Share Your Hammer Loads

9.3x62
258 gr Shock Hammer
2000MR
CCI LR
COAL 3.30" - I have room to play with this. Measured OAL with Hornady tool and the old-fashioned way with a wooden dowel, both showed 3.38"
Norma twice fired brass and annealed.
Case H2O capacity avg 73.6 gr
MagnetoSpeed

58.0 gr - 2382
58.5 gr - 2375
59 - 2396
59.5 - 2408
60 -2422
60.5 - 2429
61 - 2450
61.5 - 2475
62 - 2467
62.5 - 2503

GRT seems to be particularly awful at predicting pressure/MV for Hammers. at 62.5 gr, predicted MV was 2694 fps, at 58 gr prediction was 2476; so anywhere from 100 to nearly 200 fps faster prediction than actual measured.

At no point in this ladder were there any sticky extractions or deformed primers

Note that at 3.30" COAL and 62.5 gr of 2000MR, I was right at the edge of having a compressed load. I have never been able to roll/taper crimp with a seating die without crushing the shoulder, so I always use LFCD and avoid compressed loads.

I think I'm going to shoot another 10 shot string and set the COAL to 3.34". I don't see any reason why I can't get 2600 fps out of this bullet with this rifle.

I did have a little drama with this yesterday. I had Gordy & Sons in Houston do some work on my 9.3, picked it up from them about a month ago and yesterday was my first trip to the range with it. I got everything set up, pull the trigger, and got nothing but a click. "OK," says I, "bad primer." Pull that one out, put in a new one. "Click" again, and again, and again on new cartridges.

While this is a Mauser action, Zastava has their own unique flavor of bolt design. Long story short, when the smith put the bolt back together, he stopped one full turn short of seating the primer all the way down, so when I pulled the trigger, it just barely came out of the hole, far enough to dent the primers, but not far enough to ignite them.

So I go back home and start looking at everything, and in disassembling/reassembling, I left the firing pin in the fired position and finally happened to notice what was going on. Unlike regular Mauser 98/96, which are easy to disassemble/reassemble, Zastavas have a LOT of spring tension once the first couple of threads of the bolt shroud are engaged in the bolt. It's easy to turn the shroud/firing pin down and think you're all the way down and still be one full turn short. So I loaded up an empty brass with a primer, went in my garage, and BANG. That was the issue. Every click this morning was followed by a loud bang.

Any other Zastava owners here who've never disassembled the bolt assembly and want to know how, ping me. It isn't THAT hard, but there is a little trick to it, and I can walk you through.
Daniel,if you don't mind, your barrel length and twist would complete your data🙂
 
Daniel,if you don't mind, your barrel length and twist would complete your data🙂

Not precisely sure since it's a European gun (and I've had the gun 6 or 7 years and don't precisely remember anymore), but about 22.5" and a 14 twist, whatever the metric near-equivalents are.

I like that rifle a lot, but the one thing I'd change is to a 12 twist. I know you can get Shilen/Shaw/et al in a 12 twist. If somebody is interested in doing a custom build, that's what I'd recommend.

Course, if you're gonna shoot Shock Hammers, 14 is probably well more than enough. I'm still thinking about 325 gr Oryx and 320 gr Woodleigh PPSN.
 
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Not precisely sure since it's a European gun (and I've had the gun 6 or 7 years and don't precisely remember anymore), but about 22.5" and a 14 twist, whatever the metric near-equivalents are.

I like that rifle a lot, but the one thing I'd change is to a 12 twist. I know you can get Shilen/Shaw/et al in a 12 twist. If somebody is interested in doing a custom build, that's what I'd recommend.

Course, if you're gonna shoot Shock Hammers, 14 is probably well more than enough. I'm still thinking about 325 gr Oryx and 320 gr Woodleigh PPSN.
If you’re looking to try 325gr Oryx’s try using RL17. My load for it is - 325 oryx @ 3.35”, GM215M, 60.5gr’s RL17- 2275fps. I started at 59.5gr - 2230fps to 62gr’s - 2330fps. I get good accuracy and it is a solid 200yd load. RL17 seems to be very popular when using heavy bullets in the 9.3x62.
 
7 SAUM
162gr HHT
20" Proof Carbon Barrel
1:8.4" Twist
COAL 2.960" (.030" off lands)
Powder: RL26
ADG Brass
CCI 200 LR Primers
No Crimp
75 Degrees F
Grains - Avg MV - Notes
60.0 - 2913 - SD 10, Grp .53", Mean Radius .197" - Clear winner
61.0 - 2934 - SD 9, Grp .8", Mean Radius .325"
62.0 - 2987 - SD 11.2, Grp >1.25"
63.0 - 3029 - Ejector swipe and slight heavy bolt.
 
7 SAUM
145gr HHT
20" Proof Carbon Barrel
1:8.4" Twist
COAL 2.275" (.020" off lands)
Powder: H4350
ADG Brass
CCI 200 LR Primers
No Crimp
75 Degrees F
Grains - Avg MV - Notes
57 - 3033 - SD 10.7 - grp > 1.5"
58 - 3065 - SD 7.6 - Grp 0.7" - mean Radius 0.2" - winner
59 - 3128 - SD 4.2 - grp .75" - Pressure (heavy bolt lift )
 
204 ruger
Nosler brass 1.845” case length
Cci 450
29.2 grains 8208xbr
31 grain hammer
2.145 oal
Lee factory crimp 1/2 turn
4169 average groups 1” at 225 yards off a lead sled out of a savage 25 with a 24” 1:12” twist barrel is what I came up with. Powder filled up to the bottom of the case neck but not quite compressed
 
Here is my 245SH load for the 35 Whelen. I get to pretty much the same place with 64.2gr of CFE223

35 Whelen
.358 245gr SH
2781 FPS
66.1gr 2000-MR
RP Brass
WLRM Primers
COL 3.280 (slightly compressed Load)
Light (1/4 turn) crimp
Ruger M77 African 24in Barrel
1/12 twist
This is my favorite out of everything I have done with the Hammer bullets so far. I have continued to tweak it. After more shooting I figured out the recipe was not as consistent as I would like. I changed the charge, seating depth slightly did not really help much. Switched to Norma brass from the R-P and wow, everything was pretty good but got better. I Did not measure case capacity but the Norma cases hold quite a bit more than the R-P cases in 35 Whelen.

Updated recipe:

35 Whelen
.358 245gr SH
2812 FPS (12 shots)
66.3gr 2000-MR
New Norma .35 Whelen Brass
WLRM Primers
COL 3.300
No Crimp
Ruger M77 24in Barrel
.8 average group size.

245gr Shock Hammer at over 2800....look out plains game!!
:p:ROFLMAO:
 
7 prc bergara carbon crest
1-8 twist 24" barrel
Peterson brass new
210m
155 HH
3.332 coal
Labradar

h4831sc
68-3190
69-3255
70-3294, slight ejector mark, no heavy bolt
71- 3320, defined ejector mark, no heavy bolt

Settled at 69.5 grn @3274 avg over 10 shots, 7 es
 
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Seekins havak element
300prc 1-10 twist, 22" barrel
New ADG
3.555 coal
168 HHT/CCI 250
Labradar

N565
75-2841
76-2878
77-2903
78-2974
79-3000
80-3028
81-didnt read
82-3133
83-3165
83.5- 3198
84-3169

Settled at 83 grn @ 3167, es of 5 over 10 shots
 
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