Hornady ELD-X

[silverbullet555]

I did not like the hollow mushroom. The sides peeled back to form a good mushroom, but the center was hollow. I just figured the bullet would come apart easily on bigger boned animals. This was with a 6.5 creedmor.

Thanks for the insight and reasoning behind your statement.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

[Travis Bertrand]

6.5 143 just shy of 3,000 out of 6.5-284 so far has put down deer and antelope with one shot from 250-800 yards. No complaints here.

 

[TexasCub]

In the 6.5 variety I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many differing reports on performance from both ends of the spectrum in a single bullet like there is with the ELDX. It goes from I’ll never use it on Deer again and definitely wouldn’t use it on elk to it worked great on a bull elk. I don’t know if there are different batches that create a variance in the bullet or what, but guys shooting whitetails behind the shoulder get 100+ yard running deer and no exit and then you have guys shooting elk through both shoulders with an exit. Really doesn’t give me warm and fuzzys about using it. What’s crazy is guys reports of shooting animals with the 140 and 147 ELDM’s which are a target bullet as opposed to a hunting bullet like the ELDX seem to have more consistent performance than the ELDX does!

 

[bummer7580]

At the beginning of this thread I stated I probably wouldn't use the 162gr. ELD-X 7mm(loaded to about 3070 fps) bullet on elk again. I thought it a little soft. While saying that, I do believe that bullet would work well on deer and antelope. Many of the bulls I shoot are 800 lbs.+ versus the bucks in our area avg. 190 lbs. The ELD-X would perhaps be destructive to meat if the shoulder is hit but it should really drop deer. An interesting note about the Accubond bullets I have used is that about half don't exit elk. When I don't find an exit I run my hand over the offside hide to feel for a lump. When I nick the lump usually a perfectly mushroomed bullet falls out. Always amazed at how tough the hide is.

 

[Calbuck]

Think I'll revive this thread from December..I too shoot the 162 ELD-X out of my 7 rem mag at around 3000 fps..I've killed two muleys and one bull elk with this combo, all three animals took one shot and the bull went about 20 yards. Both deer were DRT. Deer were ranged shots at 387 yards and 410 yards. Elk was about 120 yards. Think it's shot placement with the ELDX

 

[Newtosavage]

Thanks for the report. The 162 ELD-X @ 2650 MV is what I have loaded for elk in my Tikka 7mm-08. So accurate it's scary. Those results look promising.

Did you get complete penetration on that elk?

 

[Calbuck]

Yes, complete pass thru..the red spot on the bull in the pic is actually the exit hole. Made a mess of his lungs!

 

[ColeyG]

I just picked up a new Mountain Ascent in 6.5 Creedmoor and went through a mini-break-in process at the range last week.

This was my last group at 300 yards with the 143gr ELD-X factory "Precision Hunter" load.

The rifle seems to like them. I am hoping the animals don't like them at all!

View attachment 83196

Only one critter in the sample pool for me so far. I shot an Axis deer at 253 yards with the 143gr ELDX out of a 6.5 creed. Average MV with a 22" barrel has been 2629. The shot was angling down and the animal was quartering towards me just slightly. The bullet passed through the chest cavity and left a quarter-sized exit wound. The buck dropped in his tracks and didn't so much as twitch. I was pleased with that result.

I am shooting the 200gr version out of my .300wm Tikka. They look good on paper but I haven't tested them on meat yet.

 

[4everrunning]

Thanks for reporting that observation with the eldx. I have been using them for a while in other calibers for deer hunting and was planning to use them this year for elk in the 7mm. I will definitely keep an eye out for their performance now.

 

[Rawmeat]

I had one of those nightmare experiences with a 200 grain ELDX. I'll give a run down of what happened. My brother was shooting hand loaded 200 ELDXs out of a .300 win mag. These loads were grouping great and he was shooting a ton of them preseason to get ready for a non resident bull tag in Montana. He and I hiked for 5 days to eventually find a herd in the snow on our last evening. We were leaving the next morning so we knew this would be our last go at it. We crept along a ridge to find a good shooting position and spotted the bull. The shot was 416 yards, the animals were calm, the wind was perfect and minimal, they had no idea we were there. We were on a steep face, and we would have to lose sight of the animals for a ways/walk through the wide open hillside to get to another shooting position with light soon to be fading. My brother shot regularly throughout the year for practice, which is not the same as a hunting situation, but I can say that he was very, very comfortable at that distance. Especially when the shooting position that we found gave him the ability to shoot while laying prone with a bipod and rear bag. The shot goes off, I watched impact through my binos and the bull dropped in its tracks. I mean DROPPED. We watched the bull lay for a little while, as I have never been afraid of "putting another one in em" if there is any doubt. After a pretty short time, we did not celebrate, we decided that we may need to ease down the face to get as close as possible if another shot was necessary, and we needed to get there pretty quick as we were going to run out of legal light within 5 minutes give or take a minute or so. We dropped down into a small dip in the hillside and when we popped our heads up on the other side the bull was RUNNING facing us towards our 8 o'clock. We ran down the side of the hill to our left and cut the bull off around a small patch of jack pines. He was running quartering to coming from right to left. He continued along that path, he slowed and made a brief stop, with another shot being made broadside at about 100 yards. Again, I saw the impact and the bull was noticeably injured as he hunched up, pretty obviously hit hard. I also confirmed that my brother had dialed his scope back down to zero before the second shot. I could not believe that the bull toted it. We shot whitetails with this same load combination before leaving for Montana and we never had a deer run more than 20 yards or so. I understand that this is a completely different animal, just stating to inform that we had experience with this load and live animals. We ended up backing out, and we were back on the trail the next morning before light as a last minute effort to find the bull before we had to leave. My brother was driving me nuts that night as I could not fall asleep for more than 5 minutes without the silent darkness being broken by "He's dead right? We are going to find him in the morning. He has to be dead. He's dead. We got him. I hope we find him. Do you think we will find him? Surely we will find him. Hey man, are you awake? Do you think we will find him?" you get the idea...The next morning we immediately found blood. We could follow his blood trail on a damn near run. Prints in the middle of the track with blood on the ground of both sides of the body, and plenty of it. I was in the mindset that this was not going to take very long and this bull would be found. We eventually found an area where he bedded down with a blood puddle the size of a hula hoop, with no elk. The blood eventually slowed to a drip and lead to an adjacent land owners fence line. We found bloody hair on the fence where the bull crossed over onto the other piece of property. A local friend of a friend of ours made a phone call, luckily the land owner answered, and allowed us to cross over and search for the bull, to no avail. LLOOONNNGG trip home. I have always been a Hornady fan, not bashing the bullet either, just sharing my experience. May have been a freak situation that would have happened with any bullet. I don't know. We can only try to learn from situations like this one. If I had to do it all over again, I think we should have stayed put a bit longer and put another round in him if needed from our original shooting position. The short amount of time it took for us to get in and out of the dip in the hill was all it took for him to get the jump on us.

Don't take this the wrong way, but just a little advice for posting. Try sticking closer to the subject, we don't really need to know how far you hiked. Paragraphs would be great, makes it much easier to read.

I actually did read it all and I would not come to the conclusion of bullet failure. Sounds to me like the first shot was high and probably shocked the spine dropping him, but missing the vitals. The second shot sounds like a gut shot to me, but who knows.

I hate to say it, but the scenario I layed out seems much more likely than 2 shots to the vitals and an unrecovered bull. But, I suppose it is possible.

My experience is 7mm 162 grain eldx and a dead wt buck at 150 yards. Direct hit on right shoulder bone, bullet fragmented, deer ran 100 yards and died. So yes, a solid would have been better in this situation

Also killed a Muley buck. 100 yards, both lungs, nice exit hole, never took a step.

Imo there is no perfect bullet for every situation. I want an accurate bullet with a decent bc. I chose the eldx. Which is a worse situation? A fragmented bullet at 100 yards, or a pencil hole at 500 yards? I don't know, maybe the newest solids don't have the pencil hole problem.

 

[zpooch]

143 eldx in 6.5cm antelope at 305 and 225 yards both pass through with nice exit. Mule deer at 425 and DRT. Been very happy with the accuracy and results so far

 

[mtmuley]

Don't take this the wrong way, but just a little advice for posting. Try sticking closer to the subject, we don't really need to know how far you hiked. Paragraphs would be great, makes it much easier to read.

I actually did read it all and I would not come to the conclusion of bullet failure. Sounds to me like the first shot was high and probably shocked the spine dropping him, but missing the vitals. The second shot sounds like a gut shot to me, but who knows.

I hate to say it, but the scenario I layed out seems much more likely than 2 shots to the vitals and an unrecovered bull. But, I suppose it is possible.

My experience is 7mm 162 grain eldx and a dead wt buck at 150 yards. Direct hit on right shoulder bone, bullet fragmented, deer ran 100 yards and died. So yes, a solid would have been better in this situation

Also killed a Muley buck. 100 yards, both lungs, nice exit hole, never took a step.

Imo there is no perfect bullet for every situation. I want an accurate bullet with a decent bc. I chose the eldx. Which is a worse situation? A fragmented bullet at 100 yards, or a pencil hole at 500 yards? I don't know, maybe the newest solids don't have the pencil hole problem.

Screw paragraphs, this ain't a grammar contest. mtmuley

 

[Moneyball]

Don't take this the wrong way, but just a little advice for posting. Try sticking closer to the subject, we don't really need to know how far you hiked. Paragraphs would be great, makes it much easier to read.

I actually did read it all and I would not come to the conclusion of bullet failure. Sounds to me like the first shot was high and probably shocked the spine dropping him, but missing the vitals. The second shot sounds like a gut shot to me, but who knows.

I hate to say it, but the scenario I layed out seems much more likely than 2 shots to the vitals and an unrecovered bull. But, I suppose it is possible.

My experience is 7mm 162 grain eldx and a dead wt buck at 150 yards. Direct hit on right shoulder bone, bullet fragmented, deer ran 100 yards and died. So yes, a solid would have been better in this situation

Also killed a Muley buck. 100 yards, both lungs, nice exit hole, never took a step.

Imo there is no perfect bullet for every situation. I want an accurate bullet with a decent bc. I chose the eldx. Which is a worse situation? A fragmented bullet at 100 yards, or a pencil hole at 500 yards? I don't know, maybe the newest solids don't have the pencil hole problem.

Professor Meat,

I apologize for writing a true story, with too many details, in a non-grammatically pleasing fashion casting the bullet that you have chosen in less than a positive light.

As for subject matter, are you comparing two scenarios, one of a "WT" (Spell things out, makes it much easier to read) and one of a mule deer, to a shot on a bull elk? Please confirm.

You are 100% right, paragraphs are better, and I admit that. My mistake entirely. I appreciate you passing your vast knowledge, experience, and expertise along to us with your two example situations. I am also thankful for your ability to compare said examples to a matter that you were in no way a part of, on a different animal, with a different caliber, using a different bullet weight. Astounding.

I was just trying to tell the tale to the original poster. Please digest, dissect, and let me know at your earliest convenience when you have graded my response. I want to put forth every effort to bring my grade up from my previous post!

I wish you nothing but the best in the future. I also muse that other Rokslide members can properly share their experiences in a way that fits into your unwavering standards!

Regards,

-$

 

[Newtosavage]

Moneyball, I didn't read what you wrote because there were no paragraphs and no attempt to be succinct. Your smart a$$ entitled response to constructive criticism makes me glad I didn't.

 

[mtmuley]

Moneyball, I didn't read what you wrote because there were no paragraphs and no attempt to be succinct. Your smart a$$ entitled response to constructive criticism makes me glad I didn't.

Just load some ELD bullets and be on your way. Jesus what is wrong with people? mtmuley

 

[Moneyball]

Moneyball, I didn't read what you wrote because there were no paragraphs and no attempt to be succinct. Your smart a$$ entitled response to constructive criticism makes me glad I didn't.

I'll quote one of the greatest race car drivers the world has ever known: "I said with all due respect!"

Come on man, all in fun. Yea it was a smart response, get over it. Can we please get back to people sharing their experiences to help the OP get the info that they are looking for?

 

[Rawmeat]

Professor Meat,

I apologize for writing a true story, with too many details, in a non-grammatically pleasing fashion casting the bullet that you have chosen in less than a positive light.

As for subject matter, are you comparing two scenarios, one of a "WT" (Spell things out, makes it much easier to read) and one of a mule deer, to a shot on a bull elk? Please confirm.

You are 100% right, paragraphs are better, and I admit that. My mistake entirely. I appreciate you passing your vast knowledge, experience, and expertise along to us with your two example situations. I am also thankful for your ability to compare said examples to a matter that you were in no way a part of, on a different animal, with a different caliber, using a different bullet weight. Astounding.

I was just trying to tell the tale to the original poster. Please digest, dissect, and let me know at your earliest convenience when you have graded my response. I want to put forth every effort to bring my grade up from my previous post!

I wish you nothing but the best in the future. I also muse that other Rokslide members can properly share their experiences in a way that fits into your unwavering standards!

Regards,

-$

Not comparing anything. Only telling my experience of the two kills I have had using the bullet the op was speaking of.

Sorry, but I still think in your case there is a more likely scenario other than shooting an elk twice in the vitals with a rifle and it running away to never be found. Like I said, not impossible, just not likely.

If you would have recovered the animal you would know where it was hit, but you didn't so you are assuming they were good shots. I am no expert, I am only guessing at what might have happened because of the way you described the bull's reactions.

No hard feelings, I wasn't trying to get you spun up.

 

[Rawmeat]

Screw paragraphs, this ain't a grammar contest. mtmuley

I don't care much about grammar. Mine isn't very good either. I only suggested paragraphs if you want someone to actually read your post as it makes it much easier to read.

 

[Apollo117]

Screw paragraphs, this ain't a grammar contest. mtmuley

Are you suggesting that a grammar contest is the only place we should put forth the effort to make our ideas organized, clear, and relative? Every other scenario isn't worth the effort?

Do you know who else doesn't like grammar contests? Commies! We have verifiable proof everyone. Mtmuley is a commy.

Joking aside, I'm with NewtoSavage and Rawmeat. I often don't even try to sift through what I call "written diarrhea" when I see it. Whatever good idea is hidden in the diarrhea is lost because I cannot decipher the terrible writing.

 

[Moneyball]

Let's get back on this for the OP. I'll start.

Three whitetails, one coyote, and two mule deer shot with the ELD-X. Closest shot was 100, furthest was 490. Calibers were 300WM and 7RSAUM. All three whitetails were either DRT or went less than 10-15 yards. Both mulies were DRT. Coyote DRT.

These were my experiences before I had one bad experience with an elk, only one I have personally seen shot with an ELD-X. Did not recover the animal.

Good luck OP. Hope this helps.