Hornady ELD-X Ammo issues

[iseebucks]

I shot two big mule deer bucks last fall at around 300-350 yards with 7mm rem mag Hornady Precision Hunter 162 grain ELD-X and both were one shot kills to the neck. Neither shot damaged much meat or disintegrated like you described. I was very impressed with the accuracy and performance on game so I intend to keep using them.

 

[BjornF16]

They did, both made it about 20-30 yards. Just looking for something with more penetration and less meat damage. More so concerned for use on a future moose hunt. Guess the easy answer would be to not hit them in the shoulder but things happen, and would like to know my bullet is going to make it through if it does happen.

Two dead caribou, no tracking required. So what, exactly, was the problem with the bullet?

 

[Danomite]

My experience with the ELD-X is as follows, all with my 270 wsm shooting 145 grain handloads:

- Small billy ibex at 375 yards through both shoulders. Instant death and very small exit hole.
- Large cow elk at 250 yards into the lungs, but a little back. No exit and it took her a few minutes to expire.
- Buck antelope at 80 yards through both shoulders. Instant death and quarter sized exit.
- Buck antelope at 125 yards through the lungs. He ran about 20 yards. The exit hole was softball sized, which puzzled me after the shoulder shots on the ibex and other antelope that had small exit holes. Must have hit a rib just right.
- Ram barbary sheep at 200 yards. Hard quartering to, almost frontal shot. Bullet entered just inside the point of his shoulder. He ran about 10 yards and fell off a little cliff and died there. No exit.

I do gutless so I don't know what the bullets did on the cow and the sheep where they didn't exit.

My hunting partner shoots factory loaded 143 grain ELD-Xs from his 6.5 Creedmoor. I've been with him for the following kills:

- Buck antelope at 70 yards quartering to. Entered just behind left shoulder and exited just in front of right rear quarter. Baseball sized exit. Instant death.
- Buck antelope at 220 yards through the lungs. He ran about 40 yards. Baseball sized exit.
- Large cow elk at 250 yards into the lungs (first shot). She ran off to about 500 yards, then just stood there. We got to 200 and he shot her two more times in the lungs. She continued to just stand there. No blood was pouring out. He then shot her with my 270 wsm in the lungs and it passed through and she died quickly. That was the one bad experience I've had with the ELD-X. We can't figure out what the deal was. His 6.5 Creedmoor shooting 143s is not all that different than my 270 wsm shooting 145s, except mine is a little faster.

Anyway, there's my experience with the bullet.

 

[Ariettabob]

I had the exact same experience on 4 animals last year. 2 goats and 2 deer, 1 @ 100 yards, 1 @ 200, 1 @ 212 & 1 @ 326. All were shot with no bone contact other than the ribcage and all had that gaping entry with no pass through. Yes, they all died, however I'm not trusting that load to drive through a shoulder or on Elk. From what I've heard on here we're in the minority with this experience but 4 animals are proof enough for me to have my doubts on it's limits.

I couldn’t agree more with your reasoning. I’ll probably continue to use it on my local whitetails because dramatic kills save the headache of recovering an animal from a neighbors land, or losing it to someone else. For anything big such as elk there’s no chance I trust it.

 

[MT257]

Ditch the hornady bullets and load up some Nosler accubonds or partitions or barnes tsx or ttsx.

 

[BjornF16]

.284” 150 gr ELD-X at 280 yards on 400 lb cow elk shot from meager 280 Rem. Complete pass through, hitting rib on way in and out.

 

[Wags]

Interesting feedback, seems like there's a mixed bag of wound channels even with different loads. I'm not saying it's a bad bullet and guys shouldn't use it. I personally feel it has it's limits based on my personal experience and I'll use it within that. I've got 4 more tags this year that I plan on filling with it. This season will tell the tale for me.

 

[BowMan86]

Ditch the hornady bullets and load up some Nosler accubonds or partitions or barnes tsx or ttsx.

Yeah I’m thinking about switching to the accubonds. If I can ever find them!

 

[BjornF16]

Having some 143's as well as 150's and 200's, I can tell you the size of the meplat on the 143 is noticeably smaller. ("Well, duh, 200..."; relatively speaking). This may play a role in the dynamics of the bullet.

Bullets in same family (ELD-X) but of different calibers can behave differently.

Don't want to lose meat?...don't shoot the shoulder. 2 bullets, 2 dead caribou, no tracking...meat in the freezer. I think I'd be happy with that.

 

[BowMan86]

Interesting feedback, seems like there's a mixed bag of wound channels even with different loads. I'm not saying it's a bad bullet and guys shouldn't use it. I personally feel it has it's limits based on my personal experience and I'll use it within that. I've got 4 more tags this year that I plan on filling with it. This season will tell the tale for me.

Definitely mixed reviews. I feel as though they would do fine on behind the shoulder vital shots. In our situation, my son had his first shot ever on a big game animal and hit it a little far forward. My shot was intentional in the shoulder due to it quartering towards me and it was a now or never shot. Don’t get me wrong, it did its job and killed the animal quickly. I would just prefer better penetration and less damage. I have had less meat damage shooting whitetail with a 300wsm through the shoulder than these caribou. Typically I don’t aim for shoulder, but would like to know I will still pass through if given the opportunity. Unfortunately, at the time these were the only rounds available for the 6.5 PRC.

 

[Wags]

Definitely mixed reviews. I feel as though they would do fine on behind the shoulder vital shots. In our situation, my son had his first shot ever on a big game animal and hit it a little far forward. My shot was intentional in the shoulder due to it quartering towards me and it was a now or never shot. Don’t get me wrong, it did its job and killed the animal quickly. I would just prefer better penetration and less damage. I have had less meat damage shooting whitetail with a 300wsm through the shoulder than these caribou. Typically I don’t aim for shoulder, but would like to know I will still pass through if given the opportunity. Unfortunately, at the time these were the only rounds available for the 6.5 PRC.

I’ll definitely be choosing a different bullet if I have the same results this year as I did last year.

Sometimes you don’t have a perfect broad side angle or the time to get one. The last thing I’d want is to be worried about my bullet or wound an animal because I chose poorly.

 

[ChrisAU]

Yep, I quickly gave up on 143 ELD-X out of my 6.5 PRC after a couple small whitetail does last fall. Both in the 300-400 range, both around 100 lbs or under, both hit perfectly behind the shoulder (read - not in the shoulder blade), and both looked like a softball was shot out of a cannon at point blank range.

Both died very quickly.

Here's the thing though. I didn't shoot those to mount them, I shot them for meat. I lost most of both front shoulders on those does.

Just seems to me that an Accubond and 2-3 minutes of walking in the woods on a blood trail serves the purpose better, for me and for the doe.

Now, I am choosing to shoot the 103 ELD-X out of my 6 ARC for that reason, devastation on hogs and yotes.

This next thought (its just a thought) should stir the pot: What's worse, a hunter that shoots a deer and leaves the front shoulders in the woods (wanton waste by some state laws), or a hunter that knowingly shoots a projectile that will likely render the front shoulders useless? Both are going home without front shoulders. What is the difference?

 

[BjornF16]

This next thought (its just a thought) should stir the pot: What's worse, a hunter that shoots a deer and leaves the front shoulders in the woods (wanton waste by some state laws), or a hunter that knowingly shoots a projectile that will likely render the front shoulders useless? Both are going home without front shoulders. What is the difference?

Not really the same. One willfully leaves shoulders intact, on the ground; the other didn't intend to fragment the shoulders but for some reason the bullet wasn't perfectly placed or hunter took a less than optimum shot.

I'm a meat hunter...I've dabbled in a variety of bullet designs. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. Choose your poison.

For my 6.5 RPM (slightly faster than your PRC), I choose mono's first (either 127 LRX or 124 HH).

My best experience on Texas whitetail: 280 Rem shooting Norma factory 125 Kalahari (same concept as Hammer bullets: mono with shedding petals). Light for caliber, fast and deadly. 200 yd shot, DRT. Sadly, Norma stopped making that bullet for some reason.

Another good experience: Texas Axis: 7mm RM shooting 139 GMX. 250 yd shot, DRT.

Monos work, but they need speed.

I think for my upcoming elk hunt, I'll take two bullets for my gun: 1. long range soft cup (ELD-M or TMK), 2. Mono for close.

 

[madcalfe]

This next thought (its just a thought) should stir the pot: What's worse, a hunter that shoots a deer and leaves the front shoulders in the woods (wanton waste by some state laws), or a hunter that knowingly shoots a projectile that will likely render the front shoulders useless? Both are going home without front shoulders. What is the difference?

no really apples to apples. say your mountain goat or sheep hunting you going to go for a shoulder shot or vital area shot knowing that the animal could go somewhere where its either extremely dangerous or unrecoverable? I've shot all my mountain goats in the shoulder for that reason, my first one though was a lung shot and he managed to go up and over the mountain and died at the top of a chute and slide down it and luckily stopped 15ft from a vertical cliff.

 

[Antares]

I've shot 10+ blacktails with the 178 ELD-X in my .308. That said, none of the experiences described above surprise me much and all seem to be inline with Hornady's description from their website. "Devastating conventional range performance"...I think that's another way of saying "softball-sized entry wounds." They go on the say that the bullet doesn't "exhibit conventional expansion" unless you're talking about "low-velocity 400+ yard impacts."

If you think the ELD-X makes big wound channels, try shooting the ELD-Ms...

 

[DJL2]

I am currently using the Hornady ELD-X precision hunter ammo in my 6.5 PRC. It shoots great and by far the most accurate factory ammo I have shot. However, my son and I went on a caribou hunt last year and we both ended up shooting caribou through the front shoulder and it seemed as if the bullet just disintegrated after impact of the front shoulder bone. On both caribou the front shoulder was completely destroyed. Both had softball size entry wounds. Both entered the chest cavity but no evidence of impact on the opposite side of the chest cavity. We did find some small bullet fragments throughout the shoulder. Anyone else have this issue with shooting these rounds on large game animals? Obviously we would have preferred to miss the shoulder, but I would still expect better performance.

Don’t shoot a fast expanding 6.5 into large ball joints/bones at high velocity… no rocket science here, that’s not what that bullet is designed for in a caliber that’s light for the animal.

Less gun makes for a more demanding shot, as you noted.

 

[rootacres]

Its a cup and core style bullet. Its not bonded or all copper so basically it did what it was designed to do. When the impact velocities are high that style of bullet will break up after a couple inches of penetration. Its kinda interesting, I cut one in half to see what it looked like. That red ballistic tip makes you think it might be like an accubond, which is a bonded lead core bullet with a ballistic tip. When in reality its construction is mostly comparable to a Berger VLD with the main difference being the ballistic tip.

What happened isnt necessarily a bad thing. An exploding bullet does a lot of damage. We killed two bulls last year with Bergers. Both were intentional shoulder shots, neither went further than 10 yards. One bullet was recovered, it had 41% weight retention. Its impact velocity was a bit slower than the other because of the shot distance. Its just a little unnerving seeing how brittle the bullet seems after impact.

If you want two holes or want fantastic weight retention look at the TTSX or LRX Barnes. If you want something in between the Berger/ELDX and TTSX/LRX Id look at the Accubonds.

I watched animals fall to all three of those, they all worked as intended. Pick what you're confident in.

Heres a post I made a while back asking Roksliders what their favorite was

Copper vs Bonded vs Cup and Core

Hey All, Current rifle setup for reference: 7mm WSM, 168gr Berger Classic Hunter at 2850, max intended range of 600 yds So I was hoping to get some dialogue from people with more experience than me on this. I watched two elk go down to 300 win mags in the last week. Both were shooting very...

www.rokslide.com

 

[Wags]

Its a cup and core style bullet. Its not bonded or all copper so basically it did what it was designed to do. When the impact velocities are high that style of bullet will break up after a couple inches of penetration. Its kinda interesting, I cut one in half to see what it looked like. That red ballistic tip makes you think it might be like an accubond, which is a bonded lead core bullet with a ballistic tip. When in reality its construction is mostly comparable to a Berger VLD with the main difference being the ballistic tip.

What happened isnt necessarily a bad thing. An exploding bullet does a lot of damage. We killed two bulls last year with Bergers. Both were intentional shoulder shots, neither went further than 10 yards. One bullet was recovered, it had 41% weight retention. Its impact velocity was a bit slower than the other because of the shot distance. Its just a little unnerving seeing how brittle the bullet seems after impact.

If you want two holes or want fantastic weight retention look at the TTSX or LRX Barnes. If you want something in between the Berger/ELDX and TTSX/LRX Id look at the Accubonds.

I watched animals fall to all three of those, they all worked as intended. Pick what you're confident in.

Heres a post I made a while back asking Roksliders what their favorite was

Copper vs Bonded vs Cup and Core

Hey All, Current rifle setup for reference: 7mm WSM, 168gr Berger Classic Hunter at 2850, max intended range of 600 yds So I was hoping to get some dialogue from people with more experience than me on this. I watched two elk go down to 300 win mags in the last week. Both were shooting very...

www.rokslide.com

That makes sense to me. The issue I've had is my Tikka is not like most where it'll throw consistent groups with different ammo. My rile either shoot's 1.5-3 MOA with most other factory ammo or .5 MOA with the ELDX. I'm not handloading, yet, and with the availability of ammo being so bad I'm kind of stuck with this as my best option. That said, I've not lost an animal so that's a plus. I plan on giving them another go this season with 4 tags and will report back my observations.

 

[rootacres]

That makes sense to me. The issue I've had is my Tikka is not like most where it'll throw consistent groups with different ammo. My rile either shoot's 1.5-3 MOA with most other factory ammo or .5 MOA with the ELDX. I'm not handloading, yet, and with the availability of ammo being so bad I'm kind of stuck with this as my best option. That said, I've not lost an animal so that's a plus. I plan on giving them another go this season with 4 tags and will report back my observations.

Its no necessarily a problem unless you consider it to be one. People have been killing large critters for a while now with the ELDX. Not sure if you've tried them yet but my Dad's 300 WM Tikka really likes the factory loads from Barnes pushing the TTSX and shot the Nosler factory loads with Accubonds really well too.

 

[wind gypsy]

Small sample size but here's what i've seen:

7mm 175 ELDx have been very splashy for me on 3 animals (dall sheep, wolf, elk) but did the job.

.30 200 gr ELDx for some reason weren't quite as splashy on one elk and one whitetail.

They were both shot at about the same muzzle velocity and similar enough shot distances. 7 mm through an 8 twist, 30s through a 10 so the 7mm was spinning a bit faster. So only thing I can think of is bullet construction differences or that faster spinning contributes to more violent disruption of the bullet.