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.