# Hornady Eldx



## Aznative (May 25, 2018)

So okay looking for mixed reviews as always good to hear different points. My deer I took this year was a reload i made of this bullet in 7mm 162 gr. My shot was 200 yards. Buck was slightly quartered. Drilled it perfect vital shot but didnt exit but stuck in back opposite shoulder. The buck ran only about 25 yards and died quickly in a group of trees. I waited as I couldnt see where he went down. When I finally trekked down the bowl I didnt see alot of blood at all barely any. Kinda worried me at first. But following the small amount of blood I quickly found him especially with snow on ground. 

My question is do any of you use this bullet. Do you like a bullet that just explodes inside the animal vs an exit that does decent damage but bleeds it out for easy tracking? Overall it did its job. It was loaded right with 56.5 grains of RL 22. Im just asking as maybe I have been lucky but all my kills on bulls, cows and deer with Berger VLDs or federal trophy bonded bear claw have been one shot and dropped right there. I just initially heard great reviews on eldx's and alot cheaper than vlds.


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## High Desert Elk (Aug 21, 2012)

I have not used one yet on an animal and started to load and shoot them in my .257-06 (looks cool when you write it that way) as my choice bullet is more difficult to come by these days, 110 gr Nos AB.

They fly well and POI next to the AB's is nearly the same. I will load and use them on my daughter's deer hunt over Thanksgiving week.


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## AF CYN (Mar 19, 2009)

I've shot animals with a couple of different bullets--Partitions, Accubonds, Fusions, and TTSX. In my experience, none of the animals left much of a blood trail regardless of bullet type.


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## 2full (Apr 8, 2010)

What is the opinion on silvertips ?
When I used to sell ammo back in the late 80'summer Iinto the early 90's I had 3 or 4 guys that would have me order a case of 150 grain silver tips every year, and they would split the case between them. 
They were $11 per box when the good 'ol power points were $8 per box. (30 x 06)
They swore by them and would not use anything else. They were very good hunters and shot a lot of good bucks and many elk. 
I bought several boxes one year, but have never shot them. 
Was just wondering what people that have used them think of them.


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## taxidermist (Sep 11, 2007)

AZnative, according to your description of the bullet NOT passing through the animal, I'd say the bullet performed "perfect". That deer took 100% of the bullets energy. I am surprised it didn't knock him off his feet though. 


I use the VLD'S in a .30 cal. 190gr. and they blow the living chit out of the animal. Even at 763 yds. it dropped a bull Elk in his tracks. 


IMO, I'd say the bullet performed as it was designed.


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## Aznative (May 25, 2018)

Awesome thanks guys! I guess I had to ask as yes me too im use to the vlds but didnt want to try something that didnt kill as much meat. I appreciate the info.


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

I've been on both extremes. The worst bullet was out of my wifes .243, an 85Gr bullet that hit perfectly broadside on the heart... at 30 yards. It exploded with such violence we found shrapnel in the neck! Terrible for a hunting bullet where you want to recover the meat.

The best bullet IMO is one that BOTH expends alot of energy inside the animal doing a bunch of damage as well as puts an exit hole on the far side.

There are two bullets I use that do this, Nosler Partition, which IMO is the pinnacle of hunting bullets. If you need a more robust bullet the Swift A-Frame which is the same overall design as the Nosler but uses sturdier lead inside the nose, intended for African game.

The other bullet that I use and love, is the Hornady XTP bullets out of my muzzleloaders. They start at a diameter larger than a 30cal expands to, and get bigger from there. They cause huge damage on the inside and make HUGER holes on the far side. I've had crazy blood trails out of them on the rare deer that tries a death run.


I know people love those Barnes bullets... but I wasted too much $$$ on earlier versions trying to get them to shoot. I'm very much soured to them and doubtfully will ever try them again.


-DallanC


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## Aznative (May 25, 2018)

DallanC said:


> I've been on both extremes. The worst bullet was out of my wifes .243, an 85Gr bullet that hit perfectly broadside on the heart... at 30 yards. It exploded with such violence we found shrapnel in the neck! Terrible for a hunting bullet where you want to recover the meat.
> 
> The best bullet IMO is one that BOTH expends alot of energy inside the animal doing a bunch of damage as well as puts an exit hole on the far side.
> 
> ...


Dallan thanks you are the man! My next bullet I wanted to try are partitions. They arent as pretty as others but heard they work flawlessly. I guess ive always liked the ones that mushroom but also exit. Thanks!


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## torowy (Jun 19, 2008)

I've started shooting eldx recently from my 300 wsm. I've shot 3 bucks with eldx and had no blood trail from any of them in the last 2 years.

1. Shot, wounded, found him on his feet and put a second shot in him.
2. Went down in sight, dead
3. (from this weekend) Shot above some timber. Lost him in the recoil. luckily had some tracks in the snow, and then glassed up his body dead in the timber below me.

I can't argue they shoot great, and have been pretty lethal. However I am a little concerned about the lack of blood for trailing. 2 of the shots were in snow.... and still no blood.


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## MuscleWhitefish (Jan 13, 2015)

They work like the Berger VLD's. They go in 3-5 inches and explode. Turn the guts into soup. If you want blood trails, then shoot copper.


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## Aznative (May 25, 2018)

torowy said:


> I've started shooting eldx recently from my 300 wsm. I've shot 3 bucks with eldx and had no blood trail from any of them in the last 2 years.
> 
> 1. Shot, wounded, found him on his feet and put a second shot in him.
> 2. Went down in sight, dead
> ...


Im kinda glad to hear your post as similar results. I guess being new to reloading I was focusing more on how accurate they are. It did it job but I guess I like a decent blood trail if it doesnt go right down. Lol Im going to try some partitions or barnes. Maybe shoot them thru some gel over winter and see results.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

I'll be the Barnes fan here. Since they came out with the TTSX, the tipped version of the X bullet it is all that I shoot. Out of my 7mm Rem mag and .340 Weatherby they shoot sub moa out to 200 yards, that is all I have checked on those two rifles but with my .257-06 (I like the sound of that better too) they are moa out to 500 yards. 

My brother in laws deer this year was a shade over 400 yards and the Barnes 140 TTSX out of his 7mm Rem mag entered the top of the neck and blew out the left side shoulder, and yes it was that steep of a angle.


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## Kwalk3 (Jun 21, 2012)

The only real issue I've seen in 9 or 10 animals shot in our group with the ELDX was last year on a cow elk my dad shot. She was bedded with her shoulder tucked back a bit in front of the vitals. The bullet didn't penetrate through the shoulder blade, but fragmented like crazy outside of it. She required another shot to put her down


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## derekp1999 (Nov 17, 2011)

I've used and tried a bunch of different bullets... Hornady SSTs, Interlocks, GMXs... Berger VLDs... Barnes TTSXs... Sierra GameKings...

The Interlocks and GameKings are kind of my old standbys... I generally start with them to get a baseline for what a rifle can do. My .30-06 shoots both the 150gr and 180gr Interlocks extremely well and they perform well terminally, hole going in bigger hole going out. I've shot one pronghorn with SSTs and my buddy shot 2 more this year, looked like a grenade went off inside the animal, that's not my style so I don't use those anymore but my buddy loves them... same with Berger's.

My 7mm-08 shoots the GMXs extremely well and I especially like those when my son is pulling the trigger because you never know when a young kid is going to make a poor shot and shoot one in the @ss, the solid copper means no lead fragments in my meat!

Like Dallan I also shoot Hornady XTPs in my muzzleloader and the 300gr XTP-MAG has dropped every critter I've shot in less than 20 yards, the cow elk I shot during the muzzleloader deer hunt earlier this year looked like she just tipped over where she stood. I also shoot 110gr XTPs in my 357mag pistol well.

Every bullet is designed to terminally perform in a certain way within a specified range of velocities... all have their pros and all have their cons. It's up to you to research and find bullets that are intended to perform in ways that you want them to at the velocities your weapons are capable of.


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## taxidermist (Sep 11, 2007)

Critter said:


> I'll be the Barnes fan here. Since they came out with the TTSX, the tipped version of the X bullet it is all that I shoot. Out of my 7mm Rem mag and .340 Weatherby they shoot sub moa out to 200 yards, that is all I have checked on those two rifles but with my .257-06 (I like the sound of that better too) they are moa out to 500 yards.
> 
> My brother in laws deer this year was a shade over 400 yards and the Barnes 140 TTSX out of his 7mm Rem mag entered the top of the neck and blew out the left side shoulder, and yes it was that steep of a angle.


.257-06--- I like the sound of it as well. Saying .25-06 is getting old.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

taxidermist said:


> .257-06--- I like the sound of it as well. Saying .25-06 is getting old.


I can't take credit for it, High Desert Elk mentioned it in his post and I copied it. But it does sound cooler


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## goosefreak (Aug 20, 2009)

I’ve never shot an animal, deer or elk with a rifle where they just bleed like an archery kill. Using several different bullets, I use to shoot the Hornady Innerbonds out of my 30-06 when I had it. Those bullets were awesome! I think they stopped making them.

I will say this, I shoot 140gr Nosler Accubonds out of my 270 WSM and I recovered my bullet out of a Couse deer I shot last year at 830 yards. The bullet retained 87gr. It went from 140 to 87gr!!! 

It hit a lot of bone but, still at 830 yards I would expect it to retain more then that.. That deer was deader than disco though, never even moved out of his bed..


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## High Desert Elk (Aug 21, 2012)

140 gr AB from a 270 WSM, 385 yds. Complete pass through on this medium size cow elk.

Sorry for the sideways-ness of the pics. Entrance is on her left (big hole) exit is on her right (smaller hole). You can see the expenditure of energy on impact, but still holds together.


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## AF CYN (Mar 19, 2009)

I second the Barnes TTSX and/or Nosler Partition. Just behind those is the Federal Fusion in my opinion. There are a lot of good options out there. Good luck finding one you love.


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## scattergun (Jul 26, 2013)

Unfortunately the day is rapidly approaching when the use of lead core bullets will be a thing of the past due to the threat of raptors consuming lead tainted meat from unrecovered animals. All you have to do is look at the waterfowl hunting industry. there have already been states that have experimented with the use of solid copper bullets in areas where endangered species exist, Utah included.


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## High Desert Elk (Aug 21, 2012)

scattergun said:


> Unfortunately the day is rapidly approaching when the use of lead core bullets will be a thing of the past due to the threat of raptors consuming lead tainted meat from unrecovered animals. All you have to do is look at the waterfowl hunting industry. there have already been states that have experimented with the use of solid copper bullets in areas where endangered species exist, Utah included.


The shortage of copper will be a larger issue. To extend it's supply, a non-toxic core will be leads replacement and drive the cost of ammo up.

What caused the wounded and lost animal count to go up? Pretty sure tag count has stayed flat over the years, if not gone down. Has raptor poisoning via lost big game been an ongoing problem or a relatively new issue?


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

The problem with the threat to raptors isn't from unrecovered animals but from the gut piles and carcasses that hunters leave in the field that the birds feed on, it is well documented. 

But that is a different subject for a different thread.


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## moabxjeeper (Dec 18, 2012)

In my eyes, perfect bullet performance is a bullet that punches through and expends all of its energy inside the animal, lodging itself in the hide on the opposite side. I've never had to track an animal that was hit this way. They might go a few yards on adrenaline but never far enough to call it "tracking". Not to sound demeaning, but I've never understood the obsession with pass through shots and leaving a blood trail. If a bullet passes all the way through, it's still retaining energy that gets wasted on the hillside behind the animal. You put all that energy into the animal instead, it's not going anywhere.

My dad and I had a few examples of this during our hunting season this year. We recovered bullets from all 3 kills we made. I filled my first ever any bull tag this year on a beautiful surprise 6 point bull (I'm trying to work up the gumption to write a post about it) with my 7mm Rem Mag. I was shooting 160gr Federal Trophy Bonded Tips and found a perfectly mushroomed bullet on the opposite end. I then recovered a 140gr Accubond from my 7mm-08 on my buck this year. And finally, my dad just happened to cut into a rib while we were quartering his large bodied 3 point and hit something metal with his knife. I believe he was shooting 129gr Hornady Whitetail ammo with his new 6.5 Creedmoor. He shot it bedded through the shoulder at 360 yards. It stood up, stumbled, and fell back down into its bed within about 5 seconds. One of the coolest shots I've ever seen. No animal made it further than about 40 yards and most of that was falling down a snow covered hill.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

I have had animals go over a couple hundred yards with no blood trail to follow on shots that didn't pass through. I have also had animals drop on the spot with the same kind of shot. Likewise I have had animals go quite a ways with a pass through shot but there is usually a blood trail to follow, I have also had them drop where they are standing or within 5 yards or so. 

You just never know.


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## legacy (Sep 30, 2007)

I personally have had great luck with the Barnes TTSX bullets and that's what I currently shoot out of my .300 Win Mag. The ELD-x's look really good IMO and was actually going to switch to those for my kids 7mm-08's. My only concern was that the ELD-x's only come in a 150 grn bullet (factory load). My kids are tiny and I'm trying to negate as much recoil as possible (and maybe it wouldn't make much difference either way). Currently my kids are shooting 139 gn Hornady SST's. My son killed his first deer last Wednesday night at 250 yards. The deer dropped right in it's tracks. I may switch to the heavier ELD-x's when my kids have elk tags. I've posted this before but this is a video of my wife's hunt 2 years ago. This is at 250 yards using a 180 gn Barnes TTSX in a .300 Win Mag.


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## bowhunter (Sep 10, 2007)

My son shot his buck Saturday night with an ELD-X in 6.5 Creedmoor. I was happy with the result. His shot was just over 330 yards. He hit him twice. Neither passed thru but the vitals were beat up pretty good.


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## NH Hunter (Feb 4, 2008)

I generally shoot 250g Nosler Partions from my .338 WM for elk. The bullet generally does not pass through but they are DRT if I aim straight. Same with my .50 cal MZ with 385g Hornady Great Plains bullets. I normally hunt timber so my shots aren't over 200 yds most of the time. I used a .280 Remington for quite a few years before the .338 WM. I shot quite a few deer with that with Silvertips and Fail Safes. Didn't like either. The Silvertips broke up badly and the FailSafe's punched through but didn't seem to deliver much knock down power. I dug one of the FailSafe's out of an aspen and it was a couple inches deep. Almost intact with (1) petal missing.


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## bobwhitebarry (May 26, 2017)

*Nosler Partitions*

I think I have read the same positive articles about the Nosler Partition bullet. I have killed animals from Alaska to Zimbabwe with those bullets. While hunting in Africa, I asked the guide if we could have the "skinner" try to recover the bullets after each kill. I love to compare the yardage, size of animal and the recovered bullet.

I shot 15 animals while there. The only bullets that completely passed through were on a baboon and an impala. I recovered 10-12 bullets and the results were alarming. The entire front end had mushroomed and then sheared off completely. Two of the bullets must have spun inside the animal because the top was gone and the lead in the bottom was gone. All that was left was the bottom half of the copper jacket.

I weighed the remains of the bullets and took pictures and sent them to Nosler. They never responded...

Needless to say, I was not at all impressed. These were 180 grain Partitions shot through a 30-06 at normal velocities. Most of the shots were 100-120 yards. They should have performed much better. I have had MUCH better results from inexpensive Remington Core-Lokt bullets and Nosler Ballistic Tips. The Ballistic Tips kill everything like lightening, but I shot a deer and an antelope at 80+- yards and they made a mess. Longer shots they performed flawlessly.

I'm getting older and have bad knees. Future hunts will likely be from a vantage point and at greater distances (200-500 yards). As such, I am now experimenting with Hornady ELD-X and Berger VLD's. No kills yet and I have heard about close shot issues. They sure shoot flat and accurately though, so we shall see.

Just my 2 cents...


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## Vanilla (Dec 11, 2009)

I always get a kick out of the discussion around how a bullet "performed" based upon expansion, weight retained, etc. Were the animals dead? Then my argument is the bullet performed well under the scenario. The animal didn't care if it was a clean pass through, or every ft/lb of energy was expended inside. It didn't care if a petal mushroomed off or retained 99% of its weight. I think we care about that stuff way more. As with most things, it's for the hunter/fisher, not hunted/fished. 

As for the original question, I currently am shooting the exact bullet you mentioned in my 7 mm, the 162 grain ELD-X. I've only killed one animal with it and that was last year. It was a 327 yard shot on a small buck. It was a complete pass through, the deer ran about 20 yards on adrenaline and sheer emotion and tumbled head over toe. The place looked like an absolute murder scene. I had never seen so much blood off one of my kills. 

I like the ELD-X. I've always been a Barnes guy, and am considering going back to Barnes in my 7 mm, even though the ELD-X performs well. The hippies are scaring me with all this lead poisoning stuff.


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## High Desert Elk (Aug 21, 2012)

I agree. I doubt an animal will say "you know, that bullet just didn't feel like it performed the way they said it would, so I just won't die".


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## taxidermist (Sep 11, 2007)

scattergun said:


> Unfortunately the day is rapidly approaching when the use of lead core bullets will be a thing of the past due to the threat of raptors consuming lead tainted meat from unrecovered animals. All you have to do is look at the waterfowl hunting industry. there have already been states that have experimented with the use of solid copper bullets in areas where endangered species exist, Utah included.


That's when I take up Archery or, just go fishing.


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