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Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 60,149 Likes: 11
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 60,149 Likes: 11 |
jfruser,
Thanks very much for the field report!
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.”
John Steinbeck
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Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 17,246
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 17,246 |
In my experience so far, the ELD-X's work just about like the standard Hornady Interlock Spire Points, when impact velocities are similar. They expand nicely, and retain at least 40-50% of their weight, and often up to 75%. Unless you're a retained-weight obsessive, my experience is that works very well. for most big game hunting. (My experience with recent SST's is similar.) That is not what I'd call "faint praise". Regular Interlocks at speeds under 3,000 have always been satisfactory.
Now with even more aplomb
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Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 60,149 Likes: 11
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 60,149 Likes: 11 |
Nope, not faint praise at all. Especially since they kill well!
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.”
John Steinbeck
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Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 14,274
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 14,274 |
I am getting 2755 FPS out of a Tikka 6.5X55 using 143 ELDx bullets backed by 46.5 grains of H4831sc .Super accurate.Between my Son and myself we have taken 8 Mule Deer 4 bucks,4 does with this setup .My Son shot his last buck at 380 yards through one shoulder and out the ribs bang flop.Yeah,I like them!!! 
Its all right to be white!!
Stupidity left unattended will run rampant
Don't argue with stupid people, They will drag you down to their level and then win by experience
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Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 22,736
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 22,736 |
The two 143gr ELD-X's I used last year accounted for a caribou at 385 with a recovered weight of 110gr.. The bull immediately collapsed in his tracks. The second was a cow elk at 125 which also went down right away and slid down the hill until some sagebrush stopped it. No recovered bullet.
Muzzle velocity on these are 2775 fps powered by R-16.
My home is the "sanctuary residence" for my firearms.
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Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 3,005
Campfire Tracker
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OP
Campfire Tracker
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 3,005 |
Thanks for all the replies! Very useful information. I'll be developing some 143gr ELD-X loads. I have H4350 so will probably try that first.
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Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 22,736
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 22,736 |
H4350 should be a great start and even a place you might end. The CM is what created the H4350 shortage a few years ago.
My home is the "sanctuary residence" for my firearms.
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Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 3,044
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 3,044 |
Several of our antelope hunters have used it the last few years. It works, but it isn't super meat friendly if it lands on a shoulder. If you punch ribs you're good. Honestly, I couldn't care less about losing some dry shoulder meat if it means no tracking . Shoulder punch for me unless I just can't pull it off. To each their own, I like to eat antelope.
"The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that lightening ain't distributed right." - Mark Twain
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Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 3,044
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 3,044 |
TexasPhotog,
So putting a lead-cored expanding bullet in an antelope shoulder doesn't do the meat any good? I have noticed that now and then--especially when some handloader is determined to get all the zip possible, because "everybody" knows antelope bullets must start at over 3000 fps or they don't work.
On the other hand, the 143 ELD-X from a 6.5 Creedmoor factory load didn't do much damage to the shoulder meat of a big-bodied mule deer I killed in New Mexico last fall at 101 yards But that bullet actually started at a little less than the 2700 fps listed velocity. I've put several Interlocks and SST's (among others) into bucks' shoulders from a 7-08. Both were lead core expanding bullets but that's where the similarity ended. I don't doubt your mulie experience with the Creed, but the wounds I've seen from that combo resembled the SST wounds more than Interlocks. That said, when you have a client that claims to teach 2000 yard shooting and who gut shoots a buck at 120 yards with a 143 from a 6.5 PRC, having the bullet detonate like an absolute bomb saves a tracking job.
"The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that lightening ain't distributed right." - Mark Twain
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Joined: Sep 2016
Posts: 1,313
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Sep 2016
Posts: 1,313 |
Keep the speed down so weight retention is higher and it does OK. If you don't need the high BC, I'd choose something else for larger animals.
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