me

DJ, you've outdone yourself on this one, maybe movie production is in your future.........

Gotcha. It's not a deal breaker. I went ahead and ordered the 1-15 twist 11.3" Barrel for my pistol build. I've got some Lake City brass coming to convert to Ham'r brass as it's pretty hard to get new Ham'r brass right now.

Any of you local guys who are reloading for 300 Ham'R - send me a PM, I have 7 1/2 lbs of Shooters World Blackout powder that should work well for this cartridge.

I don't see any load data for it but I'm sure it will help the community out once you figure out the load by working up properly.

It's supposed to burn clean and carry good velocity, dunno maybe Mr. Wilson has tried it and can impart some guidance.

Either way this powder is wonderfully inexpensive too considering the price of AA1680 as comparison....

PP - I’ll let someone who is much closer than me try it but I do have a question....what does that powder look like? Is it extruded or does it have the consistency of sand or sugar? I ask because I’m using CFE BLK and it seems to be great powder but loading it is miserable....it gets everywhere. I’d like to try something with a bigger profile that isn’t near as messy. There was a guy on long range hunting that was seeing some promise from VV N120 but I’ve not seen his final results accuracy wise.

Thanks that helped...just by looking at your pictures...CFE BLK is 1/2 the size of CFE223.

" I've got some Lake City brass coming to convert to Ham'r brass as it's pretty hard to get new Ham'r brass right now."

I know, what's up with this fact? Is Starline retooling to match up with the sig or just falling behind?

My guess is that manufacturers have had such an increase on demand for more popular cartridges, such as .223/5.56, .308, et cetera, that they've devoted more time and materials to those than the lesser used cartridges. I can't speak to what Wilson Combat's experiencing but I would imagine that their ammunition sales have gone up exponentially and they have to use what cases they are getting in to load up ammo.

Blackout is very similar to A1680, but data is not interchangeable.

Both Sig and Starline are running cases right now, we are supposed to get a shipment from Sig today. From what I'm told both are running large qty so I expect cases to be easily available starting next week. I don't know if Starline made any spec changes.

For those that are converting 5.56 brass: What does your process look like? Are you cutting brass down before or after forming? Annealing? Using an expander die or just full length sizing?

The boys I hunt/shoot with and myself have formed close to 10,000 cases using surplus and new Lake City brass. We cut it to 1.63" using a small Harbor Freight chop saw. and then run it through a RCBS full length sizing die on a single stage press to expand it to .30 caliber. We give it a final trim using a Giraud trimmer if needed. From there we go to the loading process on a Dillon 550. The forming isn't the most exciting part of reloading but you only have to do it once.
With 3-4 of use taking part it really isn't that bad and you would be surprised at how many rounds you can turn out in a weekend. The only lag is the cleaning process to get the lube off between forming and final loading.

The hardest part of the reloading process is having to listen to Benny (our designated chop saw operator) tell us about taking his eight pointer with the HAM'R this past hunting season, over and over again. But he is probably on another forum this morning complaining about having to listen to me recounting the back to back doubles I made hunting hogs.