New sierra game changer vs hornady eld-x

[Swamplord]

The Game Changer bullets look good to me although Sierra should have gone with a 140 gr 6.5mm, 200 gr 30 cal and 180 gr 7mm or somewhere there, don't really care about 270 anything and they should have done a 250 gr 338 cal instead ... The simple solution for long range is to drive the bullets faster to start with, far too many guys want to shoot little short action cartridges at slow velocities and expect bullet performance way out there, maybe it's time to start making sense and move up to the larger capacity cartridges, it only makes sense, especially if you are talking long range energy/velocity and expansion, nothing less than 100 gr h20 case capacity and you will be on the right track, the RUM and Norma Mag cases is where long range hunting should start at, all the other stuff is bare minimum at 1000 yards anyway

 

[BUSTINDOGS]

I got a chance to try some of the .284 cal, .165 gr game changers this weekend. worked up a load from my new 7 rem suam with H4831sc. I shot them into a box packed with old catalogs I had laying around at work. also shoot a 180 berger hybrid into the box a week earlier so I have a non scientific comparison. the sierras are accurate and after shooting them at 100, 300, and 600 yards I believe the claimed BC might be a bit low but not much. should match the 168 berger vld. the box was shot at 600 yds bullet left the muzzle at 2909 fps putting the impact velocity at around 2075. the bullet expanded immediately and shed some jacket and core along the way. It did not penetrate very deep maybe 6". but I did find the jacket and it had a small amount of lead left in it. the 180 berger probably went 4-5" before it started to open up, then it completely came apart there was nothing left to be found that was larger than the point of a pen.

 

[Canhunter35]

The big question is- does this mean the end for the A-Max?

I think so. I switched from the 168amax to the 168eldm in my 308 and did a full load workup again and ended at exactly the same load as the amax, yet my bc in my dope went from .23 to .259. That dark red tip is worth it to me. I see no reason it won't perform identical on game as the amax did.
From what I can tell some of the eldx(30cal) have huge meplats compared to the 30cal eldms

 

[Creedmoor shooter]

I think so. I switched from the 168amax to the 168eldm in my 308 and did a full load workup again and ended at exactly the same load as the amax, yet my bc in my dope went from .23 to .259. That dark red tip is worth it to me. I see no reason it won't perform identical on game as the amax did.
From what I can tell some of the eldx(30cal) have huge meplats compared to the 30cal eldms

I can assure you the eld-m performs exactly as the old a-max. A white tails worst nightmare.

 

[dougduey]

I have been following this too. For my own part, I have been worried that I will have to do a full re-write on the Cartridges book if they pull the A-Max in favor of this bullet.

I contacted Hornady quite a while ago now but it was difficult to get the conversation going two ways. They have been quite worried about leaks.

My main concerns were as Cor has stated.

So what do we know:
The jacket is the same as the A-Max (AMP jacket).
The inner is swaged in place same as the SST and Interlock.
The Tip and meplat are still reminiscent of the A-Max.
Possible that the meplat is slightly wider like the very new tipped Sierra MatchKing?

The inner swage will be the key factor for us / for those of you who know my cartridges book in and out and know what to look for. In the SST, this makes little difference as far as extended range performance goes. Refer to the SST in the book to see. We can get to the second wall with the SST but the third wall is very difficult for both us and the bullet.

Sorry, am keeping this ambiguous deliberately as I don't want the guts of the book splashed around here.

Regardless, it looks as though I need to do a second edition of the Cartridges book next year after testing this new bullet, plus the TSMK and also include my DRT research for this year. Looks like I have some hunting to do. FYI, I have released the second edition of Accurizing and Maintenance. Will announce properly when we launch book 5. Orders from the past 16 hours are second edition.

The big question is- does this mean the end for the A-Max?

What books have you written? If you are who I think you are, I already own 3 of your books and would like to know what's in the 2nd editions that is not in the 1st.

 

[ValleyPursuits]

Me too. It'd be nice to know what's been updated

 

[Lunger]

CS--after crunching numbers for the 7 rem mag you are right--if I can get around 3050fps MV like I get with the eldx's then here in CO the bullet would should expand out to 1100 yards (at high hunting altitudes) and still retain just over 1800fps and around 1200 ft lbs--- plenty good as long as they are accurate

Can i ask what your load is rite now with the eld-x

 

[5RWill]

Loaded up some 165gr for my brother's 308 went from 44.2-46.0gr of varget. Hoping to get find a node around 2700fps.

 

[5RWill]

Both nodes we loaded around shot very well. We settled on 45.5gr of varget at an average of 2755fps. Out of a 20" 308 it's nipping at the heels of my 23" 6.5x47 with 130gr ELD-Ms. Of course we haven't taken any game with it yet because my **** brother just hasn't really been deer hunting and i wanted to see how the 130gr ELD-M performed so i've been using my rifle. Hopefully i can convince him to take a doe or something today i know he's wanting more jerky and backstraps.

 

[mudygmc]

I have shot both bullets but in different calibers. I will hands down take the eld-x over the game changer. I have only shot deer and coyote with either bullet. Deer from 245-890yds with the eld-x in 300wm and 6.5 creedmoor. And coyote from 2-450yds with the creedmoor. 300wm is shooting the 212s at 2930fps. Every deer shot dropped in its tracks. The 890yd buck stepped back a step stood for 5 seconds and dropped. The 6.5 is shooting 143s at 2850. Everything dropped instantly. Both guns shoot 1/4moa on a good day and 1/2moa easily. I tried the eld-x in my 7saum. I never got the accuracy I wanted. .75-1moa was the best I could do. I tried some sierras. The TMKs were amazing. 1/4moa with 3rd load i tried. MKs were 1/2moa. GCs were 1/2-3/4moa. Since this was going to be my elk rifle I figured I would go with the GCs vs a MK or TMK target bullet. Figured it would hold together better if a shoulder was hit. I had the 165 GCs going 3036fps for my highest accuracy node. I didn't end up shooting an elk but did shoot a couple deer. The first buck was broadside at 556yds. 1st shot went through the heart. The buck took off running. Not 100% sure what happened and not being able to see the impact. I shot again when he was on the run. I hit low and took out both front legs somehow. The buck was still jumping around so I shot him again in the neck which dropped him. He might have ran 100yds and dropped after the 1st shot but I didn't know and didn't want to chance anything. The second buck was a quick shot when paused for a second at 245yds, I shot offhand and blew him off his feet. He flopped to the ground and played their kicking. About 10 seconds later he got up and trotted away. I tracked blood for over 300yds and followed tracks for another 400yds. I lost him after that. An hour later the deer walked past a buddy I was hunting with. We had texted back and forth about what had happened with the deer. He knew it was the right buck and it had blood on his side behind the shoulder. He shot the buck and dropped it. When we skun the deer the bullet holes were less than 2in apart behind the shoulder. We boned out the deer and I didn't open it up to see what all was destroyed. Both bullet holes should have easily put down the deer. 25ft behind him from where I shot him you could see a bullet path in the snow where the bullet went straight through. I assume the bullets were not opening up and blowing through. The GCs shot decent and might be great for larger game. I'm not sure. But I was not satisfied with how they performed for me and will not be shooting them again. I ordered some Hammer hunters to try in my 7saum for elk. I will see how I can get them to shoot.

 

[coyotezapper]

Let me first say that they are all good bullets and I don't think you can go wrong with any of them. I think sometimes guys don't factor in some of the variables when determining performance and blame the bullet.

This is my opinion from what I have seen from animals on the ground.

ELD-M - Heavily fragmenting bullet much like the original Amax. Impact velocities need to be 2800 or below. Cartridges used were 243W and 7-08

ELD-X - More of a conventional design and performs like a Interlock/SST hybrid. This bullet can fragment at close range at magnum velocities. 100 yards with a 7Saum the bullet splashed. Follow up at 225 was perfect performance. Cartridges used were 6.5CM and 7Saum

Sierra GC - Not a whole lot of experience with this bullet yet but so far I like what I see. It seems a lot tougher than the GK and should be better than the others on bigger bodied game. Not for sure but that seems the case so far. Perfect performance on an elk at 550. Cartridge used was 7Saum

As far as accuracy they all have the same potential. I would not recommend swapping one recipe and expecting it to perform the same. Each bullet is different and needs it own load work up performed.