Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 73 gr Hornady ELDM

I got a deal on a few boxes of 73 ELDM’s from a friend and my 22-250 NULA really likes them. Anyone tried this specific bullet on deer and such? I’m betting it’ll work fine.

Curious myself.

If you asked again but included the 75 gr ELDM I’d raise my hand with a positive review from a 1-8” .223 Rem.




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Les, as you may know, the FBI did some penetration tests with this bullet, and it did not pass their requirements. It's a bullet you don't hear much about. I love them for shooting paper and steel, but don't know how much I'd trust them on deer..

I'd use it for deer if I was toting a bolt 223. In my 223 rifles, the 73 ELD is much more accurate than the 75 gr ELD.
This is in rifles with 1 in 9 and 1 in 8 twists. Slow the ELD down, instead of rocketing its MV, and it will do quite well.

Same principal I noticed with many plastic tip varmint bullets. Run them fast they are explosive , slow them down and they will act just like a regular big game bullet. Just make sure before you pull the trigger, your game is within the parameters or envelope in which the bullet will work at those speeds.l

I saw a gel test on YouTube for this bullet done by AR.com and he was shooting from 10 yards away and still got 10” of penetration. I would think that at 223 speeds at a farther distance, penetration would improve. There are several individuals who are doing gel tests who shoot at 100 yards, and in my opinion this is a better approach. I would like to know what distance the FBI tested at.

Edit:

The FBI shoots into the gel from 10ft for their test. I do not think that this test translates into a failure as a hunting bullet. This ballistic tip style, be it SST or TTSX, is known to promote more rapid expansion. At 10ft and doing essentially the muzzle velocity, of course it’s going to come apart and penetrate less.

https://www.hornadyle.com/resources/fbi-test-protocol

As a comparison, check out how the 77 TMK did. It may surprise you.

Yup- killed several whitetails and some blackbuck with 73gr ELDM factory ammo in an AR platform. Terminal performance was good, biggest buck to date was 1 and done at 200 yards. Don't expect pass throughs but they will expand fine and shred everything between both sides of the rib cage.

I can’t find a link to the 73 eldm and 77 tmk buddy, can you help me out?