147 eld terminal performance 6.5 creedmoor

DJ Fergus

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I thought I would share this information for anyone interested in the 147 eld's terminal performance. Picture is a recovered 147 eld-m from a 100lb whitetail doe shot through both shoulders just below shoulder ball sockets @ 465yds with 2950fps muzzle velocity. Went through bones on both sides. I found the bullet right under the skin on the off shoulder side. Retained weight was 92.5 grains. Massive damage on the internals. I know everyone will have their own opinion of how comfortable they feel using this bullet on game, so far I am comfortable with it's performance on whitetail. Sorry not to have any wound pictures but I was in a hurry to get the doe quartered up & had somewhere else to be. Just thought I would share this for anyone who's trying to make a decision about using this bullet. Happy Thanksgiving to all!
 

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I thought I would share this information for anyone interested in the 147 eld's terminal performance. Picture is a recovered 147 eld-m from a 100lb whitetail doe shot through both shoulders just below shoulder ball sockets @ 465yds with 2950fps muzzle velocity. Went through bones on both sides. I found the bullet right under the skin on the off shoulder side. Retained weight was 92.5 grains. Massive damage on the internals. I know everyone will have their own opinion of how comfortable they feel using this bullet on game, so far I am comfortable with it's performance on whitetail. Sorry not to have any wound pictures but I was in a hurry to get the doe quartered up & had somewhere else to be. Just thought I would share this for anyone who's trying to make a decision about using this bullet. Happy Thanksgiving to all!
ELD-M or ELD-X? You're lucky it held together at that velocity.
 
ELD-M or ELD-X? You're lucky it held together at that velocity.
I expected it to make it past the first shoulder destroy chest cavity & lodge some where near the inside of the off shoulder. I needed it to go down quick due to boundary restraints A heart lung shot would have been ideal if it would have been a 200lb whitetail. I agree with you, I am surprised that it held together thru both shoulders. Although I may never be able to duplicate that performance again, I have a good idea of what it's capable of and it's limitations. It's not my go to hunting rifle. I built it for some of the kids I know to shoot steel gongs with & get them involved with shooting. It works pretty good for that.
 
Wow 2950 with a 147 from a creedmoor!

26" xcaliber barrel. Twist measured @ 8.25, cci 250 primers, and RL26 filled in federal cases with a long drop tube funnel. Do a search for RL26 6.5 creedmoor 147 eld. I found my node around 2950fps. I could run it faster but groups opened up. Some say that RL26 works well with 140s also. I can say that RL26 worked really well in my short mag. I remember a time when factory loaded wsm velocity could not be duplicated. RL26 will duplicate those velocities in wsm's without excessive pressure and without compressing the load. It' a slower burning powder but has high bulk density, so it doesn't take up as much space as say: retumbo, h1000, or RL25. I'm not claiming it to be a magic powder but it does have it's uses and worked well for my purposes. I wish you luck with it if you decide to go that route.
 
ELD-M or ELD-X? You're lucky it held together at that velocity.

Why would you think it wouldn't hold together? At that muzzle velocity it was trucking along about 2350fps @ 450yds. Not trying to argue, just curious. I personally have them throttled back to 3018fps in my 6.5-284 with Retumbo.
I tried them a few weeks back using RL26 and had them up to 3100fps. I have not shot any game with them at that speed however, but I have taken one whitetail this season with the Retumbo load (3018fps). Range was between 100-150yds. He went "down town Julie Brown"!
 
ELD-M or ELD-X? You're lucky it held together at that velocity.
Not really. If you look at the design, the eld-m has a thicker jacket at the nose, but stays the same throughout the body. On an extensive write up I did on this bullet, I found the bullet had no trouble holding together when starting at 3050 fps, the issues I ran in to were the opposite. My niece used it to shoot a pronghorn buck at 980 yards, made two hits and neither expanded at all, acted like a fmj. All the bullet I recovered were between 78 and 95 or so grains, which out of 16 animals this season ranging from pronghorn to elk, was 3. On whitetail, I wouldn't feel bad using it (though I much prefer the Berger, over 20 kills with it and much better overall than the eld-m) as long as I kept impact velocity above 2000 fps or so. Overall, I wasn't too impressed with this bullet though. Just my experience.
 
Not really. If you look at the design, the eld-m has a thicker jacket at the nose, but stays the same throughout the body. On an extensive write up I did on this bullet, I found the bullet had no trouble holding together when starting at 3050 fps, the issues I ran in to were the opposite. My niece used it to shoot a pronghorn buck at 980 yards, made two hits and neither expanded at all, acted like a fmj. All the bullet I recovered were between 78 and 95 or so grains, which out of 16 animals this season ranging from pronghorn to elk, was 3. On whitetail, I wouldn't feel bad using it (though I much prefer the Berger, over 20 kills with it and much better overall than the eld-m) as long as I kept impact velocity above 2000 fps or so. Overall, I wasn't too impressed with this bullet though. Just my experience.
I'm shooting 180 eld-m's out of a 7mm RM @ 2940 or so. Great accuracy, unbelievable wind resistance. I'm getting better wind resistance than what the ballistic calculators show. That being said, I haven't taken any game with this bullet. Nathan Foster gives it rave reviews for terminal performance and I'm not questioning that, but I'm probably going for shoulder shots or aim for rear edge shoulder on whitetails until I figure out what kind of expansion to expect. Anyone's experience with terminal performance of the 180 Eld-m would be welcomed.
 
Not really. If you look at the design, the eld-m has a thicker jacket at the nose, but stays the same throughout the body. On an extensive write up I did on this bullet, I found the bullet had no trouble holding together when starting at 3050 fps, the issues I ran in to were the opposite. My niece used it to shoot a pronghorn buck at 980 yards, made two hits and neither expanded at all, acted like a fmj. All the bullet I recovered were between 78 and 95 or so grains, which out of 16 animals this season ranging from pronghorn to elk, was 3. On whitetail, I wouldn't feel bad using it (though I much prefer the Berger, over 20 kills with it and much better overall than the eld-m) as long as I kept impact velocity above 2000 fps or so. Overall, I wasn't too impressed with this bullet though. Just my experience.
Sorry Cody, looks like I highjacked my own thread with the 7mm 180 eld comments/question, Lol. I understand what you are saying about the 147 eld construction & expansion characteristics. Even prior to taking the doe I was thinking that I would put a personal limt on my shots with this rig& bullet combo to around 600yds on whitetail sized game. If I was generating quite a bit more velocity then I think it would be safe to consider more distance but I'm maxed out with the creedmoor & have three other rigs that would be better suited for more distance. Thanks for the info, it reinforced what I was thinking about my limitations for my setup
 
I'm shooting 180 eld-m's out of a 7mm RM @ 2940 or so. Great accuracy, unbelievable wind resistance. I'm getting better wind resistance than what the ballistic calculators show. That being said, I haven't taken any game with this bullet. Nathan Foster gives it rave reviews for terminal performance and I'm not questioning that, but I'm probably going for shoulder shots or aim for rear edge shoulder on whitetails until I figure out what kind of expansion to expect. Anyone's experience with terminal performance of the 180 Eld-m would be welcomed.
And the 180 eld-m may be a completely different story, I have no idea, I judge one bullet at a time, not an entire line based on one sample. My experience is only with the 147 eld-m. And from everything I saw, on paper, for the most part seems great. When they exited, exits were from 1"-2.5" depending on how much bone they hit, recovered bullets were mushroomed well and retained around 50% or a touch more, no jacket core separations, but every year I get a pretty big sample, as I stated, around 15-25 animals with just my rifle, as most of my family uses mine. But when I look at the reaction from the animals, there is a VAST difference between the eld-m vs the VLD. Animals hit with the eld-m ran nearly every single time they were hit, unless it was a cns hit. With the 140 Bergers, I had many animals that were bang-flops with hits behind the shoulder just above the heart, no where near a spinal hit, and many others that started to run, but had so much shock that they didn't make it much farther than a few steps. One of the pronghorn hit with the 147 at 150 yards with a perfect shoulder hit ran nearly 200 yards, hosing blood, lungs pouring out the exit, but it still ran. I just don't think the eld-m delivers as much shock as the vld.

I saw three bullet failures with the eld-m. Two were the pronghorn that they did not expand. The third was on a cow elk with a good hit that ran around half a mile. I have photos and videos of almost every kill of 16, here is the link to my thread:

https://www.longrangehunting.com/th...-game-a-lot-of-shot-videos-and-photos.208832/

Now. Did it kill the animals? Absolutely. It depends on your intents though. If your shooting whitetails and don't have to worry about them running 100 yards onto someone else's property, and plan on keeping your impact speed over 2000 fps, then they will do the trick. But, other bullets will kill them faster, but Bergers do more shock on the animal and tend to have a little more blood shot, and are more expensive. Just depends on what you want.
 
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