They have done way better inside of 500 yards than barnes have done for me .so far every deer has been a bang flop with an exit hole , barnes always gave an exit but zero bang flops and not the best blood trails
Hornady 6.5C 143 ELD-X performance issues
- Thread starter vernw
- Start date
Help Support Long Range Hunting Forum
motrapper
Well-Known Member
They have Preformed wonderful at 312 and 408 yds
D
Deleted member 115360
Guest
I don't know why people are so hung up on an exit hole. The lungs on a deer are about 25% of the broadside view, and if you shoot them in that area with any modern centerfire cartridge, they are going to be laying close enough that you won't need a blood hound to find them. If you are hitting them bad and expecting a bullet to bail you out, then you are the problem, not the deer. I've killed more than one thousand whitetail deer in my life, and I've made about every mistake you can make in that pursuit in the last 30+ years, but if you go get your xx caliber rifle, and you go buy the worst garbage ammo Walmart sells, and you hit them in the lungs with even anemic velocity and they will die quickly. Bullets aren't magic, you have to put them where they belong.
Looking at the data out there on the terminal ascent it's basically the TLR bullet with a slightly lower bc. It's a bonded bullet. Much like the Accubond. I would suspect it will work great inside 500 yds. Just like an Accubond. The long range expansion doesnt look great. About like you would expect from a bonded bullet. While it does expand at low velocity it's minimal. I think that brings us back to the fact that there is no magic bullet. The Eldx is designed to expand at long range. As such it's going to suffer from core jacket separation and closer ranges. That's just the nature of the beast. It's just hard to cover both bases with a bullet. Choose the one thar best suit your needs.
Sometimes it is what it is.....and whitetails can be some tuff critters.
Used the 147m out of the sweede this year to fill three tags all right at 260 yards.
Doe antelope, mulie buck and a raghorn bull had one thing in common, they dropped in thier tracks! The doe hit high liver, buck front liver and bull gotter in the neck. I treat the elds like the old Amax and stay away from the shoulder. Fear of a surface splash has me being a little more carefull about angles and placement.
My experience is opposite of the op, his 143x are penseling and the 147m is almost too explosive. But just like him the 6.5 Grendel apears to be plenty of gun with even the 100eldm to 450 yards? I like the Grendel if the wind aint howling but end up grabing the Sweede because I'm in wyoming and the wind usually howls.
Have witnessed the hollow points not performing well in the past and right, wrong or otherwise will not use them on critters so can understand if the OP gives up on the 143x
Used the 147m out of the sweede this year to fill three tags all right at 260 yards.
Doe antelope, mulie buck and a raghorn bull had one thing in common, they dropped in thier tracks! The doe hit high liver, buck front liver and bull gotter in the neck. I treat the elds like the old Amax and stay away from the shoulder. Fear of a surface splash has me being a little more carefull about angles and placement.
My experience is opposite of the op, his 143x are penseling and the 147m is almost too explosive. But just like him the 6.5 Grendel apears to be plenty of gun with even the 100eldm to 450 yards? I like the Grendel if the wind aint howling but end up grabing the Sweede because I'm in wyoming and the wind usually howls.
Have witnessed the hollow points not performing well in the past and right, wrong or otherwise will not use them on critters so can understand if the OP gives up on the 143x
Awesome captain obvious but what about when you're shots a little off and you hit the liver and you don't get an exit ? That deer can make it a long ways and no blood trail really makes it tough to recover.the eldx is a terrible bullet inside of 500 yards , well unless you like grid searching ,I'm old and my grid searching game is weak , so I'm back to shooting my 300 win mag with bonded or mono bullets at warp speed.I have also killed close to thousands deer and I have seen some crazy stuff over the years .some deer die rather quickly and every now and then you will see one make farther than it should have , especially rut crazed bucks
D
Deleted member 115360
Guest
I've seen them run 300 yards uphill with their heart completely destroyed. Some animals have an unbelievable will to live, and bullet choice isn't going to change that. No bullet is going to make a liver shot a quick kill. You can shoot them with a 458 Lott if you want to, and then they will be easier to find if you gut shoot them. But, we did get to the root of the problem..... you gut shot a deer and you're blaming a bullet for it's performance. I'm not judging you, I have gut shot a bunch of animals over the years, but I never thought to blame a bullet for my mistake.
D
Deleted member 115360
Guest
Another thing:
If the eldx bullet is terrible inside of 500y, what do you imagine it does after that? It doesn't get faster or more lethal. There is no magic there. At 501y it's going to put even less energy into a gunshot deer, so the range has nothing to do with this situation.
Shot a mature 200# 8 pt Monday slightly quartering away at 50 yds. Went in behind one shoulder through the blade on the other and lodged in between hide and meat. Deer was dead at the shot ran 50 yds maybe. I heard him crash. Spotty blood trail but I walked right too him. If he would have ran in a thicket might have been a little harder to find. I'll weigh the bullet when I get home.
Looks like there's a lot of examples/experiences, both good and bad, concerning the 6.5CM 143 ELD-X round since I started this thread. Perplexing, for sure. I know some of the sad experiences are probably at least partially due to "poor" shots/hits. But I find it hard to believe they all are.
So, we decided to give them another go this past season in a 6.5CM. Three deer hit, pretty inconsistent results.
My son hit a small buck at approx. 175 yds in the edge of a cut corn field just behind the shoulder. Blew thru the lower 1/3 of both lungs with pretty extensive damage and bullets passed on thru (found perfectly round holes in two different corn leaves the bullet went thru aftert exiting the deer). It ran approx. 40 yds and fell over, very little blood trail until the last 7 or 8 yds. Luckily he was in a cut field and visible the entire time.
Second deer was a doe shot at 94 yds. Impact was witnessed to be approx. 1/3 up the body and 3-4 inches behind the shoulder and possibly slightly quartering towards the shooter. Doe ran thru a creek and approx. 125 yds thru cut corn field and disappeared into their wood line. Started tracking about 90 minutes later, Found 2 small drops of blood in field, two more where she entered the woods, and then nothing. Started a zig zag pattern thru woods, bumped the deer out of a bed and decided to wait a couple of hours. Just a small pool of blood in the bed. Three hours later we bumped her again, same small blood pool, and she was seen running for at 500 yards before crossing into another property and into the woods. Neighbor granted us access but no more blood found.
Third deer was a large doe hit just behind the shoulder and 1/3 up broadside at 127 yds. Ran 50 yds leaving a blood trail a 4 year old could follow and dropped, all in a cut field. Autopsy shows top of heart gone, lower parts of both lungs hit, and approx one inch exit hole. Bullet apparently expanded after direct center hit on a rib bone on the way into the deer.
So, 3 deer hit, 3 different results. All shots were made at calm standing deer from a tripod rest inside a pop-up blind at our leisure (not hurried). The shot on the lost deer was not as good as it could have been, but not all that terrible either.
I don't think we're going to use the 143 ELD-X in the future.
So, we decided to give them another go this past season in a 6.5CM. Three deer hit, pretty inconsistent results.
My son hit a small buck at approx. 175 yds in the edge of a cut corn field just behind the shoulder. Blew thru the lower 1/3 of both lungs with pretty extensive damage and bullets passed on thru (found perfectly round holes in two different corn leaves the bullet went thru aftert exiting the deer). It ran approx. 40 yds and fell over, very little blood trail until the last 7 or 8 yds. Luckily he was in a cut field and visible the entire time.
Second deer was a doe shot at 94 yds. Impact was witnessed to be approx. 1/3 up the body and 3-4 inches behind the shoulder and possibly slightly quartering towards the shooter. Doe ran thru a creek and approx. 125 yds thru cut corn field and disappeared into their wood line. Started tracking about 90 minutes later, Found 2 small drops of blood in field, two more where she entered the woods, and then nothing. Started a zig zag pattern thru woods, bumped the deer out of a bed and decided to wait a couple of hours. Just a small pool of blood in the bed. Three hours later we bumped her again, same small blood pool, and she was seen running for at 500 yards before crossing into another property and into the woods. Neighbor granted us access but no more blood found.
Third deer was a large doe hit just behind the shoulder and 1/3 up broadside at 127 yds. Ran 50 yds leaving a blood trail a 4 year old could follow and dropped, all in a cut field. Autopsy shows top of heart gone, lower parts of both lungs hit, and approx one inch exit hole. Bullet apparently expanded after direct center hit on a rib bone on the way into the deer.
So, 3 deer hit, 3 different results. All shots were made at calm standing deer from a tripod rest inside a pop-up blind at our leisure (not hurried). The shot on the lost deer was not as good as it could have been, but not all that terrible either.
I don't think we're going to use the 143 ELD-X in the future.
MagnumManiac
Well-Known Member
Hornady bullets are junk anyway.
I used to use the 220gr 30 cal roundnose in my 300WM on water buff, then one day I used a new box and the bullets looked similar but performed CRAPOLA.
Haven't used 'em since.
High BC isn't everything, a Nosler Accubond at the ranges in the OP post would have performed perfectly and still would've shot flat.
Cheers.
I used to use the 220gr 30 cal roundnose in my 300WM on water buff, then one day I used a new box and the bullets looked similar but performed CRAPOLA.
Haven't used 'em since.
High BC isn't everything, a Nosler Accubond at the ranges in the OP post would have performed perfectly and still would've shot flat.
Cheers.
I'm seriously looking to use either the Barnes LRX, AccuBond, or Hammer Absolute Hunter, just got to work up some decent loads. Probably start with the Hammers but that requires some "pioneering" since they're so new and there isn't much 6.5CM load data yet. Gonna be "fun"....
