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bolt face to crown is 19 7/8"

Them inalienable at MIB are complete and the results are outstanding petals going 21-23 inches with the shank. Micheal declared them buffalo 🐃 worthy.

Great bullet!

Final report and photographs are pending from South Carolina,
but for now, I have said this about preliminary report over at the B&M Forum:

Hip hip hooray! McCourry Institute of Ballistics comes through again.
That is great news, if the shank is ending up beyond 20″ of the tough MIB test medium,
with some massive trauma starting a few inches after impact.
That is what I was hoping for, Doc M’s pronouncement of “buffalo capable.”
A soft that is tough enough.
The pictures of bullet shank and nose fragments should be very interesting,
as well as the retained weight of the shank.

And no mention of veering so I assume the shanks stayed on a straight course?

High BC
accurate
low fouling
and buffalo tough.
What more could be asked of a 404-gr/.458 soft?
If you need more penetration, back it up with an FN solid.

That was in response to this from Michael McCourry:

"It is going to be MONDAY at best before I can properly compile, photo, record data the way it should be done.

But I won’t keep you hanging that long without some clues…. now, I am going from memory and not referring to my notes……as they are tucked away with all the other gear right now.

OK, first 458 B&M ran the 400 Hammers at 2440 fps Or so, impact at 25 yards was 2350 or so…. Trauma began at around 3 inches, massive at 5-7 inches, and they started to slow up at that point. The “Petals”, they are not blades and do not radiate from center, they peel, break, and stay in the wound channel, being found anything from 7-8 up to 15+ inches inside the wound channel traveling with the remaining bullet. These were found at 22-23 inches. They lost some stability because instead of being flat across, they are somewhat rounded off on the edges…..All and all, they did very well, and are buffalo capable.

The 458 B&M EX is More of the Same. It seems we had shear at 2-3 inches, massive trauma from that point to around 7-8 inches, petals peeled, and on these two they peeled like two to three petals together. Petals were also found inside the wound channel from 8-17 inches. Trauma slows down at 8 inches or so, becoming a rounded off solid, found at 21-22 inches, as I recall. The velocity with the EX was 2608 fps and at 25 yard impact 2550 or so….

Photos, actual data, labels and what have you will have to wait until Monday……."

My further interpretation of the preliminary report above:
The 2440 fps MV load penetrated about the same or an inch deeper than the 2608 fps MV load.
25-yard impact range for both, and impact velocity is not yet accurately defined above, should be about 50 fps less than MV for both.
But the higher speed impact might have produced more massive wounding.
The MIB test medium is wet pack of higher than first order resistance.

So, close to 2 feet of massive trauma with a 400-yard capable 400-gr Shock Hammer
versus
5 to 6 feet of penetration with a 450-grain FN brass solid from CEB.
That seems to cover all bases.

Did I mention that the Shock Hammer fouls way less than the Barnes TSX?
Copper kind of fouling.

OK, Sir Spruce, you have a fast rifle for a 19.875" barrel length.
Shilen must have done a good job on that one.
The Spruce King magazine box and the one I have on my Alder Queen are the same.
Get some 404-g/.458 Shock Hammers and set the COL at 3.380" with 79.0 grains of AA-2230 loaded with a drop tube.
You can even single load them for special purpose use with a 3.480" COL and 81.0 grains of AA-2230, loaded with drop tube.
Do so at your own risk.
You will never want to shoot anything else.

Sir Ron, many thanks for pushing this Hammer bullet along.
I am at ease now with the preliminary integrity/ penetration/ performance tests reported. It is a very good bullet. Finally an available, a plus .400 bc, 400 grain, .458 bullet that performs.

Edit to add:
The prior tested .416 350 grain TSX penetration was 18” at 2387 fps impact velocity. This .416 TSX bullet is certainly no slouch at penetration.
But, this fatter Hammer with a bit less sectional density and quite a bit more estimated BC surpassed it in penetration.

Great stuff Sir John and Sir Ron, do you guys know if anyone is set in stone on a date to actually try this bullet on a Cape Buffalo from the 458 WM+? if no more kung-flu BS arises i'll be headed to the little bush camp up on The Limpopo this fall, i haven't been shot in the arm for the plandemic, if travel requires it, i wont go.

Spring is coming so I will be doing that.
But will only load the 3.380 length because of my need to keep it simple. Very simple.

Wish I had some for the spring bear hunt, but, alas, that's out of the question here, so I'll have to choose from about ten other loads!

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

How did the 4 naught 4 grain bullet weight come about on this Hammer bullet ?

That's what this forum is for, to inform you.
All you have to do is read it.

I must have missed the +.400 BC part.
I'll have to go do more reading.

That's GREAT.

Lots of info here seriously, so when you get a few minutes here and there, start at the beginning and it all comes together.
Glad you like what you are seeing so far..........more to come as they say.

Sir Woods,
Buy a donkey for that perfect straight shot to a Segway.
The raw data and Doc M's interpretation of his findings will follow, with his permission, after the setup:

The McCourry Institute of Ballistics lab, here showing the lesser 25-yard impact range though capable of 50 yards:





Test media is newsprint, phonebooks, maybe some glossy magazines,
by whatever consistent formula he uses,
all soaked with water the night before and repeat-soaked on the morning of tests.
He sometimes puts concrete blocks, 4x4 timbers, etc., into the media for, testing of solids for dinosaur hunting:



Doc M has a sense of humor too. Here is his setup for testing round nose solids:

Notes to Ponder;

1. Overall penetration of the remaining bullet, shank, or blunt trauma projectile, did not increase with additional velocity, at both impact velocities being roughly 200 fps difference, there really was no difference in penetration.

2. There was an increase of trauma with the higher impact velocity which would be expected.

3. The minor amount of instability at the end of penetration would be the result of the nose rounding off somewhat. And, it could also hinder depth of penetration as well, explaining why the increased velocity did not increase penetration. Remember a Solid becomes Front End Drive during terminals, and at this point it has become a solid.

Overall impression, from my standpoint, Sam may add something when he comes on, is that this is very typical copper type CNC machined bullet. Many of the Lehighs we worked with in 2006-2009 did exactly the same thing, pretty much, depending on velocity. Some of the Copper HP’s Dan did for Capo reacted exactly the same as these as well. Petals peel, break off and disperse along the length of the wound channel, main bullet either carrying them with it, or in some cases did not shear or peel until that point. From the massive and extreme trauma we saw at 3-7 inches, I would tend to believe we had shear at that point and the petals traveled with the main bullet. I do not believe they peeled along the way. There would be indications if that were the case.

There are no real issues with this mode of operation, and it can be devastating in the wound channel. I have shot buffalo with similar bullets and they hammered the tissue into submission. Personally I like the Raptor mode of operation better, and think that it does more outside damage to vessels and organ tissue outside the main wound channel, but the Hammer type bullet is way above conventional expanding bullets, and maybe a bit more destructive than an Expanding CPS… maybe between a Raptor and CPS would be a good place to be………

I would not hesitate to take the bullet for serious missions. As long as all other parameters where met, such as accuracy, pressures and blah blah blah………… This 400 Hammer is without doubt “Buffalo Capable”………………..Who would have considered that 15 years ago? Not me! But Bullet Tech has proven different.
End quote of Sir Michael aka Doc M.

My hit and miss comments follow.

404-g Shock Hammer in .458 B&M at COL of 3.02", probably 18" barrel, maybe 20", probably 1:14 " twist,
brass case length is 2.240", put a long-leade/WinMag throat on it and it becomes the .458 BMW:

404-g Shock Hammer in .458 B&M Express with 2.5" case length:









"Extreme trauma" was pictured above with the .458 B&M, about 3" wide wound in the wetpack.
"Massive trauma" with nearly 200 fps faster velocity of .458 B&M Express was not pictured.
It might have been bigger in diameter or wide wound might have extended a little further.
It was not deeper in overall length, maybe an inch shorter with higher velocity.
This shows the increased resistance of test medium with higher velocity.
But speed still kills.

The stubby shanks retained only about 55%, but look to be CG-forward,
and shorter projectiles are inherently more stable.
Turning sideways at end of wound is a common event/non-event.
Not quite an FN-boat-tailed solid remnant , but almost.

Comparison of the depth of penetration of this newcomer to some other known bullets is quite favorable
for the Shock Hammer.

One mentioned earlier by Sir Larry, the 350-g/.416 TSX at similar velocity to the .458 B&M:



18" versus 22".

The 404-g/.458 beat it by 4".
That would be about 8" or more of greater penetration of critter.

The FAULTLESS (formerly good as it gets) 400-gr/.458 North Fork SSP at near identical impact velocity:



Scoring:

North Fork: 19"

Shock Hammer: 22"

More Lion and Buffalo bullets which the Shock Hammer can equal or better with less recoil and/or flatter trajectory:

And BTW, apologies to Sir Larry who has been pushing copper WFN solid.
That Lehigh 380-g/.458 copper WFN solid does feed well in all my .458 WM rifles,
when I shortened the COL to 3.200″ instead of +3.300″.
Sometimes just 0.1″ shorter COL makes a world of difference in feeding an FN solid.
It feeds like poop through a goose in my .458 B&M at COL of 2.940″
which makes it a match for the .458 WM with COL of 3.200″.



Bless his heart, Doc M might even be thinking of testing that bullet for penetration too,
and I am sure he could come up with ideas on improving the design.
The best solid performance in MIB media is in the 5 to 6 feet of penetration range.
That translates to about 8 feet or more of buffalo or elephant.
The test media stops soft points much more quickly than FN solids, relatively speaking, just like critters.
Round nose solids veer unpredictably,
hence the joke about the angulation in the bullet trap, midway along, ha ha.
Doc M refuses to test anymore of those!