142 ABLR vs 143 ELD-x vs 140 Elite Hunter

[BEEMAN]

For those of you shooting hammer bullets what is your experience with them?

My experience has been VERY good so far. Only a two animal sample size so far. The results were both the same. Neither the antelope or whitetail buck moved after the shot DRT. Good wound channel and full penetration. Shooting 124 HH out of a 6.5x47.

 

[Starlite]

I agree 100%, shot placement trumps everything we are discussing here. Still, in real hunting situations ideal shots dont always present themselves. Also, here in Missouri deer run off in the deepest darkest places they can find after being shot, and without an exit wound tracking can be very difficult. Hence the desire to find the best bullet for the job. At short range I prefer head/neck shots as well, but if a wall hanger buck presents itself Ill not be shooting it in the head or neck.

Yeah I hear you. We certainly have some thick bushes here too. The black bears around here are notorious for running off into the brush and dying; never to be found. In the fall there is a short period of time before hibernation of bears and It's whitetail season that I ground blind hunt with a 160gr Round nose bullet. It's deadly and accurate out to 100M (max distance I've taken an animal with that round) it doesn't deflect while passing thru minor size bush. My 6.5CM Sako with its 20"SS barrel and the 160gr pill is my choice in theses dark forest

 

[Starlite]

I'll try to post some data tomorrow but I'm pretty sure I'm getting better results (measured by my LabRadar) in my BERGARA B-14 HMR 26" Barrel chambered in 6.5 CM. Think on one of my loads using alpha brass, H4350 and CCI magnum primer I was getting ~2750. Again I'll have check which pill that was. It's harder for this old fart to remember the hundreds of ladder tests and loads I've shot or developed for another shooting old fart. Lol

I didn't catch what rifle you're shooting. But with the 143 gr ELD-x getting 2770 seems a bit off. I'm loading 42.6 gr of H4350 with that bullet and only getting 2640 fps out of my Bergara HMR in 6.5 CM. That was my most stable load after much load development. My best group with that load was 1" at 200 yards with 4 of the 5 shots in .44". The "flyer" could have (ant most likely was) me.
Don't get hung up on group size. From everything I've read, group size should be secondary to stability. Do some ladder testing and see where you get a nice flat node. I would bet it would be somewhere between 42 and 43 gr. That seems to be the sweet spot for most of the 6.5CMs that I've been seeing. The stable load will be more consistent at all ranges. Your tiny group at 100 yards could be a nightmare out past 400 or 500 yards

Well I had a look on my computer and for some reason I could only find 2 tests.
1st....143gr ELD-X data out of my Sako 20" barrel. 2518FPS with 41.2Gr. H4350 that gave me the best accuracy.
2nd..... was LabRadar and accuracy testing a box of 143gr. ELD-X factory round. Out of the bergara B-14 HMR in 6.5CM 26" barrel dressed with a matador brake was avg 2632.87. SD 16.16 ExS of 44.40 with .725" MOA
I'll check the cloud later. It must be there.

 

[Plinker147]

More out of just interest. Shot at 300yards into my bullet test box of soaked paper. Shot these last summer, next time I will work out loads at roughly the same speed for a better comparison. Can't compare to an animal, but its fair to compare bullets to each other.
Labelled with cartridge they were shot from, muzzle vel and penetration.

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Good test, exactly as I have seen in game. If you want penetration go with high retention mono type bullets. You want expansion with fragmentation, Berger, LRAB, EDLX are good choices. I like the massive wound channels so a chose expansion with fragmentation.

In the hundreds of animals I have seen shot, I have never seen a bullet fail, they all did what they were designed to do. Keep your selection in what the bullet is designed for and it will do you right.