Anyone using Hornady ELD Match for LR hunting?

Ryan Avery

Admin
Staff member
Joined
Jan 5, 2012
Messages
8,639
I don't want to debate if we should or not. Just want to know if anyone has any first-hand experience with them on animals?
 
Joined
May 29, 2012
Messages
3,474
Location
Lewiston ID
I don't want to debate if we should or not. Just want to know if anyone has any first-hand experience with them on animals?

Somebody wants to try the 285's in their 338AI......
I'm contemplating running them through my norma this fall.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Jon Boy

WKR
Joined
May 25, 2012
Messages
1,715
Location
Paradise Valley, MT
My buddy has out of all of his 6.5s and likes there performance on game. I know he's killed elk at extended distances with them.

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk
 
OP
Ryan Avery

Ryan Avery

Admin
Staff member
Joined
Jan 5, 2012
Messages
8,639
My buddy has out of all of his 6.5s and likes there performance on game. I know he's killed elk at extended distances with them.

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk

Thanks Jon!

Do you know how far the shots were?
How far the animal traveled after it was hit?
 

Jon Boy

WKR
Joined
May 25, 2012
Messages
1,715
Location
Paradise Valley, MT
I watched him shoot a 6 point at 510 yards with a 260 3 times. The bull humped up bad after the first shot and sucked up two more but never really took a step. Standing right next to that 6 point was a 6x7 that was getting shot 3 times by a 7mm remmy and a 28 nosler and they had the same effect on that one. Both bulls took 3 shots and dropped at the exact same time and rolled on top of each other. Pretty sweet to watch really. Hes told of cows hes shot out to 600-700 with them but I havent been there to watch.
 
Joined
Dec 28, 2015
Messages
489
I'm running them in my 7LRM for next season but have yet to take a game animal with them. I did come across some videos and an article Nathan Foster from Austriallia who is owner of Terminal Ballistics Research. He does extensive testing on bullet performance/ killing power in game. This is what he had to say about the 180 ELDM.

"By now, many of you will be aware of Hornady’s new 7mm 180gr ELD-M. It’s the A-MAX that many of us waited several years for. Lately I have been using this bullet in the 7mm Rem Mag and 7mm Practical. Please take note that this bullet can develop higher pressures than the Berger VLD. You’ll get the velocities but you need to drop powder charges when starting out. If you are switching from a 160-162 grain bullet to the 180 grain, go down at least 6 grains, not simply 2 grains (based on 1 grain per 10 grains bullet as is common in the manuals and proves safe when using start loads). Start way down low, then come up. You may find that the sweet spot is 4.5 grains lower than where it was when you were using a 162 grain pill.

It is also important to understand that being such a long bullet, the tip (rather than the ogive) may contact the button of the seating stem within your seating die. If the button touches the bullet tip rather than the ogive, it will play merry hell with concentricity during seating and you will see fliers downrange. If you have such issues that need to be remedied, the options are to contact your die maker and ask for a stem suitable for match style bullets or failing this, you may need to have your existing stem altered (drilled) by a gunsmith.

The 180 grain ELD-M is a hard hitting pill. All I can say about its performance is wow. That should be enough for most of you. It meets and exceeds all of my expectations as predicted in the Cartridges book second edition which was released just before this bullet became publicly available. - A gentle stroke of the trigger results in a horrendous thump followed by two sets of hooves pointing straight up in the air. It doesn’t get any better than this.

This bullet will still deliver the goods and boy oh boy does it cheat the wind, putting a lot of other combos to shame. Dave Emary and his team at Hornady really have made an outstanding bullet.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

pods8 (Rugged Stitching)

WKR
Rokslide Sponsor
Joined
Mar 12, 2014
Messages
3,836
Location
Thornton, CO
The -X is supposed to be more hunting suited, have folks found much difference? Ryan is the some decent BC gain in the billet you are using for the -M over the -X or per my first question does it not matter much?

Interested as I was thinking of using these when I get my new gun.
 

5MilesBack

"DADDY"
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Messages
15,525
Location
Colorado Springs
The -X is supposed to be more hunting suited, have folks found much difference? Ryan is the some decent BC gain in the billet you are using for the -M over the -X or per my first question does it not matter much?

I would imagine that the M's are more like the Bergers in terms of how they work........i.e. they come apart inside the animal. However, after my daughter shot that small doe with the 143gr ELD-X 6.5CM, I doubt I'll use those again. The core separated from the jacket and both were found just under the offside skin on a broadside shot. Pretty pathetic for a non-fragmenting bullet IMO. If I want a bullet that comes apart and doesn't pass all the way through, I might as well use the M.
 

luke moffat

Super Moderator
Joined
Feb 24, 2012
Messages
102
If I want a bullet that comes apart and doesn't pass all the way through, I might as well use the M.

But what about all the accubonds and TTSXs I have caught in animals that didn't pass through either and left much smaller wound channels? I have only seen 4 animals with ELDX so far, but none have gotten away and don't seem to kill any better (or worse) than CoreLokt, Accubond, Scirocco, TTSX, Fusions, TBBCs, Partitions, or anything else.

I have seen pass throughs as well as caught all of these. If an animal doesn't get killed from a bullet in my experience it isn't the bullet's failure to work but rather lack of placement. Only time I really had a bullet fail to work is when I used my dad's gun to shoot a moose. Unknowingly to me he had loaded FMJs in his .308. Well 3 shots to the boiler room later with 3 .308" holes in and out within 1.5" of each other the moose died. :)


That said a match bullet with an impact at 3000 fps likely isn't ideal. Just like a TSX at 1800 FPS isn't either. :)
 

pods8 (Rugged Stitching)

WKR
Rokslide Sponsor
Joined
Mar 12, 2014
Messages
3,836
Location
Thornton, CO
What range and MV were at play for a datapoint?

As for the might as well use the -M part, in the 30cal realm where I was looking at them there isn't a lot to of reason to go match versus -X in the cartridge I was thinking of using. the 212-X is better BC than the 208-M and I think MV might be a little low on the 225-M but need to look into that more.

Regardless my personal plan would be to hunt a different bullet <500 and consider breaking out the ultra high BC lighter construction bullets for stuff further out. At least that is what I'm telling myself in my head at the moment. :p
 
OP
Ryan Avery

Ryan Avery

Admin
Staff member
Joined
Jan 5, 2012
Messages
8,639
Anyone using Hornaday ELD Match for LR hunting?

The -X is supposed to be more hunting suited, have folks found much difference? Ryan is the some decent BC gain in the billet you are using for the -M over the -X or per my first question does it not matter much?

Interested as I was thinking of using these when I get my new gun.

Yeah, the M is not for hunting, so they tell me. But berger tells me the same thing about their target bullets that I have killed well over 50 animals with zero animals lost. The .796 BC on the 180s has me very intrigued. My wife shot her bear with one at 50 yards and it killed it but she hit the shoulder and it grenaded. But I figured it would at that range. Just looking for longer range reports.
 
Last edited:

204guy

WKR
Joined
Mar 4, 2013
Messages
1,292
Location
WY
Ryan do you have experience with Amax's on game? I'd expect them to act the same, except the eld-m's have heavier for cal. offerings. Formildous has talked about them if you can find it. If you like how the Bergers perform you'll probably be happy with the m's. I'd expect them to start opening immediately, instead of penetrating a couple inches before grenading like the Bergers. Shallow very wide wound cavities. Heavy for cal. is better. Expect a mess with high velocity impacts, especially if bones are involved. I'll likely kill some animals with the .284 180's and 147 6.5's this year. I'm not worried about how they'll perform.
 

5MilesBack

"DADDY"
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Messages
15,525
Location
Colorado Springs
But what about all the accubonds and TTSXs I have caught in animals that didn't pass through either and left much smaller wound channels?

Here's my concern.......a bullet that (1) isn't designed to come apart and kill like a Berger, that (2) didn't pass through on a small doe with nothing but ribs and organs to stop it.......what the heck is it going to do on an elk? Did the doe die? Sure, but it's a small doe......a .22 would have killed her.

The only time I've not gotten a passthrough with those other bullets were on quartering away shots where the bullet buried in the offside shoulder after going through most the chest cavity. And in some cases with Failsafes and A-frames, they still passed all the way through after breaking down the offside shoulder.

If this was the 10th animal in a line of successful ELD-X kills I might just chalk it up to a fluke. But being the very first.......I'm not quite as forgiving.
 

KurtR

WKR
Joined
Sep 11, 2015
Messages
3,533
Location
South Dakota
Killed a whole bunch with the 140 amax ranging form 50 to 500 yards. With the 143 eldx i have killed deer from 100 to 400 all with one shot kills and bullet pass through this with a 6.5 creedmoor. The 100 yards shot was a doe my kid shot and he was a little high and forward broke both shoulders and bullet did not grenade. I have some of the m's loaded up for my father in law in his 7mm so will see what they do on deer this year. Hoping to find out what the 143 will do to elk this year didnt get to pull the trigger last year.
 

pods8 (Rugged Stitching)

WKR
Rokslide Sponsor
Joined
Mar 12, 2014
Messages
3,836
Location
Thornton, CO
Here's my concern.......a bullet that (1) isn't designed to come apart and kill like a Berger, that (2) didn't pass through on a small doe with nothing but ribs and organs to stop it.......what the heck is it going to do on an elk? Did the doe die? Sure, but it's a small doe......a .22 would have killed her.

The only time I've not gotten a passthrough with those other bullets were on quartering away shots where the bullet buried in the offside shoulder after going through most the chest cavity. And in some cases with Failsafes and A-frames, they still passed all the way through after breaking down the offside shoulder.

If this was the 10th animal in a line of successful ELD-X kills I might just chalk it up to a fluke. But being the very first.......I'm not quite as forgiving.

I believe the line of thought is at longer ranges with a more moderate impact velocity the bullet will peel more traditionally and maintain a hunk of mass to penetrate. At high impact velocities the bullet likely aggressively fragments and then the smaller pieces don't penetrate as well, esp. the -M which I believe has a hollow cavity behind the tip. What was the distance and muzzle velocity for the instance you were talking about?
 

5MilesBack

"DADDY"
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Messages
15,525
Location
Colorado Springs
I believe the line of thought is at longer ranges with a more moderate impact velocity the bullet will peel more traditionally and maintain a hunk of mass to penetrate. At high impact velocities the bullet likely aggressively fragments and then the smaller pieces don't penetrate as well, esp. the -M which I believe has a hollow cavity behind the tip. What was the distance and muzzle velocity for the instance you were talking about?

375 yards, MV right around 2800fps. Maybe there just wasn't enough ooooomph to get all the way through at that distance???? But again........"a small whitetail doe". 2 seconds after my daughter shot, I shot a spike buck from the same distance with my 7mag and 168gr Classic Hunter Bergers. That deer actually went farther than my daughter's and was a better shot. Mine was right behind the shoulder and hers was a little back more mid body, but both died. That was the first time I'd used either of these bullets.
 

Attachments

  • 100_3311.jpg
    100_3311.jpg
    78.3 KB · Views: 372

pods8 (Rugged Stitching)

WKR
Rokslide Sponsor
Joined
Mar 12, 2014
Messages
3,836
Location
Thornton, CO
Good feedback, thanks. Yeah that wouldn't have been a high impact velocity. The expansion looks good but the jacket separation is some concern and I agree its surprising it hung up in the doe. Food for thought for sure.
 
Joined
Dec 30, 2014
Messages
8,168
I believe the line of thought is at longer ranges with a more moderate impact velocity the bullet will peel more traditionally and maintain a hunk of mass to penetrate. At high impact velocities the bullet likely aggressively fragments and then the smaller pieces don't penetrate as well, esp. the -M which I believe has a hollow cavity behind the tip. What was the distance and muzzle velocity for the instance you were talking about?

The x is the one with the hollow cavity. It's part of what contributes to the lower BCs. I believe the 147 is basically the same profile as the 143 but has less copper in the jacket and no void.
 

joelbiltz

WKR
Joined
May 19, 2012
Messages
867
Location
Brookville In
Ryan,

The Gunwerks guys have killed a ton with the ELDM. They tested them a ton in Africa and I was told the perform very similar to the Bergers we have all come to love. They also told me that they are liking the M over the X as the X is to hard for their liking. I just bought a box of the 208 ELDM to try and if I can get the accuracy I plan on killing my two Sitka bucks on Kodiak this fall with them.
 

pods8 (Rugged Stitching)

WKR
Rokslide Sponsor
Joined
Mar 12, 2014
Messages
3,836
Location
Thornton, CO
Ryan,

The Gunwerks guys have killed a ton with the ELDM. They tested them a ton in Africa and I was told the perform very similar to the Bergers we have all come to love. They also told me that they are liking the M over the X as the X is to hard for their liking. I just bought a box of the 208 ELDM to try and if I can get the accuracy I plan on killing my two Sitka bucks on Kodiak this fall with them.

Is there any links to read on their findings? Esp. interested on the -M vs -X findings.
 
Top