Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 143 ELD-X on elk

378 yds, 20mph wind quartering left to right, up hill. 6.5 creedmor 143 ELDX.
Held for the high shoulder. Hit her about 6 inches to the right, and blew the spine. Lost some back strap
Bullet blew a hole 3" on exit. Sorry no pic

Congrats Dennis.

Nice report with supportive photos. Hopefully I can report a similar scenario in a few weeks with the 143g. ELD-X.

Nice work Dennis cool that you got to team up w/ a good ‘fire brother!!

Great report; congratulations on the bull!

Congrads on the Bull! Looks like a big one to me! Thanks for the story & pics!

Congrats! I ordered some for my 30-06 (the 30 cal variety), seems like they would be a good choice for the mild velocity round. I didn’t kill an elk (or anything) this year but I will kill one next year!

I would like to try some of the ELD-X bullets but I am having such great luck with the Hornady Interlock in 140 grain .270 cal. Everything I have shot has been a quick kill, 50 yards and no more. Congratulations and a fine job!

Looks like the 143 worked perfectly for the op. I bought some of the 162's to try in both my 7mm mags... That pill looks pretty promising to me..

Reloader 26 is your huckleberry in the 7 Rem Mag.



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I just shot a cow elk last night with my 6.5 creedmoor loaded with 143 eld-x bullets and I probably will not use them again. Way too explosive on entrance through the rib cage and not very good penetration. The elk died ok, but meat destruction was ridiculous. The entire left side of the front quarter will have to be thrown out due to blood-shot meat. I like the way the eld-x bullets shoot, but I think they are way too soft for my needs. I will go with a harder bullet in the future,

And mine made decent entrance hole, clipped bone and still exited. I guess we need a bigger sample. I need to shoot some deer with them. My shot was only 212 yards and MV was close to 3000 fps. I would have expected this to be a pretty severe test to the bullet.

Congrats, gear bull. I've heard report of the ELD-X being soft and "blowing up", obviously, based on your pics "it ain't so"! Good shooting.

I have been doing this for a lot of years and seen more elk die than most. The 6.5 143 gr eld x gave terrible performance on my cow elk last week, considering chronographed velocity was only 2700 fps at the muzzle. And the elk was killed at 200yds. I did shoot a deer in Wisconsin this fall with the bullet too. It worked OK but no exit and more blood-shot meat than expected. Right now have the the same powder charge but with Sierra 140 gr game king bullets loaded. So we will see what happens if I can find another cow elk. I will not hunt with the eld-x again.....

Kinda how I feel about the Accubond LR and a lot of guys are swearing by it while I'm swearing at it.

Good info...as I'm also using the 143 eld x in my 6.5 creedmoor.

The 140 gr SBT gameking worked better than the 143 eld-x in my humble opinion. Killed a second cow elk last week with it and got better penetration with less waste. Again not very scientific, but on the ground experience.

Interesting. I have no experience with the 6.5 cal, 140gr SBT, but have killed and witnessed a number of elk killed with the 270 cal, 150gr and 30 cal 180gr SBT;s. I consider them a mediocre elk bullet. The 200gr SBT out of 06's have seemed to work well though.

My observation and complaint with conventional cup & core bullets is just that--inconsistency. One time they seem to do fine, next time they don't. Poor penetration, bullet doesn't hold together well, etc. Then the next time they'll slap an elk and end up picture perfect on the far side of the hide.

This is why I continually preach premium bullets, especially from 30 cal on down. My experience is Partitions are the most consistent performing when it come to penetrating through lots of elk to reach vitals. Monos are good too..........

I have killed a number of animals with my 260 and 260AI using the 140 Sierra Game king SBT bullet. In 6.5 caliber that is a very good bullet- just not a good 1000 yard bullet as it gives up a lot to the wind and a lot of velocity. The ELD-X claims to be the Holy Grail- working at both high and low velocities. Again, I have an experience of once but it was a good one and the bullet did exit.

Nice bull and good job.

I can see where you would be very choosy about what you shot and where you dropped a bull in that country.

A friend of mine shot a nice mature cow this week with factory loaded 143's in a Creedmore, at 70 yards. He picked her out of a herd in woods and at the shot she split from the rest and circled around in a small semi circle. She was still on her feet so he put one in her flank angling into the lungs. At that she fell over dead. He found his first bullet , after it went through rt scapula and both lungs at rest under the skin mid way back on ribs. Lot of damage to lungs . Only the jacket was at the skin . He stated he was happy as it only went a few yards. the other bullet got mostly liver and very rear of left lung. and exited. He did say ther was little to no blood on the ground because of the down hill angle on first shot and no exit . But where she was he said a lot of blood last few yards travelled. This is a second hand account and I saw the found bullet.

Oh an that cow in his truck with hide still on the quarters will be a bear to process as it is below zero!!!!!!!!