My experience with the Hornady 147 ELD-M on game. *A Lot of Shot Videos and photos*
- Thread starter codyadams
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Great write-up. I can attest to some animals just not wanting to go down. I put a round through a whitetail at 80yds. Perfect heart lung shot. 3 ribs and a softball size chunk of lung hanging out the exit hole, and heart destroyed. Deer ran over 50yds...
I have also quit using the 147s for hunting. I have a much more limited experience with them as the OP, but I was disappointed on the antelope and 2 elk we shot with them. All 3 were double lung shots and all 3 required tracking/ follow up shots. I know lots of people have had great success but I'm not one of them.
elkaholic
Well-Known Member
Very good write up Cody! It almost seems that it brings us back to the same conclusion that we usually see. Mixed results with most bullets including Hornady and Berger! I will say this; I ALWAYS run a .040" drill bit in any Berger that I shoot and if you don't, you are asking for trouble! I noticed this year when loading the 175 Elite Hunter for my 7 SS that the openings we're far more consistent than most of the vld's that I've used, however.
So far I've had good results with the ELDM from my rifle, and people that I've recommended them to but more data is always better!
This also shows that it is not at all unusual for some animals to run considerable distance at times with devastating wounds that you would normally think would plant them!
Thanks for the thorough write up.....rich
So far I've had good results with the ELDM from my rifle, and people that I've recommended them to but more data is always better!
This also shows that it is not at all unusual for some animals to run considerable distance at times with devastating wounds that you would normally think would plant them!
Thanks for the thorough write up.....rich
Canhunter35
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- Jun 13, 2017
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Yesterday we harvested two antelope using the 143eldx from a 6.5cm.
I could not be happier with the performance. First antelope I shot around 350yds, he was running away, didn't have time to range so I lined up at the fence the herd was ducking under and as he went under I plugged one in low and back farther than intended, he humped up on the far side, stopping and I corrected and shot again through both lungs. He jumped and dropped. Exit wounds from both bullets. The second hit his shoulder and left dramatic damage.
The next one faced us quartered, shot in the chest off the point of the shoulder bone, exited behind the opposite shoulder. Instant drt.
We shot a third a third antelope with a 178 eldx from a 308 and the bullet performed well, the antelope ran about thirty yards before toppling. This seems consistent with the 178 performance. It doesn't fragment as much but is a very effective hunting bullet.
Not to hijack the thread, but thought the 143 information pertains to it. After seeing the 143 perform I'll be sticking with it. Very happy
I could not be happier with the performance. First antelope I shot around 350yds, he was running away, didn't have time to range so I lined up at the fence the herd was ducking under and as he went under I plugged one in low and back farther than intended, he humped up on the far side, stopping and I corrected and shot again through both lungs. He jumped and dropped. Exit wounds from both bullets. The second hit his shoulder and left dramatic damage.
The next one faced us quartered, shot in the chest off the point of the shoulder bone, exited behind the opposite shoulder. Instant drt.
We shot a third a third antelope with a 178 eldx from a 308 and the bullet performed well, the antelope ran about thirty yards before toppling. This seems consistent with the 178 performance. It doesn't fragment as much but is a very effective hunting bullet.
Not to hijack the thread, but thought the 143 information pertains to it. After seeing the 143 perform I'll be sticking with it. Very happy
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D
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Wow thanks for the detailed testing that was impressive!
I've shot two bulls with the 147 from my 6.5 saum,
The first was at 350 yards and it was extremely explosive, too explosive in my opinion.
I was lucky it didn't hit the shoulder, instant kill.
I just shot a bull at 940 yards with the same set up and this time it appears the bullet expanded very little.
The bullet blew through the shoulder and penetrated the top of the lungs, it was a steep upward angle and luckily the bullet shattered the spine.
There was very little damage to the lungs just a hole through them..
I think you're on to something, expansion might be inadequate at long range.
Do you mind sharing you're 260 ai load data?
you're getting the same performance as my saum!
I've shot two bulls with the 147 from my 6.5 saum,
The first was at 350 yards and it was extremely explosive, too explosive in my opinion.
I was lucky it didn't hit the shoulder, instant kill.
I just shot a bull at 940 yards with the same set up and this time it appears the bullet expanded very little.
The bullet blew through the shoulder and penetrated the top of the lungs, it was a steep upward angle and luckily the bullet shattered the spine.
There was very little damage to the lungs just a hole through them..
I think you're on to something, expansion might be inadequate at long range.
Do you mind sharing you're 260 ai load data?
you're getting the same performance as my saum!
codyadams
Well-Known Member
I have a small update on the 147.
I was lucky enough to harvest a nice 6x6 bull the other night on a solo hunt at 816 yards. Video link below photos. On my first shot, I thought there was about a 3 mph right to left wind that I dialed for, you can see the grass moving on their hillside, and I had been watching the wind all day and it was pretty consistent about that, but I believe the wind shifted or dropped off somewhat before the shot, and the .5 MOA I had dialed to the right to compensate for the wind was not necessary, and upon inspection the bullet landed about 6" back from where I was aiming, but was still a double lung shot, just the rear side of the lungs. I was able to spot my hit and knew I wanted to put a second one on him. Once I got reloaded and back on him...I admittedly rushed my trigger press and pulled my shot low, I knew as soon as the shot broke. It impacted perfect for windage, and actually went through the muscle of his front right leg just below the brisket. I reloaded again, reacquired him, and made sure to make this one count. I held off for my wind, and squeezed it slow. I watched the bullet impact perfectly on the shoulder, and knew it was a solid hit. I reacquired him on the camera so that if he began to run I could have something to go by to track him, but it proved unnecessary. The bull began to faulter as soon as I got him in the camera frame, and I knew he was going down. He piled up in at the base of a tree. From my first shot to my third was just under 20 seconds.
I was also able to recover a bullet, from my first shot that went through two ribs and lung. It was in the membrane between the rib cage and the hide. Weight after cleaning off protein matter was 84.7 grains. The shoulder hit blew all the way through, interesting because it impacted more muscle and bone matter, but penetrated more than the rear lung hit. There was a large amount of blood shot in the membrane material, more than I have seen on other animals I have shot at similar ranges with this bullet. the membrane was red from the flank to the neck....however the meat was not impacted nearly as severely. Impact velocities were 2,176 fps and delivered 1,545 ft-lbs of energy.
If the bullet performed like this every time....I would not be as concerned. However with the pin holes in the pronghorn on 2 consecutive shots.....It gives me second thought. Anyway, just some more hands on experience with this bullet. We still have two buck pronghorn and one elk (possibly two elk if my niece wants to use my rifle again) left until we are tagged out.
I was lucky enough to harvest a nice 6x6 bull the other night on a solo hunt at 816 yards. Video link below photos. On my first shot, I thought there was about a 3 mph right to left wind that I dialed for, you can see the grass moving on their hillside, and I had been watching the wind all day and it was pretty consistent about that, but I believe the wind shifted or dropped off somewhat before the shot, and the .5 MOA I had dialed to the right to compensate for the wind was not necessary, and upon inspection the bullet landed about 6" back from where I was aiming, but was still a double lung shot, just the rear side of the lungs. I was able to spot my hit and knew I wanted to put a second one on him. Once I got reloaded and back on him...I admittedly rushed my trigger press and pulled my shot low, I knew as soon as the shot broke. It impacted perfect for windage, and actually went through the muscle of his front right leg just below the brisket. I reloaded again, reacquired him, and made sure to make this one count. I held off for my wind, and squeezed it slow. I watched the bullet impact perfectly on the shoulder, and knew it was a solid hit. I reacquired him on the camera so that if he began to run I could have something to go by to track him, but it proved unnecessary. The bull began to faulter as soon as I got him in the camera frame, and I knew he was going down. He piled up in at the base of a tree. From my first shot to my third was just under 20 seconds.
I was also able to recover a bullet, from my first shot that went through two ribs and lung. It was in the membrane between the rib cage and the hide. Weight after cleaning off protein matter was 84.7 grains. The shoulder hit blew all the way through, interesting because it impacted more muscle and bone matter, but penetrated more than the rear lung hit. There was a large amount of blood shot in the membrane material, more than I have seen on other animals I have shot at similar ranges with this bullet. the membrane was red from the flank to the neck....however the meat was not impacted nearly as severely. Impact velocities were 2,176 fps and delivered 1,545 ft-lbs of energy.
If the bullet performed like this every time....I would not be as concerned. However with the pin holes in the pronghorn on 2 consecutive shots.....It gives me second thought. Anyway, just some more hands on experience with this bullet. We still have two buck pronghorn and one elk (possibly two elk if my niece wants to use my rifle again) left until we are tagged out.
That's quite the update! Thanks for the vid and, again, all of the excellent info on bullet performance.
Was this with the 260AI or the 264WM?
codyadams
Well-Known Member
.260 AI
Cody, would like to ask what camera/lens you are using for the video. Thanks.
codyadams
Well-Known Member
One more update with this bullet. My wife was lucky enough to harvest her first elk, a cow, at 703 yards. After my experience with them on my bull elk, I was hopeful that this bullet, while not perfect performance across the board at this point, would do good enough, and since I did not have time to develop another load, I felt comfortable using it one more time. This almost proved to be a terrible mistake.
My wife is currently 19 weeks pregnant, and I did not want to drag her all over the mountain, so we went to an area where we could drive up a mountain road and spot elk on mountainsides in the morning and evening. My cousin was along for the hunt to, with a tag. it was open for antlerless elk only. Well, sure enough we spotted two elk, a cow and a calf, on a hillside about 700 yards away. We got off the dirt road a ways, and got set up for the shot. We were planning to do a double, and fill both tags. My wife was taking first shot, since she is somewhat new to shooting, and also this was her first elk.
We ranged them at 703 yards and I estimated a 2-3 mph wind from right to left, and I doped the scope. The elk were approximately 400-450 ft elevation higher than we were, and at the shot the cow was slightly quartering towards us, so I told my wife to put it right on the shoulder, and because of the upward elevation, aim for the heart, as the exit will be higher than the entrance. Well, I could not have drawn with a marker a more perfect shot placement, it went exactly where I wanted her to put it, as you will see in the linked video and pictures. The cow didn't hardly react at the shot, and then slowly began to trot. Within 3 seconds, my cousin fired (from the sitting position using sticks and his pack frame for a rear rest) and made a spine hit. His elk tumbled down the hill., and the cow began running. I was only watching on the camera at the shot, and I was fairly confident with the shot my wife made, but was unsure.
By the time we climbed up the mountain, it was nearly dark. We found my cousins calf right away, and began to look for blood from my wife's cow, but only found fresh tracks. I followed them into the timber, but did not want to stray too far off using only a headlamp after a wounded elk in an area where I know there are big bears, so we decided to come back the next day and pack out my cousins calf that night.
Well, we showed up the next day, after reviewing the video on the bigger screen and watching the trace and impact go exactly where we wanted it, were confident we would find the cow just into the timber. We got on what we were sure was the cows tracks, and began tracking. After following them for over 100 yards, and seeing no blood, I began to worry. We carefully stayed on her tracks, making sure not to loose them. I knew it was a solid hit, and was confused why there was no blood. After following the tracks for over 600 yards, my cousin and I decided it would be good for him to go back and retrace and see if we missed something, and I would stay on this trail. Well, about another 200 yards farther, I spotted the cow laying dead, and signaled my cousin to come back. As the crow flies, the cow had traveled over 500 yards. On her trail, it was nearly a half mile, two ridges over. And the entire time, not a single speck of blood in the fresh white snow. If it wasn't for the snow, or if it had snowed over night, I highly doubt we would have found her. She died with the entrance side up.
Upon inspection, the entrance was exactly where we wanted it. We began to bone the meat out, there was an average amount of blood shot on entrance. We finished the entrance side, and rolled her over, found no exit in the hide, and skinner her back. To my complete shock, the bullet exited the body cavity and was just under the hide, all the way back in the flank!! I looked at the entrance, and watched the video again, and the ONLY possible way for the bullet to exit back there is if the bullets path diverted after entrance to the left, very hard. The cow was not quartered that heavily to us. We finished boning her out, and I opened up the inside and saw that the lungs were hit, but the damage was not that great, as the bullet did not penetrate strait and only clipped the rear of the lungs. I have not weighed the bullet, but it looks nearly identical to the bullet recovered from my bull elk. But I gotta say folks, this bullet changed direction RADICALLY after entrance, and turned a perfectly placed shot into, essentially, a gut shot, and the animal covered nearly half a mile before expiring. This, sadly, was almost an unrecovered animal had persistence not kept me going.
Here is the cow, I made a spot in the hair where the bullet entered, it is circled. Also a picture of the mountain the elk were on, they were back behind the ridge up that draw where I put the arrow.
This will conclude my testing of this bullet. I will either pull the remaining bullets I have, or shoot them at steel. I will reiterate, I am fully aware that this is not, nor was ever intended to be a hunting bullet, but after 16 big game animals ranging from fawn pronghorn to bull elk, from under 200 yards to nearly 1000, the biggest consistency I have found with this bullet on game is inconsistency. I feel like I have more than put this bullet through it's paces, and I don't know of any single person that has killed this many critters with it. There have been times where this bullet has performed acceptably, and then other times such as this. It may be a good enough bullet for whitetail out to intermediate ranges, and it will kill critters, but I simply expect better results when I put so much time and effort into my rifle, components, and reloading practices.
Thank you to everyone who read this write up, I know I wrote a lot here, and it takes time to read it all. I tried to put a lot of effort, detail, and actual physical evidence you can see into this so that everyone can get the least biased report on this bullet possible. Again, Thanks all.
My wife is currently 19 weeks pregnant, and I did not want to drag her all over the mountain, so we went to an area where we could drive up a mountain road and spot elk on mountainsides in the morning and evening. My cousin was along for the hunt to, with a tag. it was open for antlerless elk only. Well, sure enough we spotted two elk, a cow and a calf, on a hillside about 700 yards away. We got off the dirt road a ways, and got set up for the shot. We were planning to do a double, and fill both tags. My wife was taking first shot, since she is somewhat new to shooting, and also this was her first elk.
We ranged them at 703 yards and I estimated a 2-3 mph wind from right to left, and I doped the scope. The elk were approximately 400-450 ft elevation higher than we were, and at the shot the cow was slightly quartering towards us, so I told my wife to put it right on the shoulder, and because of the upward elevation, aim for the heart, as the exit will be higher than the entrance. Well, I could not have drawn with a marker a more perfect shot placement, it went exactly where I wanted her to put it, as you will see in the linked video and pictures. The cow didn't hardly react at the shot, and then slowly began to trot. Within 3 seconds, my cousin fired (from the sitting position using sticks and his pack frame for a rear rest) and made a spine hit. His elk tumbled down the hill., and the cow began running. I was only watching on the camera at the shot, and I was fairly confident with the shot my wife made, but was unsure.
By the time we climbed up the mountain, it was nearly dark. We found my cousins calf right away, and began to look for blood from my wife's cow, but only found fresh tracks. I followed them into the timber, but did not want to stray too far off using only a headlamp after a wounded elk in an area where I know there are big bears, so we decided to come back the next day and pack out my cousins calf that night.
Well, we showed up the next day, after reviewing the video on the bigger screen and watching the trace and impact go exactly where we wanted it, were confident we would find the cow just into the timber. We got on what we were sure was the cows tracks, and began tracking. After following them for over 100 yards, and seeing no blood, I began to worry. We carefully stayed on her tracks, making sure not to loose them. I knew it was a solid hit, and was confused why there was no blood. After following the tracks for over 600 yards, my cousin and I decided it would be good for him to go back and retrace and see if we missed something, and I would stay on this trail. Well, about another 200 yards farther, I spotted the cow laying dead, and signaled my cousin to come back. As the crow flies, the cow had traveled over 500 yards. On her trail, it was nearly a half mile, two ridges over. And the entire time, not a single speck of blood in the fresh white snow. If it wasn't for the snow, or if it had snowed over night, I highly doubt we would have found her. She died with the entrance side up.
Upon inspection, the entrance was exactly where we wanted it. We began to bone the meat out, there was an average amount of blood shot on entrance. We finished the entrance side, and rolled her over, found no exit in the hide, and skinner her back. To my complete shock, the bullet exited the body cavity and was just under the hide, all the way back in the flank!! I looked at the entrance, and watched the video again, and the ONLY possible way for the bullet to exit back there is if the bullets path diverted after entrance to the left, very hard. The cow was not quartered that heavily to us. We finished boning her out, and I opened up the inside and saw that the lungs were hit, but the damage was not that great, as the bullet did not penetrate strait and only clipped the rear of the lungs. I have not weighed the bullet, but it looks nearly identical to the bullet recovered from my bull elk. But I gotta say folks, this bullet changed direction RADICALLY after entrance, and turned a perfectly placed shot into, essentially, a gut shot, and the animal covered nearly half a mile before expiring. This, sadly, was almost an unrecovered animal had persistence not kept me going.
Here is the cow, I made a spot in the hair where the bullet entered, it is circled. Also a picture of the mountain the elk were on, they were back behind the ridge up that draw where I put the arrow.
This will conclude my testing of this bullet. I will either pull the remaining bullets I have, or shoot them at steel. I will reiterate, I am fully aware that this is not, nor was ever intended to be a hunting bullet, but after 16 big game animals ranging from fawn pronghorn to bull elk, from under 200 yards to nearly 1000, the biggest consistency I have found with this bullet on game is inconsistency. I feel like I have more than put this bullet through it's paces, and I don't know of any single person that has killed this many critters with it. There have been times where this bullet has performed acceptably, and then other times such as this. It may be a good enough bullet for whitetail out to intermediate ranges, and it will kill critters, but I simply expect better results when I put so much time and effort into my rifle, components, and reloading practices.
Thank you to everyone who read this write up, I know I wrote a lot here, and it takes time to read it all. I tried to put a lot of effort, detail, and actual physical evidence you can see into this so that everyone can get the least biased report on this bullet possible. Again, Thanks all.
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codyadams
Well-Known Member
Sorry for the late delay, I have been busy!! It is just a sony cx675 camera, nothing that special. Eventually, I will get something a little nicer.
