Am I wrong if I believe the core are identical on these bullets and only the jacket differ?

I think you're right. the old Grand Slams had a double core. Soft lead at the nose and harder lead in the butt.

Is that a new Grand Slam with an identical core as the Hot-Cor or how?

Found this article http://www.chuckhawks.com/hunting_bullet_guide2.htm

quote:

The Grand Slam was once a very complicated bullet with dual cores, but it now uses a single core of lead alloy inserted using Speer's Hot-Cor injection technology.

But in this article it sounds a little different http://www.americanrifleman.or...er-big-game-bullets/

quote:

original Grand Slam bullets had a two-piece core with the rear being harder than the front. Now, Grand Slams feature a three-component core that is poured into the gilding-metal jacket and flows into a heel pocket.

i have a few boxes speer nitrx loaded with GS bullets in 6,5x55 and i have tested them on packed papper. these are dual-core bullets and give very good penetration and about 70% weight and very like nosler pt bullets.

Speer stopped making dual-core Grand Slam bullets some years ago. This was made very clear on page 23 of Speer #14 first published in April 2007.



.

And now the are in the process of eplacing the Hot Core with the Deep Curl

quote:

Originally posted by TX Nimrod:
Speer stopped making dual-core Grand Slam bullets some years ago. This was made very clear on page 23 of Speer #14 first published in April 2007.

Sorry I don't have any Speer reloading manual but that means Hot-Cor and GS core wise are identical?

In the early 1980's I tried the 375 caliber GS which was 285 grain. It was accurate and had same point of aim as my 275 grain Bitterroots I used to hunt with.

I sectioned several of these original GS bullets and was surprised to find that the core hardness was the opposite of what the advertising said it would be.

They were supposed to be hard antimony lead rear core and soft lead front.

I suspect they had to switch that around to get the bullet to be as accurate as it was, putting the heavier pure lead in rear and somewhat lighter antimony lead up front.

It did have a thick jacket.

This was a long time ago and I dont know how long they made them this way (backwards), but it did not give me alot of faith in their advertising!

Andy

From a practical stand point, both have worked well on game for me. I don't find one kills deader than the other. The hotcore will likely do a little more meat damage if you happen to shoot them in the backstrap. Accuracy is a much bigger factor than bullet performance. Go for the accurate bullet in your gun.....Tom

I would much rather have a better game bullet than a super accurate bullet, at least for big game.

Nowdays you can have both.

For what Speer paid in advertising the GS, in all of its incarnations, they could have purchased Bitterroot, Swift, Trophy Bonded (which they did eventually), Kodiak, and North Fork.

And then they would have had a premium bullet worth advertising.

I really dont know why they were so slow to take up a premium line. As Trapper has said, the GS was OK, somewhere between a cup and draw conventional bullet (ie hot core) and a nosler partition. But a long way from a bonded bullet, or for that matter a partition.

The GS looked better on paper than reality.

When they had the antimony core up front it delayed expansion a bit and increased penetration. When they had the lead core up front it behaved like a hot core costing half as much. Both versions had a pretty stout jacket I will give them credit for that. 0.049 inch as I recall at its thickest. Hot core was probably 0.032 or less?

Andy

I can remember when they had big game bullets with a tungsten penetrator rod in them in the Speer catalogue.

Did these become too expensive of get withdrawn as "the authorities" became worried if they were armour piercing capable?

I tried GS bullets back when, compared to NP's they were a joke! After a couple tries on moose, i never bought them again.

DM

I think its important to draw a distinction between the originall GSs & the African GSs. It sounds to me as though there is some confusion creeping in & really, they're not apples with apples at all. The original dual core GSs were not the same at all as the soft nose African GS which was always a single core, not sure whether it was a hot cor or bonded or what, it primarily relied on a massive jacket to do its thing. I've only shot the dual core GS in 7mm, I tried some in my 7x64 but found it showed next to no advantage over the same weight (160gn) Magtips so I stuck with them. Later I found I was as happy with 154 grn Hornady spire pts. The 7mm GS seemed to blow up a fair bit & do a lot of meat damage bit always carried thru, maybe thats what they were 'sposed to do?
Steve.

I was not aware of that Hot-Cor is made in 220 grain http://www.federalpremium.com/...ils/rifle.aspx?id=19

But it's maybe a special production for Federal as I can't find the bullets only

if i am right the HOT-CORE is not a bonded bullet and like other cup and core bullets jacket separation can occur when meeting resistance inside a game?