Hornady 7mm 180 eld-m terminal performance (pics)

[Creedmoor shooter]

So I have some results. I started to butcher the deer today.

This first pic is the entry

Next photo is the back side of the entry shoulder

It impacted the thick part of the shoulder blade and shattered it.

Entry into the rib cage under the shoulder

Exit out the rib cage

Exit out the off side. I'd say not alot of bullet made it out but a small pice did

 

[Montucky Roamer]

But, but, but they say match bullets at high velocity short range on bone is bad...

The 180 is a nasty bullet.

Well, it kind of is if you want to eat venison. That front half of the deer looks almost totally trashed! But it got dead!

The 180 REALLY maximizes the damage a 7mm can do. Sorta like the 77TMK in the 223 or 178 eldm in a 300 WM.
Often people go to harder bullets to HOLD BACK on the damage done. Sometimes defeating the purpose of going to something with "more knockdown power," or "more energy".

 

[Creedmoor shooter]

Well, it kind of is if you want to eat venison. That front half of the deer looks almost totally trashed! But it got dead!

The 180 REALLY maximizes the damage a 7mm can do. Sorta like the 77TMK in the 223 or 178 eldm in a 300 WM.
Often people go to harder bullets to HOLD BACK on the damage done. Sometimes defeating the purpose of going to something with "more knockdown power," or "more energy".

This combo is certainly overkill for whitetails. Usually I hunt with my 6.5 cm with the 140 eld which is a really good combo but that night I felt like taking the 7mm. 3 deer and 3 results exactly the same with the 180. I think if you stay away from the shoulder it would be fine. I thought the 162 was a nasty bullet, but this 180 brings nasty to a completely different level.

I'm most likely going to look for a different alternative for killing whitetail. I just don't need to blow these deer apart and waste meat. Probably going to drop back to a 160 class bullet.

 

[Montucky Roamer]

This combo is certainly overkill for whitetails. Usually I hunt with my 6.5 cm with the 140 eld which is a really good combo but that night I felt like taking the 7mm. 3 deer and 3 results exactly the same with the 180. I think if you stay away from the shoulder it would be fine. I thought the 162 was a nasty bullet, but this 180 brings nasty to a completely different level.

I'm most likely going to look for a different alternative for killing whitetail. I just don't need to blow these deer apart and waste meat. Probably going to drop back to a 160 class bullet.

Right! It's as much about where you shoot em as anything tho. I just shot a pronghorn with a 215 berger at 2950 MV, zero meat loss, held and hit 6 inches back from leg line. Instant kill.

Cow elk, 215 Berger, 460 yards, about 6 inches back from leg line, she went 30 yards and piled up, clean butchering job.
The addiction to shoulder shooting is just strange to me unless in certain , must drop situations. Bone chunks and blood shot just doesn't appeal to me on my meat.

 

[Petey308]

Nice work. Doesn't look trashed to me. Looks like all the meat is still there and didn't get vaporized. The coagulated blood will wash up just fine and that meat will still be great .

Most of my shoulder meat ends up as either jerky, summer sausage, or snack sticks. So I'd rather take a shoulder shot and drop them quick, and gave my meat a bit pre-ground, than to possibly chase after the animal from a rear lobe lung shot. That's just me though. We all have varying opinions and preferences.

 

[Creedmoor shooter]

Nice work. Doesn't look trashed to me. Looks like all the meat is still there and didn't get vaporized. The coagulated blood will wash up just fine and that meat will still be great .

Most of my shoulder meat ends up as either jerky, summer sausage, or snack sticks. So I'd rather take a shoulder shot and drop them quick, and gave my meat a bit pre-ground, than to possibly chase after the animal from a rear lobe lung shot. That's just me though. We all have varying opinions and preferences.

I usually turn the whole shoulder into burger. The only think I'll save out is the flat iron and thise I usually turn into stew meat.

Perspectivly, I didn't trough out much meat. No more than a few lbs. Where it went in was full of bone, copper, and lead. As you know I'm definitely not anti-lead, but I'm still not going to purposely eat it if I can help it lol.

I'm going to take some time to chew on it. (Pun intended) there's no doubt the bullet does an absolute fantastic job. I'd have no issues taking this bullet to hunt anything up to and including moose/elk. It's showed it has enough SD to punch through enough bone to get to where it needs to go as long as the velocity is not crazy.

 

[Calvin45]

Took two does yesterday to fill my tags (last day I had to hunt and any deer is better than tag soup) with the 225 eld m out of my .300 win at about 2800 or so. It's a death ray. Overkill for sure but beats the alternative AND not much meat wasted on either.

The thing is there's lots of bullets that might just punch a hole at that much bullet weight and sd meeting little resistance. The 225 still very emphatically opened up violently, obviously exited no problem. The smaller doe went straight down, the larger bodied one (honestly as heavy as some bucks I've taken) ran about 30 yards and piled up.

 

[Creedmoor shooter]

So far I think out of all the terminal performance photos I've seen from different bullets and also from my own experience, and having my own experience with a few different bullets, a heavy for caliber eld-m is the most traumatic whitetail bullet I've ever used

 

[Creedmoor shooter]

Recovered what was left of the projectile

 

[xsn10s]

My buddy just dropped a buck in South Dakota a few days ago with a 208 ELDM load we developed. I haven't heard all the details yet but he was pretty happy with the 208 ELDM with MV of 2880 fps at 300 yards. I'm guessing 2530's fps impact.

 

[Creedmoor shooter]

My buddy just dropped a buck in South Dakota a few days ago with a 208 ELDM load we developed. I haven't heard all the details yet but he was pretty happy with the 208 ELDM with MV of 2880 fps at 300 yards. I'm guessing 2530's fps impact.

Thats the happy zone for the eld-m

 

[Petey308]

My buddy just dropped a buck in South Dakota a few days ago with a 208 ELDM load we developed. I haven't heard all the details yet but he was pretty happy with the 208 ELDM with MV of 2880 fps at 300 yards. I'm guessing 2530's fps impact.

I've had nothing but awesome results with that bullet, and the 208gr AMAX before it.

 

[CoryJames]

Has anyone had bad reports with this bullet at super close range? This week I did a DIY Axis deer hunt in maui. I shot a monster Axs buck at 20-30 yards. It wasn't a rushed shot, I aimed right on the lungs behind front shoulder (I normally shoot High shoulder cns) , the shot felt great, I didn't jerk the trigger (I know this because I do a super slow trigger pull and was actually surprised when the gun went off) I have never gotten buck fever and didnt on this buck either. bullet was moving at 2800 fps 180 eldm.
There wasn't a ton of blood, In fact I didn't find blood until about 50 yards down the trail. We found about 5 or 6 spots of blood over the course of about 180 yards. then nothing couldnt find anymore blood tracking etc. We spent the whole day looking for him with no luck. This buck was no joke pushing 40 inches. I have had a few people go up there and look for it as well thinking they would be able to smell it. No luck.
I don't understand how this could happen.
My only thought is the bullet fragmented and didn't go through both lungs, or exit the animal, and maybe on lung was plugging the entry hole allowing him to run a lot further?
Just curious if anyone as had this happen for me. This is the first time losing an animal and it just so happens it was a once in a lifetime animal for me and I am trying to make sense of it.
I have killed a few other bucks with the same bullet and set up but I shot high shoulder and they were both at about 300 yards.

 

[Creedmoor shooter]

Has anyone had bad reports with this bullet at super close range? This week I did a DIY Axis deer hunt in maui. I shot a monster Axs buck at 20-30 yards. It wasn't a rushed shot, I aimed right on the lungs behind front shoulder (I normally shoot High shoulder cns) , the shot felt great, I didn't jerk the trigger (I know this because I do a super slow trigger pull and was actually surprised when the gun went off) I have never gotten buck fever and didnt on this buck either. bullet was moving at 2800 fps 180 eldm.
There wasn't a ton of blood, In fact I didn't find blood until about 50 yards down the trail. We found about 5 or 6 spots of blood over the course of about 180 yards. then nothing couldnt find anymore blood tracking etc. We spent the whole day looking for him with no luck. This buck was no joke pushing 40 inches. I have had a few people go up there and look for it as well thinking they would be able to smell it. No luck.
I don't understand how this could happen.
My only thought is the bullet fragmented and didn't go through both lungs, or exit the animal, and maybe on lung was plugging the entry hole allowing him to run a lot further?
Just curious if anyone as had this happen for me. This is the first time losing an animal and it just so happens it was a once in a lifetime animal for me and I am trying to make sense of it.
I have killed a few other bucks with the same bullet and set up but I shot high shoulder and they were both at about 300 yards.

I've never had a eld-m fail to penetrate adequately. Guess it doesn't mean it can't happen. I've hit deer with the 162 at 3145 and still got plenty and even found the bullet on the off side.

Definitely seems strange in your situation. Not possibility you could hit a branch or something? We've killed a boat load of deer with the eld-m and never had a problem