110 Grain ELD-X .257 performance on deer

P

pacobillie

CGN frequent flyer
Rating - 99.3%
144   1   0
Location
Quebec
Yesterday was the last day of deer season in my neck of the woods. I still had one doe tag in my pocket, and two rifles with me, a Marlin 336 RC in 30-30 and a Weatherby Vanguard S2 in 257 Weatherby Mag, in case I had a long shot opportunity.

Where I hunt is a mixture of agricultural land and woods. I do not bait and rely mostly on deer travel paths and natural food sources. About 20 minutes before the end of legal hunting hours, I spotted a lone doe in a clover field where I have permission. She stood about 300 yards away. There was no cover and no time to do a stalk, so out came the Weatherby. I shoot handloads featuring a 110 gr. Hornady ELD-X bullets, that I chronoed at 3440 fps. Since the deer was facing me and standing still, I decided to take a neck shot, not wanting a take a raking shot through the brisket.

The doe fell in her tracks as if she was hit by thunder. When I got to her and lifted her head, it was a scary sight. The bullet exit hole in the back of the neck was over 3 inches across, slightly off to one side. It did the job in the circumstances, but I would not want to hit a shoulder or other heavy bone with that bullet. I think that I will switch to Nosler Accubond bullets for hunting going forward and keep the ELD-X for practice.
 
ELD-X acts like any other soft cup and core bullet upon impact. I've used them on deer, black bear, and moose (200gr 30 cal). The animals don't go far but, like you noticed, they aren't good for shooting through large bones. Definitely makes a bit of a mess internally!
 
rifleman762 said:
ELD-X acts like any other soft cup and core bullet upon impact. I've used them on deer, black bear, and moose (200gr 30 cal). The animals don't go far but, like you noticed, they aren't good for shooting through large bones. Definitely makes a bit of a mess internally!
Click to expand...

And it might work fine at lower velocities (e.g 250 Savage or 257 Roberts), but it was likely not designed to work at 257 Weatherby Mag. velocities.
 
pacobillie said:
And it might work fine at lower velocities (e.g 250 Savage or 257 Roberts), but it was likely not designed to work at 257 Weatherby Mag. velocities.
Click to expand...

True enough. You're at 2800 fps impact velocity so any cup and core bullet is going to come apart a bit. Hornady's marketeers try to make it sound like the ELD-X is some sort of controlled expanding bullet but, as you found out, it just ain't. I started treating it like any soft hunting bullet (rib shots only, use a heavy-for-calibre bullet) and it works well under those parameters.
 
3440 Jesus !!,......lol people say the 25 cal is too small.....I say bull roar on that ...I use 100 g barns in my hand loads ...got a buck 300 meters away with my 2506 in a browning bar...speed of 2930...(magnetospeed).....deer was walking away all I had was the corn hole to shot at ...got in the rump...bullet hit the hip and literally blew it up ...the damage was unbelievable!!!
Congratulations on your deer
Love the 25 cal !!!
 
ELDx seem to have no lack of splash on impact. Don't expect minimal meat damage, or deep penetration. Otherwise they're pretty good hah
 
rifleman762 said:
True enough. You're at 2800 fps impact velocity so any cup and core bullet is going to come apart a bit. Hornady's marketeers try to make it sound like the ELD-X is some sort of controlled expanding bullet but, as you found out, it just ain't. I started treating it like any soft hunting bullet (rib shots only, use a heavy-for-calibre bullet) and it works well under those parameters.
Click to expand...

It's funny. Some people will scream bloody murder if you use a Berger on game but they get sucked down the rabbit hole by the marketing and the not-so-subtle use of the letter "X".
 
davide montini said:
3440 Jesus !!,......lol people say the 25 cal is too small.....I say bull roar on that ...I use 100 g barns in my hand loads ...got a buck 300 meters away with my 2506 in a browning bar...speed of 2930...(magnetospeed).....deer was walking away all I had was the corn hole to shot at ...got in the rump...bullet hit the hip and literally blew it up ...the damage was unbelievable!!!
Congratulations on your deer
Love the 25 cal !!!
Click to expand...


25 cal is also my fav for shooting animals in the rear hip sockets.
 
I shot 50 plus deer with the 110gr accubond,(2506) all pretty much down on the spot, Then I had one of those days, and put 5 shots into 2 Bull Thar, all chest shots, 400-450m, they died, but it wasn't pretty, lack of expansion, I picked up one bullet that passed threw, and hit rock bluff behind, with little more than tip damage,
If I used the 110gr eldx, I likely have had better results, in that set of circumstances, How ever, I likely have had sum problems, with sum of the previous deer, as sum were shot inside 20m,
God on your whitetail harvest, I think you might be wise, to try an Accubonds or interbond, in you .257 bee, your using a pretty frangible bullet, at high speeds, in my view a recipe for disaster, as is too hard bullet, at long range.
 
BigUglyMan said:
Just a little, eh?
Click to expand...

I passed up a going away rump shot on a nice 10-pointer last Monday and I was carrying a .358 loaded with 250 Partitions, I might have killed that buck but regardless of the outcome, I would have kicked my own azz if I had squeezed the trigger.
 
southernman said:
(...) I think you might be wise, to try an Accubonds or interbond, in you .257 bee, your using a pretty frangible bullet, at high speeds, in my view a recipe for disaster, as is too hard bullet, at long range.
Click to expand...
BTW, I have loaded the Interbonds in that rifle but for some reason could not get a load that worked to my liking. Granted, accuracy aside, a tougher bullet would perform better on game at 257 Bee velocities. Being aware of that is the reason I also carried the 30-30 along. I was determined to only use the 257 Bee if a really long shot opportunity occurred. It seems that 300 yds was not far enough to prevent explosive performance from the ELD-X.
 
pacobillie said:
Yesterday was the last day of deer season in my neck of the woods. I still had one doe tag in my pocket, and two rifles with me, a Marlin 336 RC in 30-30 and a Weatherby Vanguard S2 in 257 Weatherby Mag, in case I had a long shot opportunity.

Where I hunt is a mixture of agricultural land and woods. I do not bait and rely mostly on deer travel paths and natural food sources. About 20 minutes before the end of legal hunting hours, I spotted a lone doe in a clover field where I have permission. She stood about 300 yards away. There was no cover and no time to do a stalk, so out came the Weatherby. I shoot handloads featuring a 110 gr. Hornady ELD-X bullets, that I chronoed at 3440 fps. Since the deer was facing me and standing still, I decided to take a neck shot, not wanting a take a raking shot through the brisket.

The doe fell in her tracks as if she was hit by thunder. When I got to her and lifted her head, it was a scary sight. The bullet exit hole in the back of the neck was over 3 inches across, slightly off to one side. It did the job in the circumstances, but I would not want to hit a shoulder or other heavy bone with that bullet. I think that I will switch to Nosler Accubond bullets for hunting going forward and keep the ELD-X for practice.
Click to expand...

Good timing on this post,
im sitting here in summer with not alot to do, i have alot of eldx 7rem mags loaded, i been wanting to shoot a gun for a while... this is a great reminder to me, that ELDX is not really what im chasing in the projectile department at all for intended purposes! an that i should send them down range out at distance for practise!

nice choice in goin down the Accubond route, nowhere near as violent :)

this same bullet in .257 roberts at that distance may of been slightly different, but really projectiles are horses for courses
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom