Hornady ELX - No Good for Hunting Elk???

[Pucky Freak]

6.5CM eld-x. Shot this buck at 80 yards, slightly quartering to, about 20 degrees from broadside. Bullet hit the thick part of the scapula, shattering the bone, and the bullet broke into pieces. The copper jacket (in my hand) lodged between the scapula and the rib cage (top circle).



Nearly all the meat on the front shoulder was lost. A small lead fragment pierced a rib.


It grazed the heart (circled), and lodged in the stomach.


A large lead fragment deflected from the scapula up, left, and slightly towards me at approximately an 105 degree angle from the bullet's initial trajectory. The far right circle is this fragment's first exit wound on the same side of the body as the entrance wound. The middle two circles are the fragment grazing the hide. The far left circle shows the fragment entering the skull just behind the ear (right hole), and then exiting the skull (adjacent left hole). I later cut away the skin and hide from the head, and the entire top of the skull was shattered into fragmented bone with tiny flakes of lead mixed in.

 

[Brentc]

6.5CM eld-x. Shot this buck at 80 yards, slightly quartering to, about 20 degrees from broadside. Bullet hit the thick part of the scapula, shattering the bone, and the bullet broke into pieces. The copper jacket (in my hand) lodged between the scapula and the rib cage (top circle).
View attachment 211821
View attachment 211823

Nearly all the meat on the front shoulder was lost. A small lead fragment pierced a rib.
View attachment 211824

It grazed the heart (circled), and lodged in the stomach.
View attachment 211825

A large lead fragment deflected from the scapula up, left, and slightly towards me at approximately an 105 degree angle from the bullet's initial trajectory. The far right circle is this fragment's first exit wound on the same side of the body as the entrance wound. The middle two circles are the fragment grazing the hide. The far left circle shows the fragment entering the skull just behind the ear (right hole), and then exiting the skull (adjacent left hole). I later cut away the skin and hide from the head, and the entire top of the skull was shattered into fragmented bone with tiny flakes of lead mixed in.

View attachment 211827

I'll bet it dropped him like a rock!

 

[zpooch]

Quartering towards, hit in the shoulder and you're saying it deflected back towards the direction of the shot and hit it in the head?

 

[Pucky Freak]

Quartering towards, hit in the shoulder and you're saying it deflected back towards the direction of the shot and hit it in the head?

Yessir

 

[zpooch]

Yessir

You think JFK got an ELD-X?

 

[Pucky Freak]

You think JFK got an ELD-X?

Looked like multiple shooters to me.

If you have an alternative theory on my deer I'm all ears. I fired one time. I shot off a tripod, and I'm sub-MOA. The entrance wound on the scapula was my exact point of aim.

 

[blacksheep]

I shot my bull last season with a 7mm mag using 162gr Hornady Precision Hunter factory ammo. I shot him @ 315 yds. 1st shot blew the top of his heart off and the second was about 6" higher. He went about 10 feet. Both shots were passthroughs. I had a 7mm mag built and it loves this ammo 1/2 to 3/4 MOA if I do my part.

blacksheep

 

[zpooch]

Looked like multiple shooters to me.

If you have an alternative theory on my deer I'm all ears. I fired one time. I shot off a tripod, and I'm sub-MOA. The entrance wound on the scapula was my exact point of aim.

No I was just messing around. I shoot the same in my 6.5 but haven't had any hard bone impacts at that close of range. I've had good performance at 200 yards and out.

 

[Leverguy]

Just found this thread while looking for something else.
My .02: I took a whitetail doe 2 seasons ago with a handloaded 150 gr ELD-X out of my Marlin 308 MXLR.
She was about 85 yards quartering away down a 40 degree slope.
Hit her behind her left shoulder.
She jumped 4' straight up, came down bolted down a slight embankment about 10' further and that was the last I saw of her.
I got out of my stand about 10 minutes later and walked down the hill and over to the slight embankment, and there she was, 10' away laying against a fallen tree.
When we gutted her, we found both lungs were vaporized as in no tissue to be found.
The bullet did a complete pass through out her right shoulder and the only thing holding her leg on was her skin.
There was some wasted meat, but no lead or fragments to be found anywhere.
I would venture to say that the ELD-X is an excellent whitetail bullet for any cartridge at any reasonable range for that cartridge, but based on what I've read and what I know about the ELD-X, I personally would not use it on elk.
There are much better bullets to use for larger game.

 

[huntnpack]

I was a bit leery about the Eld-X bullets in my '06, but I killed a bull quartering to with 178gr Eld-X in 2020. Complete pass through at 160 yards. Exited behind the diaphragm. I'll probably be using them next year. Also, full pass through the rib cage on a buck last year, 280 yards. The factory loads just group well for me.

Found my first fired projectile this weekend. Pictured was a follow up shot on a cow quartering away at roughly 280 yards. Clipped the rear edge of the ribs and settled under the hide at the front driver's side. First shot was quartering to at 260, exited just behind the diaphragm. I've shot two deer at about 100 yards as well. Full pass throughs, one contacted the back edge the scapula and a significant meat damage/trauma like others have shown. Projectile weighed 128gr (72% weight retention).

 

[Don Fischer]

Amazing. Hornady went to the trouble of giving us a bullet that kills like lighting and we are dissing it! I have pointed out in the past that the plastic tip has to go somewhere, you have that figured out yet? Take that same bullet and make a good lung shot or neck shot and see how far the animal goes, won't be far. Of course with it opening the way it does there's gonna be excessive damage! problem with the inter lock is the same as with the mono bullet's, they have to be placed right to work! Far to maany hunter's rely on a bullet to make up for their lack of ability! Plastic tip work great in varmint bullet's. Blow the bullet up in the animal. I was shooting 75gr V-Max's at a paper target attached to 1 1/2 maybe it was 2" foam core years ago and bullets blew up going through it. Pices of bullet everywhere behind the target! Plastic tip did that. In Winchester's ads for mono bullet's they said one reason for the plastic tip was to insure the HP opens! That plastic tip has to go somewhere!

 

[Redmt]

My buddy took this bull elk last week with a single shot from a 6.5-284. 143g. ELDX at 175 yds. One and done.

 

[Redmt]

Correction to what I wrote above. It was not a 175 yd shot. It was 395. A first shot went low. The second point of aim was just off the hair and impact was high on the shoulder. It was still a single shot kill.

 

[RaiderRich]

Seems to me ELD-X bullets will perform pretty much like any non-bonded tipped bullet. Lead will often separate from the jacket in any non-bonded bullet, nature of the beast/physics. Comparing ELD-X to a bonded bullet may not be an apples to apples comparison.

I did try searching for any testing comparing tipped non-bonded bullets to soft point non-bonded bullets but did not find much in regard to terminal performance, mostly stuff on ballistic differences. That to me would be an interesting study, would a tip be more likely to cause lead to fragment than a soft point on impact with an animal.

Maybe I should look into getting some government funds for a study

 

[Redmt]

Seems to me ELD-X bullets will perform pretty much like any non-bonded tipped bullet. Lead will often separate from the jacket in any non-bonded bullet, nature of the beast/physics. Comparing ELD-X to a bonded bullet may not be an apples to apples comparison.

I did try searching for any testing comparing tipped non-bonded bullets to soft point non-bonded bullets but did not find much in regard to terminal performance, mostly stuff on ballistic differences. That to me would be an interesting study, would a tip be more likely to cause lead to fragment than a soft point on impact with an animal.

Maybe I should look into getting some government funds for a study

Apply for funding in a state that still allowed lead bullets

 

[ploxwithblox]

I shot my bull this year with 200 gr ELDX from my .300 win mag. He went down almost immediately. Clipped the front shoulder slightly but had no issues putting him down. There wasn't really much left of the heart, which was comforting about the rapidity of the kill but a bummer since it can be so good to eat. I will be using them again for sure, especially with their accuracy. They tighted my groups by over half switching from a different round.

 

[jejack26]

Hi All,

Last year I developed a great load with some heavy ELDX bullets for my Browning x-bolt in 30-06. They were tack drivers and shot great and outperformed the same weight Nosler Accubonds.

My original intention was to use these bullets on Elk.

This fall I was able to harvest two deer with the same load. Both shots were around 150 yards. The bullets did their job, however upon recovering one, some concerns came to light. On both deer there were complete pass through shots with lots of internal damage and good sized exit wounds. The deer dropped immediately. On one animal I was able to recover the jacket and bottom half of the bullet, which were still together. The jacket showed pretty devastating damage, however the upper portion of lead, above the ferrule in the bullet had completely separated and likely went through the animal.

My concern is with the fragmentation of the round. It just did stay together as say an Accubond is suppose to. Basically as the lead sheared off the bullet, the overall bullet lost mass and did not pass through.

My concern is that this bullet is just not robust enough for tough animals like elk. I have heard the same comment reiterated on a number of podcasts lately. The consensus I have heard from some is that the ELDX is a great shooting bullet, but just not tough enough for large game hunting applications.

Anyone have similar experiences? Is mono metal the way to go?

Similar experience, not going use them anymore

 

[mtmuley]

Similar experience, not going use them anymore

I'd shoot a Ballistic Tip first. mtmuley

 

[jacksonforq]

Hi All,

Last year I developed a great load with some heavy ELDX bullets for my Browning x-bolt in 30-06. They were tack drivers and shot great and outperformed the same weight Nosler Accubonds.

My original intention was to use these bullets on Elk.

This fall I was able to harvest two deer with the same load. Both shots were around 150 yards. The bullets did their job, however upon recovering one, some concerns came to light. On both deer there were complete pass through shots with lots of internal damage and good sized exit wounds. The deer dropped immediately. On one animal I was able to recover the jacket and bottom half of the bullet, which were still together. The jacket showed pretty devastating damage, however the upper portion of lead, above the ferrule in the bullet had completely separated and likely went through the animal.

My concern is with the fragmentation of the round. It just did stay together as say an Accubond is suppose to. Basically as the lead sheared off the bullet, the overall bullet lost mass and did not pass through.

My concern is that this bullet is just not robust enough for tough animals like elk. I have heard the same comment reiterated on a number of podcasts lately. The consensus I have heard from some is that the ELDX is a great shooting bullet, but just not tough enough for large game hunting applications.

Anyone have similar experiences? Is mono metal the way to go?

This is very similar to what me and my buddies found out just by white tail hunting with 6.5 creedmoore 143 eld-x. They have GREAT expansion on little Texas Deer bodies, but extrapolating that out to big elk would make me concerned about good penetration at range.

 

[Duck-Slayer]

This is very similar to what me and my buddies found out just by white tail hunting with 6.5 creedmoore 143 eld-x. They have GREAT expansion on little Texas Deer bodies, but extrapolating that out to big elk would make me concerned about good penetration at range.

lmao
I suppose the elk I shot this year was concerned about penetration, maybe that’s why he went less than 50 yards and died with his insides turned to soup! Didn’t have 1 speck of damage to the meat! Same with my bull last year at 550 yards using a 140 Berger target hybrid, put the bullet where it’s meant to go, center of the lungs! = dead every time!
Matt
2021 - 6.5x.284
2022 - 6.5x.300 wheatherby mag