Hornady 6.5C 143 ELD-X performance issues

[Creedmoor shooter]

I cant reccomend the 147. Never tried them on deer. What I can recommend is the 140 eld-m. That and the 140 A-max has piled up alot of deer and a couple of bears in my family out of our creeds. I can promise you they will not disappoint.

 

[codyadams]

I cant reccomend the 147. Never tried them on deer. What I can recommend is the 140 eld-m. That and the 140 A-max has piled up alot of deer and a couple of bears in my family out of our creeds. I can promise you they will not disappoint.

How far have you shot the eld-m's out to? I haven't tried the 140 eld-m's.

 

[Creedmoor shooter]

How far have you shot the eld-m's out to? I haven't tried the 140 eld-m's.

I live in the Northeast so I dont get to shoot very far. On targets I've shot them to 1600 but on deer its relatively close. Closest shot at 12 yards and the max has been about 200.

 

[codyadams]

I live in the Northeast so I dont get to shoot very far. On targets I've shot them to 1600 but on deer its relatively close. Closest shot at 12 yards and the max has been about 200.

The issues I ran in to where there was bullet failure with the 147 was generally around 2000 fps or or so when not hitting heavy bone, I wonder how the 140 ELD-M would do in that range on whitetail deer and pronghorn size targets.

 

[tweek1142]

Sectional density....go down to the 130 range of bullets in 6.5. U won't be sacrificing any but expansion on soft tissue will be better. I believe the heavy 6.5Cal bullets at CM velocity are on the edge of too much sectional density for deer. Not all deer are the same "width" or have the same muscle mass which is why we see mixed results on this an other forums. The 130 in the 6.5CM are more forgiving since the sectional density is lower. Or go to the 7mm-08 with 140 which I have found to be a better performer as far as killing.

 

[TRG65]

Last night my son shot a whitetail buck with the 147M at about 200, quartering away and hit about 6" behind the front shoulder, exited just behind the other shoulder. Immediately jumped and ran about 50 yards and fell over. The damage inside was respectable. I had loaded the 123M before for his deer hunting and they did well also. I have no problems using the 147M for more deer in the future. Muzzle velocity is 2788 fps, impact velocity should have been right around 2510.

 

[snookntarpon]

I shoot the 147 ELDM out of my 6.5 GAP. from 20 to 905. No issues. Bang flop most of the time inside 600, the 905 ran 30 yards and piled up. Whitetail. Clocking at 3080 fps.
SnT

 

[cajun]

If you haven't been to this site you should. Some very useful info on real world bullet performance. This is in reference to the 6.5sweede but it's very close to creedmor velocities.
https://www.ballisticstudies.com/Knowledgebase/6.5x55.html

Here is the quote on the Amax.

For longer range hunting using the swede, no other bullet can compare to the performance produced by the Hornady 140 grain A-Max. This bullet is best suited to lighter bodied deer under 80kg (180lb) and gives optimum results at impact velocities below 2600fps (beyond 75 yards) which allows the A-Max to shear into large fragments rather than smaller, less lethal particles. Wounding caused by the A-max at ranges of between 300 and 400 yards is such that both exit wounds and bleeding from exit wounds can be easily observed through the hunter's scope. The A-Max has a BC of .550 and produces wide wounding for clean, extremely fast killing out to 500 yards (2000fps), continuing to produce adequately wide wounding at 1800fps, out at the 600 yard mark.

For inside 400 yds the SST should do fine as well.

 

[Never ffp]

I have killed 3 bucks with the 143gr eldx and have seen zero blood .your grid search game better be extremely Strong if you hunt with eldx bullets

 

[Canhunter35]

vernw,

Not sure if you've seen this one but here's a post from a fellow member.

https://www.longrangehunting.com/threads/2019-sask-whitetail.230289/

He got this nice looking buck with a 6.5 CM also. Sounds like it took him two shots to put this one down for the count. Not sure of the yardage or where the first bullet hit, but the second bullet was placed in the neck somewhere. It's the same bullet and bullet weight you were using.

For what it's worth, I took a buck a couple years ago with my .243 Winchester. I hit him with a 95grn Nosler partition from about 75 yards away. I hit him right behind the shoulder and the deer just stood there for a few seconds. It ran about 10 yards and then stood there again. The first shot was lethal (later determined after I gutted him) but I put a second shot on him and he then ran about 10 yards and fell over. The exit wound was minimal (about the size of large lemon) but the internals were smoked where the bullet traveled through. Meat loss was minimal also.

since you quoted my thread, This is the exit wound on my deer from the first shot at 620yds with a mv of 2739fps from my 6.5. It was behind the shoulder and a little high, the shock to his spine dropped him and the tops of both lungs were split. Bullet performed perfect imo
The neck shot he was nearly facing me and it never exited but lodged somewhere in his body.

 

[25WSM]

Well everybody is right and wrong all you want to be. This site gives you a huge sample size of game killed with the bullet you might research or already use. The 143eldx is one such bullet. I personally couldn't shoot a 143eldx for the rest of my life gathering info to top what you get from a key stroke on here. And it's not even close. The 143eldx is a great bullet. Had some failures. Had some huge success. I see nothing that says keep away from it. People even chimed in on the 147eldm that I use and same results I get. If I got several failures to kill shooting my own game I wouldn't hesitate to change either. Go with facts or go with your gut or both and pic one. There had never been better bullets on the market as there is now. Example is the new 156 Berger. I wanted to try them this yr. But I passed and next yr I can read about how it worked on all the game this season and make a choice on a bunch of facts. It already passed my sexy bullet test.
Shep

 

[Greasegun]

This is surprising to me after reading on many forums, most negative reports I hear on the 143s are with them exploding too much, not the other way around. These are the first reports I have read of them not expanding at all. There are so many variables though, I think its just the nature of the game. Sometimes you hit soft tissue only, others you hit a lot of hard bone. Add in velocity and distance variables and manufacturing variables and there is bound to be a wide range of results. At the end of the day, shot placement is king.

 

[snookntarpon]

There isn't a bullet in existence that doesn't have a "Failure" story to tell.

 

[deaddownrange]

I have been using the 143 Eldx for a few years and convinced a few of my friends to do the same, in almost every case on Antelope,Elk,Muledeer, it has been bang flop DRT,not bragging and the ranges were 500yds Elk,75 yards Elk, 450yds,antelope, 250 yds antelope 400 yds mule deer, 50 yards mule deer, I havent reloaded any yet, as its been 1 shot 1 kill so far, when I do reload it will be same as factory. No failures yet. Maybe luck?