Meat damage with eldx

[marchx]

My second hunt with eldx. I can see more meat damage than in case of e.g. Lapua mega or other traditional type of bullet.
I shot yesterday 2 fallow deers and frankly speaking the hematoma in the meat was huge. I was hunting with 6.5 creedmoor.

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

Distance and weight of the fallow deer, where on the body were the hits?

 

[TTE]

For hunting, I personally would choose almost any other bullet over a Hornady.
Hornadys are quite soft. Rapid expansion, not much penetration.

IMO bonded bullets are a lot better than non bonded bullets for hunting.

I have no experience with the Hornady bonded bullets, so do not know if they work or not.

I use Swift bullets for hunting and they work brilliantly.

 

[marchx]

Distance and weight of the fallow deer, where on the body were the hits?

One shot was at 60m, the other one was at 110m. First shot- lungs, second high shoulder. First deer 34kg, second about 18kg.

 

[jds holler]

Well, you're certainly using enough gun to kill those little deer. Unless you intentionally load "down" you're gonna experience some pretty exploded deer no matter what bullet you use. jd

 

[long40shot]

Proper shot placement would avoid such an issue.

 

[LCazador]

My second hunt with eldx. I can see more meat damage than in case of e.g. Lapua mega or other traditional type of bullet.
I shot yesterday 2 fallow deers and frankly speaking the hematoma in the meat was huge. I was hunting with 6.5 creedmoor.

Hornady ELDX intended for long range. Even with a lowly 6.5 Creed it can damage a lot of meat at close range. I'd extend my range to 8-900 yards. yust yoken!!

 

[Prose]

Give the sierra tipped game king a look.

 

[CaptainMal]

Hornady makes the old Interlock. Shoots great and punches through.

 

[wwbrown]

I have had great luck with the 6.5 mm 130 grain Accubond on whitetails from 50-300 yards out of my old swedish mauser. I found the 130's to be accurate and the deer were quite impressed with them when I made the introduction, although the impression was very short-lived. You might want to give them a try.

 

[DLT]

For what’s its worth but I have had a couple friends who are a decent shot never find white tails shot with eldx bullets in different calibers

 

[mauser284]

ELDX are terrible hunting bullets in 90% of rifles cartridges. They disintergrate on impact. HORNADY and all of their employee's should be wipped at a post for pushing ballistic coefiecents as the top priority in anything other than targeting shooting cartridges.

Their monolithic bullets in loaded ammo are either unobtanium and impossible to find or so expensive as to equall the same. They do not make a good hunting bullet for anything other than varmints and it is either a concious ideological choice or a sign of their engineering and hunting ignorance take your pick!

Their non-monolythics bullets are so bad that on actual game and ballistic gel even you can not tell the difference between the 6.5CM and the 6.5PRC because the bullet breaks apart especialy ELDX so easily that any extra energy that the PRC has is not translated into penatration or energy transfer because the bullets just break up!

Ballistic coefienct does not matter at all if the bullet sucks once it hits the animal. You can get a laser range finder dirt cheap capared to a rilfe, scope or ammo! Youc an dial what ever you need if you know the range. Only lazy target shooters fail to stalk an animal to within 500m if talking Elk, Mouse, Caribou, Deer. Humans have been doing it for over 10,000 years only those people wealthy enough to not need to hunt take 1000m shoots on game animals that are not varmints! Mic Drop! Prove me wrong! LOL

 

[mic2377]

My impression of the ELD X bullets is that they are a slightly beefed up version of the their target bullets (ELD M). The ELD M is similar to the old Amax. That doesn't mean by any means they are a tough, or bonded, bullet.

If you want to minimize meat damage use a monolithic or tougher bonded bullet. However I can tell you that soft bullets like this at moderate velocities are very effective on game. The last hog I shot was with a 168 Amax out of an AR-10, and it completely flattened it despite the velocity only being around 2450 fps. It did pass through and the exit wound was large.

 

[Kracken McGraw]

ELDX are terrible hunting bullets in 90% of rifles cartridges. They disintergrate on impact. HORNADY and all of their employee's should be wipped at a post for pushing ballistic coefiecents as the top priority in anything other than targeting shooting cartridges.

Their monolithic bullets in loaded ammo are either unobtanium and impossible to find or so expensive as to equall the same. They do not make a good hunting bullet for anything other than varmints and it is either a concious ideological choice or a sign of their engineering and hunting ignorance take your pick!

Their non-monolythics bullets are so bad that on actual game and ballistic gel even you can not tell the difference between the 6.5CM and the 6.5PRC because the bullet breaks apart especialy ELDX so easily that any extra energy that the PRC has is not translated into penatration or energy transfer because the bullets just break up!

Ballistic coefienct does not matter at all if the bullet sucks once it hits the animal. You can get a laser range finder dirt cheap capared to a rilfe, scope or ammo! Youc a dial what ever you need if you know the range. Only lazy target shooters fail to stalk an animal to within 500m if talking Elk, Mouse, Caribou, Deer. Humans have been doing it for over 10,000 years only those people wealthy enough to not need to hunt take 1000m shoots on game animals that are not varmints! Mic Drop! Prove me wrong! LOL

So basically your saying that you’re 6.5 Creedmoor will kill as well as the 6.5 PRC!

 

[choprzrul]

I shot 1 buck with my 20" Savage lightweight 6.5CM using an 85gr Hammer Hunter going 3402 at the muzzle. Bloodshot meat was nearly non existent. It penetrated and exited the far side shoulder and when I deboned it the next day, I didn't need to trim ANY bloodshot around the bullet hole. I was amazed to say the least. Deer ran about 40 yards in a circle and piled up. Heart and lungs were jelly....

 

[AckleymanII]

I do not care about meat damage, I want them on the ground at bullet impact or very shortly there after. A rear lung shot is very, very deadly on deer along with neck shots.

129g Hornady Sp flat base is a very good deer bullet with great penetration characteristics, even at 3150 fps, .

 

[LCazador]

Two indians tracking buck in snow. One says "buck is hit but will live". The other says "how know"?
"found 6.5 Creedmoor case in snow"! lol

 

[searcher]

I do not care about meat damage, I want them on the ground at bullet impact or very shortly there after. A rear lung shot is very, very deadly on deer along with neck shots.

129g Hornady Sp flat base is a very good deer bullet with great penetration characteristics, even at 3150 fps, .

I'm with you on that. The neck shot is a good one, more so with a fragmenting bullet shot at higher velocity. It is such a shock to their nervous system, they usually drop on the spot. A mediocre bullet will kill deer effectively, most of the time, with proper shot placement. The better bullets really shine when the shot is less than perfect, quartering shots, etc. I've lost a few really good animals shooting cup and core bullets (with perfect lung/heart shots) and I no longer use them as a result, preferring mono bullets like the TTSX from Barnes. After having shot quite a few animals with them, I have renewed confidence the animal will go down, close or far, when hit properly. They will still open up after shedding as lot of velocity and will be through-and-through shots within reasonable distances when heavy bones are not hit. Up close, they can inflict a bit more tissue damage than I like if meat were to be hit - but there seems to be a compromise in all bullets. The debate never ends....

 

[AckleymanII]

I quit using solids because they can run like a scalded cat with no blood trail, especially as the distance gets to 400 yards.

To each his own.

 

[HandgunHTR]

I have gone through an interesting progression when it comes to deer bullets.

When I started gun hunting deer I was using standard cup and core and ballistic tips (SSTs and NBTs). Every deer I shot died with the exception of one that I center punched a shoulder with a 260 at 15 yards and a 120 grain Sierra ProHunter.
That started my bonded/mono phase. I started using Accubonds and Barnes bullets. Shot a lot of animals. They all died. I got exits. I also noticed they went considerably farther after the shot. A lot like my bow kills.

Over the last few years, my rifle bullets and my arrows are going in the same direction. Heavy for caliber bullets with high BCs and SDs are where I am at now. I might get a bit more meat damage if I punch a shoulder, but the deer die quickly and I can always shoot another doe/cow if I want more meat.