Terminal Performance - results

Opinion. Attached is a photo of two 7mm / 175 ELDX's that were recovered from a 340lb (no kidding) Colorado Mule Deer last year, shot at 383 yards. MZL velocity was 3192 FPS.
They both represent about a 45% weight retention. Is this the performance you would have expected from a hunting bullet?

Straight from the Hornady website:

"With high velocity 0-400 yard impact, the bullet continually expands throughout its penetration path. The thick shank of the jacket and high interlock ring keep the core and jacket together providing 50-60% weight retention"

Sounds like they were about 5% off.... but you are shooting quite a bit higher MV than average. If the deer died quickly, I would say the bullet did its job. If you measure a bullets performance by how much weight it retained, then you aren't shooting the best bullet for that.

The ELD-X bullets in all calibers/weights are highly explosive up close, and still have excellent expansion at long range. You could argue that there are better bullets for close shots because of how violently they expand/fragment.

Here's a picture of a .338 270 grain ELD-X recovered from a bull i shot at 1130 yards, at about 2000 FPS impact velocity. For a long range hunting bullet the ELD-X are hard to beat, assuming your gun shoots them accurately.

Yes, I think that's great performance for that bullet. At that distance using a soft long range bullet and that starting velocity I'm surprised you even found the bullet and it didn't just go to pieces. I assume the animal died and was recovered, so from a kill stand point the bullet did its job. I would say if most of your shots are less than 500 yards, like you've never shot an animal past 500 yards, I'd maybe choose a tougher bullet like and ABLR or Mono. The ELDx is designed to mushroom symmetrically down to around 1600fps per Hornady, which is a little lower than standard bullets. Usually for copper/lead bullets its around 1800 fps. This has to do with the relative mechanical strength of copper and lead. Copper monos are more like 2000fps for good expansion. Not all bullets work great in all situations.

What did the vitals look like? What was the damage caused by the bullet?

Timber338 said:

The ELD-X bullets in all calibers/weights are highly explosive up close, and still have excellent expansion at long range. You could argue that there are better bullets for close shots because of how violently they expand/fragment.

Here's a picture of a .338 270 grain ELD-X recovered from a bull i shot at 1130 yards, at about 2000 FPS impact velocity. For a long range hunting bullet the ELD-X are hard to beat, assuming your gun shoots them accurately.
View attachment 273726

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We used a 175gr 7mm on a Coues buck at 934 yards terminal velocity about 1980fps. That bullet travelled in a straight line from the right side last rib at an angle across the heart lung cavity and exited the front left shoulder. That buck fell DRT. They work very good at long range.

Shot a medium sized black bear at ~50 yards last fall with the .338 270 ELD-X, and the bullet exploded on a near side rib and had just about the same size entrance as exit. Double lung and the bear was DRT. No meat loss with good shot placement. Consistent expansion at long range is going to sacrifice some up close performance.

JMGamesniper19 said:

Opinion. Attached is a photo of two 7mm / 175 ELDX's that were recovered from a 340lb (no kidding) Colorado Mule Deer last year, shot at 383 yards. MZL velocity was 3192 FPS.
They both represent about a 45% weight retention. Is this the performance you would have expected from a hunting bullet?

Click to expand...

Nice! That 175 was moving along in a hurry. What cartridge?

JMGamesniper19 said:

Opinion. Attached is a photo of two 7mm / 175 ELDX's that were recovered from a 340lb (no kidding) Colorado Mule Deer last year, shot at 383 yards. MZL velocity was 3192 FPS.
They both represent about a 45% weight retention. Is this the performance you would have expected from a hunting bullet?

Click to expand...

for a non bonded bullet, yes.

Plenty of ELD-Xs in this thread. I find that they seem fractious, yet killers. Good job.

That is exactly what you should see. I would say they performed as they were intended to. They are really good bullets, they still get the job done up close....but they can make a mess of things. They're not quite so explosive when they slow down to around 2500. I've made a couple messes with them, but nothing has walked a way.

Can't believe you recovered the bullet. My 6.5 PRC killed 4 mule deer (300, 300, 310, 390) with 143 and 135 a tips. All pass through's and in the next zip code. I have recovered a few 143's from a creedmoor used on elk and they retrained a bit more weight but I wouldn't expect them to be explosive in a creed on elk at 500 either.

BrentM said:

Can't believe you recovered the bullet. My 6.5 PRC killed 4 mule deer (300, 300, 310, 390) with 143 and 135 a tips. All pass through's and in the next zip code. I have recovered a few 143's from a creedmoor used on elk and they retrained a bit more weight but I wouldn't expect them to be explosive in a creed on elk at 500 either.

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I was also surprised his bullets did not exit.

Very interested in your experience with the 135 A-tips ... not to hijack the thread, but has some context here discussing performance of a long range hunting bullet.

I'd be happy with that