Thread: Hornady ELD-X sections

Fellas

Couple of threads here and elsewhere have reported problems with 7mm (.284") 162gr ELD-X. We had @Nick.m and @Troy Tempest reporting less than ideal knock-down, and I've seen it on a couple of other forums as well. This kind of contradicted what others have been experiencing, like me with the 6.5mm (.264") 143gr and .308" 178gr, and @Mooseman with the .308" 200gr ELD-X, amongst others.

Problem with our comparisons, is there are way too many variables to be truly objective. For starters, I'm trying to argue away 7mm problems based on my 6.5mm experience. Not the same bullet. Then of course we have animal weight, animal species, point of impact, angle of impact, which way the moon was facing and the position of the tide....

So its hard to compare experiences, objectively, I think you'll agree. I've written up my 143gr 6.5mm experiences before, around 300 goats and a dozen reds with it so far. I've only shot two reds with the 178gr in the .308 Win, my Tikka doesn't like them a great deal but both of those animals were poleaxed with front lower shoulder shots at ~150m.

Here's a photo of sectioned bullets, the 200gr and 178gr in .30 cal, the 162gr in 7mm and the 143gr in 6.5mm. It's a prick of a thing to take a photo of, the shadows are a right pain. The photo is slightly off-centre due to shadow problems... not exactly a pro photographer, right?



I've gotten the sections as close to the mid-line as I can, so as not to overly skew the relative thickness of the jackets. Two observations, comparing them against each other:

(1) the 143gr 6.5mm has a thinner jacket on the ogive, relative to its overall size, compared to the others
(2) the 162gr 7mm has a thicker jacket on the ogive, relative to its overall size, compared to the others
(3) the 200gr .308" has a thicker jacket dimensions all round than the 178gr .308"

I've measured these as best I can with the calipers and the above is a pretty reasonable assessment I think.

I guess if you could reach any kind of conclusion from this amateur effort, taking into account all the variables that make every shot different to every other shot, you might say that the 7mm bullet looks a bit tougher for its weight than the rest.

What I can say is - like @Mooseman said - is that the supposed "interlock ring" is scarcely visible. In fact, I think its bollocks because I can't hardly see it at all on these sections and I'm inspecting them with the magnifying glass. I'm gonna take it up with Hornady, because I like that kind of thing.

I don't know what the circumstances were with these 7mm problems, my gut feel and no offence to the shooters at all, is that usually on our relatively soft deer the shot placement is 90% of the equation. Even properly hard bullets will drop deer quickly if they're put into the front part of the engine room, but directly in or above the heart, or just behind the heart in the rear lungs, is a bit of lottery. Angles are of course super important.

Make your own conclusions! I like doing this stuff, and I'm very happy with ELD-X in my calibres so far, can't wait for the 90gr in 6mm.

Good post mate! Back to the sst I reckon

Load up some ELDMs.

Yep nice work @Flyblown you can certainly see the thickness off the jackets especially in the heavy weights. I think the interlock rings aren't there looking at those cross sections and it will be interesting to hear Hornadys response. Me , I still like them and until I have bad fails I will keep using them. I am loading a batch of 7 mm/08 rounds for a friend using the 150 gr ELD X at about 2700 fps. He swears buy them and has shot a number of animals over the last 10 -12 months and hasn't lost one, most are dead on the spot or after a couple of steps. As Flyblown has said bullet placement is key. My mate I load for said one animal required tracking and when found it was hit in the neck, through the meat no bone connected, but it was an easy tracking job with plenty of blood to follow. Of all the ELD X bullets we have cross section the 150 gr 7 mm has faint signs of an inter lock ring.

I’d like to see how the 7mm 150 ELDX stacks up

Originally Posted by chainsaw

I’d like to see how the 7mm 150 ELDX stacks up

If anything like the .270 145g eldx they will be brilliant haven't lost an animal yet from 100 yards out to 450 yards all bang flops

The problem is that the deer are too bloody soft!

Originally Posted by dannyb

If anything like the .270 145g eldx they will be brilliant haven't lost an animal yet from 100 yards out to 450 yards all bang flops

If your rifle and you like those, I have most of a box my rifle doesn't like, swaps is good (projectiles not the wife!)

Haven't got anything to swap but could be keen to buy em, new rifle getting delivered Sunday comes with some projectiles not sure what I'll keep you posted

I have my order in for the aluminium ELD 6.5 at 153gn.

with regards the the 143 thin copper on the ogive... it means more lead bias to the front moving the COG forward... helps aparantly

A projectiles performance is not consistent across calibers and weights.....If you think about how they are made it is virtually impossible for them to perform the same across all calibers and weights.
Things like this help shed some light for sure.
Not even the same cup is/was used for 30cal amax with a much thicker cup used for the 208/178 than the 168/150.

Mates using 150g in his 7mm08 with mixed results

I have 180eldm in the 7-375r due back in a couple of weeks and will see how they go but have seen good things so far.

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

Thanks for posting this mate. I have shot two deer in the last week using the eldx however not reloads (box of factory ammo I’m trying to use up) I haven’t chronied these but imagine they are not moving quite as quick as the reloads. Both deer dropped on the spot, I recovered one projectile. It is fully mushroomed and looks as though it’s nearly breaking up, will post a photo at some point.

As stated I don’t know the speed but wondering if higher velocities are part of the cause of the problems I’ve had in the past?

Originally Posted by Nick.m

Thanks for posting this mate. I have shot two deer in the last week using the eldx however not reloads (box of factory ammo I’m trying to use up) I haven’t chronied these but imagine they are not moving quite as quick as the reloads. Both deer dropped on the spot, I recovered one projectile. It is fully mushroomed and looks as though it’s nearly breaking up, will post a photo at some point.

What caliber and what range ?

7mm rem mag 162grn eldx. The projectile I recovered was at 20 yards and the other shot was at 80yards on sika. The recovered projectile was found under the skin on the offside shoulder while the first shot was a neck shot and passed through.