Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game ELD-X performance?

It is amazing how mixed the reports are on the ELDX. I have not shot them, except on a range test and they shot very well. A friend shot a big Nebraska cow elk at about 80 yards, with one a couple years ago, using a 6.5x55 ai (about 3000 fps). It had a complete pass through and left a decent hole on the exit. They are suppose to be Interlocks, but i think that the addition of the plastic tip, makes them come apart easier. I like standard Interlocks in about any caliber for deer and i think they are more reliable than what I have seen and read about the ELDX. I am, however, a fan of the 6.5, 147ELDM on deer. I have flopped quite a few of them out to 400 yards, doing depredation work in the summer and also some antelope and deer in the fall/winter.

Trust me, there was no sarcasm, Just sayin.

I found the 143 from my 6.6 creedmoor to be very meat destructive, very quick kills though.

I shot 7mm 140 gr AB's whilst awaiting Nosler to bring the same bullet in 150 gr to market. In the interim I learned the 140's were solid, reliable performers. I like them in my 7 Wby's, 280's & 280 AI.

I found the 143 eld x 6.5 creed. very soft and destructive in 2 deer and 2 elk. All shots were around 200 yds. and all bullets were still in the animal. In one gun I switched to 140 gr Sierra game kings and had less destruction and better penetration. I probably won't buy any more eldx bullets.

This is a 178 Eld X started at 3000 fps from a 300 Win Mag. Hit a mule deer buck nearly straight on. The bullet went about 14" and weighted 48 grains. I did not find any of the lead core.

I was skeptical of this round based on a few observed failures by others. I have a new 300 wsm that loves it though. Tried many premium factory loads and the precision hunter was sub MOA out to 600 yards. Others touched it, but the Hornady was best.

I killed an elk at 630 yards with it. The shot was frontal and through the neck and a devastating terminal hit, regardless of bullet, but the eldx certainly delivered. Retained 0.40 oz, so 87% of its 200 gr weight.

TimberRunner: Just about perfect performance but at 400 the ELD-X was in it's designed element. I get a lot of close shots so I hope I don't regret stocking up on the ELD-Xs.

Agree with others that the Accubond is about as good as it gets for all around use. The AB seems to combine the best of the BT and Partition. I am also liking the LRAB but have only shot three deer with them so far. The LRAB are working well for quick kills but with 50%+ weight retention I don't have to be picky about the shots I take. Although they fragment more than the standard AB it is not uncontrolled.

300 win mag, 200 grn, 25 yds, deer, behind shoulder, golf ball exit. 300 wsm, 200 grn 150 yds, deer behind shoulder, golf ball exit. No bullet recovery. Eld-x worked fine for us.

143gr eld-X, 6.5CM. 168 yards, buck antelope.


I've only killed 4 animals so far with this, 2 Blacktail bucks and 2 antelope bucks. All 4 have fallen straight down, zero travel. I haven't noticed a lot of unnecessary meat damage.

Amazing. A bullet designed for longer-range hunting apparently works well at longer ranges, but occasionally doesn't when pushed fast at closer ranges.

One not-so-odd thing I've noticed over the past several years is how many hunters apparently still believe any "long range bullet" requires high muzzle velocity, even if they plan to use it at closer ranges. Then they bitch when the bullet doesn't perform like they think it should.

Rifle loonies are loony indeed. Gotta bitch about something. obsessions easily turn into OCD issues.
I missed out on the go to the gas station or mom and pop hardware store on the way out to hunt and buy whatever bullets they had on the shelf and then go shoot stuff. I started re-loading at 10 years old and became a bullet snob at an early age. I wanted a bullet that not only would work from any angle or any range but one that would also cut and wrap the meat. Still looking for that bullet.

The problem is they don’t advertise it as a long range only bullet. They advertise it as an all range bullet. Per Hornady....

DEVASTATING CONVENTIONAL RANGE PERFORMANCE

With high velocity 0-400 yard impact, the bullet continually expands throughout its penetration path. The thick shank of the jacket and high InterLock® ring keep the core and jacket together providing 50-60% weight retention.

Most pictures I see the jacket and core are not kept together. They shoot good for me but It’s not hard to second guess hunting with them with an almost 50/50 consensus of good to poor reports. I’ve seen guys reporting as little as 30% weigh retention on empty jackets.

Do you really believe that the people you’re reading reviews from actually know what they’re looking at with a bullet and wound path? 90% of “reviews” still think energy, weight rentention, exit wound size, and how a bullet looks after it has killed, has ANY effect on how well the bullet actually killed.

ELD-X’s that have core jacket separation, almost always do so at the very end of the wound channel. As the bullet slows, the wider and lighter jacket gets stopped before the heavier and smaller core. If they actually understand what they were looking at, most of the time they’d find the core just past the jacket.... Neither of which has ANY correlation to how well the bullet killed.

Good points there. I've had some cup cores leave a small exit hole with the core, while the larger expanded jacket itself hangs in the hide. I've seen others separate in my hand when I dug them out from under the hide. The main thing there is that things hung together well enough for most of the ride and there was enough penetration to go along with the wrecking of tissue.

I will say that there are instances where I really want an exit hole, and in those instances I am generally not going to go with a standard cup/core, because that is not what cup/cores excel at.

I love these threads as they are very entertaining and informative. The bullet manufacturers and their marketing people sure know how to push our buttons. Higher BC's, New Jacket designs, fancy tips, etc. I can say I'm no choir boy either since I get caught up in the what's new hype too. Having said that, when it comes time to go and punch a tag my rifle is loaded with Nosler Partitions. No need to reinvent the wheel as seasoned hunters know Partitions just kill chit.

AlaskaCub,

I have posted this before, but last fall I killed a big-bodied New Mexico mule deer buck at 101 yards (yeah, had to laser it to make sure--after the deer was dead) using the 6.5 Creedmoor and 143-grain ELD-X. The buck was standing broadside but in a patch of Gambel oak, and thelmost open path to the vitals was to aim right in the middle of the shoulder. At the shot the buck dropped and never moved.

Found the bullet under the hide on the far side, the core loose but lying less than an inch from the jacket. It had not only broken the near shoulder, but the bottom of the spine and the far shoulder. Had no means to weigh the buck, but the boned meat went exactly 100 pounds, and generally boned meat is about 1/3 of live weight. (The jacket and core weighed 60% of 143, and I could not care less that they separated at the end of the bullet's path.)

The day before my hunting partner had killed an even bigger-bodied mule deer buck with the same cartridge and bullet, but at 311 yards--lasered before the shot. The buck stood quartering away and the bullet landed in the middle of the ribs on the left side. The buck jumped a little, a definite heart-lung hit, then staggered maybe 30 yards before keeling over. The bullet was found under the hide of the right shoulder, core intact, retaining 74% of its original weight.

The year before an Arizona friend killed a 6x6 bull elk at at little over 200 yards with his 6.5/.284, using the 143 ELD-X. The bull was above him on a slope, and the bullet entered the ribs, broke the bottom of the spine, and went through the far shoulder blade. "Unfortunately" it exited, so we have no idea how misshapen it was, but the bull rolled down the hill dead.

So, three one-shot kills on 300 to 700 pound animals, from 101 to 311 yards. I would call those closer-range shots--but the fact is that the ELD-X was indeed designed for longer-range shooting, which is why Hornady brags up the BC and accuracy, before pointing out that it will work closer as well.

From what I have seen over the past couple of years, the ELD-X (and SST) expand and penetrate about like Interlock Spire Points of the same general weight, when started at about the same velocity. Whether any of the three look like the "ideal mushroom" when recovered is pretty much beside the point, as Formidilosus pointed out. What matters is sufficient penetration and damage to the vitals to put animals on the ground.

Cant argue with that performance!

I killed a very large GA boar yesterday evening. The shot was 254 yards with my 7-08AI using a 162 grain ELD-X at 2730 fps muzzle velocity. The pig weighed in at 273 lbs. I hit a bit lower than I wanted to.



Here is a pic of the entrance wound. As you can see, these bullets open pretty quickly. I had a similar entrance on a doe that I shot at about 75 yards. On the doe, the exit looked exactly the same as the entrance.



Here is the exit. You can see that the core did fragment a bit, but the core and jacket were not in the pig. He only went about 40 yards and there was good blood after about 5 yards. He went into the thickest stuff you can find in middle GA, but we were able to follow blood right to him.



I also killed a 40 pound "cream puff" pig and the bullet performed exactly how I expected it to. Three shots, three kills and none of the animals went over 40 yards.

Damn that pig looks like half moo cow! wow!