"Thanks.

Regarding the CCW,
My main defensive round is subsonic 9mm 147gr subsonic (regular pressure).
Looks like this what most people settle on as a balance between effectiveness and safety.

If my data is correct, those rounds should be ~141dB.
A few of those should not cause any severe permanent damage.

My current secondary (suppressed subsonic 300blk 200gr) should be around ~130dB and I was hoping to retire it in favor of 300hamr while keeping it at least as "hearing safe" as 9mm."

If you want a short barrel reasonably quiet weapon of a rifle caliber then the 300 Blackout is about your only option. I've shot a few subsonic rounds out of other rifle calibers (in fact my 5.56 subs are fun to play with even though they have the trajectory of a rock) but I've yet to find one that will cycle the action. I'm sure if you played with it long enough you could come up with a subsonic round for the Ham'r but it would be a single shot requiring you to manually cycle the action so my question is why? I think a better option would be a subsonic suppressed pistol round and my first choice would be a 9mm and second choice a 45 ACP...and I would probably choose either one of those over the Blackout because of superior bullet choices for terminal performance.

Does anyone have chrono numbers on the Sierra 135gr HP out of an 11.3" and/or 8" bbl? It may have been previously posted and I didn't capture it.

I am probably going to order a barrel here in the next couple of days.

Everyone is talking a lot about pig bullets, and yes I will shoot a lot of pigs with it. But I also shoot a pretty fair number of coyotes as well. What are some of the bullets that tend to work very well for both? I would think staying down on the lighter end would be best for a dual use scenario? Maybe 125 TNT?

We've shot thousands of hogs with the TNT. It's awfully hard on coyotes too.

I've shot several with each 110vmax, 110CC, 125TNT, 150 speer #2022, 135 FTX, but the best performer I feel that I have used was 125gr pro hunter. 110vmax was the absolute most destructive by far. Kills em dead but is not at all what would be considered fur friendly.

Quick question from a Northern boy in regards to 135 FXT vs 150 SST. Seeing as our deer are a little larger than deer in the south but not as tough as hogs. I like a bullet that always leaves an exit wound. I really like the ballistics of the 150 but wonder how they would perform in a 1:13 twist in 30 degree weather. Ordered a bunch of FXTs always looking for the best I guess.

Andy, welcome to the forum, you will find there are a bunch of good people here

Between my hunting buddy Jeremy and I we've successfully shot the following with the 135FTX and penetration wasn't an issue: Addax, Aoudad, Oryx, TX deer, Waterbuck and big hogs. I think they are fine for any deer. The 135FTX is one of the best all around bullet choices and are currently available so my advise is to stock up !!!

The 1-13 twist will stabilize any bullet that's remotely suitable for the HAM'R well down below 0

Thanks Bill, made a mistake I have the 1:15 twist barrel. From the 86 pages that I have read it doesn't sound like the 135 will be an issue. Wasn't able to get out with it this deer season but I think it will be my go to next year. My 6.8 maybe looking for a new home.

After hunting with the HAM'R and witnessing it's success this year, I ran into something I hadn't dealt with before. Prior to building my HAM'R I had always hunted with bolt or lever guns. When climbing in/out of stands and on/off quads, I noticed that the round I had been putting back on the top of my magazine seemed to be growing in comparison to the others in the mag.

I had heard of this phenomenon before, but never actually experienced it myself until rechambering the same round a few times. The round was a 130gr Hot Cor stuffed into an already fire formed Lake City '16 case and all were prepped in RCBS dies bought from WC.

Does anyone have any suggestions on ways to increase neck tension or prevent the bullet jump that seems to be happening? I'd prefer to avoid crimping if possible since the cannelure groove doesn't line up well with HAM'R brass.

Bushing type resizing dies can get you more neck tension. For ARs I know some very experienced shooters that say .004 t0 .005 inch smaller diameter than bullet stops that problem or at least slows it down a bit. I have done it by reducing the diameter of the expander ball in RCBS and Hornady dies.

Welcome to the world of autoloaders where All ammunition should be crimped at least modestly to prevent exactly what you're experiencing. You don't need to line the crimp up with the cannelure.

If the round grows it can also allow bullet setback. A growing round may end up getting the bullet stuck in the chamber and making a mess when the powder spills. A round that gets setback from loose neck tension, recoil while in the mag, or being repeated seated etc causes an extreme pressure spike that often ballistically disassembles the gun.

Reduce the diameter of the expander ball and taper crimp with a .300 Blackout TC die will solve this problem. The round nose 130gr HHC we sell has the crimp groove in the correct location for crimping.

Thanks Mr. Wilson, Dzhitshard, kmon11

I’m getting roughly .0025 neck tension with my RCBS dies right now. Would you suggest Emory cloth or 400 grit sand paper for taking the expander ball down in a drill press?

Mr. Wilson, I’ve not yet been involved with crimping rifle rounds. How much crimp using the 300 blk TC die is “enough” and do we have a good way to measure that repeatably?

Many thanks again guys. I’ve learned more from this thread and the participants than I could have ever hoped.

Drill press, you want it to stay round taking material off equally all the way around.

The ones I have done I used some 400 then 800 grit sane paper, made it .002 smaller with a slicker finish than it had when new.

For what it is worth,,,,,,
Don't forget to double check the overall length of your cases often. That alone will vary the amount of crimp more than anything else. I keep my case trimmer set up (it indexes off of the shoulder) and hit my cases every few loadings. I have also noticed that when I am loading a compressed load (normal when using CFE-BLK) I get better results when I run the case through the seating die 2 or 3 times before advancing to the crimp die. A simple up-down, up-down motion will do wonders for keep OAL consistent.

Now with that said,,,,,
The above method is used when I am loading for the best accuracy and for my "hunting" rounds. For bulk loading for my "OH SH......" stash I just run everything through using a dillon progressive. I may give up 1/4 to 1/2 MOA of accuracy but in the real world, that really doesn't matter.

As has been said, this is just life with semi auto's. Not that we should tolerate it but that bullet drift is an issue. I went through this a few years ago with my 300 BLK AR. Here were my findings...

Reduce the size of the expander ball as explained in this thread.

Remove all lubricants from inside the case neck and on the bullet. Alcohol will work but Acetone is better. The dust from walnut pieces from the tumbler serves as a lubricant for this example.

The Lee Factory crimp is near magic to minimize bullets pulling out. I found it to be near magic because it would still allow up to .007" of the bullet to pull out (from multiple dropping of the BCG loading the ammo). At about .007" of the bullet pulling out the FC would "take up" and the load would quit growing.

The FC works well and removes the need for a factory crimp groove as it makes its own. But IME the full magic is the FC die and a factory crimp grove where it belongs for the intended cartridge. It covers all the bases and Wilson Combat is smart enough to make their bullets just right for us.

Of course some brass will hold a bullet tighter than others. Some hold the bullet so tightly the problem simply does not exist and some will not allow you to ever totally get away from the problem. Once you get a handle on the problem and if you don't drop the BCG on the specific round more than a couple times you have mostly solved the problem. BTW.... the 300 Ham'r has given me a LOT less trouble with bullets pulling out than the 300 BLK has.

I use a WFT that’s for 7.62x40WT and it works perfect for the HAM’R as it index’s on the shoulder too. I run my brass through after each firing. I’m even planning to try out my new annealeeze that Santa delivered for forming and sizing.

I also share your seating method. I give a quarter turn before rerunning the round through seating. This keeps my cbto within a couple thousandths. I’ve yet to take the full leap like you to bulk loading on my Dillon but I’d sure like to.


Big Sam, I’ve never tried the FCD. I was warned as a youngster not to deform bullets intentionally as it would hurt accuracy. I can’t claim to have tested that though. I do agree that crimping into a proper crimp groove is well worth investigating and I will be reducing my expander ball.

Lapappy,

Yeah, lots of people love the FCD and lots of people hate it. I use it on everything. I'm far more concerned about keeping the bullet in place and enhancing ignition than on the last bit of accuracy. Plus it is nice to not have to worry about where the factory put the cannelure. But to be fair, if I get 1 MOA 5 shot groups then I no longer seek greater accuracy (lack of skill on my part).

Some years ago, Speer told people not to use the Lee FCD with their bullets. Lee made a joke of it and said to use it on everybody else's bullets to get great results.

I can't believe you guys are having trouble with neck tension. I have just the opposite issue. I have to chamfer the inside of the case neck to the point you could darn near shave with it to avoid crushing the case neck with flat base bullets. I've also found that if you get an uncooperative one it helps to gently tap the round against the seating die until the bullet goes in the neck. I'm also a half turn seat twice guy but that's just the way I was taught...haven't taken any measurements to see if it really makes a difference or not. I'm more interested in what the holes in the paper look like than wasting time with neck thickness, bullet runout, and those kind of things.

Lapappy
I must admit that even when I use my Dillon for bulk loading, I still skip the sizing on the first step. I size one case at a time on my RCBS and then clean the cases before using the Dillon. I am paranoid about case lube getting inside the case and reaching the powder. But I still use that station for priming.

Here's the procedure that works for me.....

Size and deprime cases on a single stage press (I've had good luck with both Lee and RCBS dies, I make sure my expander ball diameter is around .305")
Clean lube off
Load on a Dillon 550 using a Lee universal case mouth expander die and a Redding .300BLK taper crimp die (see photo below)

If loading new cases I don't size before loading.

Your ball is too small. pun intended.lol

In all seriousness if my load process was slowed down like that I'd replace the sizing ball and start again. Besides the time sink I couldn't trust that Id end up with a reliable crimp of any type if the edge of the case mount was beveled like that.

I have bought the taper crimp die but have settled on the factory crimp die for consistency across all my loads. A couple of which are producing regular results from the bench under .75" & nothing over 1.25" (ftx that I can't make a dot killer load with but it's plenty good for 4 legged things inside 250yds)

ROFL...yep I believe you found my problem the dreaded Small Ball Syndrome!

I'm using the RCBS die set and not crimping at all. I meant to call them today and see if that die set does indeed do a crimp. It feels like it because when you screw the seating die down it does bump up against the case mouth. Does anyone use the RCBS die set to crimp their Ham'r loads and if so how far do you screw the die in once it hits the case mouth?

Depending upon the reloading press that you are using (if you have an extra station) there is also the option to use Neck Expander Die/Mandrel in place of the factory expander ball. There are several companies, such as 21st Century Innovation, that offer neck expander mandrels in .001" increments so that you can really dial-in specific to your needs.

Aside from crimping, if you have enough neck tension (.004") then you don't need to crimp... in theory. To make this work you definitely need to chamfer the case mouth to ease in the flat based bullets. I need to do some testing... waiting on a new trimmer.

I use a Forster case trimmer and when I bought the 30 caliber pilot I noticed they now offer a new cutter that also chamfers both the outside and inside as the case is trimmed. If it works as advertised would be a real time saver.