Airborne Falcon
02-26-2021, 02:03 PM
SIAP ... I did a search and didn't find anything on the topic although I am sure it has already been discussed somewhere around here, somewhere.
So this Federal Hammerdown ammo specifically designed for levergun/revolver combos ... has anyone tried it yet and, if so, what's your takeaway?
Their claim is that it performs equally well in leverguns AND revolvers which has long been a bugaboo for a lot of combo enthusiasts. Either you load for great pistol performance or you load for great rifle performance but finding one load, one pill, that works well and performs well (penetration and expansion) in both platforms has been the holy grail of sorts.
Federal's Hammerdown offerings are supposed to be the answer some of us have been looking for. Me personally ... I am most interested in 44 Mag and 357 Mag but they do offer it in other calibers.
Based upon the videos I have watched and from what I've been able to read about the design and performance standards they achieved it would appear that penetration is consistent and expansion is optimum out of both leverguns and revolvers.
Amazingly, if what is being published and posted is accurate and factual, performance in terms of penetration and expansion is darn near identical no-matter the platform ... rifle/carbine or pistol. In my mind that almost defies the law of ballistic physics ... which immediately makes me question some of the claims.
Yet the videos of these new loads being sent into both ballistic gel and the clear stuff seem to validate Federal's claims.
With all of that stated it is only a matter of time before we begin to endeavor to come-up with a recipe that does the same ... yet I suspect that will not happen until the proprietary pills and propellant are made available to the public which ... is likely never going to be allowed by Federal.
I've always been a fan of soft points in my leverguns and I FINALLY managed to get my hands on a box of 44 Mag 270 grain Hammerdowns this week ... but I am holding onto them until the end of March for a pig shoot down around Santee Cooper in the lowcountry that we hold every year.
What are your thoughts on Hammerdown? Heard about them? Tried them? Thought about trying to work-up a recipe? 270 grain bonded SPs are not easy to find. I have, however, experimented with chamfering the rims (very slightly on my RCBS case prep) to see if it actually makes them feed slicker ... the jury is still out for me on that one. Seems about the same to me out of my Marlins but Henry swears it has made a huge difference when it comes to feeding in their rifles.
https://youtu.be/b8SU51EYOyY
https://youtu.be/U63iQt8Jmgc
278550
So this Federal Hammerdown ammo specifically designed for levergun/revolver combos ... has anyone tried it yet and, if so, what's your takeaway?
Their claim is that it performs equally well in leverguns AND revolvers which has long been a bugaboo for a lot of combo enthusiasts. Either you load for great pistol performance or you load for great rifle performance but finding one load, one pill, that works well and performs well (penetration and expansion) in both platforms has been the holy grail of sorts.
Federal's Hammerdown offerings are supposed to be the answer some of us have been looking for. Me personally ... I am most interested in 44 Mag and 357 Mag but they do offer it in other calibers.
Based upon the videos I have watched and from what I've been able to read about the design and performance standards they achieved it would appear that penetration is consistent and expansion is optimum out of both leverguns and revolvers.
Amazingly, if what is being published and posted is accurate and factual, performance in terms of penetration and expansion is darn near identical no-matter the platform ... rifle/carbine or pistol. In my mind that almost defies the law of ballistic physics ... which immediately makes me question some of the claims.
Yet the videos of these new loads being sent into both ballistic gel and the clear stuff seem to validate Federal's claims.
With all of that stated it is only a matter of time before we begin to endeavor to come-up with a recipe that does the same ... yet I suspect that will not happen until the proprietary pills and propellant are made available to the public which ... is likely never going to be allowed by Federal.
I've always been a fan of soft points in my leverguns and I FINALLY managed to get my hands on a box of 44 Mag 270 grain Hammerdowns this week ... but I am holding onto them until the end of March for a pig shoot down around Santee Cooper in the lowcountry that we hold every year.
What are your thoughts on Hammerdown? Heard about them? Tried them? Thought about trying to work-up a recipe? 270 grain bonded SPs are not easy to find. I have, however, experimented with chamfering the rims (very slightly on my RCBS case prep) to see if it actually makes them feed slicker ... the jury is still out for me on that one. Seems about the same to me out of my Marlins but Henry swears it has made a huge difference when it comes to feeding in their rifles.
https://youtu.be/b8SU51EYOyY
https://youtu.be/U63iQt8Jmgc
278550