Do any of you fellow-hunters have experience with this bullet on big game at 300 Win. mag. velocities (2900 +/- fps)? If so, could you please share your impressions?

African Waterbuck hit rear of onside shoulder blade as animal was quartering away, bullet smashes through 18 inches of spine and is recovered under hide far up neck looking just like it should and weighing 165 grains. This is one tough bullet! Elk hit broadside behind shoulder, makes circular wound 3 1/2 inches in diameter through lungs and seperating heart from large arteries and taking large chunk from top of heart. Bullet exits leaving 1 1/4 inch exit hole. Large feral hog hit in neck, 2 inch hole through vertebrae 2 1/2 inch exit hole hog drops.

I've shot 8mm 200 grain hot core at 3000 fps., numerous hogs, 1 elk, 2 bear. Never recovered a bullet all exited.

7mm mag 160 grain hot core 2,900 fps numerous hogs, deer and 1 elk. Only recovered two bullets. One from an elk at 300 yrds and one from a hog at 20 yrds. Both expanded perfectly.

243 105 grain hot core 2,900 fps numerous deer and 1 hog. Recovered one bullet from a hog. Expanded perfectly.

22-250 70 grain 3,300 fps. One hog, one deer. Both in exellent shape. About 50% weight retention.

Speer hot cores are my favorite. Never had a problem.

Thunderstick,
I have NOT used this combo in a .300 Win Mag but used to use them in the '06. At '06 velocity they worked well but in lighter weights I felt they didn't hold up well enough. That was in the early eighties and I haven't tried them since.

These other gentlemen seem to be happy with them. Maybe they are better now or maybe I got a bad batch. If you're going to use them for Elk you may want to use Speers for practice and then Partitions or such for the hunt. ( after checking POI changes) My experience was limited as I quit trying them. At higher velocities I would recommend something different but I'm curious what others think of them too.

My intention with the 200 grain Speers was as an understudy to the Nosler 200 but my rifle did not shoot the Nosler Partitions well. I tried two powders IMR 7828 and H1000 and still the Noslers would barely make 2 inch groups and usually a bit wider. On the other hand my 300 mag would easily shoot 3/4 inch groups with the 200 grain Speer spitzer. The Speer bullet has a very thick jacket along the shank and only expands to where the ogive ends and instead of losing the expanded portion like the partition it retains most of it. I have used extensively as a deer bullet the 150 grain Speer spitzer out of the 30-06 and can't imagine a better deer bullet. I have also taken several elk with the 180 Speer spitzer out of the 06 with good results. The 50 plus dollars I spent trying to get good results from the partitions was not worth it.

I also tried to use them as an understudy for the 200-gr. Nosler -- they were very accurate but unfortunately only at a lesser powder charge, while the Nosler is accurate in maximum loads in the same rifle.

Some of my thoughts were to consider the 200 grain Speer as the "understudy" to the Partition, but yet at the same time find out what its capabilities actually are.
Currently I use the 180 Hornady SP and the 180 Partition, but would consider moving up to 200 grain category. If Hornady had a 200 grain SP, that would have been my first choice to use with the Partition.
My thought was that with a 200 grain spitzer and the resultant lower velocities there may be less need for a premium bullet for much of big game scenarios for which a 300 Win. would be used.

I like the 200 gr. Speer in my 300 H&H and my 8x57 very much...I also like the Nosler..both are fine...Nosler is better on deer.

Speer makes awfully good bullets and few seem to fail, I have never had a Speer bullet fail on me that I can recall.

My load for the Speer 200 Hot Core,in my 300 H&H is 69 gr. of the old H4831,CCI 250 primers.This mild load gives me 2850fps.After eleven years I drew a NM one in a lifetime oryx permit at White Sands Missile Rangein 1996.A good animal was spotted and approached to 71 paces after about a mile and a half stalk.It was laying down in a greasewood patch.From a sitting position i whistled it to it's feet standing face on but at a slight angle with it's rump to it's left.A greasewood branch covered the center if the briskit so I pulled of slightly to the left shoulder junction with the chest an touched it off.At the shot my observer said it puffed up like a beloon before it whirled and ran off.We found it,piled up in an arroyo about 125 yds.away.When gutted we found that the bullet struck the point of aim,exited behind the left"arm pit",broke the 2nd.rib,took out the left lower lung lobe and lodged in the right flank.The recovered bullet cnsisted of pert of the jacket and a piece of lead about 55 grains.If shown the bullet without knowing the circumstances I would have said lousy performance and even now think poor performance.The fact is that the bullet penetrated about two and a half feet of one of the toughest animals on earth and did it's job.

Ray,
When you say the Nosler is better for deer, I assume you mean that the Speer opens a bit more slowly on deer-size game. Do you feel it opens too slowly to reliably kill deer?

If you think about the way a bullet is made the hot core process makes a lot of sense. Not because the process bonds the core to the jacket but because when a core is cold swaged it is pressed in and its shape is altered while the lead is in solid form, this will make the lead have a tendancy to crumble into pieces and fragment. A hot core will be much less likley to do this as it is poured right into its actual form and so the core will hold together much better. At least thats my theory.

If you want to compare a Speer with a Partition try a Grand slam, they compare VERY well in every aspect.

[ 08-06-2002, 06:57: Message edited by: Wstrnhuntr ]