Thread: Hornady ELD-X sections

I've never recovered a projectile yet if under 150 yards they seem to explode and cause massive internal damage to organs/bone and out further up to 450 yards I have always had through and throughs again with good damage on the way through, high shoulder always sacks them on the spot no matter what range

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.

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?

@Nick.m I put some 162 ELD-X Hornady Precision Hunter rounds through a chronograph when I first got my 7mm rem mag. They were averaging about 2950fps from the 24" tikka barrel if that helps.

Originally Posted by stagstalker

@Nick.m I put some 162 ELD-X Hornady Precision Hunter rounds through a chronograph when I first got my 7mm rem mag. They were averaging about 2950fps from the 24" tikka barrel if that helps.

Interesting, not a lot of difference in speed ay.

Below are photos of the recovered projectile from the sika stag shot at 20m.

I think the problem may be impact velocity
The Eld-x range is designed to work between 2600fps and 1800fps. Anything closer than 100 with a 7RM you will be exceeding that. Might be worth taking a look at impact velocitys of the rounds that are working well 6.5CM and 308 maybe.

I shot the gong on the weekend at 350 yards with the 300 Win Mag and 270 Win. The interesting thing was the 178 gr and 200 gr 30 cal bullets left noticeably less impact marks than the 145 gr ELD X 270 bullet, that bullet left nasty welts in the steel. I know it was a bit close but I didn't expect that from the 270. We haven't cross sectioned a 270 bullet so might do one day just to see what the jacket is like.

My 270 loads chrono at over 3100 fps with that bullet so the old saying speed kills is true if going by the damage they did to my plate.

Originally Posted by Mooseman

My 270 loads chrono at over 3100 fps with that bullet so the old saying speed kills is true if going by the damage they did to my plate.

my 270 eldx load was doing 2940fps no pressure signs but deadly accurate, I would be happy to shoot that out to 600 yards with confidence.
can't wait to see what my new 270wsm will push them like

it is definitely a brilliant round in the mighty 270

That's a good grunty load dannyb it certainly would be fine at that range power wise. This is a picture of my gong plate, as far as I know it's Biz 400 and was at 350 yards ,the top two are the 270 and the top one furthest to the left is the 30 06 and the rest are the 300 Win Mag both 178 gr( 3) and a couple of 200 grainers. As can be seen the 300 made welts but the two 270 ones are a bit deeper than the 300 Win.

G'day fellas I've actually spoke about the ELD-X on this forum before and then and still I don't use them because to me they were too unpredictable . now since then I've done a lot of asking around the ridges about who used ELD-X and what they thought about them and the info was that many 308 users said that they were happy with them and rarely had any problems then I asked the 6.5 people and they almost mimicked the 308 people in having no troubles to write home about so then I got in touch with some mates pro shooters and ordinary hunters who use 7mm mag with ELD-X nearly all have had problems with them but out past 300m they had reasonably good kills even in donkeys and bulls and camel so to me this says that velocity is playing out here I tend to agree with Winaa on his post now the 308 and 6.5 are down on velocity to the 7mag but when it reaches out it tends to pick up the same velocity as the other two calibers that are closer in ie 2300fps to 2800fps this puts it in a similar velocity bracket as the 308 and 6.5 then the ELD-X seems to work maybe in the 7mag we should be slowing them down in velocity to get them to work better in closer but then we defeat the purpose of having a 7mag for its knock down power for larger animals when it could be done with 308 or 6.5 even though they are two quiet capable calibers So in my thinking the 7mag could be just a caliber that relies on long distance shots to have the ELD-X work as expected or required and by saying this it doesn't mean the ELD-X is a total write off but maybe just finicky to velocity in 7mag

Originally Posted by rigga

G'day fellas I've actually spoke about the ELD-X on this forum before and then and still I don't use them because to me they were too unpredictable . now since then I've done a lot of asking around the ridges about who used ELD-X and what they thought about them and the info was that many 308 users said that they were happy with them and rarely had any problems then I asked the 6.5 people and they almost mimicked the 308 people in having no troubles to write home about so then I got in touch with some mates pro shooters and ordinary hunters who use 7mm mag with ELD-X nearly all have had problems with them but out past 300m they had reasonably good kills even in donkeys and bulls and camel so to me this says that velocity is playing out here I tend to agree with Winaa on his post now the 308 and 6.5 are down on velocity to the 7mag but when it reaches out it tends to pick up the same velocity as the other two calibers that are closer in ie 2300fps to 2800fps this puts it in a similar velocity bracket as the 308 and 6.5 then the ELD-X seems to work maybe in the 7mag we should be slowing them down in velocity to get them to work better in closer but then we defeat the purpose of having a 7mag for its knock down power for larger animals when it could be done with 308 or 6.5 even though they are two quiet capable calibers So in my thinking the 7mag could be just a caliber that relies on long distance shots to have the ELD-X work as expected or required and by saying this it doesn't mean the ELD-X is a total write off but maybe just finicky to velocity in 7mag

Or do as @stug does and have 2 different loads 1 projectile for close range like a soft point and the eldx for longer range stuff.
I may do this as I am developing a load for 270wsm when I get my new rifle back from Gunworks.