Hornady ELD-X Official Thread

[Don Titus]

what are you shooting?? I have run a ladder with my 300rum and retumbo; I went to 93 grains and got just over 1" @ 200 yards in cold weather. I need to chrono yet but it seemed to be a full throttle load; which will put it between 3100 and 3200 fps.

I'm shooting a Remington 700 in 300 Win Mag...my buddy shot an elk last fall with the 300 RUM...it's like Win Mag on steroids...he says he is tired of getting "belted" by the recoil and took a fancy to the brake I have on my WM...will be putting a brake on it before the fall.

 

[Rich Coyle]

I'm shooting a Remington 700 in 300 Win Mag...my buddy shot an elk last fall with the 300 RUM...it's like Win Mag on steroids...he says he is tired of getting "belted" by the recoil and took a fancy to the brake I have on my WM...will be putting a brake on it before the fall.

A good brake is the intelligent finish of a nice rifle.

 

[Don Titus]

A good brake is the intelligent finish of a nice rifle.

Amen to that!

 

[Lrt307]

300 RUM Hornady ELD X 212 loaded with 93 grains of H1000 and 3.108 off my comparator does 3138fps across a magneto speed with a brux 26" barrel. Shoots 1 hole groups. I also backed the charge off a bit to 92 grains h1000 and still shoots awesome. I changed spacing to 3.088. It came across magneto speed @ 3100 fps. Shot a .400 group.gun)

 

[stephenr6565]

Just received my hornady 143 eld-x precision hunter ammo for a 6.5 Creedmoor and noticed the tip looks a little different than the box of 143 eld-x bullets that I have. The box of bullets has a tip that is a dark translucent crimson color and the ammo has a non translucent violet colored tip just thought that is kinda weird

 

[gohring3006]

Just received my hornady 143 eld-x precision hunter ammo for a 6.5 Creedmoor and noticed the tip looks a little different than the box of 143 eld-x bullets that I have. The box of bullets has a tip that is a dark translucent crimson color and the ammo has a non translucent violet colored tip just thought that is kinda weird
View attachment 58285

That's interesting....

 

[tbrice23]

Just received my hornady 143 eld-x precision hunter ammo for a 6.5 Creedmoor and noticed the tip looks a little different than the box of 143 eld-x bullets that I have. The box of bullets has a tip that is a dark translucent crimson color and the ammo has a non translucent violet colored tip just thought that is kinda weird
View attachment 58285

They gave you amax. Lol

 

[Don Titus]

Just received my hornady 143 eld-x precision hunter ammo for a 6.5 Creedmoor and noticed the tip looks a little different than the box of 143 eld-x bullets that I have. The box of bullets has a tip that is a dark translucent crimson color and the ammo has a non translucent violet colored tip just thought that is kinda weird
View attachment 58285

Looks like you are really on to a great load...I'm going to pass your it on to my hunting buddy with the RUM. I tried H1000 in my Win Mag using AB's and found H4831sc performed better...don't know how it would perform with the 200/212 ELD-X's, and don't have an H1000 left. Right now I'm working with 4831sc and RL22 which along with H4350 are the only powders currently in Hornady's ELD-X data base.

 

[Idaho Trecker]

Got out last weekend and did some seating depth tests with the 200 grain eld-x in my 300 Dakota. Unfortunately when I put the magnetospeed on it severely changes my POI and I only got 1 group to get on paper which was my first string. I have a very noticeable cold bore in this rifle so first string was not a good overall group; however the next 2 shots were touching. Now comes the numbers...

44 Degrees, 27.63"Hg, 155 yards
300 Dakota 24.5" barrel CCI 250 Retumbo

.110 off .060 off .007 off

3009 3033 3061
3003 3041 3067
3012 3042 3044

Looks like I'll be loading these at .060 off and play with some distance...
Overall I am pleased with the numbers and the one group that did get on paper.

Also put some 143 ELD-X through the 6.5 Creedmoor in a Ruger American Predator with 22" barrel to play with seating depth and RL 17. Didnt get speeds unfortunately.

.005 off .100 off

.3" group at 100 yards 2.3" at 100 yards

Ran a pressure test with the 143 at the .005 off and RL 17...

41.0 2669
41.4 2682
41.8 2699
42.2 2730
42.6 2749

This didnt hit max but bolt lift was getting really hard. All 5 shots went into 1" at 100 yards to boot!

 

[venatic]

Anybody out there happened to check runout with either the 140 ELD Match or 143 ELD X ???

I loaded some 143's first for Creedmoor that Horizon has built and I furnished them to Derrick for testing and to sight-in the rifle. I noticed the runout was pretty bad in the 20 rounds I loaded with new FL sized Hornady brass. They ran .004 to .008 which at .004 I can live with for hunting rounds but I was concerned.
Also loaded some 140gr ELD match and runout was only slightly better and that was with once fired Nosler brass. Now I am wondering if it might be the bullets. Today I tried 15 more once fired with a different seating die and after the first 12 looked not so great again with only two going .003 and the rest .004-.005 I drug out 3 140gr Barnes Matchburners I happened to have and they spun almost perfect all under .001
Hmmmm wondering in Hornady's attempt to get these out to market they maybe had no QC?

Almost forgot earlier this week loaded 40 rounds of 300 Win Mag with 200gr ELD X's and yep runout sucked with many going as high as .008 and most around.004

Note: The Creedmoor dies I have are also Hornady and usually ammo is very consistent with both Hornady and Nosler Brass.

 

[Pdvdh]

I noticed the runout was pretty bad in the 20 rounds I loaded with new FL sized Hornady brass. They ran .004 to .008 which at .004 I can live with for hunting rounds but I was concerned.
Also loaded some 140gr ELD match and runout was only slightly better and that was with once fired Nosler brass. Now I am wondering if it might be the bullets. Today I tried 15 more once fired with a different seating die and after the first 12 looked not so great again with only two going .003 and the rest .004-.005 I drug out 3 140gr Barnes Matchburners I happened to have and they spun almost perfect all under .001
Hmmmm wondering in Hornady's attempt to get these out to market they maybe had no QC?

Almost forgot earlier this week loaded 40 rounds of 300 Win Mag with 200gr ELD X's and yep runout sucked with many going as high as .008 and most around.004

Note: The Creedmoor dies I have are also Hornady and usually ammo is very consistent with both Hornady and Nosler Brass.

IF the bullets were the cause of that runout, they'd shoot like $h_t because of the distorted bullets, IMO. So if they shoot well, and they appear to be shooting well in others' rifles, then I doubt Hornady is producing bullets with an egg-shaped cross-sections. Would really be pretty hard to accomplish this unless they have a bad set of bullet forming dies in use at their manufacturing plant.

New unfired brass is likely to produce larger RO than once fired brass after firing in a good, concentric chamber. Perhaps your bullet seating stem isn't a good fit on the Hornady ELD-M/X bullets?

 

[venatic]

You may be correct. I pulled the 3 Barnes that had perfect runout and seated Hornady ELD and runout went from almost zero to .002-.004
It's a Hornady die must need AMax seater. I will check as I think that's what's in the seater but not sure??

 

[Mike 338]

IF the bullets were the cause of that runout, they'd shoot like $h_t because of the distorted bullets, IMO. So if they shoot well, and they appear to be shooting well in others' rifles, then I doubt Hornady is producing bullets with an egg-shaped cross-sections. Would really be pretty hard to accomplish this unless they have a bad set of bullet forming dies in use at their manufacturing plant.

New unfired brass is likely to produce larger RO than once fired brass after firing in a good, concentric chamber. Perhaps your bullet seating stem isn't a good fit on the Hornady ELD-M/X bullets?

Exactly...

Just seating a bullet in a case and measuring runout does not define what the cause of the runout is.

 

[venatic]

Exactly...

Just seating a bullet in a case and measuring runout does not define what the cause of the runout is.

Thus my post with info
Changing to the other seating stem did seem to help.

Thanks to prior poster phorwath.