Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game 257 lb boar/300 HAMR/130 Hot Core bullet performance

I went out to test a new bullet for my 300 HAMR last night. The 130 Speer Hot Core is supposed to be a really good bullet in the HAMR so of course I felt the need to try it. Especially since the Hot Core is a very economically priced bullet and there ain't no good reason to spend good money on expensive bullets to kill pigs if a cheaper one has the performance to get the job done effectively.

I did my accuracy testing and that turned out well. About 1-1.25 MOA out of a lightweight AR which is plenty acceptable for my use, which is night stalking/thermal hunting pigs for crop damage control. The next thing was a I needed a good test subject. Not a little pig but a good solid one that could stop a bullet.

I found a volunteer last night. Well, he didn't exactly volunteer, but he was where he should not have been, so I considered that consent enough.

The volunteer was a 257 lb boar out in the middle of a sounder of pigs. I singled him out and my partner settled in on a big sow that turned out to be 242 lbs. My shot placement was off, I hit a bit high and for sure too far back. That happens sometimes when I am trying to count down and make sure my partner has a shot at the same time I am aiming and pulling the trigger. But it worked out. Shot distance was 115 yards. It was super bright last night with a full moon out in the open fields. We could see pigs with the naked eye at 80-90 yards, so could not get any closer to the big ones.

At the shot the boar dropped straight to the ground, did not take a step.

Bullet came in through the rear of the shield on the front side, busted a rib, hit the spine and deflected up and back a bit. Bullet was mushroomed well so I think it was tracking fine until it hit the spine, at which point it started tumbling. At any rate it expanded well, held together good, penetrated 14"-15" of meat and bone, and came to rest base forward just underneath the shield on the off side. It was a good test and I was very satisfied with the results.

Thermal video of the shot:



Video of the bullet recovery:

https://rumble.com/v43ujei-130-hot-core-recovery.html



The recovered bullet:

Good sized pigs, looks like the Hot Core will do the job for you, kill all you can. Rio7

It has been a really slow year for them up here. They were pretty hard to find until a couple months ago. Only killed 36 confirmed in 2023. No doubt more than that died, just not confirmed.

This next year should be pretty good though. Lots of fallow peanut ground this winter that has pigs, that will give me a nice early start. Maybe I won't have a rookie number again for '24.

Heck yeah - looks like it worked like it ought to work.

NICE!

You can see the red dirt on him. Congrats on killin them piggies!

The last boar I took in east Texas was with a borrowed 300 Blackout. It was 212# taken at 150 yards. It worked so well that I decided to up the power a bit and bought a Wilson Combat Protector Carbine in 300 HAM'R with a case of 130gr Speer Hot-Cor bullets for my own usage. It shot really well at the range recently & I'm going to take it out hunting for the first time this weekend. Fingers crossed!

Nice video & hunting report. Thanks for sharing it. I'm now even more optimistic about my own setup.

Congrats!

I have never really been a Blackout fan, it just does not have quite the juice that I felt I needed. And when the HAMR came out I pretty much just assumed it was a glorified Blackout. It took lots of reading and studying to convince me otherwise.

The HAMR, while on the outside seems very similar, is in fact significantly different. Designed from the start with a much different goal in mind. Blackout was designed to maximize power while staying subsonic. Hence a shorter case designed for longer bullets. The case had to be short to be able to crimp those long bullets used for sub loads and stay inside an AR magazine. So even when you load supersonic in the BO you are still fighting the (shorter) smaller case capacity. Bill Wilson took that cartridge design the opposite direction. He optimized for 120-130 grain short nosed bullets and getting the most speed and power he could from them. That allowed him to stretch the case out and make it longer, adding capacity. So, for a bullet in the 110-130 grain range you generally end up with +/- 300 more FPS than the BO. That adds quite a bit of power and helps keep the bullets up in the speed range where they expand well. Takes some of that "rainbow" out of the trajectory as well.

I have been very happy with my HAM'R. Cheap to run, hits plenty hard inside 200-250. I built mine as a very simple, light, easy to carry gun since we do lots of stalking out in big open fields at night. Pounds add up fast doing that. No way I would carry an AR-10, those things are way too heavy. Some guys do, but they are younger than me, lol. I do have a 6.5 Grendel I use quite a bit as well, and it performs good. It is a heavier gun than my HAM'R though.

When I was first handed the 300 Blackout, I looked at the round it was firing and had some doubts about it. Maybe some hunters have had good luck with it, but I felt shot placement was going to be bit more critical as the distance increased. So I waited for an optimal shot before pulling the trigger and the boar only made it about 30 yards before expiring. My decision to buy a 300 HAM'R was precisely for all of the reasons you listed. I've really enjoyed shooting it at the range. Now it's time to test it out in the woods. Originally I had thought about getting a Browning BAR in 308 but I've been really pleased with my decision to get the HAM'R instead. If I'm lucky enough to get something this weekend, I'll let you know how it goes.

I'm assuming we're talking about the flat nosed bullet most folks would use in the 30-30 and similar cartridges? That bullet is underrated by most accounts.
Good write up,
Rick

This is a 130gr 300 HAM'R from Wilson Combat:

Yes. The standard Speer 130 HC is a flat point designed and the crimp groove set correctly for the 30-30. Bill Wilson worked with Speer, made a couple slight changes to the bullet to tailor it to the 300 HAM'R, and sells his version of it on his website. Same weight, ogive, jacket, everything just the crimp groove is moved down toward the base a bit to be in the right place for the HAM'R, and on his they used a RN tip forming punch instead of a FN tip forming punch. In this picture you can see the difference. WC version on the L, traditional Speer on the R. The boar I shot was with the Speer version, but I have both and according to Bill the terminal performance is the same.

I shoot that bullet in my Remington 141 pump rifle in 30 Remington at about the same speed. We don't have hogs but part of me wants them to use for target practice.
Good deal!
Rick

Lots of “whoomp” in that little AR package!

Just wondering whether that 130 grain Speer in a 6.8 SPC case necked up to .308 would work better than a 110 in a 6.8 SPC out to 200 yds.

It doesn’t take much to kill pigs, 223 with a Barnes or a Bear Claw will knock fire out their asses

Excellent! That looks like one heck of a fun hunt. Congrats and good use of the Speer 130. A buddy swore by them for deer from his Marlin 30-30 AI.

Regards, Guy

I built a .300 Ham'r and enjoy it immensely. For both sentimental and practical reasons, I really like the .30-30, and have used the M94 I bought new in 1970 quite a bit. Learned to have some respect for the round after listening to a lot of drivel expounded by a bunch of my friends.

To me, the .300 Ham'r brings the .30-30 to a more modern platform. Another "issue" it addresses is I always thought the 7.62X39 was a great little round, and would be a damn good chambering in an AR. I don't have first-hand experience with one, but I understand there can be feeding issues with larger-capacity mags due to case geometry.

The Ham'r solves that quite nicely.

I've been loading 150 grain bullets in it lately, really like the Hornady SST (30303) for the .300 Savage, but the subject of the thread, the 130 HC, is a damn good choice, too.

Impressive results.
Congratulations on your hogs.

What the heck did that thing puke up when he was hit?

Great going bud...slay them all!

That will work! Good shooting....