6mm /.243 hunting success on Big Game

[Live_weighT34]

That guy is a spike and a half! Nice bull. Was that on a spike only tag?

Thank you sir! Yeah I buy the multi season spike tag every year and usually kill one every 2nd or 3rd year

 

[Live_weighT34]

Wow that’s crazy long shots! Nice work

Thanks! It was a poke for sure, I usually archery and muzzleloader hunt but I’ve shot another spike and several cows with a rifle but they have all been inside of 500 so when I lined up for my first shot on this one I was just telling myself “aim small, miss small”

 

[The Guide]

Showing out of stock at that link for me.

Powder Valley and others are showing them in stock now at a better price than Sierra had them. AmmoSeek was showing 0 listing's this morning and there are 31 now.

Never mind, showing SMK not TMK.

Jay

 

[BLJ]

I’d like to find some to try in my 6 ARC.

 

[The Guide]

I’d like to find some to try in my 6 ARC.

Thatvwas my plan also. Sad I missed them.

Jay

 

[Marshfly]

I was able to get three kills with my Howa Mini 6ARC this weekend on antelope. Bullet is a factory loaded 108 ELD-M. Velocity based on dope should be about 2550 at the muzzle. Impact velocity should be in the 2400-2100 range. We had kills from 125 - 325 yards. All three were at least one lung and liver with at least one double lung. I expected at least a single bang flop but all three ran about 200 yards before expiring. Was kind of surprised at that.

I did not do full necropsies but this is the entry and exit from the 325 yard shot. This is the only wound pics I have as I thought the first two might have been a fluke. This buck ran about 200 yards before getting woozy and falling over. Is this what people are seeing from 6mm ELD-Ms?

I definitely would not use this on an elk after this if this performance is normal.

Skinned pic is the entrance and exit is with skin on.

 

[Duh]

I was able to get three kills with my Howa Mini 6ARC this weekend on antelope. Bullet is a factory loaded 108 ELD-M. Velocity based on dope should be about 2550 at the muzzle. Impact velocity should be in the 2400-2100 range. We had kills from 125 - 325 yards. All three were at least one lung and liver with at least one double lung. I expected at least a single bang flop but all three ran about 200 yards before expiring. Was kind of surprised at that.

I did not do full necropsies but this is the entry and exit from the 325 yard shot. This is the only wound pics I have as I thought the first two might have been a fluke. This buck ran about 200 yards before getting woozy and falling over. Is this what people are seeing from 6mm ELD-Ms?

I definitely would not use this on an elk after this if this performance is normal.

Skinned pic is the entrance and exit is with skin on.
View attachment 777356
View attachment 777358

Yeah animals tend to run a bit when hit in the lungs and liver. I’d never expect a bang flop or Drt with a lung/liver shot.

 

[Marshfly]

Yeah animals tend to run a bit when hit in the lungs and liver. I’d never expect a bang flop or Drt with a lung/liver shot.

These are my first animals with ELDMs. I guess I just expected more from the stories/pics and from what I saw with a 6.5mm ELDX last year on lung shots. LOL. But they did the job. Going to kill some more stuff with them this weekend.

 

[Duh]

These are my first animals with ELDMs. I guess I just expected more from the stories/pics and from what I saw with a 6.5mm ELDX last year on lung shots. LOL. But they did the job. Going to kill some more stuff with them this weekend.

Gotcha and good luck.

 

[Formidilosus]

I was able to get three kills with my Howa Mini 6ARC this weekend on antelope. Bullet is a factory loaded 108 ELD-M. Velocity based on dope should be about 2550 at the muzzle. Impact velocity should be in the 2400-2100 range. We had kills from 125 - 325 yards. All three were at least one lung and liver with at least one double lung. I expected at least a single bang flop but all three ran about 200 yards before expiring. Was kind of surprised at that.

I did not do full necropsies but this is the entry and exit from the 325 yard shot. This is the only wound pics I have as I thought the first two might have been a fluke. This buck ran about 200 yards before getting woozy and falling over. Is this what people are seeing from 6mm ELD-Ms?

I definitely would not use this on an elk after this if this performance is normal.

Skinned pic is the entrance and exit is with skin on.
View attachment 777356
View attachment 777358

Barely clipping lungs and liver, is going to result in runners.

As an FYI, elk will cause more bullet upset than antelope.

 

[Jsmalls273]

Barely clipping lungs and liver, is going to result in runners.

As an FYI, elk will cause more bullet upset than antelope.

Would that be caused by more mass the bullet is traveling through?

Sent from my SM-S921U using Tapatalk

 

[Marshfly]

Barely clipping lungs and liver, is going to result in runners.

As an FYI, elk will cause more bullet upset than antelope.

Trying to figure out how an exit in the pocket is barely clipping but OK. Another had an entrance in the pocket with the exit in the front leg muscle adjacent to the knee joint. These shots were not "barely clipping" lungs. They were placed to avoid as much meat damage as possible.

Regardless, isn't this bullet supposed to make a football sized wound channel?

I want to be realistic about my expectations here.

 

[General RE LEE]

Trying to figure out how an exit in the pocket is barely clipping but OK. Another had an entrance in the pocket with the exit in the front leg muscle adjacent to the knee joint. These shots were not "barely clipping" lungs. They were placed to avoid as much meat damage as possible.

Regardless, isn't this bullet supposed to make a football sized wound channel?

I want to be realistic about my expectations here.

Looking at the pics these wounds look like boiler room. Good shots.

 

[Marshfly]

Looking at the pics these wounds look like boiler room. Good shots.

That's my wife's buck from 325 yards. Here first time shooting sitting from the tripod. Man...I was nervous about that since we hadn't practiced it but she swore to me she had the shot. And she did.

That said, a lightweight carbon ball head tripod will come with us on all hunts moving forward. So fricking quick to get set up and handy in all sorts of situations.

 

[HighUintas]

I agree. It seems that those pronghorn should have expired faster. I wonder if it could be related to the thinner skin or the pronghorn and the lower impact velocity

 

[The Guide]

I was able to get three kills with my Howa Mini 6ARC this weekend on antelope. Bullet is a factory loaded 108 ELD-M. Velocity based on dope should be about 2550 at the muzzle. Impact velocity should be in the 2400-2100 range. We had kills from 125 - 325 yards. All three were at least one lung and liver with at least one double lung. I expected at least a single bang flop but all three ran about 200 yards before expiring. Was kind of surprised at that.

I did not do full necropsies but this is the entry and exit from the 325 yard shot. This is the only wound pics I have as I thought the first two might have been a fluke. This buck ran about 200 yards before getting woozy and falling over. Is this what people are seeing from 6mm ELD-Ms?

I definitely would not use this on an elk after this if this performance is normal.

Skinned pic is the entrance and exit is with skin on.
View attachment 777356
View attachment 777358

It has been my experience that sometimes antelope just want to live and they can run 200 yards in a flash. I've shot them with a 270 (various bullets), 300WM (180 CoreLokt), and 280AI (162 ELD-X) and had them go 200 to 400 yards with a huge hole and blood the entire way. Shot them with a 243 (100gr CoreLokt), 6cm (95 LRX), and 223 (77tmk) and had them drop in their tracks. Antelope are so light skinned and framed with a narrow chest that I feel on most of them the bullet doesn't start expanding until it is about to exit.

Jay

 

[Marshfly]

It has been my experience that sometimes antelope just want to live and they can run 200 yards in a flash. I've shot them with a 270 (various bullets), 300WM (180 CoreLokt), and 280AI (162 ELD-X) and had them go 200 to 400 yards with a huge hole and blood the entire way. Shot them with a 243 (100gr CoreLokt), 6cm (95 LRX), and 223 (77tmk) and had them drop in their tracks. Antelope are so light skinned and framed with a narrow chest that I feel on most of them the bullet doesn't start expanding until it is about to exit.

Jay

Could be the case. All three had exits and none were huge holes. So maybe I just need to temper my expectations.

We are headed back this weekend to fill my kid's two tags and I kept my B tag so I could hunt some more. I'll get some more data and report back.

This is the rifle for a few more tags this year also so I'll make sure to report those as well.

 

[Formidilosus]

Trying to figure out how an exit in the pocket is barely clipping but OK. Another had an entrance in the pocket with the exit in the front leg muscle adjacent to the knee joint. These shots were not "barely clipping" lungs. They were placed to avoid as much meat damage as possible.

This is what I went off of-

All three were at least one lung and liver with at least one double lung. I expected at least a single bang flop but all three ran about 200 yards before expiring.

When someone states “I hit liver and one lung at low impact velocity”= traveling a bit after the hit isn’t out of the ordinary, and I wouldn’t expect huge damage from that in an antelope. 200 yards is a bit farther than normal, but it is an antelope and they tend to run straight out for a bit when shot.

did not do full necropsies but this is the entry and exit from the 325 yard shot. This is the only wound pics I have as I thought the first two might have been a fluke. This buck ran about 200 yards before getting woozy and falling over. Is this what people are seeing from 6mm ELD-Ms?

That looks like a two inch plus diameter exit wound?

Regardless, isn't this bullet supposed to make a football sized wound channel?

I want to be realistic about my expectations here.

No. At lower impact velocities (2,400 to 2,000fps or so) without bone hits in small animals, that bullet with usually create between a 1.5” wound and a 2.5” wound.

 

[Formidilosus]

Would that be caused by more mass the bullet is traveling through?

Sent from my SM-S921U using Tapatalk

Yes. It doesn’t take much to get a ELD-M bullet from “just a bit of upset” to “quite a bit of upset”. Antelope are very narrow animals- inside the chest is strikingly narrow. Low velocity impacts on antelope are going to show less upset than even deer. And elk are just enough wider than a deer to show more upset.

 

[Marshfly]

That looks like a two inch plus diameter exit wound?


No. At lower impact velocities (2,400 to 2,000fps or so) without bone hits in small animals, that bullet with usually create between a 1.5” wound and a 2.5” wound.

That one was two inches, yes. The other two impacts at 225 and 125 yards were smaller.

So would you recommend another bullet for this purpose? This is a 6ARC cut to 18".

Would I see a larger wound channel on an elk? This is pretty much going to make the decision on whether to carry this for my wife to kill her first this year. She is hugely confident with this rifle (especially after this weekend) so I'd like to make it work.

Edit: Above answers half my question. Thanks Form.