Hornady ELD match load data

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MartyK2500

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Can anyone provide some official load data for me please?
More curious about OAL, in .308 178gr
I was previously loading hornady match 178gr, and with the help of a friend we determined that bullet was touching lands at 2.810", so i was loading at 2.800".

Didn't get a chance to double check the ELD match, and was loading them at 2.800".
Load development accuracy was not as expected.

Purchased the hornady OAL tool with modified 308 casing.
With it, double checked my hornady match, bullet still touching lands at 2.810"
But with ELD match, tried about 40 times with many different bullets in the box, to my surprise i am very consistently touching lands at 2.760". Which i found unusual to touch the lands this short.
 
I haven't tried those specific ones, but did try the 7mm 162gr ELDM in my 7rm.
Ogives are all over the place. I started development by measuring OAL to the lands with a handful of random bullets from the box and that varied considerably. Took the shortest measurement and seated 25 thou shorter then that. To my surprise, about 20% were still jamming into the lands when I got to the range.
So I think right now they are pumping them out faster then they can QC them. Hot item, everyone wants to try them. Right now, I won't be buying anymore until QC improves, fairly useless as a match bullet.
 
Ouch
You are convincing me i was better off with my regular hornady match bullets

So far, my best group with ELD is my average with match.
I had went with them for the higher BC, but think i just wasted some money.
 
Hitzy said:
I haven't tried those specific ones, but did try the 7mm 162gr ELDM in my 7rm.
Ogives are all over the place. I started development by measuring OAL to the lands with a handful of random bullets from the box and that varied considerably. Took the shortest measurement and seated 25 thou shorter then that. To my surprise, about 20% were still jamming into the lands when I got to the range.
So I think right now they are pumping them out faster then they can QC them. Hot item, everyone wants to try them. Right now, I won't be buying anymore until QC improves, fairly useless as a match bullet.
Click to expand...

Well thats disappointing. Crap like that makes me happy to have a .270 and a .243 both with 1:10 twists so these super long slippery bullets are useless to me anyways. lol
 
MartyK2500 said:
Ouch
You are convincing me i was better off with my regular hornady match bullets

So far, my best group with ELD is my average with match.
I had went with them for the higher BC, but think i just wasted some money.
Click to expand...

That's what sucked me in too, and the Amax shot very well for me, plus these are pretty cheap target bullets. But when I start playing around in ballistic calculators that extra .020 BC they offer doesn't do very much really, especially when they are not as accurate, and the "non-melting tip"... I'm not sure that was ever a legitimate issue.
My ES was almost down to single digits at 11fps (2925fps avg) with IMR4831 so that was good at least.
And surprisingly, the best groups that day were 171gr Barnes Burners which are also a very inexpensive target bullet. I'll be giving them more attention for the next little while.
Another was the Nosler 150gr ABLR, while not cheap they produced excellent groups in my 7RM at 3100fps~. As soon as I'm happy with a load (getting close) these 2 will be fired from 700m to 1600m to see how they perform.
 
So far I haven't bothered to try the new ELD bullets, I don't care about a tiny increase in BC since you won't notice it at all unless you're shooting 800 yards or more and for the price increase over an A-max or BTHP match I'm glad I have lots of projectiles in the cabinet.

Marty, what do you mean by "official load data"? I would buy the Hornady #10 manual if I was going to run the ELD bullets.

Good luck, hope you get it sorted out.
 
cr5 said:
So far I haven't bothered to try the new ELD bullets, I don't care about a tiny increase in BC since you won't notice it at all unless you're shooting 800 yards or more and for the price increase over an A-max or BTHP match I'm glad I have lots of projectiles in the cabinet.

Marty, what do you mean by "official load data"? I would buy the Hornady #10 manual if I was going to run the ELD bullets.

Good luck, hope you get it sorted out.
Click to expand...

Yeah, i guess i meant can someone tell me what the load data is in manual #10
Kinda sucks to pay 25$, just to see load data for 1 bullet,that i might not even bother keeping in my cabinet
 
I bought 155gr and 178gr ELD match also to try out. But the other question I'm asking myself is why did I bought ELD match 178gr when the BC of the ELD x 178gr are superor lol!
 
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MartyK2500 said:
Yeah, i guess i meant can someone tell me what the load data is in manual #10
Kinda sucks to pay 25$, just to see load data for 1 bullet,that i might not even bother keeping in my cabinet
Click to expand...

All load data does really is tell you where to start...since these are basic cup/core match bullets, use any cup/core 178gr start data and work up.
Here is Noslers, Hodgdon has theirs...IMR & Winchester online. Alliant has data online, Barnes has data for the Burners online, there is more then enough info out there to get started.
308-Win-175gr.jpg
 
I was experimenting with my ELDs last night, and got fed up.
OAL is consistent but ogive is all over the place.
I can load a round 10 thous away from the lands, and the other will be crammed in the lands and shortened by it.

It might just be the way i do things i don't know, but seems like the regular BTHP match hornady bullets give a consistent ogive reading
To sum it up,
ELD match very consistent OAL, inconsistent Ogive.
BTHP match, inconsistent OAL, very consistent ogive.

Might be my seating die that doesnt like ELD, but i'll just stick to BTHP even though the point looks ugly and inconsistent in some rounds.
 
MartyK2500 said:
Yeah, i guess i meant can someone tell me what the load data is in manual #10
Kinda sucks to pay 25$, just to see load data for 1 bullet,that i might not even bother keeping in my cabinet
Click to expand...

$25 is nothing and they also update other loads so it's not really just for the new bullet data.
I would worry less about being just off the lands for a while if you're planning to keep using the ELD's, I usually start my loading close to what the book says for COL and after I find a decent load I start playing with OAL to try to fine tune it. I also stop measuring the loaded cartridges once I have my die set as the differences in bullet tip will keep you adjusting continuously.
Leave a little space from the lands for the differences in the bullets and just load them and see how they do. being 0.002" off the lands compared to 0.008 isn't going to take you from 0.5 moa to 2 moa so worry less for now :)
I do find it strange that these new bullets seem to be so inconsistent. Is anyone else having the same issues or did you maybe get a bad box?
 
MartyK2500 said:
OAL is consistent but ogive is all over the place.
I can load a round 10 thous away from the lands, and the other will be crammed in the lands and shortened by it.
Click to expand...

I only measure to the ogive - I pretty much ignore the OAL (as long as they fit in the magazine of course). So all my load measurements are from the base of the cartridge to the ogive, so my distance from lands is always the same. The tip of the bullet might be a few thousands of an inch further into the bore, but the distance to the lands is identical. Using this technique, I'm able to get sub-MOA even on "inaccurate" rifles like the Ruger Gunsite Scout.

I have tried this with Hornady BTHP match, and with their AMAX bullets. I have yet to try the ELD Match or ELD-X bullets though.
 
cr5 said:
$25 is nothing and they also update other loads so it's not really just for the new bullet data.
I would worry less about being just off the lands for a while if you're planning to keep using the ELD's, I usually start my loading close to what the book says for COL and after I find a decent load I start playing with OAL to try to fine tune it. I also stop measuring the loaded cartridges once I have my die set as the differences in bullet tip will keep you adjusting continuously.
Leave a little space from the lands for the differences in the bullets and just load them and see how they do. being 0.002" off the lands compared to 0.008 isn't going to take you from 0.5 moa to 2 moa so worry less for now :)
I do find it strange that these new bullets seem to be so inconsistent. Is anyone else having the same issues or did you maybe get a bad box?
Click to expand...

I have a problem with forking out 25$.
Just purchased a 1000$ scale and autotrickler without the slightest problem doing so, but if i have to pay for your reloading data so i can load your bullet, don't feel like it.
Everyone else has it for free, so i do feel like it's a nickel and dimming tactic.

Astute, no i do not have an ogive measurer yet, but shouldn't have the problem i am about to mention.
With my hornady oal tool, measured OAL for 10 thous behind lands.
I set seating die once for that measurment.
load let's say 20 rounds, and they all pump out to the exact same OAL (compared to hornady match where OAL was all over the place)
chamber 20 rounds at the range, without firing them, and extract them.
Some of them come out intact, some of them have markings on the bullets, and some of them are pushed in.
 
The problem here may be the seating die. Bullets generally have a very accurate base to ogive measurement with the length secondary. Sometimes with the longer bullets the tip of the bullet will contact the end of the die instead of the bullet ogive. This will give you the same results you have, exact OAL but actually slightly different seating depths due to variations in bullet length.
 
Alright
I will consider this before turning the 150 i got left into fishing weights

Currently running Lee .308 seating die
Jerry sold me a Forster .308 seating die on its way

It may just be the solution to my problem with these boolits!
 
MartyK2500 said:
I have a problem with forking out 25$.
Just purchased a 1000$ scale and autotrickler without the slightest problem doing so, but if i have to pay for your reloading data so i can load your bullet, don't feel like it.
Everyone else has it for free, so i do feel like it's a nickel and dimming tactic.

Astute, no i do not have an ogive measurer yet, but shouldn't have the problem i am about to mention.
With my hornady oal tool, measured OAL for 10 thous behind lands.
I set seating die once for that measurment.
load let's say 20 rounds, and they all pump out to the exact same OAL (compared to hornady match where OAL was all over the place)
chamber 20 rounds at the range, without firing them, and extract them.
Some of them come out intact, some of them have markings on the bullets, and some of them are pushed in.
Click to expand...

Ah, maybe the reason that "everyone else has it for free" is because you are paying for "the so-called free" when you buy their bullets at a significant price above Hornady. Nah, couldn't be, could it?!

As someone else mentioned, you HAVE to look at the seating part of your die to see if there is clearance for the tip and seating to the ogive, or if it even has an ogive chamfered style seating surface. A lot of die makers sell custom seating inserts for their dies made to fit a supplied bullet. I have found that with some care, the standard seating insert can be slightly modified to properly seat virtually any bullet of the same style no matter the ogive to tip properties.
 
rick357 said:
Ah, maybe the reason that "everyone else has it for free" is because you are paying for "the so-called free" when you buy their bullets at a significant price above Hornady. Nah, couldn't be, could it?!

As someone else mentioned, you HAVE to look at the seating part of your die to see if there is clearance for the tip and seating to the ogive, or if it even has an ogive chamfered style seating surface. A lot of die makers sell custom seating inserts for their dies made to fit a supplied bullet. I have found that with some care, the standard seating insert can be slightly modified to properly seat virtually any bullet of the same style no matter the ogive to tip properties.
Click to expand...

Hornady is cheaper because it's plinking ammo.
If I we're more serious and into competing, i'd be playing around with SMKs and Bergers
Anyways that's an opinion I have made listening to others over the years, might be wrong.

Forster seater on the way, will buy a comparator to measure off ogive soon, will give these bullets a round 2.
 
MartyK2500 said:
Can anyone provide some official load data for me please?
More curious about OAL, in .308 178gr
I was previously loading hornady match 178gr, and with the help of a friend we determined that bullet was touching lands at 2.810", so i was loading at 2.800".

Didn't get a chance to double check the ELD match, and was loading them at 2.800".
Load development accuracy was not as expected.

Purchased the hornady OAL tool with modified 308 casing.
With it, double checked my hornady match, bullet still touching lands at 2.810"
But with ELD match, tried about 40 times with many different bullets in the box, to my surprise i am very consistently touching lands at 2.760". Which i found unusual to touch the lands this short.
Click to expand...

I have the Hornady 10th here.
178ELD match
Col 2.800"

178Amax
Col 2.800"

I just fought with my Hornady "special case".
I had to neck size it, then Dremel slots old school into it, as it would not measure properly. Was showing a way way short false lands situation. Seems to work now. Got numbers for my ELDx 143 and Berger 140 VLD H.
 
I measure a small sample of bullets. Five ELDx 143, and five 140 VLD H.
Base to ogive.
ES on Hornady was 0.002"
ES on Berger was. 0.001"
 
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