Are the Eld x bullets that bad

[BuckeyeRifleman]

I think it's important to remember that bullets ultimately kill via two methods, massive blood loss via hemorrhage from vital organs, or CNS disruption.

No doubt any legal caliber and any bullet can cause that to happen. As such there is a lot of confirmation bias that if a bullet worked for them in a handful of scenarios it must also work for everyone in every scenario.

There are some traditional metrics of good bullet performance that are commonly accepted across both big game uses and law enforcement and personal defense uses.

Reliable straight line penetration, enough to reach vitals from oblique angles. As such mass retention and the ability for the case and jacket to remain together has been traditionally regarded as important in this regard.

Reliable expansion that will cause a large enough permanent wound cavity to cause massive hemorrhage.

There is a lot of marketing in the bullet would. A lot of cool sounding terms like "shock" and "energy" used to wow buyers and sell bullets.

But ultimately, that massive hemorrhage is what turns the lights out on a critter in the typical hunting scenario.

Some bullets do that better than others. Some do it better up close and some do it better far away, and it's really hard to find a bullet that does it all the time in every possible scenario.

Do your research, do your best to separate the marketing from the reality. Try to find the "no BS" gel tests and find what works in your caliber and from what distances (impact velocity) you expect to engage from.

 

[Timber Runner]

200 gr eld-x factory precision hunter out of a 300 wsm. Rifle likes every factory ammo I've put through it, so 1/2 Moa or so.

1st game animal, raghorn elk at 618 yards, front quartering off. Brisket shot, bullet severed big arteries and then must of hit bone and went straight up to spine, breaking spine. Bang flop.

Shot two smallish whitetail does that fall, both one shot kills at relative short distances, 100 or so yards. Expired fairly quick.

Next season, nice 5x5 elk at 330 yards broadside. First shot right behind shoulder, sounded good. Bull didn't move. 2nd shot 1 inch away from 1st. Sounded good, bull didn't move. Third shot, hit backside of shoulder, bullet shattered bone and it was a bloody mess. Elk ran into tree line. Waited 30 min, started easing into timber and elk jumped. Was ready, but couldn't get another round off. Sounded like elk crashed again, couldnt see though. Backed out and waited 3 hours. Went back, elk was dead. Lungs were jello, didn't find any bullet frags and two exit holes. I'm assuming the third shot that hit shoulder didn't enter thoracic cavity. That elk did have a broken off arrow shaft under his spine and given the lack of scar, was probably from the same season. I guess he was just a tough bull.

Shot a mule deer later that season at 280 yards. He was dead after first shot, but didn't drop, so I shot again and he flopped.

Shot one small whitetail doe that was 100ish yards, ran 20 yards or so. Dead.

So I had decent terminal performance. That three round elk bothered me, but his chest cavity was destroyed, so i dont know what else i could have asked for.

I then had a case of factory terminal ascent ammo dropped in my lap (so to speak) and haven't looked back from that.

 

[JD284win]

143 ELD-X and 212 ELD-X. My go too LR death machine when I'm not hunting in commifornia.

 

[bomberodevil]

My hunting buddy shot a raghorn bull at a hair under 200yrds using factory hornady 300 Win mag. I believe they were 180gr but may have been in the 165gr range. Two bullets behind the shoulder, 1 fragment made its way to the offside rib cage and broke a rib. A few fragments were found in the lungs. Everything else had just made mush of the onside ribcage. Just proved out the horror stories I had heard about them up to that point. I have several hundred in 7mm and 30 cal that I'll be ditching soon.

How far did the bull travel after impact? I assume it was recovered since you were able to report on the lungs.

 

[brant89]

Didn't read all the testimonials here, but I'm moving away from the 200gr ELDX. I've shot two antelope, five whitetail doe, one black bear, and two mule deer bucks with these. Antelope at 200 yards ran a 40 yard circle and stopped facing me, stared at me for a few seconds before tipping over. Antelope at 368 was quartered away extremely hard and was DRT, found the jacket lodged in the spine at the base of the neck. Whitetail doe ranged from 311 to 587 yards, all double lung or shoulder shots except for one neck shot. With the exception of the neck shot, they all ran 80+ yards with minimal blood trail. Black bear was shot at 480 yards, rolled him and he got up, no blood to follow and was never recovered. I will concede that shot placement is probably a factor on this one as it was my first bear and I followed the "middle-of-the-middle" advice and may have only caught the back of the lungs and/or liver. Shot the first mule deer buck at 680, watched the bullet impact high lungs and he hit the ground HARD, saw his head bob a couple times before he put his head down to expire. Once I got to the other side of the valley to get hands on him there was no deer, very little blood, and we never recovered him. Second mule deer was shot quartering extremely hard at about 200 yards, no exit just like the antelope, and the buck ran another 100 yards or so before expiring within sight (didn't look for blood and didn't try to recover the bullet). They are stupid accurate and seem to kill well, but my experience with the 200gr version is that tracking might prove difficult. YMMV

 

[bultinkle]

You're out on a hunt and you hear some odd wailing sound. What could that be? It evokes such a sad feeling deep in your soul. Is it a bobcat? No, too gutteral. Fox? No that's not it. It must be someone crying. Oh no, hopefully a hunter isn't lost. Better go help!

You get over the ridge and make your way, the wailing gets louder than ever. You finally come up on a hunter. Wow, how odd he is sitting beside a beautiful 6x6 bull half way quartered crying like a newborn.

This must be his first successful game take, it happens some people are just overloaded with emotion. You bend down, "hey pal everything all right? Is this your first bull? It's a beauty!"

He looks up at you and says "no sir, I've killed a few before"

"what's the issue? Are you hurt?"

No, I can't bear to say it.

You hear a loud zip, and another hunter comes staggering out from behind a bush buckling his belt.

"No mister; Jack here just experienced his first jacket separation within a hornaday eldx. He's realizin' this bull here is no longer real and that he has to spend the rest of his life posting about it online."

 

[dogz]

143 ELD-X and 212 ELD-X. My go too LR death machine when I'm not hunting in commifornia.

How many elk have you taken with those combo's and at what ranges?

 

[Short Round]

I see so many hate jacket separation. I guess I fully don't understand. If you shoot. The animal drops in its tracks what the difference where the jacket goes. Look at nosler ballistic tips. Amazing killer but most all explode. I theory is quick clean kill and have had great success with that. Not really worried about how pretty the bullet turns out to be while eating my steak.

Adam

Doesn't the separation of jacket and bullet give you two separate wound channels, both causing tissue damage? Isn't that a good thing?

Sometimes that two wound paths work out.

I shot a really nice 10 pt (eastern count) white tail with a .308 and a 150 Nosler BT. Hit the near shoulder and the deer fell then tried to get up and snow plowed his way 40 yards. Processing the deer I found that the jacket passed through the near shoulder broke some ribs sliding forward and took out the carotid. The core went straight and I found it in the offside front leg. Not much of the core left.

 

[JD284win]

How many elk have you taken with those combo's and at what ranges?

5 elk out to 700yrds with the 212s. All killed with 30-28 nosler and 300win mag.

1 antelope @ 740 with 6.5mm 143s

3 blacktail out 600yrd with 6.5-143gr and 1 with a 7mm 162gr before comifornia outlawed lead.

A bunch of wild pigs with 143s and 162s

some mine and some I was first hand witness to. All animals had pass through high shoulder shots at all ranges. No issues for my group of ELDX shooters. Haters gonna hate though.

Almost forgot a few elk with the 7mm 175s out of our 284win.

 

[Rocketeer77]

So are the 162 grain Eld x bullets that bad? Sure see slot of negative comments about them.

Son used 162 ELD-M in his 7mm RM no complaints albeit on lighter deer (English red)

 

[COBrad]

These are 162gr ELDX mushrooms at long range….

How long were the ranges these were fired at, what were the animals, what shot angles? I had a 215 grain Berger hybrid do the same on an elk at 1176 yards. In my case I can't blame the bullet but won't use it on game that far anymore. Mine was fired from a 300 WSM at 2817 FPS. I had better results at those kind of ranges with heavy Berger HVLD's.

 

[Topper60fe]

I wonder if this is a speed thing?...push it too fast ..too close it will pin hole. I get great groups..less than .5 and i have harvested several lopers and a oryx (675 yrds) and everything worked great!! .300 win, 212 eld-x..2975 fps

 

[31pointer]

Is it possible the firearm had an issue?

No, It's a Seekins Precision. It had less than 100 rounds through it, at the time. Now I won't even use them for barrel break in.

 

[UCzO___]

These threads are so yesterday.

Not until tomorrow.