Merry Christmas everyone ....

--Quick question, has anyone else having problems getting Hawk Bullets?

I have really liked their 416 cal 350 grain - the lighter jacket of the two offered, in my 416 Taylor. Very accurate and great expansion. But my connection for getting them is getting no response lately- a mom and pop gun-shop in northern Washington state. I don't see much mention about Hawk Bullets by anyone here. Any and all comments about them welcome.

http://www.hawkbullets.com

Bob.

I've tried several. I found them too soft for my liking.

i too find them too soft ..

speer maptips work great in my 416s

quote:

But my connection for getting them is getting no response lately- a mom and pop gun-shop in northern Washington state.

The web-site says Salem NJ why do you think northern Washington state???

Lane,
his CONNECTION to them is as small gun store, rather than directly

Lane

http://www.custombrassandbullets.com/haprbu.html

Sarah will take care of you and if they are out of stock our lead time is half of the retail lead time.

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
Lane,
his CONNECTION to them is as small gun store, rather than directly

"I see!" said the blind man.

Thanks every one for the replies.

I see that some of you feel Hawks are too soft, but that is one of the reasons I like them. Would rather see most of the energy spent inside the vitals than blowing just through an animal's chest cavity. However the meat lost if the shoulder is directly hit no doubt would be substantial.

RNS - thanks for the link, I'll give them a try in the new year. Hawk Bullets does sell/ship direct but for small orders of 400-500 I would not think they are too interested.

Happy and prosperous New Year, and good hunting!

Bob.

I buy directly from Hawk. They have always treated me well. I usually order 50-200 bullets at a time. Custom/small orders have never been a problem for me with Hawk. Need a cannelure, no problem! They can do it!

If you do some searches you will find Hawk threads.

I stopped using them. A thick jacket 175gr RN Hawk driven out of a 7x57 at moderate velocity has way too much expansion and way too little penetration for a whitetail.

quote:

Originally posted by Rusty:
I buy directly from Hawk. They have always treated me well. I usually order 50-200 bullets at a time. Custom/small orders have never been a problem for me with Hawk. Need a cannelure, no problem! They can do it!

I do too!. Just call Andy at Hawk. He is a terrific guy and usually has what you need on hand. Hawk bullets work great in most doubles, especially the older guns because they are very soft and easy on your barrel. I shoot a lot of them in my .470. One thing to note, you have to load them down a grain or two. Because they are so soft, they produce higher pressures.

quote:

Originally posted by ramrod340:
I've tried several. I found them too soft for my liking.

+ 1 They tend to separate from their cores easily.

I too had very poor results on whitetails with them at bp velocities. Too bad because they shoot great out of my double. More load development to come.

quote:

Originally posted by skb:
I too had very poor results on whitetails with them at bp velocities. Too bad because they shoot great out of my double. More load development to come.

I too got good accuracy, but they are just too soft IMO.

I am a fan of old style softs, and quite like the way hawks explode game when pushed fast in bigbores

They will also take it sensibly if you keep the velocity to acceptable levels.

The current fashion of bullets needing to be able to penetrate a wooden buffalo covered in phonebooks immersed in a 10ft aquarium is boring as shit as far as I am concerned.

That's just me personally.

But Karl, if they are too soft, they won't penetrate well at all.

Of course, but as long as they kill the game, for me penetration was 'well enough'.

I have no doubt one can find velocity/jacket combo's in which hawks will fail to kill.

I had no problems in fast pushed 458-585 calibres personally on medium game.Indeed the spherical explosion was most satisfactory and I felt quite well about it

Thanks Rusty and Dave -- will give Andy a call in a month or two, when I put together a list of all I want to try.

Further on the too soft issue. If the bullet makes it out the other side of the animal, it has more than enough penetration. An entrance and exit hole for bleed out is good, but I for one like the humane shock and fast kill of the smashed vitals in between. For the most part I usually try to stay in the vitals and avoid the front shoulder or chest shot. And I think what we are talking about here is thin skinned North American game, not rhino or elephant where deep penetration on the skull / spine is everything.

Again good to see a full discussion with lots of opinions, happy and safe hunting to all. Bob.

458, 450gr .060 jacket, MV 2100 .. warthog, ~60 yards, broadside .. did not exit, pancaked to about 1" .. animal recovered eventually

577 nitro - pressure signs on otherwise known safe loads

458, 450gr .060 jacket, MV 2100 - spit jacket under hide, sable, about 90 yards, penciled through sable .. recovered

.550 700gr,(i forget thickness) 2130fps mv, distance, 20feet .. spit jacket on THIS side of 3/4" plywood bullet trap.. jacket FELL OFF at impact, did not penetrate.. bullet hit 2 1 gallon ziplock bags, pressure wave ruptured third bag.. penetration? about 20", including fragments...

.358, 225gr rn, .030 jacket .. mv 2450, range, ~115 yards .. 130# hog... hit spin, bullet did not exit, only fragments found .. pig died by the time i ran up ... a 223 would have done the same



unpredictable bullet performance .. i only use them when there's no other choices

bullet placement is 100times more important than bullet performance .. right until the bullet detonates

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:unpredictable bullet performance .. i only use them when there's no other choices

bullet placement is 100times more important than bullet performance .. right until the bullet detonates

I couldn't agree more......

quote:

Originally posted by Karl:
I am a fan of old style softs, and quite like the way hawks explode game when pushed fast in bigbores

They will also take it sensibly if you keep the velocity to acceptable levels.

The current fashion of bullets needing to be able to penetrate a wooden buffalo covered in phonebooks immersed in a 10ft aquarium is boring as shit as far as I am concerned.

That's just me personally.

Karl,

There is a bloke in Sydney who calls himslef the Bullet Factory and he makes blow up bullets in 30 and 375 and also 458. Sell like hot cakes and he is always out of stock for them.

He does the 30 calibre and 375s both as soft points and big hollow points. I think Hawk bullets are done or were done on copper tube but this blokes are proper guilding metal jackets which he makes himself. So the jackets are closed at the base.

His 400 grain 458 is a semi spitzer and half the ogive is lead

He is about to start 416s.

One of his 30 calibres duplicate the 130 grain Speer hollow point. I think ADI make them as well for the pig and goat cull ammo they make in 308.

Mike sounds like the bullet for volume hunting. Reduce chance of over penetration and good margin of error for fast bigbores, eg ruining small/medium game even with gutshots

Actually one of the best pics I have seen is the deer I think RGB shot with his 585. Gutted it with one shot.

I'd fuck around more with bullet anaylsis or checking wound channels etc if I needed to draw lottery tickets or pay fees to shoot single animals as the yanks do. As much to have a hobby between hunt seasons.

Shooting mobs of game as we know is about getting rounds down range and onto the next target as quick as you can. Brutal business, but no different than principals of shooting at people.

quote:

Originally posted by Karl:I'd fuck around more with bullet anaylsis or checking wound channels etc if I needed to draw lottery tickets or pay fees to shoot single animals as the yanks do. As much to have a hobby between hunt seasons.

Shooting mobs of game as we know is about getting rounds down range and onto the next target as quick as you can. Brutal business, but no different than principals of shooting at people.

I shoot as many hogs as I can per year -- no limit, no season, no trophy fee, no lottery. I still prefer quality bullets.

quote:

Originally posted by Whitworth:

I shoot as many hogs as I can per year -- no limit, no season, no trophy fee, no lottery. I still prefer quality bullets.

The quick expanders kill better. Standard cull 308 ammo in Australia for pigs and goats is 130 grain Speer Hollow point or Australiam made copies.

quote:

Originally posted by Whitworth:

quote:

Originally posted by Karl:I'd fuck around more with bullet anaylsis or checking wound channels etc if I needed to draw lottery tickets or pay fees to shoot single animals as the yanks do. As much to have a hobby between hunt seasons.

Shooting mobs of game as we know is about getting rounds down range and onto the next target as quick as you can. Brutal business, but no different than principals of shooting at people.

I shoot as many hogs as I can per year -- no limit, no season, no trophy fee, no lottery.

Same for all our game species.

Most of our animals(wild cattle,roos, wild dogs, camels, horses, donkeys, goats hogs, etc) are pests and outnumber our human population of 20 million several times over.

If you want to shoot as much as you can here you can get into 4 digit figures and of course that's really hitting some mobs of game at a time.

So a quality of soft softs is if you spring a mob of 20-30 animals you aren't shooting holes in the ones behind the first one. Hence the market for these bullets speaks for itself.

Then again some prefer to shoot through whatever is in front of them with harder stuff like barnes etc. Even a sick/wounded feral is a bonus to the environment after all. Each to his own. I don't mind either way- though I rather like the effect of soft bullets visually .

I loaded some Hawks for leopard in 30-06. I purchased directly from Hawk. They offer bullets in varying degrees of hardness. I followed their advice and the results were quite satisfactory.