Federal's Hammerdown ammo ...

[Airborne Falcon]

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.

[Texas by God]

There's an article about them in American Hunter.

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[Dunross]

They sound good, but I have never been able to find any!

I started looking for it in both .327 Fed Mag and .357 Mag as soon as I read the first article, but have yet to be able to lay hands on either one.

[SSGOldfart]

Market hype as far as I could tell but time will show us.

[Gray Fox]

I almost have to laugh when I see an ad for one of these new wiz bang cartridges since right now it's all but impossible to even find any of the old standards on a dealer's shelf. GF

[Froogal]

My hand loaded .38s, .357s, and .45 Colts perform equally well in a revolver AND a rifle.

[Airborne Falcon]

There's an article about them in American Hunter.

I saw that a couple two or three issues ago which is what prompted me to backorder some ... and they arrived just this week, finally.

My hand loaded .38s, .357s, and .45 Colts perform equally well in a revolver AND a rifle.

Have you actually tested those in gel?

The comparisons I've seen are fairly dramatic. Former old standards perform drastically different when fired out of different platforms. I never realized how drastically different.

For instance, the 240 grain soft points I have long loved overpentrated and failed to expand properly out of a rifle whereas they performed well out of the pistol. Same for the GDHPs.

Conversely the Keith type cast and the Rem Coreloks performed well in gel out of the rifles but not the pistols ... almost exactly opposite results.

Who knew?

Now, all that really matters is "do they bring down game" and I've never had a problem doing either with either platform. But modern propellant and pill technology might be taking it to the next level with these new Hammerdown loads ... who knows. I'm not going to spend the money on gel blocks but I am going to try them out on some pigs.

It is also worth noting that most HPs produced for 44 Mag are expressly designed for use in "sporting handguns" and all four major manufacturers, Hornaday, Nosler, Speer and Sierra state as much in their specs.

In 44 Mag I have always achieved great results for my 1894P using Speer 4457s and Remington Coreloks which I was lucky enough to stash away a couple thousand of some years ago while perusing a local gun show.

For those not familiar with the old scalloped Remington Coreloks ... here's a picture.

Well ... nevermind, I am having a senior moment trying to get a picture to upload.

Corelok was the original bonded SP .... I am not sure if they are still making them, or if they will resume making them, or not.