Hornady ELD-X

[bdan68]

How far away were you from the goat?

200 yards.

 

[KenLee]

Exit from a 178 grain ELD-X from a 30/06. I won't be using these bullets ever again, except maybe for coyotes.View attachment 771998

Looks like perfect bullet performance to me. Destruction of boiler room achieved.

 

[bdan68]

Looks like perfect bullet performance to me. Destruction of boiler room achieved.

And I lost much of the backstrap.

 

[KenLee]

And I lost much of the backstrap.

Shoot lower

 

[Kimber7man]

I watched the 175 ELDX put two elk down a week ago, both from 7mm PRC’s. One was at 250 yards, nice 6x6 bull was higher up and quartering to my buddy. One shot just in front of the front shoulder, up and out the high side of the rib cage on opposite side of bull. He fell in 5 seconds.
Second was a cow at 160 yards, and just a bit lower. Quartering away, he hit her back in liver and got lungs. She was down in 10 seconds. Bullet did not exit but we didn’t find it.

Both of these had muzzle velocity around 2,920.
I’d say they work and might use them next year.

 

[eoperator]

Exit from a 178 grain ELD-X from a 30/06. I won't be using these bullets ever again, except maybe for coyotes.

And I lost much of the backstrap.

So a .30 cal fragmenting bullet did to much damage?

Maybe try a 6mm 103eldx that you will shoot more accurately next time. Or if you want to stick with the 3006 try a slower velocity barnes or non fragmenting bullet that leaves more of a pencil through like wound channel.

 

[Packer9037]

I shoot a 300 Weatherby and took 200 gr ELDX bullets on my first elk hunt. Shot a cow at 300 yards, through her front shoulder and lungs, dropped her where she stood. Shot a bull in Montana with the same load and at 285 yards and minimal meat damage as well. So far pretty happy with the eldx myself. But would agree with the overall sentiment...need to shoot something you are comfortable with.

 

[Sdieffen]

I'm in the no ELD-X camp. Shot a buck a few years ago at 110 yards. Luckily in the heart. Pinhole in, pinhole out. .270 cal. No expansion. Super precise but not what I want in a hunting bullet. Until that point, I was sold on Hornady. They make great ammo, I just won't use that bullet anymore. Nosler partition is a better choice imo.

 

[rifletuner]

The only ELD-X that I have seen in action was used by my son on a hunt in 2022. He was 17 at the time, on a youth hunt for fallow deer (similar size to whitetail deer) in South Australia. I loaded the 178gn ELD-X in his 308 Win. I was planning to use some of the 168gn A-Max bullets as we have a lot of those, but since it was a guided hunt on private property, I thought it was better to use a "hunting" bullet in case any of the people running the hunt objected to using a "match" bullet.

His first shot was on a doe at 100 yards. I was standing behind my son and the guide. At the shot I saw the doe run behind some bushes and disappear. I asked my son how the sight picture looked when he shot and the guide said "Its dead. It had stuff coming out of it". We walked over and found the doe had run about 15 paces and expired. It was hit behind the shoulder and the bullet exited. There was a fair amount of bruising on the carcass.

The next day he had an opportunity at a young buck, maybe 2 years old. The shot was up a slight incline at about 200 yards. The buck dropped on the spot - my son could see the animal on its back with legs in the air after the shot. He was aiming on the shoulder, but when we walked up to the buck we found the hit was high shoulder - I think because of the incline. Under the buck was the most blood I have ever seen on an animal laying on the ground like that. The carcass also showed a lot of bruising.

I only have a photo of the first carcass hanging in the meat shed. This is the exit side:

This is where the buck was laying when we found it: