Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 7mm 160 grain Hot-Cor

160 Speer hc worked very well in my 7x57 Ruger back in the 1980’s. Big mule deer buck. In and out, down right there at 350.

I posted this earlier in the thread:

"In my experience with the 7x57, which is fairly extensive, just about any cup-and-core 160-grain bullet at 2700 fps or so will work well.

Have used the 160-grain Sierra GameKing at 2650-2700 fps to take big game up to around 400 pounds with the 7x57 both in North America and Africa. Have yet to recover one...."

At what terminal velocities do cup and cores preform?

How about bonded?

I was referring to the "3000 fps" comment.

"Might also add that haven't found anything magically different about Hot-Cors"
"Have seen them separate core and jacket on impact when driven at muzzle velocities closer to 3000 fps."

How does separation lower terminal performance?

On one hand penetration might be thwarted.

But more tissue damage due to separation?

I have seen several C&C bullets separate core and jacket over the years, which can affect penetration.

But it doesn't matter if the separation occurs on the far side of the animal, where the core and jacket are often found pretty close together under the hide. Though have had two instances where the core left the jacket behind at the entrance hole, yet the core kept going and killed the deer.

One was a Speer Hot-Cor 105-grain spitzer, started from a .243 Winchester at 2850 fps, which hit an eating-size whitetail buck about 2/3 of the way up the chest at 250 yards. The core kept going and broke the spine.

The other was a similar-size mule deer buck, angling away on a hillside at 100 yards. The bullet was a 130-grain Sierra GameKing started from a .270 Winchester at 3000 fps. It landed in the middle of the left ribs, where the jacket was recovered just inside the entrance hole (just like the jacket from the 105 Speer). The core kept going and was found in the meat of the right shoulder during butchering

But have also seen several cup-and-cores break up on the shoulder joint of similar-sized deer, and fail to penetrate the ribs behind the shoulder. They required tracking down and shooting 'em again. One was a 150-grain round-nose .30-30 factory load, which isn't supposed to happen due to the moderate muzzle velocity.

The others were spitzers started at around 2900 fps. The empty, expanded jacket and a few fragments of lead were found against the ribs behind the broken shoulder--after the deer was killed with another shot in the ribs behind the shoulder.

^^ This ^^

Few years back shot an elk with 30-06 and Hornady Interlock 180 gr, it was a neck shot, killed it instantly, found only empty jacket in the hide on the opposite side, called Hornady and the rep said separation will sometimes occur with CC bullets. Since then been using either Nosler Partition and Barnes on elk even though Hornady Interlocks and Speer Hot Cores sure are accurate.