Vince’s 5: Made A New Hammer Believer

OutdoorEdventure

OutdoorEdventure

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Vince went on a guided high-fence cow elk hunt. He brought a 7mm PRC using 145gr Hammer HHT™ and a 280AI using 140 Absolute Hammer™. A total of 5 elk were shot between 125-220 yards, 4 with the 7mm PRC and 1 with the 280AI.
Here’s Vince’s terminal performance report: “The 145HHT took 4 elk, 3 one-shot kills, one was a shoulder shot, so the hunter sent another and double-lunged it. All 5 shots were pass-through, including the shoulder shot, with the lungs turned to jelly. Quick kills, very impressive. The 280AI 140 Absolute Hammer performed perfectly. One-shot double-lunged, also a complete pass-through.”
Vince also shared, “The guide asked what I was shooting at the beginning and gave me an ‘ok, hope it works’ comment when I said 140, 145 grain bullets. After skinning the five elk and viewing the results of both bullets, he said, ‘you could tune that round down a little if you wanted to.’ I had to laugh.”
Thanks, Vince, for sharing your hunt and field report.
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Muddyboots said:
The lack of ballistic understanding is very deep in outfitting. Seriously what do you think I will go thru telling guide I am shooting a .270 Win? 🤮
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Guides are variable. I've hunted with a couple of brothers 1) Is very studious about his ammo, 2) Has been known to use left over client ammo found underneath the truck seat. Both are successful in their own hunting, and getting game for clients.

Most are customer service oriented, just want you happy, and factor in cartridge choices as another piece of the puzzle.
 
Many years ago I gave an outfitter a chart of most common cartridges with typical weighted bullets along with drops out to 500. If you look at a chart like this, all the cartridge drops are "identical" within hunting conditions. BDC scopes are designed on same premise which I explained to him. He was shocked at the commonality of these cartridges! He laminated chart onto 3x5 cards for his guides as reminder for clients who might be too excited to recall or even forget their own.

And yes he was really good at CS and making sure clients got what he stated, good horses and tack, good campsites, big cots, nice cot pads, nice tents, and always good cook! Decent elk hunting on San Juan mtns.

He sold out couple years back and went to FL! Interestingly, I became good friends with one of the guides years ago and stay in touch.
 
These guides base their opinion on experience with hunters wounding animals and the very hard work that follows having to track that animal. They base their opinion on cartridges and bullet weights without consideration of the terminal performance associated with the actual bullet being used. Their experience is not wrong, they just don't fully understand why the last train wreck happened. Their solution is bigger cartridges with bigger bullets in order to overcome poor bullet performance. I love hearing the stories of the anxiety of the guide when he has a hunter using Hammers that are 30gr lighter than traditional and then in the end wants to know what he is shooting and how he can get some!
 
Steve Davis said:
These guides base their opinion on experience with hunters wounding animals and the very hard work that follows having to track that animal. They base their opinion on cartridges and bullet weights without consideration of the terminal performance associated with the actual bullet being used. Their experience is not wrong, they just don't fully understand why the last train wreck happened. Their solution is bigger cartridges with bigger bullets in order to overcome poor bullet performance. I love hearing the stories of the anxiety of the guide when he has a hunter using Hammers that are 30gr lighter than traditional and then in the end wants to know what he is shooting and how he can get some!
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My last outfitter had .30 cal minimum! Didn't even want 7MM!
 
Had an old time outfitter tell me several years ago that 7mm was the elk “woundinist” caliber he ever saw. Said he would rather have a guy show up with a .270 because at least they knew how to shoot. He said 7 mag guys were compensating for poor shooting skills with a magnum cartridge.
 
The first rifle I ever big game hunted with was a Ruger M77 Mk1. Killed a lot of deer, lope and one bull elk with it. Most DRT. I'm a shoulder shooter. Then I bought a Ruger M77 Mk2 stainless. Killed 3 bull's and I don't know how many deer and lope with it. I still have it but bought a 300 Rum after that. Killed a lot of the same with it. Been using different rifles lately in 300 WM , 6.5 PRC and 257 Bee mostly.
In 2022 my good buddy WYO300WN used my Ruger 7 Mag to kill a cow elk, muley buck, whitetail buck ,two whitetail does and 2 lope does All DRT. I was glad to see it get some use. I hadn't shot it in 10 years.
 
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