Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters speer grand slam bullets

are they still just a glorified hot core or have they made changes to them recently

They eliminated the steel base insert on the large diameter GS. So they're probably not much more than a hotcore. Except the tip is protected, no small consideration in .375".

Launched at 2600 to 2800 fps what would you not kill with one? Given current pricing how can you lose for 99% of hunting situations?

Bought a bunch of .375 285 gr GS from Grafs at closeout. They shoot fine, and will kill Maine moose/deer as dead as any expensive bullet.

Not a TTSX. But not priced like it, either.

I used them in a 25-06 for years. Accurate, killed animals I shot with them.

Sam H,

I started shooting Speer Grand Slam expanding bullets in the late 1970s, when they were first introduced, and kept shooting them until maybe a decade ago, when they were essentially turned into a heavier-jacketed Hot-Cor. Also used the tungsten-cored Grand Slam Solid some in Africa.

Consequently am pretty familiar with Grand Slams--but am not familiar with the "steel base insert on the larger diameter GS"--and cannot find any mention of it in my extensive collection of Speer loading manuals. When did they make that Grand Slam?

Same.

IIRC, 270 and up had a harder lead mix in the bottom and a softer lead mix in the front. They had a heavy tapered jacket. Can't remember if there was a mechanical lock like the Hornady Interlock. There is the canelure.

6.5 or 257 and down, didn't have the two mix core, but did have the rest of the features.

It seemed to be a little tougher than the Speer BTSP I previously used a d more accurate than the Partition.

Hello,

I have used the originals GS 7mm 145 grs. Good bullets for Red Deer. After that, I got in a sale 8 boxes of the 7 mm Mag-Tip 160 grs and 2 boxes of the 175 grs. Not VLD bullets by the way, but both GREAT hunting bullets for big game like Red Deer and Wild Boar!! In my experience used in the 7x57 at 2750 and 2650 f/s muzzle velocity respectively, they behave very much like the Nosler Partitions of the same weights.

Best!

PH

MD, You're right! Thank you for correcting my brain cramp response. Was thinking of the Fail-Safe.

Have a full box of the early dual-core 285s I'll never use. The single core version will cover everything in Maine just fine, even if just a hotcor.

Sam,

Thanks! That's what I sort of suspected. :-)

As an aside, I found the very first Grand Slams, produced in the late 1970s, too soft. But Speer toughened them up, and by the 1980s they worked excellently on big game, and were often very accurate as well.

I've been running the older 160 gr. two core version in my .280 Remington with great speed and accuracy. I have heard they could be a royal PITA regarding accuracy in some rifles.
I'd planned on using them for my last elk hunt which I had to cancel. Laying in a hospital bed does hinder things like hunting.
Paul B.

I used the Grand Slams in my 7mag and 25-06 back in the 90's when they were the dual lead core.They acted a lot like a bonded bullet.They worked well,killed a bunch of deer and hogs with them.I never recovered one from the 25-06,they were penetrators for sure.In the 7mm's,the 160gr is a very stout bullet.They really penetrate well and produce a fairly tight wound channel.Would be a great bullet for game a little larger than deer.For deer,I liked the 145gr better.They seemed to open up better and deliver a little more shock than the 160's did.Here are a couple of the 145's I recovered.The bullet on the left was from a buck I shot in a hill side.The buck was nearly broadside about 200yds.When I shot,I thought I saw the back end rise up before I lost sight of him from the recoil.The buck went right down on the spot.I was surprised when I got to him to see no exit.I hit him right behind the shoulder were I was aiming.I found the bullet when I was skinning it.The bullet ended up right under the hide on the rear side of the offside hindquarter.I guess those hills can cause some strange things to happen.The other 145gr was from a buck that was hit in the shoulder,then traveled through several inches of spine and ended up under the skin on the off side ribs.

The 25-06 grand slams never had two cores. Only the 277 and larger diameter GS came with two cores.

I had a box of 7mm 145gn GSs on the shelf for 20 years but never loaded them. A couple of years ago I thought I would load them in my Ruger 1A 7x57 as I used all my Partitions up. They sprayed all over the target into a group about four inches where most other bullets go into about 1 - 1 1/2 inches. Oh well I thought. Maybe the Ruger just doesn't like them. So I tried them in my rebarreled 7x64, a Ruger tang safety. This rifle is the most accurate I've ever owned shooting five 150gn Ballistic Tips and 154gn RWS Twin Cores into 0.8 inches. However, the Grandslams again went into a group about 3 1/2 inches.

I'm in the process of rebarreling to 6.5x57 and found six boxes of 6.5mm 140gn Grandslams. I hope they shoot better than the 7mm ones.

I understand that the old twin core Grandslams were the ones in the orange clear plastic boxes with the bullets standing up in their individual place and that when Speer starting selling them in the yellow plastic boxes like other Speer bullets, that's when they changed to the hotcor construction.

Can anybody confirm that?

I think your right about when the bullets changed.

"I understand that the old twin core Grandslams were the ones in the orange clear plastic boxes with the bullets standing up in their individual place and that when Speer starting selling them in the yellow plastic boxes like other Speer bullets, that's when they changed to the hotcor construction."

I had to run out to my reloading shed to check my memory. The old two core bullets are in an orange plastic box. The newer ones are in a black plastic box. That's based on the ones I have on hand. Mine are the 160 gr. 7MM bullet.
Paul B.

I just looked up my first penetration test with the "redesigned" Grand Slams, after hearing they'd eliminated the two-part core. It took place on 7/6/2004, and I shot five 200-grain .30s from a .300 Winchester Magnum into dry newspaper, which is the media I've found mostly closely simulates hitting heavy bone. Three of the five held together, but the other two lost their cores and didn't penetrate nearly as far.

Those came in the clear orange plastic box.

They never seemed like much of an improvement over the Hot Cores or an original Remington Core Lock to justify a price increase. The jacket does get thicker at the base than most Hot cores but doesn't seem to make much difference on game. The Speer hot core has always been a good performing conventional bullet and a bargain too. Some I used in 7mm had the Mag tip configuration so the BC was not too high.

Dunno what you have used Grand Slams on, but during their best era they did indeed make a difference, especially on larger game and heavier bones. The few Grand Slams I recovered during that era retained as high a weight-percentage as Nosler Partitions of the same weight and diameter. A good example would be the 150 .270 I used to kill one of the biggest feral pigs I've taken in over three decades of hunting them. The boar was on a slope above me, and the GS broke the near leg and spine before ending up under the hide of the far shoulder, retaining 65% of its weight. But most exited, even on animals weighing 3 times as much.

Have also shot quite a few Hot-Cors into various animals. While they work pretty well, have also seen one lose its jacket at the ENTRANCE hole on a whitetail buck that might have field-dressed 125 pounds.

Well now you fellas have got me thinking about doing a little shooting with these. I have a couple hundred each of .308 180 GS and .284 160 GS that I got on a clearance back in the early to mid 90s and have never gotten around to using. I stuck (pretty much still do) to partitions and Xs but why not give these a try?
Early to mid 90s - would those be the good ones then?

Cheers,
Rex

Great info , I don't shoot a lot of Speers but at a gunshow 2 years back I was able to score 5 boxes of 130 and 5 boxes of 150 gr .277 grand slams for $5 /box in the clear orange plastic box. I spent 110 bucks with that guy cause he also had 3 boxes of 150 nosler solid bases and 3 boxes of130 gr Rem bronze Pts. I thought it was a good score and no I don't have any gay tendencies they will work in my 270 win and 270 wthby fine for cheap shooting. MB

I used to use the 180 gr. GS in my .30-06 in the mid 80s for elk. I only ever killed two elk with that bullet, but on each elk, the core separated from the jacket and were found in separate places within the animal. The first elk, I figured it was an aberration, or that I just hit the elk in the wrong place. However, when the same thing happened on the second elk, I figured there was no reason to spend the extra money on that bullet, I could get the same performance with the cheaper Hot-Cors. They did have a good reputation back then, which is why I used them in the first place. I've got some 150gr GS .277 sitting on my shelf and have had them for over 20 years. Always figured I'd give them a try. But there are too many better bullets out there, so I haven't messed with them. In any case, I think even with core/jacket separation, they will certainly kill whatever they are aimed at.