Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 145 gr. Speer boatail testing

I'll share an experience I had with Speed a year or so ago. I bought 3 boxes of boatails. When loading them,I noticed a burr around the top of the boat tail. Opened the other boxes and found them to be the same. The points were less than stellar too. Lead was smeared down the side on one side, like these bullets were formed in worn out dies or such. I called Speer. They requested pics before moving forward. I sent them pics of both issues. The conceded to sending a label for their return. The turn around was pretty quick. Along with an apologetic email and tracking number. The problem was, the replacement bullets were of the same lot number,with the same problems. More pics sent. Another label and a refund this time.

I swore them off. My loading bench use to be predominantly yellow boxes. The first bullets I ever bought at age 13, we're Speer. Then like Tom, I filled in some blanks in a bullet order with Speer bullets. New age Grand Slams to be exact. The price was just too good to pass up. Figured they would serve as break in fodder if nothing else. Turns out they are just fine. No worse than any other bullet accuracy wise. A little blunt by today's standards,lol. Maybe they will put some variety of carbon fiber of aluminum tip in them. Wood maybe. Or granite. Granite would be cool. Titanium is where it's at. I think they should stick a titanium tip in the Grand Slam. Yep.

Remember. You saw it here first.

I used the Grand Slams a good bit. I never found one in an animal. Punched right through, big exit wounds.

Ditto. I remember the time our local store (drugstore with reloading items) ran out of Speer 38 cal. 148 HBWC and we had to buy Hornady!?!? We were pissed!

Winchester brass arrived yesterday so I worked up to 47.0 grains of H414 under the Speer BTSP which is the listed Speer max for this bullet I also used CCI 250 primers. Put six in 1 1/2 inches including a couple clicks of left windage. I'm now set.

Finally got around to trying these today, my Tikka liked 45.0 grains of H414. 3 went into a nice 3/4” cluster. Even the charges it didn’t like produced 1.25” groups. This is better than the 140 Ballistic Tips and 139 Interlocks I had been shooting. Next up is the 120 TTSX, though still have 130 and 145 hot cors to try (sucker for a promotional sale) 😁.

My first deer, in the 80s, 7RM, 30 yds, ran one right into the shoulder knuckle. Yep, vaporized that onside. LOTS of damage!! Deer went about 35 yds maybe.

I would not use that bullet at hi-vel impact, but at moderate speeds probably does fine.

Tom, you might try some Varget, or a touch better, IMR 4064.

I used them in my 7x57 and it seemed to pencil through. The buck died of course, but wasn’t excited about expansion. In the leg, through the heart, out the “elbow.”

Tiny entrance, tiny exit. I will say, minimal meat damage.

And why wouldn't they work on game? Have shot elk with them , so I guess they would work on your big Texas deer.

I killed lots of critters with a 165 gr Grand Slam in .308 Win before they discontinued factory ammo years ago. Speer bullets are fine for medium velocity outfits.

In case anyone is looking for more Speer bullets for hunting, I just posted these for sale in the classifieds today: (All prices + shipping.)

7mm -
2 unopened boxes (50 ea.) Speer Grand Slam 145 gr. - $13/each
1 unopened box (50) Speer Grand Slam 160 gr. - $14
1 unopened box (50) Speer Grand Slam 175 gr. - $14
3 + boxes (100 ea.) 388 bullets total - Speer 145 gr. BT #1628 - $45
5+ boxes (100 ea.) 558 bullets total - Speer 130 gr. Spitzer #1623 - $65
partial box (76 bullets) Speer 160 gr. Mag-Tip #1637 - $14
partial box (93 bullets) Speer 160 gr. Spitzer #1635 - $18
partial box (67 bullets) Speer 145 gr. Spitzer - $12


https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...learing-out-lots-of-bullets#Post13852951

Put the H414 load through a chrony test, 2 shots averaged 2754 FPS, a bit more than I expected but I can't complain. Load being a book max loading of 47.0 grains of H414, Winchester case, CCI 250 primer and the 145 grain Speer BTSP.