Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Who uses Speer bullets, are they any good?

I hardly ever see mention of anyone using Speer bullets...why?

Are Speer bullets equal in quality to Hornady, Nosler or Sierra bullets for accuracy and deer hunting?

Anyone shoot Speer 6.5/.264 140 gr. soft points?

I have used them in the past for 44 mag and 45-70 on dee rand elk.Don't have much to say. They worked, deer and elk died.

I use them and like them. John Barsness uses them and likes them. He wrote an article about it. If a man of his experience and discernment likes them, they must be at least tolerable good.

I use the 300 grain .458 in my .45-70, very good bullet, and I've used .308 HotCors in my .308 and .30-06 with good results

They shoot well out of my 22s,24s, 25s, 27s, 30s, and 8mms. All seemed to hit where they are pointed.

The Hot-Cores work fine on game when used within the basic cup-and-core parameters, but often aren't as accurate as Hornady Interlocks or Sierras. The DeepCurls that are replacing them have solved the concentricity problems sometimes found in Hor-Cores, as well as the occasional separated core. (Contrary to what some hunters believe, the Hot-Core process does NOT bond the core to the jacket.)

The Speer Grand Slams used to be a very good bullet but these days are basically a heavy-jacket Hot-Core. They aren't really a premioum bullet anymore.

My experiences with Speer HC's lead me to believe that they may be a little "tougher" bullet than a Sierra of similar design.

In 1983 or '84 I bought out a client's total inventory of little yellow box's in 4-5 calibers of rifle bullets for about the price of a BK Whopper hambuger each, as they were going out of the reloading bidnizz and could not sell the Speers to anyone in S'West Louisiana ... and wound up shooting over 4000 270 150gr HCSP's over many many years out of more than a few 270's I either owned or loaded for hunting partners...all without complaint or comment. Made my Surburban squat! along with all the other crap I traveled with in gun samples and cases of dealer brochures.

I shot a 2-3 year old Indian Black Buck in '05 with a 270 130 gr Federal Grand Slam at about 170 yards ...was loaded for and really looking for a mature Red Deer Stag that no showed ...and tore up the little guy bad...losing both shoulders. He was about the size of a Pronghorn yearling doe, and was hit on the point of the shoulder blade ...the GS was way to much bullet creating bigtime bone shrapnel and the miss on the crease was my fault in not waiting him out to settle down.

Today I shoot a Speer 270gr SP in 9.3x62 and get good bullet performance on WTail sized game out to 300 yards and excellent accuracy from my CZ in the cheapest 9.3 bullet on the market, and just traded for 3 box's of 130 gr 270 HCSP's.
Sure wish I could another deal like that guy in S'West LA gave me!
Ron

For a lot of years, I shot deer on a crop damage permit, for a tree farm. I shot a 270 Winchester in an M-70 XTR and my load of choice for that rifle was Some IMR-4831 and a 130 gr Speer SP. With the same load, and a Model 70 Super Grade I made one of the longest shots of my hunting career on a Mule Deer Buck in the Fort Peck Reservoir Area. That bullet works well out of the 270 on deer sized game. There are better bullets around, but they are cheap and they do work. They shot accurate enough out of the 24 inch barrel on the super grade, I was averaging around 3180 fps. And that Mule Deer, I drilled him right thru the heart and It did exit the other side. They tend to make a mess of things like the heart and the lungs.

Used to use a lot of TNT's for praire dogs. They were very accurate and super explosive. Only reason I changed to plastic tip bullets was because of the higher B.C.

I used to use them in a 7mm-08 130/145gr with excellent accuracy and performance, and I still use the 180/220gr 35 cal in my 35 Rem.
I feel the 35 cal bullets are the best on the market for the 35 Rem...not that I don't like the Hornady and Remington offerings, but every 35 Rem I've ever owned loved the Speers, and none of my deer were less dead.

good shootin'
johnny

It has seemed to me, for several decades, that Speer made a very good pistol bullet, while their rifle bullets ok at best. In higher velocity rifles (6mm & 270), Speers never seemed to produced particularly great consistancy or accuracy.
Their performance in more moderate velocity rifles, like the 35 Whelen, is a little better, but again, no better than Hornady's, etc.
As bullets have gotten markedly better in recent years, perhaps Speer is improving. Their Gold Dot is a very good bullet, but again, a pistol bullet

I've used some of their .30-30 bullets, years ago. Today I use their 400 grain FN in a couple of .45-70's with good results. They are very accurate in those rifles. Until a few years ago I was getting, shall we say, explosive terminal performance on deer at hot-rodded .45-70 speeds, found jackets in the deer at times. Didn't really matter as the core of the bullet always made it through. I got so I tried to stay off big bones at close range. The last few years they seem to have toughened up a bit.

i used to use speer bullets quite a bit for deer, coyotes and casual varminting. the bullet i used the most was the 6mm 90 gr spitzer. and i always found them to be accurate beyond my expectations, and deadly on game...
i don't recall why i gravitated towards sierra, back then, but that's where i wound up with most of my shooting... it was probably an availability thing as sierra seems to have more on most store shelves than other makers...

it had been a few years since i tried any of speers stuff but around 1998-2000 i was doing a fair bit of rifle trading, and load workup... i had sierra's and nosler's manuals at hand, and relied on calls to hornady and speer for info and data...
i occasionally have a question, even with manuals on-hand, and simply pick up the phone and call whatever company who's stuff i am using... hornady, sierra, and nosler are all about customer service and helping... seems like with speer, at least most of the time, i'm leaving a message and waiting for someone to get back to me... and it sometimes takes a day or so...
i've noticed that speers website has improved lately, but for years it was a marvel of non-information...

recently i bought some of the 7mm deep-curls to try in my new to me 7 RM... there was a note in the top of the box that said not to use any load data except for that which was given by speer's website, for that bullet... OK, except that they had very little info to go on there...
i extrapolated some data by comparisons of the loads they did list with those of other 7mms of like weight... then in a fit of self doubt i asked here on the campfire and received a similar but more extensive comparison from MULE DEER.

I have always, and still do like and respect speer as a bulletmaker... always liked the results i got with their stuff...
i have loaded some of the 7mm deep curls but have not yet used them... i hope they find a winning combination that profits them to the point that they see fit to perk up their ways a bit...

The 235 grain, .375 Speer is my standard for smaller big game and plains game in Tanzania. Great bullet for elk too!

Terry

I've used many Speer bullets from .22 through .375 in many different cartridges since I began handloading in 1965. I can say the same for Hornady and Sierra bullets. Good results with all. True, some bullets may take more load development than others in particular firearms. Sometimes we stop short of our goal because of time constraints, impatience, etc., then unfairly pronounce a bullet inaccurate. If restricted to using only one of the three brands mentioned, results would probably be quite satisfactory, given adequate time for proper load development.

For years, I used the 180 gr btsp in my 30-06 to take numerous mulies and elk. They always worked, never came apart and were accurate. All within the cup and core parameters.

Alan

Taken many deer over the decades with the 145HC in a 280 and the 120 HC in a 257AI. Always had great results. Irks me that they have stopped making the 120gr 257 bullet, and we have been waiting for 2 years for the Deep Curl replacement...which is still not available.

I used the same bullet as gmsemel...agreed.150 30 cal as well...same/same.

I load Speer 165g Hot Cores in my 30-06 and 120s in my wifes 6.5x55. They have been accurate to extremely accurate. This may be due to what Mule Deer said about their concentricity problem, but maybe more due to my inconsistant shooting. They have never been inaccurate as far as good enough to get the job done.

I think one of the problems with Speer is they don't promote their products like the other companies do. I never see them on TV and rarely in magazines. They also seemed to rest on their laurels and didn't do anything new until recently.

I like em a lot. Found the last couple of boxes of 165 grain 30 cals locally and am loading them for friends in their .308s and .30-06s for deer and elk.