Is an ELD-M basically just a tipped berger?

[WildRose]

If you can guarantee a heart or spine hit everytime why not just save money and use cheap FMJ ammo? At long range softer projectiles, preferably very heavy for caliber frangible types (not at all the same thing as hunting with varmint bullets!) give you way more wiggle room and emphatic killing power than most hunting bullets. Or at least that's what hundreds of hunters, many on this forum, have claimed to have witnessed.

It's not at all like a drunk waiting to get a dui. The person you blamed for their accubond's inferior long range performance had a bad had their "dui" and learned from it sounds like. This is their experience based conclusion.

Well I can start with the fact that the use of FMJ ammo is illegal for hunting in my state and may others.

The Accubond did not fail to perform, it wasn't put in the right place to allow it to perform as designed.

I'm not going to drag race with a Toyota Land Cruiser nor would I enter a hill climb with a Corvette.

I won't use a bullet not designed to penetrate the body cavity and expand or then fragment to shoot game because that's not what they are designed or intended to do.

It's not like we don't have a long list of bullets designed for hunting that perform as designed at ranges from point blank to a thousand yards to choose from so I see no reason to risk using them.

I spent most of forty years killing thousands of animals at all ranges with a vast array of bullets designed for different purposes and have found that most of them perform as designed when given the opportunity to do so.

There's just no good reason to use a target bullet for hunting with the choices we have available in the US or most of the world any of us are likely to ever hunt.

 

[duckhunter175]

Just because the marketing team at Hornady labeled the ELDM "match" doesnt mean it automatically fails to expand and perform on game. It is still designed and succeeds at doing just that. The same way a Nosler Ballistic Tip does or a thin jacketed Berger does.

It sounds like you are well versed in using "hunting" bullets but maybe you've steered away from other viable options because of the marketing and not because of any actual evidence.

And you don't get to say on one hand "No way the Accubond failed, he is just a poor shot" and then on the other say "Target bullets fail even if you put them where you need to... they are all bad bullets"

The only true match bullet I've steered clear of are the H-BTHP and SMKs-- both of which still have a fan following for hunting.

Getting back to the whole point of this thread for the OP--- Are those 225 ELDMs able to kill an elk; yes, are they the potential best choice, maybe not-- plenty of good experience and commentary in this thread.

 

[WildRose]

Just because the marketing team at Hornady labeled the ELDM "match" doesnt mean it automatically fails to expand and perform on game. It is still designed and succeeds at doing just that. The same way a Nosler Ballistic Tip does or a thin jacketed Berger does.

It sounds like you are well versed in using "hunting" bullets but maybe you've steered away from other viable options because of the marketing and not because of any actual evidence.

And you don't get to say on one hand "No way the Accubond failed, he is just a poor shot" and then on the other say "Target bullets fail even if you put them where you need to... they are all bad bullets"

The only true match bullet I've steered clear of are the H-BTHP and SMKs-- both of which still have a fan following for hunting.

Getting back to the whole point of this thread for the OP--- Are those 225 ELDMs able to kill an elk; yes, are they the potential best choice, maybe not-- plenty of good experience and commentary in this thread.

No, that isn't what it's designed to do, it's designed as a match target bullet.

 

[WildRose]

And you don't get to say on one hand "No way the Accubond failed, he is just a poor shot" and then on the other say "Target bullets fail even if you put them where you need to... they are all bad bullets"

I never said any of that, no need to lie.

 

[duckhunter175]

No, that isn't what it's designed to do, it's designed as a match target bullet.

First- I just summed up most of all your rebuttal posts, there are no lies in that statement.

Second-- The ELDM and Amax while marketed certainly as target bullets are designed and built like literally the largest majority of 'hunting' bullets out there-- don't believe me go look at some cross sections and see for yourself. Designed the same way, will do the same thing, some minor differences.

 

[duckhunter175]

If you lost that elk it was due to poor bullet placement, not the construction of the bullet.

Exhibit #1

 

[duckhunter175]

The Accubond did not fail to perform, it wasn't put in the right place to allow it to perform as designed.

I won't use a bullet not designed to penetrate the body cavity and expand or then fragment to shoot game because that's not what they are designed or intended to do.

Exhibit 2

 

[WildRose]

The only true match bullet I've steered clear of are the H-BTHP and SMKs-- both of which still have a fan following for hunting.

People have a tendancy to want to believe whatever they are using or doing is "right" or "the best". Usually that proves not to be the case with the vast majority of people especially most hunters who are clueless beyond pulling the trigger, gun goes "bang". Then either the deer is dead or they missed.

Of course, most of those folks struggle to put 3 shots into a 6" pie plate at 100yds and if they manage it they think they are a sniper.

Personally I like to do everything reasonably possible to ensure the highest chances of success which starts with using a quality hunting bullet that I understand and putting it where it can perform as designed.

If that's a frangible bullet that place is going to be in soft tissue like the lungs, if it's a bonded or compartmentalized bullet that's going to be punching bone/spine or a precise heart/lung junction shot on soft bodied game if it's dangerous game I'll still use an expanding bullet rather than a solid to give myself a greater margin of error.

 

[WiscGunner]

It's a target bullet, I would not shoot it at game. The ELD-X however is a very good hunting bullet.

The ELD-M in 7mm 180gr works fantastic in my experience. Nathan Foster also highly recommends it in his findings. https://www.ballisticstudies.com/

 

[WildRose]

Exhibit #1

"Poor bullet placement" does not equal being a poor shot, it's simply failing to put the bullet where it can do the most good. That's just as likely to be from failing to understand how the bullet is intended to perform as it is making a poor shot.

If you understood the subject matter you would not make such leaps.

 

[WildRose]

The ELD-M in 7mm 180gr works fantastic in my experience. Nathan Foster also highly recommends it in his findings. https://www.ballisticstudies.com/

Good for both of you, I don't and won't.

 

[WildRose]

Exhibit 2

Thank you for confirming you don't understand the subject matter.

 

[duckhunter175]

"Poor bullet placement" does not equal being a poor shot, it's simply failing to put the bullet where it can do the most good. That's just as likely to be from failing to understand how the bullet is intended to perform as it is making a poor shot.

If you understood the subject matter you would not make such leaps.

Now we are throwing out late night internet insults-- nice work, must be past your bedtime.

I understand it just fine-- and now you are walking that statement back because you literally have no idea where that gentleman shot that animal do you?? You have no actual idea where he put it or if it did it's job.

You are stuck with your head up your fourth point of contact and unwilling to consider that you might be the very person you described that can only believe what you think is best.

 

[WildRose]

The ELD-M in 7mm 180gr works fantastic in my experience. Nathan Foster also highly recommends it in his findings. https://www.ballisticstudies.com/

I see his writeup of the ELD-X but don't find him recommending the ELD-M as a hunting bullet or any associated data. Do you have a more specific link?