Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Why did Speer discontinue the Deep Curl bullet?

I agree. I don't put the DeepCurl in the same category as something like an Accubond. The DeepCurl is like a middle ground between a cup and core and a bonded or partitioned bullet. An Accubond will retain as much weight when driven 400+ fps faster. I see the DeepCurl as a really good deer bullet but I don't think it can or should try to compete in the premium market.

Here's the cross section:



FWIW, I'm loading the DeepCurls light (~2830 fps) and Accubonds 200 fps faster from my 300 win mag.

I bought some 30 cal. 180 gr. Deep Curls because I thought the name and box was cool. Sometimes I think bullets are like fishing lures to me. But I digress. Bet they would work great in my '06 on whitetails. Love the picture of the recovered 308 shot bullet, very nice.

Apologies for the delay - been out of town.

Great discussion, thanks for all the insight, pics and experience shared. Especially Mule Deer, very much appreciate your taking the time to share your knowledge!

I will give these Deep Curls a whirl, and see how they shoot. If they are accurate enough, they should be good enough deer medicine.

Like others, I have settled on the TTSX as my large animal bullet but have been playing around with selecting a Deer bullet. I was kinda leaning towards the Accubond, but as a fellow Looney, just have to experiment I suppose.

I hope to do some shooting today and will report back.

Bob

Bob: I have found the Deep Curls to be very easy to find a good load for. I have use a lot of 120/257cal in 25/06, 257R, and 257AI. Very accurate. Terminal performance looks excellent on deer based on the tissue damage, but have never caught a bullet to see what they look like. Based on that experience, I bought a bunch on 165/30's and 150//270s., when MidwayUSA had them on sale. They have also proven accurate in a 300Sav, 30/06, and 270WSM. No deer yet, but the hogs sure don't like em.

I think they are a great bullet. Too bad Speer can't seem to figure out what the bleep they are doing.

Look forward to hearing your results.

I've been getting a bunch of them from Rocky Mountain Reloading. They are priced right and seem to be as accurate as any other Bullet I've used.

As to the original question, isn't the driving force behind all products providing what the consumer wants? (Belief of that ranks right up there with supply and demand determining price and the Easter Bunny.)

Did consumers ask for a new non melting tip on Hornady bullets?

I used 150 grain Grand Slams on hogs from a308 win often.

Wish they still made those

I have some Deep Curl's (or Fusions?) that I was given -- 200 gr 338's.

From the sounds of it, I won't be pushing them to full velocity out of a 338 Win Mag. Probably ok in a 338 Federal.

I still have a few boxes of deep shock bullets. They were a different bullet and short lived but an interesting design. Does anybody know much about them?

Bb

The Deep Shok were a standard c+c design, but with a sophisticated heavy jacket that constricted tightly in the middle to hold the core in.

They work very well in a 90 grain 6mm form.

Exactly--but Speer also hoped to sell Deep Shoks for about the same price as Hot Cors. Didn't work out then either.

Shot several animals with Deep Shoks when they appeared, and they worked great, both up close and what was considered long range in those days. Have an expanded 180 from a .30-06 factory load that I killed a big bull caribou with at over 400 yards. It expanded into what most hunters would consider a perfect mushroom and retained over 92% of its weight. Saw similar performance from other DS's, but they couldn't make 'em at a price most handloaders would pay.

I also have a stash of 90gr 243 Deep Shocks. Great bullets.

Another example of Speer's excellent engineering, and apparently grossly incompetent marketing and management.

another example of a large majority of american companies,
executives with the diploma on the wall that know little or
nothing of the company they work for. i've seen a bunch of it.

Speer also redesigned the Grand Slam, from what I understand effectively making it a Hot Cor with a revised jacket to mechanically lock the core in place. I haven't used any Grand Slams, old or new, so can't comment on whether or not it was a change for the better. Thoughts?

I don't think Speer revised the jacket on the new Hot-Cors. Or at least it didn't look like to to me when I sectioned some.

The Grand Slam jackets always had a ring similar to the Hornady Interlock ring around the harder rear core to hold it in place. Instead they just quit using the twin cores, so essentially the present Grand Slams are Interlocks with single-alloy, softer cores.

At twice the price...

Well I'm totally disillusioned!!!

That's odd to me because loaded Fusion ammo is priced very slightly higher than standard cup and core ammo.

That's because the bullet is a relatively smaller part of loaded ammo, and producing hundreds of thousands of bullets, in a relatively limited caliber/weight array for common factory ammo, also lowered per-bullet costs.

Also, handloaders shoot a lot more than hunters who buy factory ammo, and most deer-hunting handloaders aren't willing to pay even a few bucks more for 100 bullets when there are cup-and-cores right next to 'em on the shelf that cost less.

It may seem odd to Campfire members, but a lot of handloaders still buy whatever 150-grain spitzer is cheapest. And they kill plenty of deer.