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Joined: Aug 2005
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Have any of you guys used hot core bullets for elk? Say 180gr hot cores in a 30-06? If so how did they perform?
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Joined: Jun 2005
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Welcome to the forum!! I hope you gain the information you seek and have a lot of fun here. The only time I tried one was on a black bear. 30/06 180 Gr grand slam which is supposed to be a better bullet than their hot core separated core from jacket on an ordinary sized black bear. I dont use them. Out of curiosity, why are you willing to possibly lose a hard to come by elk by using a cheap bullet? This is false economy at its worst. My suggestion is to use a Barnes triple shock, (my favorite by far) a Swift A-Frame or some other premium bullet. It is money well spent. Where and when are you going elk hunting?
LOVE God, LOVE your family, LOVE your country, LIKE guns and sports.
About 2016 team "R" candidates "We definitely need a crew with a sack of balls the size of hot water bottles, bloviated estrogen leaking feel-gooders need not apply." Gunner 500
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Joined: Jun 2005
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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I just remebered that I tried a speer 165 hot core on a deer. from a 30/06 again it separated and penetrated very little. That was the last straw for me. Others may have had different experiences, but I am done with other than high end bullets on big game.
LOVE God, LOVE your family, LOVE your country, LIKE guns and sports.
About 2016 team "R" candidates "We definitely need a crew with a sack of balls the size of hot water bottles, bloviated estrogen leaking feel-gooders need not apply." Gunner 500
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Joined: Nov 2008
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Keep them under 2800fps,and they work like they are designed.
Bart
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I'm a big fan of the courtesy flush.
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Joined: Jun 2005
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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None of my current crop of hunting rifles are that slow, save for my muzzleloader and my .416Rigby. Works as designed means losing 30-50 percent of their weight shortly after impact. No longer acceptable in my book now that we have better readily available.
LOVE God, LOVE your family, LOVE your country, LIKE guns and sports.
About 2016 team "R" candidates "We definitely need a crew with a sack of balls the size of hot water bottles, bloviated estrogen leaking feel-gooders need not apply." Gunner 500
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Joined: Aug 2005
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New Member
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OP
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Thanks for the replies fellows. To be honest with you I dont use them, my buddy does. I usually use partitions and he uses hot cores. I was interested in how they performed and actually had my doubts about them. To answer your question we hunted the San Juans last year, can't go this year and are planning on going next year to the same place. Beautiful place but also rugged to a flatlander!
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
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Safari man, the hot cores are a bonded core bullet and they don't slip their jackets. It was probably a regular Speer boat tail bullet that you shot and had slip. The hot cores actually work extremely well in the .30-06 class of cartridges. They work very well on elk as well, especially in 180 grain weight. The mushrooms on them are usually 40 caliber or better. Do to the large frontal diameter, they don't always exit, but they do make HUGE wound channels. They perform very similar to the new Accubonds by Nosler and the Interbonds by Hornady. The bummer with Speer bullets, is they don't often shoot very well (they are still using presses from when they started making bullets). When they do shoot, they shoot extremely accurate.
I crunched a 10 year old bison at 520 yards a couple of years ago with a .30-06 and 200 grain HotCores. Muzzle velocity was 2,785 fps out of a 27" pipe. The shot was behind the shoulder and exited. The exit hole was 1.5" and took out two ribs. The buff dropped at the shot. They are good performing bullets, if you can get them to shoot. You simply DON"T need premium bullets in the .30-06. Flinch
Flinch Outdoor Gear broadhead extractor. The best device for pulling your head out.
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Joined: Feb 2004
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Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
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Hot-Cor bullets are not bonded.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
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Flinchy, when I read that post of yours I wondered how I missed Speers being boned for all these years. I did not think they were bonded. I did a bit of research and found that they are not bonded but rather have a different lead formulation front jalf to back half. The two sections of lead melt where they meet, not the lead core to the copper jacket. So infact the lead is bonded to the lead but not the lead to the jacket.
www.huntingadventures.netAre you living your life, or just paying bills until you die? When you hit the pearly gates I want to be there just to see the massive pile of dead 5hit at your feet. ( John Peyton)
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Joined: Apr 2001
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Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
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I've used 150grn Speer Hotcores in my .308win for many years simply because they are easily available and group well in my rifle.
The majority of my stalking is for roe and muntjac which are very small deer (smaller than your Coues) and for these, the Hotcores work fine. I have also shot a few Red deer which have dressed out between 120lb and 170lb and I am a little dissapointed with the Hotcores performance on the larger animals. Generally they break up and seperate very badly. I have not actually lost a deer due to them, but I am looking for a replacement...My problem is that its hard to find one bullet design that performs well on a 25lb Muntjac and a 170lb Red deer..
Regards,
Pete
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
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Pete it's easy, just load the Hornady interbond. Can you get them in the UK?
www.huntingadventures.netAre you living your life, or just paying bills until you die? When you hit the pearly gates I want to be there just to see the massive pile of dead 5hit at your feet. ( John Peyton)
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Joined: Apr 2001
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Campfire Outfitter
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JJ,
I am pretty sure they would be available and actually I went out to get some but had a brainfart and bought the Interlocks instead...
Next time i am down at the range I will have another look..
The problem is that if you go with too heavier/tougher bullet, they tend not to open up well on the roe or muntjac...It kills them of course, but they tend to run a fair distance first..And finding such small deer in the thick undergrowth or young sitka spruce forestry plantations is no fun...
Still, I think there has to be a better compromise than the Hotcores and I will give the Interbonds a try...
Regards,
Pete
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 48
Campfire Greenhorn
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Campfire Greenhorn
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 48 |
I agree Bart. The Speer 165gn HotCor at 2790ft/s is my standard loading for the 30-06. Personally, I have never had a problem or failure with Speer 165gn HotCors. They shoot sub MOA (5 shot) and kill very efficiently. Not once has a Fallow Buck nor Chital (Axis) Stag, nor Wild Boar nor Wild Goat ever run off after being hit with one. Just a note; Speer 165gn SPBT are not HotCors and do suffer from serious jacket-core separation. ![[Linked Image]](http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a158/Bundypalms/speer165.jpg) Speer 165gn SP HotCor
Regards
Drew
22LR ~ 22H ~ 204 ~ 7mm-08 ~ 7x57mm ~ 338 Win Mag ~ 450/400 NE 3" ~ 12G
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Joined: Nov 2003
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Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
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when I started hunting elk I used SPEER 180 and 200 grain bullets in my 30/06 rifle, while I failed to get exit wounds at times I did kill elk very effectively. KILL, not drop on impact!
I swapped to a weatherby 340 mag loaded with 250 grain bullets, while the results (dead elk) did not change the results on bullet impact were very noticable
give those SPEER 200 grain bullets a chance and I think youll find they perform at least as well as most factory ammo loaded with standard bullets, on impact and they tend to be very accurate
they are my prefered bullet in the 35 whelan and 358 win (250 grain)remember the velocity has a huge effect on performance and at those velocities (2300-2500fps they work exceptionally well)
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Joined: Feb 2004
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Campfire Outfitter
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JJ- the two-part core USED to be the case in the Grand Slam, but now all their Hot-Cors have the same "ternary alloy" core.
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Joined: Mar 2003
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Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
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Safari man, the hot cores are a bonded core bullet and they don't slip their jackets. It was probably a regular Speer boat tail bullet that you shot and had slip. The hot cores actually work extremely well in the .30-06 class of cartridges. They work very well on elk as well, especially in 180 grain weight. The mushrooms on them are usually 40 caliber or better. Do to the large frontal diameter, they don't always exit, but they do make HUGE wound channels. They perform very similar to the new Accubonds by Nosler and the Interbonds by Hornady. The bummer with Speer bullets, is they don't often shoot very well (they are still using presses from when they started making bullets). When they do shoot, they shoot extremely accurate.
I crunched a 10 year old bison at 520 yards a couple of years ago with a .30-06 and 200 grain HotCores. Muzzle velocity was 2,785 fps out of a 27" pipe. The shot was behind the shoulder and exited. The exit hole was 1.5" and took out two ribs. The buff dropped at the shot. They are good performing bullets, if you can get them to shoot. You simply DON"T need premium bullets in the .30-06. Flinch No, hot cores are NOT a bonded core bullet.
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Joined: May 2005
Posts: 44
Campfire Greenhorn
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Campfire Greenhorn
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 44 |
And the jackets CAN separate from the core!
Still, they aren't any worse than any other standard cup/core bullet, IMO.
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Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 22,139 Likes: 1
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Nov 2008
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I've shot a truck-load of whitetails with my old Swede 6.5X55.
For a long time I used 140gr Partitions and never recoverd a bullet.
I switched to Speer 120 Hot-Cor's after a re-barrel,cause they shot the best. I still have not recoverd a bullet,and to be honest,I could care less if the jacket sheds the core.All exit wounds look the same from this gun,about the size of a half dollar.Speer bullets are great,just don't shoot them out of a mag.
Bart
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I'm a big fan of the courtesy flush.
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Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 4,344
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Mar 2004
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I used them out of a 3006 on whitetail for three years, 6 one shot kills, most of them very quick. Never receovered a bullet, the hot core is tougher than the sierra or hornady interlock. Not as good as a premium bullet but OK at 3006 velocities
Life's too short to hunt with an ugly gun.
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Joined: Mar 2003
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Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
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I've shot a truck-load of whitetails with my old Swede 6.5X55.
For a long time I used 140gr Partitions and never recoverd a bullet.
I switched to Speer 120 Hot-Cor's after a re-barrel,cause they shot the best. I still have not recoverd a bullet,and to be honest,I could care less if the jacket sheds the core.All exit wounds look the same from this gun,about the size of a half dollar.Speer bullets are great,just don't shoot them out of a mag.
Bart I'm glad to hear that, because I loaded some 120 Speers in my swede for my daughter. How big are your deer?? I was leery of 120 gr bullets, it doesn't seem big enough for a decent sized whitetail, but I'm glad you've had good luck with them.
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