Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Hornady ELD Match for deer?

Wondering if anyone has used these bullets on deer out of a 6.5 Creedmor and how did they perform? I've been impressed with the 143 ELD X but with them being hard to find I've come across 200 rounds of the 147 ELD match and they shoot really well from my rifle. I'm curious as to how they perform on deer for you guys I've heard some people really like them.

Deer and pigs - 6.5cm, 6.5x284 from 30 yards to just under 300-- zero issues same with the predecessor the Amax-- run the 168gr in my .308 and it works just as well.

Perfect bullet and speed for light skinned game!

They've worked great for me and my hunting partners. Modest wound channels and ~1.25" exits if no big bone is hit. I personally prefer to stay off bone with these, as I don't like lead in my meat.

Thanks, always good to hear some field experience from folks.

They'll work great, we've been using the 123's for several years, all Bucks one and done. Buddies kid killed a 5x5 Bull Elk with the 147's at 300 yards, another one and done.

Nice, I haven't shot the 123's I've been shooting 140's. But I got a good pile of 147's last month for a decent price.

One 123, four 180's, and one 75 Amax. All dead in short order with one shot. Like other VLD bullets the 6.5 and 7mm had caliber sized entry wounds. Broke bone with the 75 'max. That was a mess.

I have not used the ELD M for deer but shot an elk last year using the 7mm 180 grain.

It worked perfectly. At the shot, the elk staggered sideways for about 10 yards and collapsed. No bullet recovery since it passed through.

Nice

Thats about our experience too. But thats a bigger wound exit than I prefer, dime or smaller we prefer. Just us. Bergers give me bigger than I want at times too so its just what you are after.

Bottom line I've not had a failure to open with the or a failure to penetrate.

I took a mule deer buck 2 seasons ago at 335yard with a 147eld out of my 6.5 creedmoor. 1 shot through the heavy bone on the right shoulder that angled back through the heart and lungs. The core separated from the jacket as I found it on the off side ribs but never looked for any more in the liquid. The buck made 3-4 bounds and piled up. Sample of 1 but it worked well.

I’ve killed several deer with eld-m’s to include the 243 108gr (243 win), 6.5 mm 147gr (260 and 6.5 CM) 7mm 180gr (7wsm and 7RM) and .30 178’s (300 wsm) and 208’s (300WM).

All but one has been 1 round and down and the one deer that got a second round and it was a 180 eld via my wsm behind the shoulder at 685yds. He got his ass up after the initial hit but didn’t go anywhere so I bonus balled him. First round went through both lungs and heart and exited, second round went in just in front of the diaphragm and exited his sternum.

I’ve always been perfectly happy with the eld-m performance but I primarily hunt deer in wide open stubble fields at longer ranges and if they were to run they don’t get out of sight easily. Usually they just go down, never had one take more then 5-6 steps.

My Go-To Bullet in 6.5/.30 cal. Shot 20 deer or so this year with 130-147gr ELD-M out of various 6.5 CM rifles. Prefer the 140/147 weights.

No issues on deer near and far with the 108s in 6 creed.