Just wondering how they hold up... anyone shot deer sized game with the Speer Hot Cor bullets? I have an excellent shooting load worked up for them, .05" @ 100 with the 7mm-08, (thanks to those in the know here at ARF), and was curious if anyone had results to share. TY

Ive shot lots of deer with Hot Cores and never had a problem. But Ive heard that in certian neighborhoods they (the deer) get real upset and will refuse to die if they are not shot with a more expensive bullet. Being from the west side of town, Ive not had that happen to me though..

I happen to like Speer Hot Core bullet for deer. Like Westrnhunter I am therefore not cool.

The 130gr 7mm flat base has performed very well.

Back a few yrs ago my wife shot a mature cow elk head on at about 175 yds. She had a 7mm-08 with 160 Hot-Cores at all of 2500 fps. At the shot the cow trotted down hill but very "stiff legged". She died before we got to her.
In the chest,wrecked the lungs,hit liver, then OUT the left hip with a piece of pelvis(?)bone about the size of a 20Ga shell on the ground by her rump.

Thought THAT was pretty impressive. Maybe this velocity thing isn't all its cracked up to be??

FN in MT

Wstrnhunter and Savage99,

Around these parts, the animals make you sign a disclaimer stating that you will not embarass them by hunting with any type of non-premium bullet....

I admit I use premium bullets in my 7mm RM (Nosler partitions, which seem to be considered old and therefore "uncool" by many), but for my .303 British, .300 Savage, or .250 Savage I use Speer Hot-Core and Hornady bullets...Somehow, a lot of deer have ended up awfully dead because of them. Those deer must be from the West side of town also...

LOL... the reason here in the place to post, straight forward - informative answers with a humorous twist. I too lack the silver spoon, but have often found myself slinging, and quite tactfully I might add, Partition bullets into our PA whitetail population. I have had a mixed bag of results with them, in that some expand very well while others think they were made to be FMJ's. I've had high voltage stops with the not so expensive Sierra Game King's I sometimes toss down the bore. It's nice when deer fall graveyard dead where they stand, but not so nice to shoot our Sears brand deer. You know the ones, from their Diehard line. Tuff numbers that have reserve backup battery allowing the "run to the hills" mode no matter where ya hit 'em. Ok, with the exception of the bean shot.

From the sounds of things, these Speer Hot Cors should be just what the doctor ordered. TY all for the info and the grins I got from reading them.



[ 11-14-2003, 14:49: Message edited by: Jollyarcher ]

From the 7-08, and at the range you are likely to shoot a Deer, those Hot Cores are great.

Soup them up to Magnum speed, and they act like Ballistic Tips under 300 yards.

I have had very good results from the 160 gr hot core out of my 7mm mag . I have used mostly max loads of H870 , and have yet to have a deer or lope stop one , including a couple of shots as close as fifty, sixty yards.

On the other hand , I saw a guy shoot a nice buck with the 145 gr version one time out around 250 yards , adn the ENTRACE hole was big enough to stick you fist into.........the hit was high in the spine area , and the deer died real quick......

The part of PA I live in commonly has lower reading comprehension scores, at least among whitetails, than the national average, so, our deer haven't been informed yet that they need to be hit with a monolithic or other specialized bullet in order to expire. Just today, in fact, my brother-in-law's brother dumped a nice 10 point using a sharpened steel head (don't know if it was a partition or not) on a stick, propelled by a string attached to a bent piece of wood.

About the most exotic bullet I've ever used on any of them has been the old 284/140 Nosler Solid Base (just great bullets).

I used the 145 boattails (didn't know this at the time, but Speer's boattails aren't Hot Cores) for a number of years in my 7-08's with no problems until I had to put a finisher in a deer from about 20 yards, and the core slipped out of the jacket. We found the jacket mushroomed just inside the shoulder, but the core had traversed the body. Went to the 145 grain flat based Hot Cores and no more problems.

Standard old 139 and 154 Hornady spire points work pretty good, too. And 140/150 R-P Core Lokts. And 150 W-W Power Points.

R-WEST

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Jollyarcher:
"" .05" @ 100 with the 7mm-08,"" REALLY? That sure is an accurate rifle.

R-West, oh man, you used those peasant class Hornady bullets on our hillbilly deer? Thats just awfull, they can only pronounce simple words like speer. But that confuses them too since indians had spears and now they think we use wood and flint bullets. No wonder our deer look confused...

The only experience with a Speer Hot Core was with a 250 grain bullet I threw at a moose at 2400 fps. Darned if the bullet didn't go all the way through the moose and kill it stone cold dead!

I wouldn't want to try a 140 grainer out of my 7mag at warp 3.2, however. FWIW, Dutch.

Woops! LOL. That was a typo... I did mean 1/2 inch, sorry about that fella's. I loaded the 120 grain Hot Cores for my wife. I've never owned a 7mm08 and my new buddy Jay, who posts here often, suggested the Varget load. I was pleasantly surprised to print .5" from basically a bone stock rifle on my first trip out. I did do the trigger, but didn't glass the action or float the barrel. I suspect that it will shoot under that, but heck why bother? I bought it for deer and not benchrest shoots.

After all, I generally harvest our dazed and confused PA whitetails with one of them more advanced bent pieces of wood R-WEST spoke of. Mine is a chunk of aluminum with arched fiberglass on each end that some guy named "Mathews" scribbled on. Keeping with the modern end of my hidden desire to play indians vs. critters, I glue funky threaded metal to the business end of carbon sticks and propel them at breakneck speeds nearing 270 fps! Whew... look the heck out! Maybe that's what that deer shoulda done did last night... woops, he forgot to duck. Hehehehe. NEXT!

Westy Winber? I think I have been there... not far from Clearfield... Hellrazor... PA east of?

TY all... HC, good deal, as always, excellent info in my continued quest for shooting things!

Now that's a good thing... in that your experience with the 120's has been very positive. That's a very bad thing that Speer may not make them in the future. I originally chose that grain to reduce recoil for her little 5'2, 105 pound frame. It is very mild to shoot, and she, who has never discharged a centerfire rifle before this one, shoots groups off the bench with it as well as I do. Yes, embarrased I am.

I shall gather all the 120's up I can find locally so I don't run out anytime soon. TY for the heads up. Perhaps if someone could guide me in posting a picture, I will be able to show some deer results in the weeks to come. Archery season ended yesterday here in PA but the rifle opener is just around the corner. I have "built" generic webpages in the past and was not sure of this board allowed such HTML coding. A pic or two is what I would like to share. I have a close up shot of a mechanical broadhead I used the other night to school a whitetail and kinda wanted to post it on the Bowhunting thread. TY x 2

Hey Jollyarcher, I'll let you in on a secret that not a lot of people know. If by chance you can't get any more of the 0.284" 120gr Hot-Cor bullets, the 0.284" 120gr Nosler B-Tips(P# 39550) work right well on Deer too.

The Nosler folks have made some good changes to the B-Tips since they first hit the market and they penetrate deeper than they used to. I've probably taken that many Deer with the 120gr B-Tip as well, so they work. I'd estimate the biggest one with them went 170# and the 120gr B-Tip Exited the Off-Side shoulder at about 75yds. So, the Impact Velocity was still pretty high.

I can't remember if I got Exits with Shoulder-to-Shoulder shots with "either" bullet, but I do remember being surprised to find both of them Exiting Shoulders(most of the time) when the bullets entered just behind the near shoulder.

Then that gets us back to the 130gr Hot-Cor or the 130gr Boat Tail bullets. If you can't locate the 120gr-ers, I seriously doubt she would notice the difference if you switched to the heavier bullet. And since you reload, there is nothing to say you have to start her out at Full Throttle anyhow.

Lots of "great Bullets" for the 7mm-08. No doubt in my mind that is a major reason why is is such a highly regarded cartridge.

...

I don't know Beans about posting a Flick, so some of the other folks will have to help you there.

[ 11-16-2003, 16:19: Message edited by: Hot Core ]

A major reason for thepremium bullets is to hold up under high velocity. This doesn't make them better in the universal sense, just designed for different conditions.
Yeup, it costs more to make them that way.
In 7mm-08 I can't imagine a reason to need a Partition, but if you try that Hot-Core in a 7mm RUM, you might be disappointed.
I know these comments are tongue-in-cheek, but is there really anyone out there advocating the use of Barnes Triple-Shok across the board for all hunting use?

Oh yes my peasant class hornady interlocks just surrender when i try to shoot them in my .264WM. They flat out refuse to kill a deer and act like a french soldier.

Silly people, we are not comparing lead bullets to jacketed. I guess 30 years ago all the people with 220 swifts were shooting those overpriced permium bullets to make it work too.

There is not a dead deer, dead elk or dead bear in North America that was shot with a Speer bullet that will tell you they do not work.

Sums up my experience with them pretty much.


[ 11-18-2003, 05:04: Message edited by: seafire/ B17G ]

I just wanted to make a clarifcation on Frank N. 's post.

Frank, correct me if I'm wrong, but the bullet you used was a Speer Mag-Tip, was it not?

I think it's important to note that they are a MUCH tougher bullet than the regular speer hot-cores.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

[ 11-18-2003, 09:46: Message edited by: Johnny Ringo ]

BTT