Thread: 6.5 ELD-M 140 vs 147....ELD-X?

Originally Posted by superdiver

2 shots into a red stag by a mate and wasn't enough to stop it. 110yds from a 6.5cm and factory precision hunter. Not bad shots either and found lots of blood plus bits of bone but it took off reasonably unhindered. 3hrs of tracking and using my dog but got all the way to the property boundary following tracks and blood and see it on the open faces. Not allowed over there so we couldn't continue

Has to be the shot placement. No other explanation for it. Missed the shoulders / leg bone / hilar / heart... 99.9% guaranteed both shots would have been too far back.

Doesn’t matter what regular hunting bullet you select from the normal range of Hornady, Sierra, Nosler etc, if a red stag does that, the bullet didn’t make it into the front of the vitals and probably only got the rear lungs. It can be even worse with monolithics or some of the harder bonded designs. Lots of blood and bone means he got well hit, just not in the right place.

I think it’s natural for the shooter to blame the bullet but when you look at the relative construction of the ELD-X with the cup & core designs like ELD-M, GameKing, Speer BTSP, SST, Nosler BT, etc etc, there isn’t that much difference between them and they all behave roughly the same give or take. Shoot enough animals with them all and you might start to wonder why we place so much emphasis on which bullet to use, its really a very level playing field construction wise. It’s the BC that makes the difference, much further out. The way things are going pretty soon I’m going to be chasing my bullet based on dollars!

I haven’t shot many close range reds with the ELD-X as its my medium range gun. But those reds that have been unfortunate enough to pop out of the bush right in front of me have been poleaxed by a front of chest shot with this bullet at that ~100m impact velocity. Instant bang flop down in a heap. The criticism of the bullet at that range is that it’s quite messy as it mostly breaks up and separates. I’ve got heaps of videos of that bullet doing the bizzo at 400 or 500m but bugger all close range stuff because I never have time. But this photo is a jacket removed from a decent red spiker, shot at 135m from behind and downwards, in through the last rib well above the midline, across the top of the heart & front lungs, bullet lodged in the front of the brisket. Instant collapse.