From my very limited experience, the ELD-M seems to be less explosive compared to what people are seeing with the ELD-X. My cousin shot a doe off his farm during red tag season this summer with his 6.5-284 running a 140gr ELD-M at 3050fps. He shot her at 150 yards behind the shoulder and she ran maybe 25 yards and piled up. The exit was behind the offside shoulder and was about 2" in diameter. It did a great job and didn't over expand. We also tested the 140gr ELD Match on a couple ground hogs around 225-250 yards and they did not explode, just left nice golf ball sized exits. To me this seems a lot more stable than what guys are reporting with the ELD-X bullets.