88 Grain ELDM jug Test

FredH

WKR
Joined
Dec 2, 2021
Messages
522
This time the bullet fragmented too much to even gather a chunk. Small pieces of lead and strips of jacket material were all that remained. Set up as usual gallon milk jugs filled with water set up in front of my 100 yard target frame 1 inch apart. Bullet destroyed the first two jugs with fragments putting a couple small holes in the third. Load from my 16" barreled 22 ARC is 27.5 grains of LVR under the 88 and popped with a CCI #41 primer in Starline brass. Muzzle velocity is 2566 fps.
 
Thats an interesting one. Really stressed that poor bullet out!

Have seen pictures from people I know (including on this forum) putting it through stout big game bones and it still reaches the vitals, and of course, lots of rib cages...But jugs of water are jugs of water...not so forgiving!

Still prefer the idea of a 75gr Fusion but these sure seem to work
 
Thats an interesting one. Really stressed that poor bullet out!

Have seen pictures from people I know (including on this forum) putting it through stout big game bones and it still reaches the vitals, and of course, lots of rib cages...But jugs of water are jugs of water...not so forgiving!

Still prefer the idea of a 75gr Fusion but these sure seem to work
I'm not saying the 88 wouldn't be effective. Pretty sure jugs of water are tougher than a lot of places you hit a deer, lungs being air bags. Jug tests are mostly to compare bullets against each other. Between the two bullets, the 75 grain Fusion and the 88 gr. Eldm I would use them a bit differently. Not expecting really deep penetration from the 88 and keep it away from the eating parts of a deer or small feral hog. The Fusion bullet would be more flexible in shot placement and one could count on good penetration, less loose lead.
 
I'm not saying the 88 wouldn't be effective. Pretty sure jugs of water are tougher than a lot of places you hit a deer, lungs being air bags. Jug tests are mostly to compare bullets against each other.

Yep! You didn't say anything, actually.

Thats what I was thinking too. What kind of surprised me about this comparison is that the Gold Dot/Fusion showed the penetration it did, considering how wide it opened up.
 
Water isn't a great test media for bullet performance. Bullets that expand with water have penciled through tissue. Plus it's better to text at the distances you'll expect to take game. Water is cheap, fun, and repeatable.
 
Water isn't a great test media for bullet performance. Bullets that expand with water have penciled through tissue. Plus it's better to text at the distances you'll expect to take game. Water is cheap, fun, and repeatable.
I have done several jug tests with OTM's that seemed to give good performance but when used on game they didn't fragment as much and absolutely refused to travel along the line of sight in game. An oddity being the 6.5 123 gr. Hornady BTHP match bullet dramatically fragments in game and jugs but the .224 75 grain BTHP from Hornady cannot be relied on to do the same thing twice. From just tumbling and not fragmenting to drastic changes in direction. But it fragments beautifully when jug tested.
 
Water isn't a great test media for bullet performance. Bullets that expand with water have penciled through tissue. Plus it's better to text at the distances you'll expect to take game. Water is cheap, fun, and repeatable.

Yeah thats what we both just said too lol
 
LOL okay. Well then if you know it's not a good test media then I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish. But whatever floats your boat.
 
LOL okay. Well then if you know it's not a good test media then I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish. But whatever floats your boat.
On the contrary it is a very good test media to compare bullets against each other. However it is not perfect. Neither is gel.
 
On the contrary it is a very good test media to compare bullets against each other. However it is not perfect. Neither is gel.
Calibrated gel, or hell, even homemade FBI spec recipe gels give you a much better representation of what happens in animals than milk jugs filled with water.

At least you are out shooting 👍🏻 that’s a step ahead of nearly all hunters.
 
Also. Several members on this forum, myself included, have experience with what 88 ELDMs do on animals if you’re interested.
 
On the contrary it is a very good test media to compare bullets against each other. However it is not perfect. Neither is gel.
Gel is when calibrate is a far better media. Which is why it's a test standard.
 
Calibrated gel, or hell, even homemade FBI spec recipe gels give you a much better representation of what happens in animals than milk jugs filled with water.

At least you are out shooting 👍🏻 that’s a step ahead of nearly all hunters.
However when comparing bullets against each other jug tests are pretty good at showing which bullets will hold together in a tougher medium than gel which water is. One can handily say a bullet that penetrates through 3 jugs will give enough penetration for most angles usually taken on deer. A bullet that penetrates 4 jugs has plenty of penetration for any reasonable shot angle. A bullet that only penetrates 2 jugs is good for broadside shots. The vast majority of hunting bullets will destroy the first two jugs and penetrate the third jug and end up in the fourth. Bullets designed to hold their weight will often end up in the 5th jug. Monos and partitions will often make to the 6th jug possibly even penetrating it fully. Once bullets get up in weight, say 200 grains and over mass becomes a factor in a bigger way and can add penetration. For instance a 35 Whelen with a 250 grain Speer at 2500 fps will end up in the 6th jug a lot of the time. Larger bullets will often carry enough energy to split more jugs along the way. I have often recovered bullets from deer and hogs which looked exactly like those used in jug tests.
 
Gel is when calibrate is a far better media. Which is why it's a test standard.
It's a test standard for sure and it makes certain people a lot of money being so. Gel tests will also show that the Hornady 75 gr. BTHP with cannelure to be a fragmenting bullet but I haven't found that to be true generally in game.
 
It's a test standard for sure and it makes certain people a lot of money being so. Gel tests will also show that the Hornady 75 gr. BTHP with cannelure to be a fragmenting bullet but I haven't found that to be true generally in game.
There's a thread on rokslide that has people claiming otherwise. It seems like the Hornady 75gr BTHP worked fine for them.
 
However when comparing bullets against each other jug tests are pretty good at showing which bullets will hold together in a tougher medium than gel which water is. One can handily say a bullet that penetrates through 3 jugs will give enough penetration for most angles usually taken on deer. A bullet that penetrates 4 jugs has plenty of penetration for any reasonable shot angle. A bullet that only penetrates 2 jugs is good for broadside shots. The vast majority of hunting bullets will destroy the first two jugs and penetrate the third jug and end up in the fourth. Bullets designed to hold their weight will often end up in the 5th jug. Monos and partitions will often make to the 6th jug possibly even penetrating it fully. Once bullets get up in weight, say 200 grains and over mass becomes a factor in a bigger way and can add penetration. For instance a 35 Whelen with a 250 grain Speer at 2500 fps will end up in the 6th jug a lot of the time. Larger bullets will often carry enough energy to split more jugs along the way. I have often recovered bullets from deer and hogs which looked exactly like those used in jug tests.
So you’re more interested in what 88 ELDMs do in water jugs than on animals? Fair enough.
 
There's a thread on rokslide that has people claiming otherwise. It seems like the Hornady 75gr BTHP worked fine for them.
I posted pictures of that bullet performing poorly on the best test material, a deer.
 
I posted pictures of that bullet performing poorly on the best test material, a deer.
 
Thanks never saw that thread. I posted my results in the 223 for bear,deer etc thread.
 
Back
Top