97g Absolute Hammer powders

[Koda]

since this thread has resurfaced I ended up with 97gn Absolute Hammer at 2800fps with A2520 (32.2g)

[Zinkin]

Koda, are you still running these Hammers? I have a box of 129gn absolute hammer and 125gn hammer HHT and 80gn HHT in .264 to try in my 6.5 grendel and 6.5 PRC. Also bought a box of 200gn Power Hammer to try out in my .35 whelen. I do have a sortment of powders AA2520, 2808XBR, H4831sc, cfe223, N560, N565, N568, varget, Retumbo and 4350. I think I will try cfe223 and AA2520 first with these bullet first and work up a good hunting load. My PSA upper groups the AA129gr SST's pretty dang good. I also bought a couple of boxes of Barnes 100 and 120gn TSX and TTSX to try. How do these bullets group for you, like better slow, mid range or upper loads?

[SDguy]

Koda, are you still running these Hammers? I have a box of 129gn absolute hammer and 125gn hammer HHT and 80gn HHT in .264 to try in my 6.5 grendel and 6.5 PRC. Also bought a box of 200gn Power Hammer to try out in my .35 whelen. I do have a sortment of powders AA2520, 2808XBR, H4831sc, cfe223, N560, N565, N568, varget, Retumbo and 4350. I think I will try cfe223 and AA2520 first with these bullet first and work up a good hunting load. My PSA upper groups the AA129gr SST's pretty dang good. I also bought a couple of boxes of Barnes 100 and 120gn TSX and TTSX to try. How do these bullets group for you, like better slow, mid range or upper loads?

The Absolute Hammers thrive in faster burn rates. The minimal land area facilitates velocity that are rather surprising to me, anyways. Something between Rimshot Tac & H335 would be where I'd expect to find top performance. Big down side to the Absolute Hammers is that you have little reference data to work with & the credibility of the data available is a question mark. Rather few are comfortable going out on a limb to develop there own load data.

[Koda]

Koda, are you still running these Hammers? I have a box of 129gn absolute hammer and 125gn hammer HHT and 80gn HHT in .264 to try in my 6.5 grendel and 6.5 PRC. Also bought a box of 200gn Power Hammer to try out in my .35 whelen. I do have a sortment of powders AA2520, 2808XBR, H4831sc, cfe223, N560, N565, N568, varget, Retumbo and 4350. I think I will try cfe223 and AA2520 first with these bullet first and work up a good hunting load. My PSA upper groups the AA129gr SST's pretty dang good. I also bought a couple of boxes of Barnes 100 and 120gn TSX and TTSX to try. How do these bullets group for you, like better slow, mid range or upper loads?

Yes, Im still running these hammers. Im getting 1moa.... if I understand what you mean Im running these at the upper end of pressure I think, with A2520 I havent found pressure but I am at 100% case fill so Im stopping there.

Since I last replied to this thread Ive tested H335 and HLVR with this 97gn Absolute Hammer (AH). On the H335 I hit major pressure trying to reach the same velocity I got with A2520. With HLVR I did not reach and pressure signs and like A2520 I reached case fill and got about the same velocity Im getting with A2520 so its a wash between those two.

I haven't tried any other bullets yet, guns not even a year old yet. Im very curious how your 80gnHHT works out if your using it in an AR? There is some uncertainty if the neck tension will hold it with only one drive band depending on COAL to fit an AR mag and cycle.

Here's a copy/paste of my pressure ladders for H335 and HLVR to add to the body of knowledge here:

H335 and HLVR pressure ladder with 97gn Absolute Hammer, 2.250 coal.

HLVR: (charge weight/ velocity)

29-2426

30-2554

31-2618

31.5-2679

32-2720

32.5-2773

32.8-2783

33-2806 (compressed)

33.2-2821 (compressed)

No pressure signs on all

H335:

28-2611

29-2698

30-2807 light swipe

31-2909 swipe and ejector mark

31.5-2946 heavy swipe and ejector mark, swipe had shaving burr come off.

31.8-2971 heavy swipe and ejector mark

32-2985 heavy swipe and ejector mark, did not eject from chamber. Stopped

none of these held the bolt open, all but 32gn ejected.

[Koda]

The Absolute Hammers thrive in faster burn rates. The minimal land area facilitates velocity that are rather surprising to me, anyways. Something between Rimshot Tac & H335 would be where I'd expect to find top performance. Big down side to the Absolute Hammers is that you have little reference data to work with & the credibility of the data available is a question mark. Rather few are comfortable going out on a limb to develop there own load data.

I too was curious how the much faster H335 would perform with mine but I pressured out reaching the same velocity Im getting with A2520 (see my post above), I would feel safe with 29gn at 2700fps except I dont see a need to give up that 100fps since Im already there with A2520 and HLVR.

You are correct there is little to no reference data on loading the Absolutes, and while reloaders should approach with caution I havent found it all that risky. Ive found with every bullet weight there is a range of starting weights in various powders that tend to average the same, I start there. Since the Absolutes will react as if they are just a little bit lighter bullet Im comfortable just starting at the average starting weight listed in most published load data for the same bullet weight. The caveat to that is I prefer if my powder is one of those listed of course. I tend to prefer Hodgdon or Nosler load data, plus Hammers user data for reference.

So far between 2 Absolutes I've handloaded I've always started way too low and wasted those precious primers to find max (pressure then back off a grain).

[Zinkin]