Wanted to pass along a performance report from my VA deer hunt yesterday. I have been shooting Hornady 178gr ELDX projectiles in my .308 and .30-'06s for 7 seasons and have been very pleased with performance. In my .30-'06s I shoot factory Hornady Precision Hunter ammo loaded with the 178 ELDX. They have been exceptionally consistent through the chrono at +/-2625fps in my 20" Steyr and in my 22" Winchester M70 right at about 2700.
Both rifles are zeroed at 200y, though shots here in Eastern VA are rarely taken that long. Accuracy is sub MOA off the bench.
I took this doe at 47 yards. She was running and she slowed, but never stopped. I lead her nose and took the shot. She hit the dirt and got right back up. I was sure I hit because of her abrupt change of direction. I got back on the scope, she was in short grass, dragging her right leg. I was afraid I might have hit her far back and just clipped the far side shoulder. I ran the bolt and shot again at her thought the grass. This time, no reaction - a clean miss, she did a U-turn and headed toward my stand on the road I walked in - her right shoulder was pretty banged up and she was not going far. She piled up, in the road, 7 yards from the foot of my stand very much still moving and alert. I took the coup de grace from the stand that hit put her down.
The damage to her right shoulder was obvious, bone and tissue protruding from a golf-ball sized wound. The left shoulder was devastated as well, but nothing visible for an entry. Upon looking, and it took a minute, I found the entry was small and right right in the middle of the shoulder mass. Under the hide, her shoulder felt like a bag of broken glass.
When I dressed her, the bullet passed through both shoulders and front of ribs, clipping just the front of one lung. It appears that the bullet held together through the exit as I didn't find fragments or damage in any other organs. Cleanly missed the heart (yay, because I love it!), which explains her vitality even after a hard hit.
This is the 6th animal I've take with the 178 ELDX - three other VA Whitetails at ranges from 19 to 94 yards. All but this one have been on-shot, boiler room kills, pass-thru with modest entry and not over-sized exits. I took a big NM bull elk with .30-06 at <60y - a one shot kill to the engine room, entry behind the shoulder, no exit and did not recover - the bull walked maybe 8 yards. My son took a MT mule deer at 248y with a hand-loaded .308 making just under 2800fps - a 1 and done kill, DRT where he got up from his bed. We have only ever recovered one bullet - from my son's mule and it had retained 60% of its weight, breaking up the far shoulder w/partial pass-thru. So to make a long comment longer, I really like and highly recommend the 178 ELDX for medium and even shorter range performance on game and proven long range accuracy on steel to 1400y.
Both rifles are zeroed at 200y, though shots here in Eastern VA are rarely taken that long. Accuracy is sub MOA off the bench.
I took this doe at 47 yards. She was running and she slowed, but never stopped. I lead her nose and took the shot. She hit the dirt and got right back up. I was sure I hit because of her abrupt change of direction. I got back on the scope, she was in short grass, dragging her right leg. I was afraid I might have hit her far back and just clipped the far side shoulder. I ran the bolt and shot again at her thought the grass. This time, no reaction - a clean miss, she did a U-turn and headed toward my stand on the road I walked in - her right shoulder was pretty banged up and she was not going far. She piled up, in the road, 7 yards from the foot of my stand very much still moving and alert. I took the coup de grace from the stand that hit put her down.
The damage to her right shoulder was obvious, bone and tissue protruding from a golf-ball sized wound. The left shoulder was devastated as well, but nothing visible for an entry. Upon looking, and it took a minute, I found the entry was small and right right in the middle of the shoulder mass. Under the hide, her shoulder felt like a bag of broken glass.
When I dressed her, the bullet passed through both shoulders and front of ribs, clipping just the front of one lung. It appears that the bullet held together through the exit as I didn't find fragments or damage in any other organs. Cleanly missed the heart (yay, because I love it!), which explains her vitality even after a hard hit.
This is the 6th animal I've take with the 178 ELDX - three other VA Whitetails at ranges from 19 to 94 yards. All but this one have been on-shot, boiler room kills, pass-thru with modest entry and not over-sized exits. I took a big NM bull elk with .30-06 at <60y - a one shot kill to the engine room, entry behind the shoulder, no exit and did not recover - the bull walked maybe 8 yards. My son took a MT mule deer at 248y with a hand-loaded .308 making just under 2800fps - a 1 and done kill, DRT where he got up from his bed. We have only ever recovered one bullet - from my son's mule and it had retained 60% of its weight, breaking up the far shoulder w/partial pass-thru. So to make a long comment longer, I really like and highly recommend the 178 ELDX for medium and even shorter range performance on game and proven long range accuracy on steel to 1400y.
