How consistent are Speer 2007 130-grain .308 bullets?

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Jason
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How consistent are Speer 2007 130-grain .308 bullets?

Post by Jason »

I was wondering the question in the title of this post today. In case you have wondered also, here's a sample to help answer it.

I usually do my due diligence when working up loads, including trying to eliminate outliers from factors other than the powder charge and seating depth. One of those steps is weighing the bullets that I'm using to work up the load with. With the new 30-30, I want to try to work up a load with the Speer 130-grain bullets (part 2007) so I was weighing out enough bullets to run the tests with. Since I was weighing some, I decided to go ahead and weigh all of those that I had to see just how consistent they were on weight. Instead of just posting numbers that are sometimes not as easy to understand, here's a picture.

Image

Now that I have all of them weighed, I can put the top row in one little ziploc snack bag and the bottom row in another, both bags labeled to use for warm-up and practice only. Each of the weights on the middle row can get their own bag with the weight on it, and will be used for competition and load development. I started doing this for high power matches, as some of the so-called "match" bullets had even more of a variance than seen here on these non-match bullets. Since these will be used for cowboy targets, I could probably also use the 129.7-grain and 130.4-grain bullets for competition, but there are few enough of them that I'll just use them for practice so I have a bit more confidence in my loads during the matches.
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Re: How consistent are Speer 2007 130-grain .308 bullets?

Post by Another Dang 9 »

Jason, I've been using the 130 speers for years without weighing them. I'm sure I've had fliers due to not doing it so maybe ill start to do that. Speer stoped making those and now they are called "Deep Curl" which I have not tried. Not sure how much difference there is in these compared to the older ones.
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Re: How consistent are Speer 2007 130-grain .308 bullets?

Post by snaketail2 »

I did a similar process with Speer 75gr .257FN bullets. Other than weeding out the rejects (way too light) I found the benefit was more psychological than physical. It is mentally encouraging to know you are shooting the best ammo you can make, but the reality (for me) is I wobble to much to make the process viable.

Muscle memory is probably more important in Lever Action matches.

But you have eliminated some of the variables...now you'll have to come up with a better excuses when you don't knock one down.

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Re: How consistent are Speer 2007 130-grain .308 bullets?

Post by atomicbrh »

It would be interesting to load the 129.2 grain bullet and the 130.9 grain bullet to the same specs. Chronograph and at the same time shoot for group with just those two bullets to see if 1.7 grains actually makes a difference in lever action at the ram.
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Re: How consistent are Speer 2007 130-grain .308 bullets?

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Another Dang 9 wrote: Sun Jun 10, 2018 10:37 pm Jason, I've been using the 130 speers for years without weighing them. I'm sure I've had fliers due to not doing it so maybe ill start to do that. Speer stoped making those and now they are called "Deep Curl" which I have not tried. Not sure how much difference there is in these compared to the older ones.
The ones that I am using, and are widely available, are the Hot-Cor bullets that are Speer part number 2007. I have used these for many years. Here's the link to them on the Speer site.

https://www.speer-ammo.com/en/bullets/r ... cfn-bullet

See them here and available on the MidwayUSA site.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/10105 ... box-of-100

I did just buy all of those Hot-Cor bullets so they seem to still be available. I am not aware of there being a 130-grain .308" DeepCurl bullet from Speer. I believe that Speer discontinued all of their DeepCurl rifle bullets and only use that name for their pistol hunting bullets now.
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Re: How consistent are Speer 2007 130-grain .308 bullets?

Post by Another Dang 9 »

Jason, that's good news about the Hot Core bullets. The Deep Curl bullets just looked like the same bullet but with an up tick in cost. I may have to buy up some more of the 130gr. as they were hard to find for a while.
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Re: How consistent are Speer 2007 130-grain .308 bullets?

Post by Jason »

Note that the Speer 150-grain Hot-Cor bullets (part number 2011) were listed as discontinued for multiple years, but are now available again. They have the best BC for a reasonably-priced 150-grain flat or round-nosed .308 bullet and shot great out of multiple rifles for me. Now that they have suddenly popped back up, I think I'll grab some of those. I heard a few negative reports of the 170-grain Hot-Cor bullets (part number 2041) on rams, at least as compared to the now discontinued 170-grain DeepCurl bullets (part number 2042) that I'm currently using. If the rams are correctly set with 2/3 of the foot on the rails, the 150-grain bullets should be fine unless they splatter apart. If I can take the rams set fully on the rail down with a 140-grain bullet out of my 260 Rem at 500 meters by finding the right impact velocity, I should be able to find the right velocity for a 150-grain bullet out of my 30-30 at 200 meters to take 2/3 set rams. :D
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Re: How consistent are Speer 2007 130-grain .308 bullets?

Post by JohnHenry »

Jason, I have used the Speer 130 and 170 grain bullets for years in my Marlin 1894 .30-30 because they have the best ballistic coefficient of all the major .308 bullet manufacturers. I have never weighed the bullets. I can get 1 1/2" five shot groups at 200 yards consistently. I don't need any better accuracy from a lever gun for the size targets we shoot. I suppose if it makes you feel better, weigh the bullets, but I really think it is a waste of time. After all,we are not shooting benchrest rifles here. I think weighing the powder charges exactly is much more important.

I'm at the Whittington Center for the summer and have been shooting the 30-30 quite a bit. Just for fun I tried the 130g Speers on the rams and when I hit the target, they fell--no exceptions. Now, in a match, I use 170g Speers, but I was pleasantly surprised by the effectiveness of the 130g bullets at 200 meters. The Speer bullet doesn't seem to break apart-splatter-when it hits the target like some of the other brands.

Deep Curl Speer Bullets. I tried them a few years ago when they were introduced. I think they were supposed to take the place of the hot core bullet. I had accuracy problems with the deep curl and returned them to the supplier. I was not aware Speer was still producing them. I would not recommend them for the lever action silhouette game--period /:) .
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Re: How consistent are Speer 2007 130-grain .308 bullets?

Post by CamP »

I tested the lightest/heaviest Speer 130's out of curiosity and I found that the poi was not significantly different between the rounds. Now I just load and shoot them without worrying about it.
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Re: How consistent are Speer 2007 130-grain .308 bullets?

Post by Jason »

JohnHenry wrote: Mon Jun 11, 2018 7:05 pm Deep Curl Speer Bullets. I tried them a few years ago when they were introduced. I think they were supposed to take the place of the hot core bullet. I had accuracy problems with the deep curl and returned them to the supplier. I was not aware Speer was still producing them. I would not recommend them for the lever action silhouette game--period /:) .
Thanks, John. I do also weigh every charge for every load that I'm using in rifle competitions (and even for the Contenders in hunter pistol silhouette).

I have had great accuracy from the 170-grain DeepCurl bullets (part number 2042) from multiple 30-30 rifles, but only have less than 100 left and Speer has discontinued them a couple years ago. I have also tried the 170-grain Hot-Cor bullets that shot reasonably well but rang a couple rams on the same range in the same conditions where the DeepCurl bullets didn't with the same load. The bullet marks were large and bright instead of small and dark, which seemed to indicate splatter instead of holding together to transfer momentum. This was with average muzzle velocity of 2133fps out of a 24" barrel, so I wasn't pushing them very hard. Others observed this same pattern, which led me to believe it wasn't only my experience. We also discussed it here.

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=10054&p=7859

My 10-in-a-row on rams in one of my first few matches was shot with those 170-grain DeepCurl bullets.That was back when CLA rams were still set fully on the rails instead of the current 2/3 foot rule, though. The 170-grain Hot-Cor bullets may not ring rams now, but I would still have the thought in my head that it could happen since it happened then. Once I shoot these 170-grain DeepCurl bullets up, I intend to try the 150-grain Hot-Cor bullets now that they are available again. Those bullets shot great in every rifle I tried them in before they stopped making them for a while. I hope they are as great now as they were then.

Hmm... since there are only a couple more CLA matches at most that I'll get to shoot this year, I may go ahead and save these 170-grain DeepCurl bulllets for hunting loads and work up a load with the 150-grain Hot-Cor bullets.
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Re: How consistent are Speer 2007 130-grain .308 bullets?

Post by Another Dang 9 »

I'm just glad they are making the Hot Core bullets again. I've had good luck with them and wouldn't shoot anything else. Now if they would bring back the 25-20 and 32-20 bullets... X(
But that's a different topic.
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Re: How consistent are Speer 2007 130-grain .308 bullets?

Post by Doodaddy »

I usually use the Sierra Pro Hunter bullets, but these Hot Core Speers are a bit cheaper. I may give them a try.
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