Eld-vt any good for whitetail?

[jeffpenland123]

I will be shooting a 22 creedmoor it will be the horanady factory load v-match eld-vt 69 grain, I'm wondering if these will do any good on deer, I don't have to have complete pass through or anything like that, if they will drop the deer/the deer don't run out of sight I'll be fine, could be a 20 yard shot with a high impact velocity or a 300 yard shot with a lower impact velocity just depends on the day, I want to hear everybody's thoughts. I have no clue how good these shoot out of my rifle. Tia!! Edit: this is not the only bullet option I have, I have a lighter 65 grain all copper bullet and 80 eld-m and 80 eld-x and some 85 grain nosler rdf.

 

[CMP70306]

I will be shooting a 22 creedmoor it will be the horanady factory load v-match eld-vt 69 grain, I'm wondering if these will do any good on deer, I don't have to have complete pass through or anything like that, if they will drop the deer/the deer don't run out of sight I'll be fine, could be a 20 yard shot with a high impact velocity or a 300 yard shot with a lower impact velocity just depends on the day, I want to hear everybody's thoughts. I have no clue how good these shoot out of my rifle. Tia!! Edit: this is not the only bullet option I have, I have a lighter 65 grain all copper bullet and 80 eld-m and 80 eld-x and some 85 grain nosler rdf.

I was told explicitly by an engineer at Hornady not to shoot deer with the 174gr ELD-VT as it was too fragile to ensure adequate penetration to the vitals even out of a short 30-06. I imagine the same can be said of the lighter bullets at even faster velocities.

Additionally I listened to the Gunwerks podcast discussing their new 6 ARC rifle and they briefly touched on killing a deer with the 80gr ELD-VT and it did not sound like it went well even with the limited velocity out of an 11.25” barrel.

Personally with the speed I would just run the 80gr ELD-X and call it a day.

 

[SloppyJ]

With well established bullets already available, why would you want to do that? If you do, please take pics and report back.

I would take whatever hornady says with a grain of salt. They also say that the 108eldm isn't worth a damn for hunting either.

 

[Gtscotty]

With well established bullets already available, why would you want to do that? If you do, please take pics and report back.

I would take whatever hornady says with a grain of salt. They also say that the 108eldm isn't worth a damn for hunting either.

I think the ELD-VTs are a bit of a different proposition than the ELDs. The heavy for caliber ELDs and TMKs have a strong track record behind them at this point and aren't really radically different in construction or design than their hunting oriented sister products. The ELD-VTs on the other hand are an exercise in how much weight can be decreased for a given form factor by replacing lead with air inside the jacket, effectively creating a light for caliber bullet with a full diameter hollow point (under the tip). I'd expect penetration to be much more at issue with the latter than the former, and that seems to be what early reports on the VTs indicate.

Not saying we should take everything Hornady says as gospel, just that the opposite isn't true either.

I do wonder how the 174gr would do out of a relatively slow cartridge like 300 blk or a .308 barreled x39.

 

[Muddler]

I like monos when there's a chance that there will be shots close like you mentioned. Too much meat damage for my taste using cup and core bullets. I'm sure I'll get flamed..I know these types of bullets are popular here. Different strokes.

Never shot the ELD VT. I assume in the 22 creed it will be moving, based on the description I personally wouldn't want "explosive fragmentation" at 20 yards. I'd run the copper mono. YMMV

 

[Tahoe1305]

My son shot a 150lb WT buck with one a few weeks back.

My intent wasn’t to use 80Eld VT (6creed) for the hunt but I ran out of time and he was used to that load, so we rolled with it.

The gun was shooting them about 2950fps (a bit of a reduced load), and he had a perfect broadside shot at about 80 yards.

Bullet never exited. Internal damage was decent, but not a single drop of blood. Bullet blew up on opposing shoulder. Lucky it only ran 50 yds into a ravine and we recovered fine, but I like exit wounds.

I worked up loads this week with 103eldx. I’ve had good results from them, almost always a golf ball exit and enough blood to track if needed.

 

[LongWayAround]

I probably wouldn't pick them to shoot game animals with unless you had a pretty slow muzzle velocity. The factory 100s are leaving my 6.5CM muzzle at almost 3200fps.

With that void in the tip, I would expect them to be pretty explosive and not much for penetration.

 

[SloppyJ]

I think the ELD-VTs are a bit of a different proposition than the ELDs. The heavy for caliber ELDs and TMKs have a strong track record behind them at this point and aren't really radically different in construction or design than their hunting oriented sister products. The ELD-VTs on the other hand are an exercise in how much weight can be decreased for a given form factor by replacing lead with air inside the jacket, effectively creating a light for caliber bullet with a full diameter hollow point (under the tip). I'd expect penetration to be much more at issue with the latter than the former, and that seems to be what early reports on the VTs indicate.

Not saying we should take everything Hornady says as gospel, just that the opposite isn't true either.

I do wonder how the 174gr would do out of a relatively slow cartridge like 300 blk or a .308 barreled x39.

100% agree. The construction of this one leads itself to even more disruption. I wouldn't pick it ever for this intended use.

I listen to TPH podcast and he was talking about the 22 versions being much better than the 6mm VTs. Not sure exactly why but thought it was interesting. This was in reference to predators.

 

[jeffpenland123]

I like monos when there's a chance that there will be shots close like you mentioned. Too much meat damage for my taste using cup and core bullets. I'm sure I'll get flamed..I know these types of bullets are popular here. Different strokes.

Never shot the ELD VT. I assume in the 22 creed it will be moving, based on the description I personally wouldn't want "explosive fragmentation" at 20 yards. I'd run the copper mono. YMMV

I'm going to get some of the 65 grain cx mono and I don't care if they group 2 inches at 100 yards I want to shoot a deer with mono bullet and take pics then shoot a deer with like a eld-x or eld-m, and see the damage difference.

 

[Crewsn]

I can’t speak to how the eld-vt would do as I have no experience with that round. I can however speak to the effectiveness of the 80gr eld-x. I jumped into the 22 arc game with a Howa mini this past summer and decided it was going to be this years dear rifle. I chose the 80gr based on reviews and gel tests. I took 3 deer this season, 2 complete pass throughs - double lung shots. The third had the deer slightly quartering away from me. Entered just behind the shoulder, broke a rib, removed the top half of the heart and broke and stopped in the opposite side shoulder blade. All shots were between 90-110 yards.

 

[Mountain_Life]

I was told explicitly by an engineer at Hornady not to shoot deer with the 174gr ELD-VT as it was too fragile to ensure adequate penetration to the vitals even out of a short 30-06. I imagine the same can be said of the lighter bullets at even faster velocities.

Thankfully, we've already established that anything said by anyone working at Hornady can be immediately discarded. (Remember, they still won't acknowledge that ELD-Ms work great for hunting)

We loaded up some 174 ELD-VT for some late season freezer filling. Piled up a half dozen ish does with them. Seems like I posted about it somewhere on here.

In that small sample size, their performance was no surprise. Massive wound channels, less frequent exits than what I've seen from ELD-M.

I think that ELD-VT in all calibers are going to have wider and shallower wound channels at close range. I suspect at lower velocities they won't be a whole lot different than ELD-Ms or ELD-X. Just a guess.

 

[Duh]

I’ve shot a whitetail around 100 yards with a 80 eldvt out of a 6 creed. Muzzle velocity was at 3450 fps. Buck was quartering to and bullet went right into the shoulder. It ruined that front shoulder but penetrated enough to take out the heart too.

Buck made it about 40 yards with no blood trail.