Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 147 ELDMs---Your thoughts?

Pretty sweet 10 yard groups huh?
I wasted 20 or so rounds trying to figure out why I couldn't hit the target at 200 (which is where my last load was zeroed for), 100 and 50 yards. I kept noticing dust fly up several yards in front of the target and several yards off to the side.
Finally I stuck the target up at 10 yards and fired away. Roughly half the bullets hit the target like they're supposed to. The other half......well ya.......Just a bad lot, I hope.

Dang, that’s rough. What’s the twist on your rifle?

Twist is 1/8.

Load is hot, but not over max according to Hornady's published data. No pressure signs at all with the brass or bolt lift.

Man, no reason they should be going crazy like that. Or at least none I could think of. I’ll listen and learn on this one.

Does it shoot a plain old tested load well? I know it sucks since it happened to you but it’s amazing that it is happening, if that makes sense.

I hear Berger makes a good 140gr VLD.

Might give that a try.

Joking aside you might have a rough barrel that is hard on jackets which possibly might explain fast expansion on game with other bullets.

Just a thought.

Good luck.

Yeah, that looks like a bad lot of bullets. I can't fathom what else it could be, as long as you've got rifling in the bore. Never seen that before. Crazy.

That's something I had not thought of before....it's a Lilja and accurate with 140 bergers and AMAXs...as well as 142 Sierras, but I have no idea about how it could affect copper jackets.

Thanks for that thought.

It shoots everything else in the same weight and B/C class just fine.
Burn's comment has me thinking about why I have had poor performance on bigger game with the 140 berger through this rifle, despite generally getting good, round groups. Lots to learn, I guess.

Wow. I’ve shot several deer with the 140 and 147 ELD-M and always had exits. Not sure what’s up here, either.

Have you checked the bullet diameter with calipers or a micrometer? They should not be keyholing like some of those did.

You might also check with Hornady.

None were key holing. The one picture looks like one or two did, but my arrows pointing to 5 different holes were from a single shot. That bullet was in pieces.

The bullets either hit going straight, or they broke up before hitting the target at 10 yards. The torn up paper makes it hard to tell, but looking at the plywood backer, some of the bigger single holes were from multiple pieces of bullets hitting somewhat close together, making it look like a single, big hole in the paper.

Yeah, they obviously 'sploded. I can't figure why other bullets would shoot fine, then these would pop, unless it's a bad batch, or maybe a marginal batch combined with a rough bore.

Ya, after a little Google fu' it seems I am not the only one with this issue. I loaded 20 from a different lot and will play with them this evening.

The problem is your OAL. It’s in mm. Change it to inches, you’ll be fine.



P

It’s crazy a Lilja would tear them up that bad but I guess anything is possible. Those 147 ELDs are absolute demons out of my 6.5 CM at 2775. Never would’ve thought they’d do that.

Your rifle sucks. I could at least hit paper and close to the orange dot with my bad hornady 6.5 bullets:

That 10 shot group is better than some guys do with their good loads...



Yeah, you aren't the only one..

Crazy stuff TinyCOCK.

You tried the Scenar?

No, but that thought has crossed my mind lately for sure.

I loaded up 20 more 147s from a different lot, and played with them this evening. "Only" two of them blew up this time. The rest shot good, and the B/C is crazy awesome. Too bad my confidence in them is below ground level. Even if I can trust them to stay together to the target, I can't trust them to stay together long enough to penetrate into a critter's goodies.

I think I'll order some 139 Scenars in the next few days.

Hope the Scenars shoot. I’ve tried them two 6.5’s that shoot well and they haven’t been nearly as accurate as ELD’s, etc...