143 ELD-X blew up on the shoulder?

[TaperPin]

That's what I told him before I posted this thread, even though he's dead certain there was nothing in the flight path unless it was an anomaly Randy Johnson like situation where he tatered a bird or something.

The fact that it impacted where he was aimed was confusing to me, I would have assumed anything that would make it start to upset would have cause more deflection, but I understand there's some variability in that as well.

I can give your friend the number for an Accubond support group - he can retell the story and get a good chuckle and eye roll out of everyone. We’ve all had to get old Nosler Partition tattoos covered up, but we won’t poke too much fun at a recovering Hornady shooter . . . at first.

 

[Bluefish]

An extra page in the reg book defining the differences in bullet construction and terminal performance wouldn't be unreasonable, but the general questions I see on FB pages tell me it wouldn't do a damn bit of good either.

No way the average hunter would understand the subtleties required to use 22 cal for everything. Heck, half the people on this forum still argue it doesn’t work.

 

[Chris_in_Idaho]

I can give your friend the number for an Accubond support group - he can retell the story and get a good chuckle and eye roll out of everyone. We’ve all had to get old Nosler Partition tattoos covered up, but we won’t poke too much fun at a recovering Hornady shooter . . . at first.

"The Bombers" I know those guys.

 

[Marbles]

Odd things can happen. Taking everything at face value it is certainly a head scratcher. Even if I pulled the trigger, I'm not sure I would take everything at face value though.

The recovered bullet looks like it hit at a decent velocity, but it certainly dod not explode or disintegrate on impact. That core and jacket alone should have penetrated more.

Very odd things can happen, I have seen someone who broke their neck falling backwards onto their mattress, and another person who barely had a scratch after falling 40 feet onto rocks. Or the guy at the Chosin that was shot between the eyes with an AK inches from his face and only had a flesh wound. I put this in the same category, there is probably something more to the story, but damned if I know based on the information I have.

There are enough stories from people who claim to have used them in this thread alone that I have to wonder. Not enough to change my use of ELD-Ms though, but enough to leave an open question. Primarily because theory must always bow to reality and when I have to start throwing out various scenarios to hold on to a viewpoint I consider that a red flag to proceed with caution.

 

[SteveAndTheCrigBoys]

Personally, I keep coming back to the suicidal grouse theory.

 

[Harvey_NW]

Personally, I keep coming back to the suicidal grouse theory.

Same. We have a ton of grouse.

 

[HighUintas]

@Harvey_NW , @Formidilosus , do you think it's possible that this bullet happened to have less lead in the nose for whatever reason and t made it through QC? If that were the case, maybe it would be more likely to blow.up and not penetrate.

That's just and idea, but I also lean toward it hitting something before the deer.

 

[kcm2]

As to the comment about "no telling photos" I had a witness to my two shots.

 

[Harvey_NW]

@Harvey_NW , @Formidilosus , do you think it's possible that this bullet happened to have less lead in the nose for whatever reason and t made it through QC? If that were the case, maybe it would be more likely to blow.up and not penetrate.

That's just and idea, but I also lean toward it hitting something before the deer.

I would imagine it would act similar to a varmint bullet and cause more damage on impact, similar to the picture he posted in his explanation. But varmint bullets are typically lighter for caliber and impact at much higher velocities, so maybe plausible.

I'm not saying it didn't impact something before the deer, but I find it pretty odd that the majority of "blew up on the shoulder" claims are from eld-x. Because he had pretty telling pics (to me), I started the thread for discussion. The Berger failures of not opening and penciling make sense, "blowing up on the shoulder" and not penetrating into the cavity doesn't, why so many claims? Is the eld-x just that much more popular that more people who don't understand terminal ballistics are misinterpreting? I don't know, but it's interesting.

 

[SteveAndTheCrigBoys]

With the amount of people digiscoping kill shots nowadays, it seems like there should be a video out there that provides that level of evidence of a popular big game bullet failing.