Specific Hornady ELD-X Performance

[Bob Wright]

I w

You have summed up my own thoughts exactly! At the risk of making this thread into an Accubond commercial, I'm switching also. I look forward to your results, bro.

I will definately take pictures of the terminal performance and post what the Accubond LR's do if I can just draw that tag and get a shot. I might play with Sierra Game Kings in rifle #2, 7mag.
In a 175 gr. Remington core lockt, they arent offered as a component (just loaded cartridges), just the lighter 150's can be bought.
Killed a lot of close range critters with core lockt, but way before I started handloading. Performance of core lokt was incredible in my '06. Got to try the GK 175s at longer ranges just because I'm really curious how true they fly at 300 yds. and longer vs. the competition of long range bullets.

 

[retegret]

... can anyone share any experiences on ELD-X performance, especially the .30s?

I have had my share of trouble with hornady bullets disintegrating "total fragmentation"
and no longer use them for hunting, ...

Hornady factory load with 178gr ELDX in 30-06. Elk about 400 yds. Two rounds into backstrap (yeah conditions didn't work for best shot placement). Found bullets fragmented into what I would describe as finger nail clippings.

 

[BTL]

So, for those who have been fortunate enough to drill a heart shot on any animal ( me included) at any distance, according to this shot placement graphic, there is no room for error if one targets just a heart shot. Isn't the entire lung cavity (including the heart) truly the center-mass zone in which we hope to place a shot and not targeting only the heart? In this case, the heart is a low hit, in the kill zone and effective. Notice the bone structure below and forward. Sure, many of us have hit heart shots but it's not something I focus on. It's the hydraulic shock that dismantles lungs, arteries. That's what I rely on. I can miss center of mass of this kill zone by quite a bit, but not the heart which occupies only the lower right 1/4th of this zone. Lower or more forward of the heart is just an injured animal. I won't do a heart shot on purpose. I called my last one, "lucky" after a sigh of relief he went down quickly and I found the heart destroyed.View attachment 120057

It's the shot I focus on inside of 300yds, the high heart shot. Five of my last six antelope were heart shot. The sixth was at 386yds and that was a double lung shot.
BTL

 

[Methow Packer]

I have shot a good number of elk with 215 and 168 Barnes and no longer shoot the 168 Barnes for elk, if you feel the need to shoulder shoot an elk in close I would look into Hammers as your close range bullet, they perform much better than the Barnes in close and mid range for that matter.

Can a 10" twist stabilize a 225 ELDM bullet. I'd be using a 30 Nosler

 

[Dolphin]

I had a bad experience with a 7mm and Berger 168 on an elk. He was slightly quartering toward me, and I put two into him. Based off sightings on private a few weeks later, it appeared I hugged too far forward and they didn't get past the shoulder...

I had a 30 Nosler built for other reasons, but that elk was in the back of my mind. I am currently using 212 ELD-X with great accuracy at about 3070. I took three antelope and a mule deer this year with great results, I want other's experience.

What have you seen with the 212 or other ELD-X on larger game like elk or bigger?

 

[whitetail regulator]

Not exactly what your asking.... but 200 gr eldx at 2890fps on deer at most ranges is lights out with any kinda decent shot placement...

 

[CMP70306]

Can a 10" twist stabilize a 225 ELDM bullet. I'd be using a 30 Nosler

Seemed to work well enough in my win mag at roughly 2870 FPS or so and tracked to 1000 just fine.

 

[WY02K]

18 years ago when I was 13 years old I shot a huge bodied 5x5 elk at 15-20 yards with a 30-06 and Core Lokts. I shot that elk 9 times. 6 in the heart and lungs and 3 in the neck. I wouldn't wish a Core Lokt on anybody....

 

[Bob Wright]

18 years ago when I was 13 years old I shot a huge bodied 5x5 elk at 15-20 yards with a 30-06 and Core Lokts. I shot that elk 9 times. 6 in the heart and lungs and 3 in the neck. I wouldn't wish a Core Lokt on anybody....

9 times? Open sights?
The first elk I ever shot was quartering to me at 60 yards, put one round between neck and left shoulder and exiting out the back of right lung, flipped him over backwards and never moved. He was about 500# on the hoof. The lung cavity went thru a blender. The exit was maybe 2" in diameter. I do not understand how that many hits were taken by an elk in those vital areas and did not go down in shot 1 or 2.
3 of my elk were taken with a 240 gr. .44 mag bullet, in a sabot, from a muzzle loader. Most were smaller elk, but they were DRT. I have antelope and elk on the same muzzleloader load. Please explain what the "terminal" looked like?

 

[73driver]

elk at 15-20 yards with a 30-06 and Core Lokts

One of those bullets through the lungs and its a dead elk, just need a little time to bleed out. One through the heart and down in a minute or two. I shot a 6X6 with 06 a 200-250 yards and first round took out heart and he stood there so I put at least 2 others in him then he just collapsed. The 2nd and 3rd 180 HE partitions were not needed, I just was not taking chances.
Your elk must not have moved too far or too fast to get 9 Core Lokt's into it.

 

[WY02K]

Yep, 9 times traumatic for the both of us. It was the scope rings where you could use open sights just barely showing below the scope or you can use the scope. I used both that day. There were 6 2 yr. old bulls and the 3 yr. old that I shot in a group. Guessing he was around 600#s, huge body. Perfect broadside I shot 4 times before the other elk ran off. He didn't move an inch just kept turning his head and frantically looking around. Then it was reload and panic time. He soaked up another 2 to the vitals, I could see him flinch and hear the bullet impact but he wouldn't go down. At this point the bull had moved maybe 10 yards, he was 30 yards away or so, I loaded the last 2 bullets I had in my pocket and shot at his neck, definite hit and now he is sprinting away at full speed. As he was running I hit him in the neck and he finally went down. Remember, I am 13 years old and completely freaking out at this point. I run up to the bull that I thought was finally dead and he starts trying to get up so I shot him again in the neck finally ending the ordeal. Once help arrived I started getting questions about if there was any meat left?, how many **** bullets were you carrying?, what just happened? We skinned him out and found all 9 bullet holes in places you would expect to kill an animal quick. The heart and lungs had holes everywhere but there was very minimal damage done. The bullets just penciled through. Exit wounds were barely bigger than the entrance. He surely would have died with just the first couple shots but would he have ran to the bottom of the canyon? I wasn't about to find that one out.

 

[Bob Wright]

Yep, 9 times traumatic for the both of us. It was the scope rings where you could use open sights just barely showing below the scope or you can use the scope. I used both that day. There were 6 2 yr. old bulls and the 3 yr. old that I shot in a group. Guessing he was around 600#s, huge body. Perfect broadside I shot 4 times before the other elk ran off. He didn't move an inch just kept turning his head and frantically looking around. Then it was reload and panic time. He soaked up another 2 to the vitals, I could see him flinch and hear the bullet impact but he wouldn't go down. At this point the bull had moved maybe 10 yards, he was 30 yards away or so, I loaded the last 2 bullets I had in my pocket and shot at his neck, definite hit and now he is sprinting away at full speed. As he was running I hit him in the neck and he finally went down. Remember, I am 13 years old and completely freaking out at this point. I run up to the bull that I thought was finally dead and he starts trying to get up so I shot him again in the neck finally ending the ordeal. Once help arrived I started getting questions about if there was any meat left?, how many ---- bullets were you carrying?, what just happened? We skinned him out and found all 9 bullet holes in places you would expect to kill an animal quick. The heart and lungs had holes everywhere but there was very minimal damage done. The bullets just penciled through. Exit wounds were barely bigger than the entrance. He surely would have died with just the first couple shots but would he have ran to the bottom of the canyon? I wasn't about to find that one out.

Yes, at that distance and muzzle velocity, i can see little expansion of your standard spitzer point bullets. I don't know what else to say. Every animal I harvested with Remingtons' core loct went down hard. But each hunter will have unique experiences that makes us wonder "how?". I doubt the core loct can be as accurate as the newest long range products. Tradeoffs are worth studying a lot. But I would like to try old against new just for testing and fun.

 

[WY02K]

Try old against new you say??? I am starting to work up a load for Dad's new rifle in 7MM RM. After weeks of us reading about the Nosler LRAB and the Hornady ELD-X he is going with the original Accubonds in 160 gr. In Wyoming you might need to shoot an elk at 30 yards in the shoulder or way over on the next ridge in the course of 5 minutes. What is the best bullet for 1-800 yards??? I am certain it doesn't exist. He has randomly picked 800 as his max for some reason, pretty firm on that EXACT number, no clue why but he is the boss and if he wants Accubonds out to 800 then he gets them.

 

[Predator 22]

How many times did ol Randy have to shoot his bull last season?

Anyone with even a remote handle on ballistics should be throwing the BS flag every time he opens his mouth!! Rails against long range hunting then comes out with a long range rifle as his latest greatest, really? Claims a Partition has a .700 something BC and cals it a high BC bullets!

The story of his buddy hitting a bull in the __s at 6-700 yards and he felt zero wind at the shooter and him telling us if he can't do it no one can, well there is no possible way to have a bullet drift from the front of a bull to the back of a bull and not have wind at the shooter, if it was that much wind you would hear it and see sagebrush being uprooted. He yanked a shot into the backside of a bull and is so arrogant he can't accept he screwed up and has to blame the wind and then tell everyone how good he is and there's no way anyone else could do it! He the LAST person on the internet people should be listening to about killing elk!!!

Here's my bs meter when I hear "the real gunsmith" talk about, well, anything.