.223 for bear, mountain goat, deer, elk, and moose.

[mxgsfmdpx]

Do you happen to know how they compare to the 77TMK, with respect to penetration, velocity window for expansion, etc? I'd be curious to see how they'd do in the 223.

Very similar in reduced loads on gel simulating long range impacts. Results from 80 ELDX and 77 TMK were pretty much indistinguishable. Both were consistently “better” than 73 ELDM, not that there is anything wrong with that bullet for killing.

This is not a perfect “test” for representing what happens in animals, but I’ve found in doing this with various bullets over the last 10+ years; bullets that perform better in the gel generally perform better in hide/tissue/organs.

77 TMK and 80 ELDX have provided near identical results on coyotes. At low/similar impact velocities they both penetrate and kill well on coyotes which I’ve found to be an animal, that generally speaking can “go farther when hit” with a non ideal impact location when compared to most hoofed mammals.

I’ll be posting more big game results as the fall rolls on, just the moose so far is my only big game kill with 80 ELDX. I will likely have both very high and towards the low end of impact velocity results.

 

[Thegman]

I’ll be posting more big game results as the fall rolls on, just the moose so far is my only big game kill with 80 ELDX. I will likely have both very high and towards the low end of impact velocity results.

JUST the moose so far...

That's a pretty good "just".

I'd be interested to know how their penetration compares on average to the 77TMK. Maybe provide exits more often? It sounds like they're very similar.

Thanks for the info. I'll be watching out the future results.

 

[JPW13]

I've been reading through a lot of this thread and it's been informative to say the least.

First time posting and to give some background I've been mostly shooting the .284s (7SAUM/PRC, etc) and 30cals (308, 300WM) to most recently a 300wsm shooting 180CXs pretty hot. It worked fine on a longe range deer (easy track job in snow), but I lost a spring bear. Pretty confident it died, just no blood and a grid search couldn't find it. Switched to a 212 ELDX at 2850fps and that put a bear down DRT and made a pretty big hole. After reading through this thread, I put together a 22CM shooting 80ELDMs at 3375 fps. This weekend I took a nice 4pt mule deer at 100m.

Bullet entered just behind the shoulder, no obvious entry hole, peeling back the hide there was about a 10" hematoma around about a 1" entry through a rib that was obliterated, the lungs were liquid and the heart lacerated, no exit, did not find the bullet in the soup. Deer buckled, ran about 30 yards and slide down a hill another 50 or so. The tracks were easy to follow in the soft dirt - BUT there was NO blood. Where the deer laid dead, there was blood and he looked like he'd coughed out some of his lungs, but nothing to track.

So, sample size of 1, but what do people think might have happened? Being so close did the bullet have just enough neck length to get into the hide and then massive upset as it went through the ribs, so no exit and the trackable fluids were contained? Just a statistical anomaly?

 

[Pharmseller]

The deer died, that’s what happened.

 

[wind gypsy]

I've been reading through a lot of this thread and it's been informative to say the least.

First time posting and to give some background I've been mostly shooting the .284s (7SAUM/PRC, etc) and 30cals (308, 300WM) to most recently a 300wsm shooting 180CXs pretty hot. It worked fine on a longe range deer (easy track job in snow), but I lost a spring bear. Pretty confident it died, just no blood and a grid search couldn't find it. Switched to a 212 ELDX at 2850fps and that put a bear down DRT and made a pretty big hole. After reading through this thread, I put together a 22CM shooting 80ELDMs at 3375 fps. This weekend I took a nice 4pt mule deer at 100m.

Bullet entered just behind the shoulder, no obvious entry hole, peeling back the hide there was about a 10" hematoma around about a 1" entry through a rib that was obliterated, the lungs were liquid and the heart lacerated, no exit, did not find the bullet in the soup. Deer buckled, ran about 30 yards and slide down a hill another 50 or so. The tracks were easy to follow in the soft dirt - BUT there was NO blood. Where the deer laid dead, there was blood and he looked like he'd coughed out some of his lungs, but nothing to track.

So, sample size of 1, but what do people think might have happened? Being so close did the bullet have just enough neck length to get into the hide and then massive upset as it went through the ribs, so no exit and the trackable fluids were contained? Just a statistical anomaly?

Frangible short terminal neck length bullet + high impact velocity + hitting rib on entry = you’re going to have that.

 

[JPW13]

Short terminal neck length bullet + high impact velocity + hitting rib on entry = you’re going to have that.

Thanks for the reply. So if I want to shoot a black bear at close range and not have to go find it - just shoot it in the neck?