G'day John and everyone,

It is my understanding that the old Speer Grandslam bullet had two lead cores of differing hardness but this has since been changed to the one lead core. Have I got this right? The old Speer manuals used to list separate data for Grandslam bullets as they mentioned pressures were different than other bullets of the same weight. Speer now list all bullets of the same weight, including Grandslams, together. I assume, correctly or incorrectly, that this means the Grandslam now exhibits similar pressure to other Speer bullets.

Is the 'new' Grandslam still a tough premium bullet or is it now similar to a Speer Hotcor cup and core. I recently purchased second-hand five boxes of 6.5mm 140gn Grandslams and was wondering if they are the old style or the new? Is there any way to tell the difference between the old style and the new? They are in the 50 count clear orange plastic boxes with the bullets vertical in their own little space the same as some 7mm Grandslams I bought 18 years ago. Or did the new style GSs come in the same boxes? I will load them in a 22" 6.5x55 so I would assume that even if they are the 'new' single core bullet they will still be adequate for fallow deer size game.

Sorry for rambling but the Grandslam is a bullet that never seems to get mentioned or written about anymore.

For me, decades ago, the GS was a pretty crappy bullet on game.

Hot-Cor's are a much better bullet on game, in my experience.

I use Partition's 90% of the time. Hot-Cor the other 10.

Others mileage will no doubt vary.

Good shooting!

I bought the first grand slams - 100. I still have 40. They were poor bullets. I think they had improved by other’s testimony, but I never bought another box. If anyone wants these forty bullets... 30 cal 180 gr. Otherwise I’m using them to shoot after applying Dyna Bore.

I shot Geand Glams in my 25-06. Killed deer and pigs plenty dead.

I have been shooting them in a 300WM since '96. They killed a bunch of elk and a couple of deer. Never had any problem with the bullets and they shot a 5/8" group out of my old Browning Abolt Boss...

The 6.5 mm 140 was one of my favourites before they discontinued it quite a few years ago so the ones you have would be old bullets. The 6.5 mm looked to me like they were only one piece when I sectioned them the same as the 6 mm and 257 versions. Oddly enough I saw a press release that they are going to be offering 6 mm, 257 and 6.5 mm G.S. bullets for 2018, unsure what exact weights they will be though.

https://www.ammoland.com/2018/01/391921/#axzz57JkjJsHa

I only have a few 6.5 mm 140's left and would love it if they brought that weight back. We shot quite a few deer and black bears with them from both the 260 and 6.5x55 and never had any problems at all. Complete penetration on every animal and there were quite a few.

Elvis,

When the Grand Slams first appeared in the 1970's they were pretty soft, probably because the jackets were a little thin. I know this from personal experience on big game.

After a few years they got tougher, and generally acted much like Nosler Partitions on game. They could be pretty damn accurate as well.

When the dual-core went away, they became much like thicker-jacketed Hot-Cors, similar to the Mag-Tips. I first tested some 200-grain .30's from a .300 Winchester Magnum at 2900+ fps, shot into dry newspaper at around 30-35 yards, my standard "tough" test for big game bullets, since it's similar to hitting heavy bone. I shot five into one stack of paper, spacing them so they each went into fresh paper. Three of the five retained their cores and, as I recall, around 70% of their weight. The other two lost their cores, so didn't penetrate very deeply.

Its worth noting thatbthe 25 and 24 caliber GS's where never dual cores. They worked very well. Is used thwm in 270 as well with excellant results. I have one somewhere that I ecovered and it looks perfect.

Thanks for the replies gentlemen. I'll load some up when I have finished with my current bullets (127gn RWS Cone Points). The GS is one bullet I have never shot in any of my rifles, despite having some 7mm ones sitting on my shelf for 18 years, so I'll load some up next. I'm going through a bit of a phase of trying bullets I've never shot before. I'll load the 145gn GS in my Ruger No.1 7x57 as well.

The one Speer bullet that I have extensive experience with is the .338 caliber 275 grain which is long discontinued. It was the bullet that shot the absolute best in my .338 Magnum M/70 and killed elk dead. Most reloaders that I know have never had much good to say about Speer bullets, preferring Hornady, Sierra or Nosler over Speer.

I purchased a box of Grand Slams many years ago......25 caliber....120 grain. My gun just didn't seem to like them and that was the last time I ever bought them. They didn't give me any confidence over Partitions or A-frames and later when bonded bullets came out, the Grand Slams lost all interest to me.

Today, it's lead free bullets that I'm going to as it just makes good sense due to the small extra cost involved and the gains that can come from it. As far as I know, Speer does not make any monometal bullets so in my world they have lost it. I really liked their 50 grain TNT .224 bullets....great accuracy and if prairie dogs was on the hit list, they were fairly economical too. That said, I have a lifetime supply of those.....So Hornady, Nosler and Barnes are the complete list of bullets to choose from for me.

I have a box of the older ones from the 80s I have shot some deer with from a 300 Weatherby. They group better for me than any bullet I have loaded in that rifle. Meat damage has been minimal even when hitting some bone. Every deer I have shot with them was dead before they hit the ground. From my experience they have been the Perfect bullet. But to be fair that is on only 6 or 7 animals.

I have a few of those and hot cors and Nosler and Hornady and brass I got in a package deal.....
I don't own a .338.

Back in the day when I didn’t know any better, I used the Grand Slam when it was factory loaded in Speer Nitrex ammo in my .308 Win. I don’t think any of the deer or elk magically came back to life because of that bullet being inferior. I have some Hotcor SP loaded and they are plenty accurate in that rifle although I have not fired at a critter other than coyotes in nearly 30 years. Happy Trails

I killed two deer and one antelope with grand slams bought in 2002 with a 25-06. I had no complaints , one of the deer was taken at about 25 yards, and the bullet did a great job.

I used the 120gr 25cal in the early 90's and the 145gr and 160gr 7mm cal from the early 90's to the mid 2000's.Those were the original dual core bullets.They worked real well.They were accurate and tough bullets,never had an issue with those.

My sampling of the GS is small, several deer and a small bull taken in the early 80's. I found them to be tough and never recovered any, all had passed through the animals. I loaded 180's in my father's .308 in the early 90's and they expanded greatly on a 250yd shot. They seemed much softer than the earlier ones. The earlier 130gn. .270 bullet was very accurate but some time later they must have tweaked them, a later purchased box of 130's had the cannelure moved more to the center of the bullet and they weren't as accurate. I believed they also advertised a "ring?", similiar to Hornady's Interlock. Yesterday I purchased a box of 150gn Grand Slams for $9.97 at a local Sportman's Warehouse. The box had been taped but seemed intact. That's cheaper than what I paid for them 30yrs ago. I also paid $19.97 for 140gn .270 Federal Trophy Bonded bullets, are these new bullets not selling well? That seems very inexpensive for a premium bullet.

My family have shot a lot of game with GS bullets since the early '90's.
100grn in 6mm Rems
145 and 160's out of numerous 7mm-08's & 7X57's.
165 & 180's out of few .308's & a 30-06
225's from a .338-06.

Never had a single time that we thought the bullet mis-behaved, though we've had funny things happen with Sierra, Hornaday's and "early" BT's.

I haven't been able to tell a performance difference between the old style and new style yet.

Wouldn't be my choice for any kind of distance shooting though. They are kind of like a brick for BC.

I believe Elmer Kieth had a hand in the design of this one or at least requested it. I think he and Vernon Speer were good friends both being from Idaho and in the gun business. Bill Steigers ( Bitterroot Bonded Core Bullets) was also associated with Speer and did some of the load development for the early manuals. If those two were involved then that is a pretty good pedigree. The ones I shot seemed to work as designed but when they went to the single core they didn't seem much better than the Hot Core or a Corelokt at least for the price. I would still use them for any application that I would use a cup and core bullet for but would only buy them if on sale.

Today's Grand Slams are essentially a heavier-jacket version of the Hot-Cor. There's nothing wrong with that, as anybody who's used Hot-Cors knows, and I've used a lot of 'em over the years. But a heavy-jacket Hot-Cor isn't like a Nosler Partition, and the two-core Grand Slams performed a lot like Partitions when they hit game.

The G.S. bullet I have taken the most game with is the 140 gr 6.5 mm mentioned in my first post. Even though that one is a 1 piece core it does do well at 6.5x55 and 260 Rem speeds, but those velocities are not too rough on bullets. Had lots of experience with the older dual core 30 cal 165, 180 and 200 gr G.S. in a 30-06 and 308 Norma and liked what they did. Stopped using them when they went to the one piece core on those bullets and gravitated more towards Nosler bullets. I'll probably try them again sometime just because in my 270 Win and 300 WSM when one of those two shows up in the house this year.