140 Eld-m for deer hunting

[duckhunter175]

Lots of variables-- the ELDX has a thicker jacket and should provide better penetration-- the biggest complaint on them I've seen is pass throughs on thin skinned game without much expansion making game recovery hard.

Take all this with a grain of salt because shot placement is the biggest factor in the bullet performance equation... and people often leave that part out when discussing unrecovered game.

Type of game, distance, preferred shot location all have a part in the bullet choice equation. Here in Texas and my annual western hunts Im chasing deer, hogs, antelope and the occasional exotic so I run ELDMs (bergers and BJs in my .257).

I shoot the crease up to high shoulder, except pigs (head shots). Great performance from 73gr ELDM (.223), 130 and 140 ELDM/AMAX (6.5x284, 6.5cm), 168gr Amax (.308)

 

[sea2summit]

Thanks! Based on your comment and the others talking about their success hunting with the ELDM, when/why would someone choose the ELDX instead? I guess this is more of a pros and cons of each cartridge question that maybe depends on the game and distance shooting?

If I was hunting something 250#+ I would probably look at the ELDX but I'm normal deer I just don't see any need.

 

[d500lnn]

everyone is aware is that— and the past several pages and dozens of threads across this forum have provided plenty of evidence that the ELDM, Amax and others are completely capable of safely, humanely and efficiently harvesting game.

I've killed more game with the amax than the x or m. Personally, I like the M performance better than the x on game. I like good blood and wound channels myself

 

[BlakeGipson]

My cousin ran the 147 ELDX out of his .260 Ackley for the 2018 season and had mixed results. The first animal we shot was a large bodied mule deer buck at 556 yards. The buck stepped last second and the impact was slightly back, hitting the liver and not exiting. Buck ran around 100 yards and piled up.

2nd animal was an antelope doe. She was a double lung shot at less than 200 yards. She took off like a bolt and made it around 200 yards before she fell over.

Later in the season his niece shot an antelope buck at ~980. Upon impact, the buck showed no sign of being hit so she sent a 2nd shot. Either shot should have been sufficient but both pinholed and had no appreciable damage. The buck did die but took some time.

November cow elk hunt came around and we found a pair of cows. His wife made a slightly quartered to shot on her cow and hit near the crease of the shoulder (lung shot) only to have it take off. Upon tracking, we found no blood trail but continued to follow. After we found her, I checked my GPS and she had traveled over half a mile through snow before expiring.

There were a handful of antelope that this bullet worked well on but the only consistency was inconsistency in performance.

Long story short, we don't trust the bullet for our uses and have gone back to using Bergers.

 

[duckhunter175]

Blake- were you running the 147 ELDM or the 143 ELDX? I've heard similar stories to yours with the 143 ELDX but not the 'M' match bullets.

Assuming you were getting those started around 2900fps there would have been plenty of velocity for expansion.

But- if your experiences don't support what you are trying to do then I agree, go with what you know will work.

 

[BlakeGipson]

Blake- were you running the 147 ELDM or the 143 ELDX? I've heard similar stories to yours with the 143 ELDX but not the 'M' match bullets.

Assuming you were getting those started around 2900fps there would have been plenty of velocity for expansion.

But- if your experiences don't support what you are trying to do then I agree, go with what you know will work.

It was the 147 ELDM for sure. We decided to try it based off experiences shared here and the BC being better than many other bullets, but our results were mixed as I said. My cousin runs a .260 Ackley so he was getting plenty of performance, just not the results.

With the release of the 156 Berger, we've had no reason to look at other options now.