I’ve read that thread, the .223 and the 77gr TMK have a cult following over there.
I hunted with Hammers for a few years but have moved most of my loading back over to Hornady bullets though I do keep a few 125 HHT loaded for my 6.5 PRC. My Dad and Brother were the main drivers for the switch back as they were having run offs with the Hammers that they weren’t getting with the Hornady’s.
And it wasn’t bad shots that were the issue, they were double lung shots but the problem was on drives the deer weren’t reacting like they were hit only to topple over later. I shot a buck with the 109 AH at 3300 fps at the muzzle on a drive and it ran 150 yards before dropping even with the damage shown below.
View attachment 282367
I’ve had it happen twice, once with a 175gr OTM out of my 30-06 and once with a 130gr OTM out of a 6.5 Creedmoor. Luckily the 30-06 dropped the deer as it was close to the spine due to the angle but I did have to shoot it a second time 30 minutes later.
The second deer we only found due to a grid search, my Dad was confident that he didn’t miss the deer so we scoured the area that it went and ended up finding it well over 150 yards away with pretty much zero blood trail.