The Most DISSAPOINTING Bullet there ever was...

[Varmintnv]

I'm not a fan of the Hornady SX bullets. I once shot a coyote @ 200yds with one. Zero penetration but what a hand grenade! It literally blew his right front leg off. Only a 1" piece of hide held it on. Now for the caveat, It was a 50gr bullet pushed out of a Browning BBR .22-250. Hornady says 3500fps max for that bullet and if I recall they were going about 3525fps. So likely my fault. But after watching that coyote run off with that leg flopping all over I can't get myself to use em again.
Side note: two or three weeks later I came across that coyote again and was able to put him down for good.

 

[Calvin45]

I'm not a fan of the Hornady SX bullets. I once shot a coyote @ 200yds with one. Zero penetration but what a hand grenade! It literally blew his right front leg off. Only a 1" piece of hide held it on. Now for the caveat, It was a 50gr bullet pushed out of a Browning BBR .22-250. Hornady says 3500fps max for that bullet and if I recall they were going about 3525fps. So likely my fault. But after watching that coyote run off with that leg flopping all over I can't get myself to use em again.
Side note: two or three weeks later I came across that coyote again and was able to put him down for good.

Do they even make those anymore?

 

[DakotaFire101]

When you say recovered....recovered from where? The Dead animal it killed so unsuccessfully?

After at least two follow up shots on deer yes the animals died. I don't use the death of an animal as a major metric when I am considering how a bullet performed. I break down and blueprint every shot I am present for and analyze the different components that result in that animal being dead. If I shoot a deer three times and finally it drops with a neck shot and I recover one of the bullets looking like the one I posted and a necropsy of the animal reveals that the other two bullets penciled through the lungs without causing much trauma, I tend to write that bullet off. Then when I compare the killing capability of said bullet with a berger hybrid and a hammer hunter out of the same 7mm rem mag I have a nice set of data to use as the basis for my opinion that the eld x is inferior to the other bullets that I mentioned. I do not just wipe my brow and brush it off as "at least it killed" I have seen all manner of life be killed with all manner of projectiles and I can tell you that there is always something that can do the job better.

 

[Magnum44270]

I have several, from different manufacturers that i don't use.
From either my shooting, or observed shooting.

The regular Nosler Accubond.
Tried these in several rifles of different calibers & weights.
Have always heard "either your rifle REALLY likes them, or it REALLY doesn't".
I really wanted to like them!
But no matter what i tried, my rifles didn't.
Smallest group i managed with them was 2".

Remington Corelokt.
Watched 2 different friends, on 2 different occasions put 5 rounds in the chest and deer didn't go down. Well, 1 fell down, but kept getting back up.
1 was using 300 Savage, the other 30-06.
Both times took me shooting the deer in the head to finally put them down.

Barnes .
Have witnessed on 3 different occasions where friends had good shot placement, with either extremely long tracking, or no recovery. We only recovered 1 of the 3.

I'm starting to lean away from the ABLR. Easy to get to shoot wonderfully accurate, especially at distance.
But......
My buck this year taken with my 7mm Rem Mag & 150gr ABLR.
Distance was about 50 yards.
While it did kill quite quickly, i was really expecting more damage than it did.
More experimentation is required.

I placed a broadside follow up shot on a big cow elk at 60yds for a friend.. The 142g ABLR was found under the hide on the offside. Perfect performance

 

[Magnum44270]

When you say recovered....recovered from where? The Dead animal it killed so unsuccessfully?

An eventually dead animal does not mean the bullet was successful

 

[Mike Matteson]

I have always had very good preformance with Nosler, ballistice tip or Accubond, except their partition bullets. I didn't have a rifle set up for Hammer bullets until now. Going to see how they work. I have few boxes already of them.

 

[bomberodevil]

I have always had very good preformance with Nosler, ballistice tip or Accubond, except their partition bullets. I didn't have a rifle set up for Hammer bullets until now. Going to see how they work. I have few boxes already of them.

I too was pretty much a Nosler reloader, the vast majority of my hunting loads were Ballistic Tips and AccuBonds. Through the last couple of years, Nosler has been pretty much non-existent. I've switched many of my loads to Hornady, and I'm satisfied with the performance. I don't know what's happened to Nosler, if they are shifting over to government contracts, but they are losing a lot of handloaders loyalty.

 

[idcwby]

I too was pretty much a Nosler reloader, the vast majority of my hunting loads were Ballistic Tips and AccuBonds. Through the last couple of years, Nosler has been pretty much non-existent. I've switched many of my loads to Hornady, and I'm satisfied with the performance. I don't know what's happened to Nosler, if they are shifting over to government contracts, but they are losing a lot of handloaders loyalty.

To busy building suppressors and rifles instead of bullets. I think a lot of there stuff is going into loaded ammunition and we get to see the left overs.

 

[catt_tracker]

Hornady eldx in my opinion shouldn't even be sold as a hunting bullet. I've had terrible experience with them from antelope to elk.

 

[RockyMtnUT]

Hornady eldx in my opinion shouldn't even be sold as a hunting bullet. I've had terrible experience with them from antelope to elk.

Agreed with these 7 Elk.

 

[RockyMtnUT]

I really can't stand the LRNAB, or Bergers.

We should be happy there are so many great options out there compared to what was.
Use what you got and what works for you.

 

[Mike Matteson]

I too was pretty much a Nosler reloader, the vast majority of my hunting loads were Ballistic Tips and AccuBonds. Through the last couple of years, Nosler has been pretty much non-existent. I've switched many of my loads to Hornady, and I'm satisfied with the performance. I don't know what's happened to Nosler, if they are shifting over to government contracts, but they are losing a lot of handloaders loyalty.

I see the bullets, but not like I use too. I have a big stock of Nosler bullets in the grains and caliber to start with. I would purchase them as I seen them on sale several years ago.
Generally once I develop a round for that rifle I stay with it. So I don't do much changing with powder, primers or bullets. I do go through the steps in developing the round that I am going to use. An idea of what I want, but don't have any set guide. I do or now using the better grades of brass. Primers I generally use Fed 210 & 210M. I have others in primers, and try them to see if I get something better in grouping, velocity. Final is how they hold up in hunting and taking animals. Varmint I am not worried about other than bullet does it job and put them down in one shot.
The biggest problem is getting primer in other types that are match primers.
I am beginning to see SRP in match type, but not much in LRP. I am watching for Winchester and other that bench primes or match.
The other is most of my rifles are slower twist rates, so all copper bullets don't work that well in them.
The other is I generally us the H powders, and I do have those powder on hand. I have been going some check on other powder that are single base powder. I gotten several different powder in 1# amounts to see how they work.

 

[bomberodevil]

I see the bullets, but not like I use too. I have a big stock of Nosler bullets in the grains and caliber to start with. I would purchase them as I seen them on sale several years ago.
Generally once I develop a round for that rifle I stay with it. So I don't do much changing with powder, primers or bullets. I do go through the steps in developing the round that I am going to use. An idea of what I want, but don't have any set guide. I do or now using the better grades of brass. Primers I generally use Fed 210 & 210M. I have others in primers, and try them to see if I get something better in grouping, velocity. Final is how they hold up in hunting and taking animals. Varmint I am not worried about other than bullet does it job and put them down in one shot.
The biggest problem is getting primer in other types that are match primers.
I am beginning to see SRP in match type, but not much in LRP. I am watching for Winchester and other that bench primes or match.
The other is most of my rifles are slower twist rates, so all copper bullets don't work that well in them.
The other is I generally us the H powders, and I do have those powder on hand. I have been going some check on other powder that are single base powder. I gotten several different powder in 1# amounts to see how they work.

I'm similar, I have switched most of my brass to Lapua and Peterson. I also use 210, and 210M when it's available. I've narrowed down my powders to H4350 and H4831 for the vast majority of my loads. Trying to simplify my load bench, sacrificing a bit of velocity for temperature stabilization in the H powders. In the last two years, I couldn't get Nosler, so I switched to Hornady by necessity. I may switch back someday, I may not.

 

[PantherMike]

I just read all 52 posts and feel like I should go home and throw away all of my bullets. I'm also going to check the freezer and make sure the wildlife is still dead. I have to find some Remington Corelocks, nobody dissed them yet.

I'll chime in for a diss on CoreLokt Remingtons. My Cousin shot an 8 point Whitetail less than 100 yards, we were in a blind shooting from a good solid position. Bullet hit vitals from broadside shot and did not have an exit wound. Deer hit the ground and started rolling and flopping. He shot again down through top of back near base of the neck and no exit wound again.
300 Winchester Magnum, 180 CoreLokt