Called Hornady yesterday and spoke with a nice guy from their tech support. They are really excited about the new line of ELD- X bullets. They truly believe that this new line of bullets is the best hunting bullet for the long range hunter to hit the market.
The tech said their BC's with the ELD-X and ELD M's will rival any other open tipped bullet on the market.
Significantly less vertical dispersion at 1000 yards VS's a unmodified open tip bullets.
No fliers that are typically accociated with unmodified open tip bullets.
I was told the ELD-X line is a completely new design and they had to retool everything for the "X" line.
However, the match bullets are retipped with the heatshield ballistic tip.
My main reason for calling was to find out if the longer bearing surface of the ELD- X would affect velocity. The tech could not give me a answer as he said he did not know. However, he said they were getting 2,800fps out of a 212g ELD'X with 24" barrel.
The bad news is that there are no plans at this time for a .338 285-X. Tech said that if enough people asked for this bullet they might consider making them.
Ray