Thread: 6.5 143 ELD-X, are they THE 6.5 hunting bullet?

Great feedback team. Well they shoot pretty well in my rifle so I think I'll stick with them.



Knocking on 2900 with almost 100 rounds down the tube so should speed up a little yet.

Nice! 2217 work out better than 2225 in the end?

I use berger classic hunters in my 260 but I would suggest you use the eldx and leave the bergers for me

Originally Posted by stagstalker

I use berger classic hunters in my 260 but I would suggest you use the eldx and leave the bergers for me

Are you getting exits? In my 270wsm I found they weren't leaving a blood trail.

Originally Posted by 6.5 CRD

Nice! 2217 work out better than 2225 in the end?

I'm having a self imposed component restriction, I'll start playing with the 2225 when I'm nearly out of the 2217. Unless someone has some 2217 they would swap for 2225?

Was a great day out .That one shot you can see with the 130g sierra didn't make much of a dent. Mine due it was going pretty slow.

Originally Posted by Rated M for Magnum

I'm having a self imposed component restriction, I'll start playing with the 2225 when I'm nearly out of the 2217. Unless someone has some 2217 they would swap for 2225?

Possibly I need to test both aswell and then the other will be out the door

Originally Posted by Tahr

Are you getting exits? In my 270wsm I found they weren't leaving a blood trail.

Not always but they often do aswell. I don’t find myself looking too hard as the deer never go far.

Originally Posted by Tahr

Are you getting exits? In my 270wsm I found they weren't leaving a blood trail.

I gave them a try in my .260 a few years back shot 4 reds a couple just walked away as if not hit until someone else shot them.
The last 2 were hit well in the lungs and ran off no blood and only ever found 1 about 50 m away.
ELDX drop them on the spot 90% of the time.

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Vld is a different kettle of fish hunting not target unlike its honardy counterpart the vld target is a shocking pill on animals not to be used

Originally Posted by Kelton

Vld is a different kettle of fish hunting not target unlike its honardy counterpart the vld target is a shocking pill on animals not to be used

The 168 VLD hunting in my saum has been awesome. Myself and two mates all run the 135 classic hunters in two 260s and one creedmoor that have taken a lot of deer between them now, all to great effect. Deadly. Tbh I have never really experienced a legitimately poor projectile myself. From eldx to eldm to sst to berger to cupncore soft point etc they all just killed pretty good. Just lead down range.

I have just done a new load for me mates rem mag though as he hated the 160 TMK, found them to pencil bad if nothing solid was hit and lost a few animals. Now got him on 162 eldm and loving them.

Probably my only marginal experience with a pill was the 162 eldx in my rem mag on a rear shoulder shot where the animal took a long time to expire. But that was also my only marginal experience out of many good kills and I also don’t like rear shoulder shots for that reason anyway so I didn’t really put much weight on the experience.

I found the 135 Berger classics to be vicious killers, although I never shot an animal under 200yds with them.

Originally Posted by stagstalker

The 168 VLD hunting in my saum has been awesome. Myself and two mates all run the 135 classic hunters in two 260s and one creedmoor that have taken a lot of deer between them now, all to great effect. Deadly. Tbh I have never really experienced a legitimately poor projectile myself. From eldx to eldm to sst to berger to cupncore soft point etc they all just killed pretty good. Just lead down range.

I have just done a new load for me mates rem mag though as he hated the 160 TMK, found them to pencil bad if nothing solid was hit and lost a few animals. Now got him on 162 eldm and loving them.

Probably my only marginal experience with a pill was the 162 eldx in my rem mag on a rear shoulder shot where the animal took a long time to expire. But that was also my only marginal experience out of many good kills and I also don’t like rear shoulder shots for that reason anyway so I didn’t really put much weight on the experience.

I think mine were 130grn but not sure what one VDL hunting or target.

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Originally Posted by 25/08 IMP

I think mine were 130grn but not sure what one VDL hunting or target.

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I have definitely heard of some bad berger experiences. There seems to be some select caliber and weight combos that maybe don’t perform as well for whatever reason. @mawzer308 for example had some bad experiences with them in 270.

You had to keep an eye on the meplat on the old Berger's (orange box) that was the cause of a lot of fails seem to have fixed that issue with the later batchs