Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Speer Bullets

Sure... I have loaded a metric ton of Speer...

They are just fine...

Enjoy.

On a list of top 10... they rank about 9th or 10th

I load 250 gr Hornady Interloc RNSP in my 35 Whelen. I found some Speer bullets on sale. They have a different ogive and would jam on loading out of the magazine. I tried adjusting OAL to the extent I could but they continued to jam. The Hornadys feed with no problem... This is of course due to an idiosyncrasy with my rifle and not a defect of the bullet. Other than that I have used Speer bullets with success. My favorites though are Sierra bullets.

Alan

This target was several years ago using the Speer .308 130gr Jacketed Hollow point out of my Ruger Mini-30.
100 yards 5 shots.

Had a bad batch of 165 speers in the 1980s never went back

Care to explain, "Bad Batch"?

I am in this camp.

Hot-Cors are fine hunting bullets, and pretty accurate in the 2 chamberings I've loaded them for so far....250 Sav and 35 Rem.

Blew up on penetration 30 caliber 165 grain hot cores, big craters on impact and nothing going thru

Haven't seen many, or no Speer bullets for sale in 5 years. Odd time for a comeback, but a good sign.

The basic cup & core rifle bullets OK in that category & less money than most.

They offer some cutting edge pistol bullets.

The .224 52 grain HP hunting bullet doesn't fly like some modern rockets but hits like a damn freight train. Seen them pick 15 lb. groundhogs up off the ground.. @13 cents apiece they should be awesome in PD towns where extreme range not required.

I've slung a train car load of 140 grain 357 JHP Speers in my lifetime. Me like.

YMMV

I like Ballistic Tips.

One of the things I like about Speer bullets is that their marketing turds haven't been able to convince the powers that be the need to trash the whole line to come up with plastic tipped bullets or mono. They are just what they are a good cup and core bullet...mb

They work great in every .308 I own. Long story short was I bought a .308 cheap because the previous owner couldn't get better than 3 or 4 inch groups with anything he tried. Took me two years working off and on, mostly on the be honest before I had any success.. Turned out the 165 gr. Speer Hot Core and a max load of W760 turned the trick. It doe 2550 FPS from the 18.5" barrel of a Ruger M77 RSI that the other guy couldn't get to shoot at least a hunting group. It now shoots 1.5" or slightly better down to 1.25" since I freed the metal muzzle cap slightly with a Dremel tool. I may even try other 165 gr. bullets just to see if they'll shoot decently now.

On other Speer bullets, only the 250 gr. Hot Core for my .35 Whelen. They've been very accurate in all three of my .35 Whelens but have not used them on game. That honor goes to the Barnes TSX 225 gr. bullet that averages .50" almost all the time in my custom Mauser. hd worst group with the TSX so far has been .80" and that may have been my fault.
PJ

Very rarely see them in my neck of the woods, even when components are plentiful. Been that way for years.

Used them all the time when I lived in ND after Nosler discontinued the old Solid Base c&c bullets. The 165s worked great in my .30-06 and the 100 grainers for my .257 Roberts.

I still have a stash of 120 grain Nosler Solid Base for my .260 Remington though.

I shoot speers in my 30-06s and my 300 Weatherby. They work great for me.

75gr Gold Dots are my favorite .224 diameter big game bullets. I wish I could find some more.

I like Gold Dots a lot but don’t load a lot of them. I tend to not think about Speer otherwise. Good or bad, Speer bullets other than Gold Dots are usually an afterthought for me.

I load a lot of Speer bullets. I also like Hornadys. Hot-Cors, Grand Slams and Hornady Interlocks are my go to's in no particular order.

I do shoot Barnes "X" bullets in my 06'. Factory loaded PMC Eldorado.
Swore off Nosler due to price gouging IMO. I'll shoot the ones I have but don't plan on purchasing any more.
There's a plethora of different colored boxes and different calibers on my loading bench, most say Speer.

Sometimes it boils down to what I want to shoot and what's available. Sometimes I run across a "deal" I can't pass up. That said, a LGS went out of business several years ago, and I cleaned them out of 25 caliber and 7mm Hornady stuff.

Used to load their 165 grain .308’s for my brother’s BLR and they worked very well on deer. Used to use their 75 grain.257 FP for .25-20, then they discontinued it. Still use thei 400 grain.458 FP in my .45-70 and, in fact, killed one of my deer with it this season past.

I loaded a lot of Grand slams in my 25-06