Hornady 143 gr ELD X Terminal Performance Report

[WildRose]

Ive used the 140 amax and eldm quite a bit on antelope and mule deer. One of the most impresive bullets ive seen used on mid sized game. One of my buddies is now using the 143 eld-x and every animal he has killed i have been very underwhelmed with the eldx performance. Doesnt hit near as hard or have near as large of wound cavities and animals run quite a bit farther

That's a placement problem rather than a bullet problem.

 

[projp]

A couple of weeks ago on a mature mule deer.
6.5x284 handloads
Hornady 6.5 143 EXD-X
2735 FPS @ muzzle
185 yards, deer quartering away.
Entered and broke second to last rib, exited body cavity and lodged in muscle of off shoulder.
Before weight 143 gr.........after weight 56 gr.

I liked the BC and accuracy of this load but was hoping it would hold together a little better.
It only hit one bone, (rib), and this is what is left. I worry about taking a high shoulder shot, or heaven forbid I make a "bad" shot, definitely will not use it on elk.
Will go back to the drawing board and try a Barnes LRX

 

[Pdvdh]

Is there some lead left in the butt end of the jacket?

 

[longrangehunterII]

I´m planning on using the 143 ELD-X on my aoudad hunt this weekend out of my 6.5 Gap. Lets see how they perform. I'm pushing them @3,017fps with slight pressure signs out of my 24" proof. My most accurate load is with the 135gr Berger @3,117fps, but I'm a little afraid the bullet is too soft. Aoudads have a reputation of being tough critters.
Ballistically both loads are almost identical, I just feel more confident using the tougher bullet.

Aoudad are well known to be super tough and hard to get into close range, and once pressured will run into the next County!

I'd look for something that holds together better like a Barnes TTSX, or the Nosler AB if it were me, but that's just my opinion. Either of those bullets will hit the mark if you do your part, and when they do, those bullets will penetrate far better then the ELD's, and are just as accurate if not more in most guns I've used them in.

 

[projp]

Is there some lead left in the butt end of the jacket?

Yes...Looks about .25"
It did kill the deer very dead and would be a great choice for broadside lung shots, but I worry about what would have happened is the deer was quartering to me instead of away.

 

[WildRose]

Yes...Looks about .25"
It did kill the deer very dead and would be a great choice for broadside lung shots, but I worry about what would have happened is the deer was quartering to me instead of away.

The ElD's simply aren't made to withstand high velocity impacts. If you want to stick with lead core bullets you'd do much better with the Accubond, Accubond LR, or Hornady Interbond.

As good as the Interbond has proven to be over the last several decades it still baffles me they chose to use the Interlock ring/cannelure rather than the Interbond bonding process.

Had they done both, they'd own the market with a lead core bullet that won't break up at high velocity and will still expand reliably at low velocity.

 

[Tikkashooter]

The ElD's simply aren't made to withstand high velocity impacts. If you want to stick with lead core bullets you'd do much better with the Accubond, Accubond LR, or Hornady Interbond.

As good as the Interbond has proven to be over the last several decades it still baffles me they chose to use the Interlock ring/cannelure rather than the Interbond bonding process.

Had they done both, they'd own the market with a lead core bullet that won't break up at high velocity and will still expand reliably at low velocity.

At close range and high impact velocities, sectional density if your friend. Even amax/eldm can handle high impact velocities IF the secional density is high enough.

The reason they didnt go bonded with a bullet that was desiged to work well for low impact velocity was because you need to be able to slightly fragment and loose some bullet weight to make up for lack of energy. A bullet impacting at 1800 fps that retains 100% of its wieght is slow killing with very narrow wound cannals

 

[WildRose]

At close range and high impact velocities, sectional density if your friend. Even amax/eldm can handle high impact velocities IF the secional density is high enough.

The reason they didnt go bonded with a bullet that was desiged to work well for low impact velocity was because you need to be able to slightly fragment and loose some bullet weight to make up for lack of energy. A bullet impacting at 1800 fps that retains 100% of its wieght is slow killing with very narrow wound cannals

Sectional density doesn't stop jacket/core separations. It will result in a large enough fragment to get good penetration If you have a heavy enough projectile to begin with which is why they seem to work well in larger calibers like the .338's and bigger rounds.

I shot interbonds in my .375 Ruger on some very large animals in Africa and while the bullets all separated they all fell very dead. In each case they were full length body shots chest to rear so we were able to recover them.

Also I believe the jacket thickness is considerably greater in the heavier/large caliber bullets as well.

Bonding the Bullet doesn't prevent good expansion, it simply keeps the lead core "married" to the jacket.

In talking with Hornady they went the route of just using the cannelure figuring that at the impact velocities experienced at LR it would hold the bullet together well enough and that there would be little loss of mass from the lead in front of the cannelure anyhow due to the lower velocities.

Even at Ranges well beyond 400yds shooting the Interbond from the 7mm RM and 7mm STW I never had a problem with a lack of expansion nor did I ever run into the problem of bullet breakup at sub 400yds impacts either.

Accubonds seemed to need a bit more velocity than the Interbond to expand reliably but I think that was probably just due to a difference in jacket thickness and perhaps the hardness of the allow used.

Interestingly Nosler made a .277 cal 110gr accubond specifically for the 6.8 spc that I've found to be extremely reliable even at impact velocities well below 2000fps.

 

[Prieto9000]

I've found bonded bullets to be a little picky. I had great luck with my old 7mm rm using the 154gr interbond, I sold the rifle and got a new sendero in the same caliber and it was a PITA to get them to group under 1 MOA. Then I tried the 6mm, 6.5mm and 7mm sirocco II and couldn't get any accurate loads. On my new 6.5 cm I managed to get an accurate load using the swift bullets but I had to play with them a lot. I bought a box of 85gr Interbond for my 243 and had the same results. 1.5-2 MOA while the 95gr SST is an awesome shooter.
I believe interbonds are great performers on game, they're just a little difficult to load in my experience.
Can't say anything about accubonds, never used them extensively. I tried the 300 grainers on my 338 edge but ended up sticking to the Berger otm's. They perform very well and are super accurate on my rifle so no point on spending time developing a new load. Specially with the cost of loading big calibers.

 

[elkaholic]

My guess is, from having made both bonded and non, it was purely economics! They made a pretty good bullet, not perfect, but look how many they have sold because of the cost. Marketing is a lot about finding a niche, and they did.....Rich

 

[WildRose]

My guess is, from having made both bonded and non, it was purely economics! They made a pretty good bullet, not perfect, but look how many they have sold because of the cost. Marketing is a lot about finding a niche, and they did.....Rich

At most bonding them would cost a few cents per bullet. From talking with them they didn't plan on this being an all range bullet, they intended it specifically for the 400yds plus crowd and thus didn't feel it was needed. They apparently missed their guess and I expect we'll see a bonded version before too long.

 

[parshal]

I thought I'd read somewhere that it's difficult to make a bonded bullet shoot as well as non-bonded and since they were going for match accuracy they chose non-bonded.

 

[elkaholic]

I thought I'd read somewhere that it's difficult to make a bonded bullet shoot as well as non-bonded and since they were going for match accuracy they chose non-bonded.

That is also true.......rich

 

[Pdvdh]

They apparently missed their guess and I expect we'll see a bonded version before too long.

Their ELDs are reportedly shooting accurately, anyhow.
I checked a couple days ago and saw a limited offering of Hornady Interbond bullets currently in manufacture. Maybe they're back in the Interbond business again. Didn't see any weight offerings for my personal use in 308 or 338 cals, but they are offering bullets in these and a few smaller calibers.