Tip Deformation

C

clem

Member
Has anyone had any experience with HHT tips deforming in the mag? I just did a round of load development with my 7SAUM and was getting some pretty mediocre group sizes when I hit pressure and dumped the rest of the rounds in my mag to find that the tips had pretty substantially deformed due to recoil.

Curious if anyone has experienced this, found a way around this, or if maybe my groups aren't the result of the tips. 1000005393.jpg
 
@clem

I just worked up a load for a 7saum and the 118hht. I loaded all three rounds for groups in the mag. Accuracy was great but I didn’t check the tips while shooting. I have checked before in other rifles to see if it might be an issue because the tip is on the soft side and these rifles had more recoil.

I did bend the tip on one loading into a mag but it was the very tip. It was a dummy round that I had found the lands with. I stuck it in the mag to see if I had any room but I didn’t.

We did hunt with the HHTs in a couple of rifles this year. I check for tip damage after the hunt. I’ve found more than one HH (not HHT) that had nose damage from rough handling while hunting. I did not see any damage to the tips from being loaded, unloaded or in the mag.

Also to note, I can not load any of the hammers as long as you, in the saum, without being in the lands. This rifle has a standard throat.

I’ll keep an eye on them.
Kneedeep
 
I have several of my 30 cal 154 HHT'S looking like the picture of deformed tips after getting back from hunting. Really not sure how it happened, as I didn't chamber a bunch of rounds, so it must have been just typical hunting wear and tear. I've wondered how it will affect their accuracy - at first I thought the tip was an improvement to durability, but now I'm starting to wonder...
 
joevh said:
I have several of my 30 cal 154 HHT'S looking like the picture of deformed tips after getting back from hunting. Really not sure how it happened, as I didn't chamber a bunch of rounds, so it must have been just typical hunting wear and tear. I've wondered how it will affect their accuracy - at first I thought the tip was an improvement to durability, but now I'm starting to wonder...
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It definitely protects the edge/meplat of the hollowpoint, so its doing its job. I dont know why tips are getting damaged in magazines from normal use assuming not on the very edge of fitting in the magazine during recoil.

Im not concerned about it unless it affects accuracy?
 
Accuracy is the big question. Im not a long range shooter so cant say, but my guess is it doesn't affect accuracy under 300yds.
I wonder if filing down the damage with a fingernail file would alleviate any potential accuracy issues?
 
jrebel said:
I have not seen anything like this in my 300 wsm using the 168 grain HHT. I have hunted with them, fired the rifle and then taken the leftover rounds out and never seen this with mine.
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There might be something to the way someone inserts them into a magazine accidentally swiping the tip going in, but I dont see how recoil would slam a tip into the mag wall.

I just did a drop test from 2 feet to simulate worst case in the field onto the nose and the tip badly deforms plus is now crooked. I tested some TTSX loads the same and damage was slightly less but their tips are not even tangent with their ogives in the first place.
The Hammer tips are definitely softer, so they will be more prone to point damage in handling possibly including mag insertion. Thats my guess whats happening. My guess is a fingernail file will take care of any tip accuracy issues, (I'll leave the range test session to others).
1705811833224.png
 
Gday
I’ve had plenty of tips deform accuracy wise I’ll leave that to the bug hole shooters to tell us how much difference but minimal imo
I know on initial testing of the prototypes we done some really bad things to those tips & didn’t see a issue with accuracy ( I’ll leave joes centremass out of it lol )

Then when I went to king island recently I had some tips deform pretty bad yet I couldn’t tell any difference on a loss of accuracy ( I was more concerned with not straight pills in the case neck forgot what it’s called as brain dead @ moment)
& I knew when I was off @ the squeeze of the shot not man why didn’t that hit


joevh said:
I have several of my 30 cal 154 HHT'S looking like the picture of deformed tips after getting back from hunting. Really not sure how it happened, as I didn't chamber a bunch of rounds, so it must have been just typical hunting wear and tear. I've wondered how it will affect their accuracy - at first I thought the tip was an improvement to durability, but now I'm starting to wonder...
Click to expand...
Gday joevh
Your post has me ticking a bit
So what was your process of storage & transport of the bullets to & from hunting

Also is there anyway your bullets got in a higher than normal temp as those tips are a pretty low temp tip
Melting point vrs a gooey point im unsure of the temperature difference between those 2 points

Cheers
 
Inside 3-400 yards, you won’t notice a decrease in hunting accuracy. If you’re shooting 1/4 moa groups on paper, maybe a little. Next time you’re at the range, do a little testing with side cutters. They will majorly deform a tip (and shorten it enough for a magazine)
Back in the day, we tested balistic tips in this way. 3/4 moa RUMs didn’t see any change out 400 yards, between pristine tips and a plethora of damaged, mashed, and broke off tips. IMG_6901.jpeg
Picture reference for any geographically challenged person that may have a different name for them. 😉
 
JesseJ said:
Inside 3-400 yards, you won’t notice a decrease in hunting accuracy. If you’re shooting 1/4 moa groups on paper, maybe a little. Next time you’re at the range, do a little testing with side cutters. They will majorly deform a tip (and shorten it enough for a magazine)
Back in the day, we tested balistic tips in this way. 3/4 moa RUMs didn’t see any change out 400 yards, between pristine tips and a plethora of damaged, mashed, and broke off tips. View attachment 5231
Picture reference for any geographically challenged person that may have a different name for them. 😉
Click to expand...
Have you proven the age old doctrine of "Just the Tip" can't get a guy in trouble? :ROFLMAO:
 
Hmm, I wonder if a pointed tip is even necessary. A blunt tip would still prevent the deformation of the copper, allow for longer COL, and be less prone to damage. Maybe the polymer tips should just taper to a flat surface somewhere between where they enter the bullet and the current pointed end?
 
spokenfly said:
Hmm, I wonder if a pointed tip is even necessary. A blunt tip would still prevent the deformation of the copper, allow for longer COL, and be less prone to damage. Maybe the polymer tips should just taper to a flat surface somewhere between where they enter the bullet and the current pointed end?
Click to expand...
Daggum genius idea! Trapezoidal

A Hammerhead could make his own blunt tips via the advice from JesseJ
 
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