7mm 175 gn ELD-X on Elk?

[TheViking]

Sounds like the overall sentiment is that it would definitely penetrate but will probability make a bloodshot mess out of anything in its path.

If you are hunting to fill the freezer and would be upset about a lost front quarter then maybe stick to the Accubond.

I know a lot of people confuse the ELD-X with the ELD-M too…

I shot a deer through both lungs with a Accubond at 400 yards and it zipped right through. Dime sized hole on both sizes. We did find the deer but he went 600 yards down a wash before he piled up.

You’re not wrong about the blood shot meat. I’ve killed a few animals with Berger’s and they make a mess. Crazy deadly, but I’ve lost quit a bit of meat (whole front shoulder off a cow). This year I’m trying the Sierra Tipped Game King on elk. Still a cup and core but it has a thicker copper jacket. Should still get good expansion and some fragmenting, but not like an ELDM or Berger. Hoping that it’s the perfect in between. Not an Accubond fan, they kill but same as your experience, small holes and animals generally run pretty far.

 

[WyoKid]

I have a friend that shoots 162 grain ELD-x in .280 Rem handloaded. They do explode and create a lot of blood shot. Penetration is fair and poor on bone shots. IMHO I prefer all copper or Nosler partition for hunting.

 

[TheViking]

I have a friend that shoots 162 grain ELD-x in .280 Rem handloaded. They do explode and create a lot of blood shot. Penetration is fair and poor on bone shots. IMHO I prefer all copper or Nosler partition for hunting.

Velocity and bullet construction matter. A LOT of guys chase speed - super hot hand loads, 26" barrels, etc. Most times this is actually a detrement. If you hit animals at 2800+ fps with a cup and core, or ELDM, Berger, etc it's going to blow up. IMO it's better to have a little slower load to hit animal in the mid to low 2000's fps. Bullets perform much better. Unless you're shooting a copper, or an Accubond at these short ranges/high speeds.

 

[Pony Soldier]

I agree. I watch people pushing for faster and faster. I had my long term partner drop off a buck for me to cut up when he was loading 300wm at max plus some. It had died but there was 60% lost to bloodshot.

Over the years we slowed them down. Never shoot game more than once, never lose any and on a bad day lose 3-5 lbs of meat to bloodshot.

I struggle with todays choices for bullets. I don't think we are improving.

 

[Kimber7man]

I saw three elk go down to 7 PRC and 175 ELDX (factory ammo) last October. I’d say they work….
Saw one go down at around 350 yards with the 7 PRC and a 175 LRAB. Worked like a champ as well.

 

[Tahoe1305]

I’m 2 for 2 w/ 175eldx. First at 650 yds and latest at 200 yds. Both out of a 7wsm.

My only advise is keep them south of 2900fps. These can fail to hold together at impact velocities much higher than that (seen on deer in other calibers).

 

[Balderdash]

Shot 4 162 ELD-X's out of a 7mm RM into elk. All did their job in terms of making dead animals, but they are certainly a more frangible design. 2 were 500 yds plus, and yet even at lower velocities they still expanded to the point of massive expansion and not penetrating all that much. Did a lot of damage inside, so can't complain too much. I'm sure the 175's are more of good thing.

Still prefer bonded type bullets on elk, such as ABLR, Sirocco, etc. Picked up a pile of the 165 Norma Bond Strikes that my 7mm's seem to group very tight, so going to give those a try next time I take a .284 for elk. This year likely going to run a 1:8 300 WM with 212 ELD-X's for elk.

 

[Balderdash]

You’re not wrong about the blood shot meat. I’ve killed a few animals with Berger’s and they make a mess. Crazy deadly, but I’ve lost quit a bit of meat (whole front shoulder off a cow). This year I’m trying the Sierra Tipped Game King on elk. Still a cup and core but it has a thicker copper jacket. Should still get good expansion and some fragmenting, but not like an ELDM or Berger. Hoping that it’s the perfect in between. Not an Accubond fan, they kill but same as your experience, small holes and animals generally run pretty far.

Have taken a lot of game with various Sierra GK's through the years and never had a complaint. Shot thousands of 180's out of a 300 WM. Had a 6x 42mm Leupold on it with a Mil dot from the custom shop.

 

[S-3 ranch]

They will kill em, maybe make a mess?
My friend busted a meat bull with 130gr barns ttsx, it was about 3-5 stepped and dead , didn’t destroy much meat and broke both shoulder
I use Norma oryx 150 in my 270 win and 180 in my .308 win on elk and African game
I can’t throw any punches at a eldx , because I shoot Sierra tipped game kings
But only do neck shots at moderate range, I’m sure any chest cavity hit would kill one
Here is the ttsx photo

 

[1990DSM]

I’ve shot cow elk from 200yd out 450yds with a 162ELD-X out of a rem mag. Found the bullet on the offside hide mushroomed just like the box on the cow at 200yds. The cow at 450yd it exited, I’ll continue to use the ELD-X personally.

 

[TheCoyote]

I’ve shot cow elk from 200yd out 450yds with a 162ELD-X out of a rem mag. Found the bullet on the offside hide mushroomed just like the box on the cow at 200yds. The cow at 450yd it exited, I’ll continue to use the ELD-X personally.

What was your muzzle velocity?

 

[king402]

Anyone have any experience hunting Elk with the 175 gn. ELD-X?
I just built up a load for my brand new 7 PRC and I am shooting the 175s 1/2 MOA at 3075 fps.

I was very proud of this load but my buddy assures me that if I shoot and Elk in the shoulder it will just splatter and I will never find it. If I have a marginal hit, same thing, I will never find it.

Now most of the complaints online are that they hammer everything at close rage and damage a lot of meat. However, I have not heard that they are ineffective at actually killing the animal.

Has anyone actually killed an Elk with a 175 ELD-X. And more importantly, has anyone LOST an elk that they shot but could not recover?

Your setup is the same as mine. I've shot a fair amount of elk with that same bullet out of my PRC. Good hits and not so good of hits but the bullet so far has done its job every single time.

 

[1990DSM]

What was your muzzle velocity?

Factory precision hunter rounds in a Tikka T3X doing around 2900-2930fps.

 

[Harvey_NW]

You’re not wrong about the blood shot meat. I’ve killed a few animals with Berger’s and they make a mess. Crazy deadly, but I’ve lost quit a bit of meat (whole front shoulder off a cow). This year I’m trying the Sierra Tipped Game King on elk. Still a cup and core but it has a thicker copper jacket. Should still get good expansion and some fragmenting, but not like an ELDM or Berger. Hoping that it’s the perfect in between. Not an Accubond fan, they kill but same as your experience, small holes and animals generally run pretty far.

The TGK's are good bullets. We've killed a few animals with them in 6.5, and 7mm. I think they'll give you what you're looking for, but they do still fragment well because they have a bigger diameter jacket opening for the bigger based polymer tip. This is the exit side of a bull shot 2x at 300ish yards, and 1x at 100ish yards, with a 165gr TGK out of a 284 Win, 2850fps MV. Fist sized holes through the cavity, bullet trapped on the offside hide, perfect performance IMHO.


And a mule deer buck at 120 yards out of a 6.5 PRC going 2950fps MV, exit side.

 

[Harvey_NW]

OP your buddy doesn't know what he's talking about, the 175 ELD-X is one of the most lethal offerings of 7mm projectiles. A bullet with that much mass and upwards of 3,000fps velocity doesn't vaporize on an elk shoulder. The majority of those horror stories come from mouth breathers that think Remchesterby shit kicking magnums are needed to kill deer, and either can't handle the recoil or their beloved VX3 lost zero on the drive up, and shot something in the guts and blamed it on the ELD because they saw on the interwebs that it blowed up on a elk shoulder so thas what musta happend.

 

[taskswap]

No body needs a buddy that dumb

LOL everybody needs a buddy that dumb. That's who you blame when things go wrong!

 

[Aviator]

Put that 175 eldx in the right spot and you will have a dead elk everytime. I’ve seen the 162 and 200 eldx kill elk just fine. I’ve killed many elk with the 180 and 200 Accubond and never had one go more than 20-30 yards at the most.

 

[Bater]

My last bull died at 300yds via 175 Eld-X pushed over 3100 from a 28. Dirtnap and bullet found under offside hide. They are fine elk bullets...

 

[wind gypsy]

Yes, 175 ELDx can be very messy. Shot one bull uphill and quartering away with one @ 100 yards with 2840 MV. Entered low near heart and bullet stuck in hide in neck just in front of offside shoulder. Didn't go far and left a trail of red mist. Entry wound and everything in the pump house was destroyed and the bullet still penetrated a long ways.

Have pics but they are not loading for some reason right now.

I'd have no fears of using for elk but would probably want to slow em down a bit.

 

[NorthIdahoDude]

I had my first 175 ELD-X kill over the weekend with about a 100lb whitetail buck. Impact velocity was a modest 2500 FPS - not screaming fast, not super slow - and I slipped it just behind both front shoulders so I didn't loose too much meat. However, had I nicked a shoulder, I'm sure I would have lost a LOT of meat - wow... That thing was an absolute grenade inside the chest cavity.

On post mortem, it had shredded both lungs, the liver, AND some of the guts on the way through, and left little chunks of lead and jacket everywhere. If I was visualizing the swath of destruction, I'd say it's probably about the size of a basketball on the inside. I presume this is because fragments were spreading out in all directions. There was an exit, so at least some percentage of it held together and went all the way through, but it sucked a piece of lung out of the hole, so the blood trail was kind of sparse. Luckily he only went about 30 yards, so it wasn't a big deal (and maybe he would have bled better had he gone farther).

Anyway, it obviously worked, and if the goal is to create as insane a wound tract as possible, these appear to be really good at that. That said, if I had dropped this in a shoulder, I have 0 doubt I would have lost the entire shoulder (possibly both if it hit both of them on the way through), just for concerns of lead fragments if nothing else.

Since accuracy/shot placement trumps almost everything else, and in this gun, these are far and away the most accurate bullet I've tried, I'll keep running them in this one. But I remain not convinced that this is the best way to harvest meat; I think an Accubond with a smaller wound tract (that is still more than adequate if you pump it through the chest cavity) would leave me with more and better eating.