Hornady ELD-X.

**TStone** · 07-06-2018, 11:58

Hornady markets the ELD-X as a hunting bullet, until recently my only experience with the ELD-X was a single Impala shot with a 6.5 Creedmoor. The recovered bullet looked similar to a Hornady A-max in the same caliber, a bullet which i have used a lot and found adequate for game up to hartebeest.

I've spent the past 10 days hunting with two overseas clients, both shooting Hornady Precision Hunter factory ammo, in .300 Weatherby magnum, loaded with 200gr ELD-X bullets. This load launch a 200gr bullet at ±2950fps. A total of 30 animals, ranging from a sub adult springbok to a large eland bull, were shot with this load. The eland worried me, so I told the hunters to keep on shooting till it went down. The bull was angling away from us and the first shot entered just behind the shoulder angling into the chest cavity. The bull ran ±100m before lying down, taking another shot too far back while running. It was then shot in the neck, at 200m, and expired. The only bullet we recovered was from the last shot, this bullets had broken the spine and lost half of its weight. Considering the size of the eland it probably did ok.

A large gemsbuck bull was shot at 192m, the bull was broadside on. The shot looked good and the bull ran off with its front leg swinging as if it was broken in the shoulder. As it was now running in the herd a second shot was not possible. We followed up and found a few drops of blood. After a few meters we lost the blood trail but continued on the path taken by the herd. The initial shot had been on a rocky hillside but the animals then ran into a valley, with softer ground, and we were able to follow the tracks of the bull. An antelope favoring a leg leaves a distinctive splayed hoof print. After another 800m of tracking we found two drops of blood, shortly after that the tracks led into a very rocky area and we lost it. We continued searching until sundown, the bull was shot at 10H00, without any success. As we never found the gemsbuck it is impossible to know exactly where the bullet hit, however, taking an educated guess now I would say that the bullet broke up on the heavy shoulder bone failing to penetrate into the chest cavity.

Another gemsbuck bull was shot, again at ±200m, this time the animal was quartering away. it ran over a rise and when we caught up with it, 100m further, it was lying down but still alive. The hunter shot it just behind the shoulder from ±100m, it then got up and started walking and he shot it behind the shoulder again and the gemsbuck went down.

We had no real problem with the other animals, both hunters took great care not to hit heavy bone, but I would certainly not recommend this bullet for any animal larger than a red hartebeest.

The three bullets on the left was recovered from the second gemsbuck mentioned, the fourth bullet is the one recovered from the eland bull and the bullet on the right is a 180gr Hornady GMX recovered from a blue wildebeest bull.

Random ELD-X 200gr bullets recovered from animals shot during the same hunt.

**Messor** · 07-06-2018, 12:30

Thanks for the feedback.

I would think that the bullet itself have nothing to do with terminal performance at normal hunting distances. I mean for normal hunting distances you can use any bullet, these bullets was designed to beat the competition in external ballistics. Also for the most part deer size game would be the norm, I doubt the bullet was designed for African game like wildebeest, zebra or eland.

I suspect had they used the bullet in a normal cartridge then the results would have been different, I mean my 308 will give better penetration than a 300 Weatherby with that bullet. Premiums have been designed for this exact reason, the american magnum craze, bullets that can hold up at excessive speeds.

Maybe a case of the right tool but wrong job.

**Defender90** · 08-06-2018, 06:21

This is what happened with a 200gr eldx out my 300WM @ 2687 fps that hit the shoulder blade at around 40m. 🤭IMG_6035.jpg

**Maroelas** · 08-06-2018, 09:01

Goeie bliksem! That is some hectic damage!

**Antlion** · 08-06-2018, 09:08

Originally Posted by Defender90

This is what happened with a 200gr eldx out my 300WM @ 2687 fps that hit the shoulder blade at around 40m. 🤭IMG_6035.jpg

Keen to hear from the guys in the know if the result would have been any different if a mono or bonded hit it at the same speed.

**shooty** · 08-06-2018, 10:37

Im thinking any bullet almost traveling at those speed with that weight hitting shoulder blade at 40M distance is going to have plenty energy to cause similar damage.

**pre 64** · 08-06-2018, 11:07

There would be a lot less meat damage had a mono or bonded bullet been used or if impact velocity had been less.

An impact velocity of just over 2600fps with a 200gr bullet is not on the silly side of fast. This is the type of meat damage that is typical of a conventional cup and core bullet running at 3000fps plus.

If ever you wanted proof of soft bullet + speed = meat damage,here you have it.

**jdpretorius** · 08-06-2018, 18:46

Thanks for this TStone.
I just bough some 230 gr's but haven't tried them on the 338. I guess caution on shot placement and impact velocity should be considered carefully as they seem really soft.

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**458Exp** · 08-06-2018, 19:01

Originally Posted by jdpretorius

Thanks for this TStone.
I just bough some 230 gr's but haven't tried them on the 338. I guess caution on shot placement and impact velocity should be considered carefully as they seem really soft.

Sent from my SM-G570F using Tapatalk

Where did you get those ?
I’m looking all over for the 230gr .338