Thread: .284 ELD-X Close Range Blow Up

Hey bro would you consider this to be a 'blow up'? Kind of looks like what you described. Shallow penetration etc....

This above is a case of unfortunate shot placement.

168berger (highly frangible) going relatively slow. Hit very solid bone and exploded.

She was recovered within 20metres and I have no blame on the projectile for this one. A stout bullet would have sacked her. My shot should have been either a fist higher or fist back and she would have drt.

Does that relate to what you saw?

I have some pics of eldx acting like fmj which is the opposite of what you experienced with them.

Just use cup amd core lead tipped bullets like sierra sbt. Reliable.

Originally Posted by SPEARONZ

Attachment 281305

Attachment 281306

Hey bro would you consider this to be a 'blow up'? Kind of looks like what you described. Shallow penetration etc....

This above is a case of unfortunate shot placement.

168berger (highly frangible) going relatively slow. Hit very solid bone and exploded.

She was recovered within 20metres and I have no blame on the projectile for this one. A stout bullet would have sacked her. My shot should have been either a fist higher or fist back and she would have drt.

Does that relate to what you saw?

I have some pics of eldx acting like fmj which is the opposite of what you experienced with them.

Big hole in nearside shoulder or not, a dead deer in 20m is the correct result.

Ive had a few near shoulder explosions. Internals are always mush and the deer always die.

No way to know that a more stout bullet would have provided a quicker kill.

Yea man no complaints from me. Throw one of these projectiles at something solid and this is likely to happen. It then gets called a 'failure' or 'blowup' like it's done something unexpected. I'll hunt with a Berger or M any day of the week.

The below picture is an eldx and is the reason I stopped using them. In contrast they zipped through twice leaving bugger all wound channel. Third round finally expanded inside and dropped him.

Maybe it's my shooting but after seeing several animals just ignore solid shoulder shots I was done with the x.

Small exits and pin sized wound channels on the other side.

Vldh @SPEARONZ ? Had the same thing when trying the VLDT was insured they would be good by the salesman and eldm Berger hybrids etc go good they were terrible worst iv used yet, the Americans are pretty big on not hitting bone with bergers I haven’t had a problem yet but im forever loading different projectiles so haven’t had a big run of only using them currently have the 175EH loaded which i plan to use for a little while at least

Vldh. That was the third deer for the trip and the only one that took a step, albeit a wobbly one.

Late to the party, but I had a similar incident of unexpected performance from an ELD-X recently.
162gr ELD-X 7mmRM (precision Hunter factory load) on a fallow spiker at right on 100yds. The bullet entered the shoulder and exploded. Entry wound bigger than exit, with an empty jacket found under the skin on the offside. Lungs were punched, but he ran full tit for 50-60 yards and fell over. No blood spilt on the ground- which is what concerned me.
Clearly the bullet was going too quick at that range. Another couple of hundy and it would have been all good. A homogeneous copper for that range would be good I reckon (or partition or anything bonded)

Entry


Entry (shoulder removed)


Lungs


Exit

Originally Posted by Hunter_Nick

Late to the party, but I had a similar incident of unexpected performance from an ELD-X recently.
162gr ELD-X 7mmRM (precision Hunter factory load) on a fallow spiker at right on 100yds. The bullet entered the shoulder and exploded. Entry wound bigger than exit, with an empty jacket found under the skin on the offside. Lungs were punched, but he ran full tit for 50-60 yards and fell over. No blood spilt on the ground- which is what concerned me.
Clearly the bullet was going too quick at that range. Another couple of hundy and it would have been all good. A homogeneous copper for that range would be good I reckon (or partition or anything bonded)

Entry
Attachment 281475

Entry (shoulder removed)
Attachment 281476

Lungs
Attachment 281477

Exit
Attachment 281478

I would say it's done a bloody good job they are going to run on a lung shot.

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It shouldn't be happening on a fallow like that. Any chance there was an obstruction before the animal?

It's to be expected entry wound is bigger theres way more energy imparted there at high impact less left. The hornady eld bullets have a very short neck length (the distance taken before expansion starts). It's an impact at probably 2800 with a soft bullet. As long as the shrapnel makes it through the organs im more than fine with this. This is a near worst case scenario. On a bigger animal it would still reach the vitals. Once it passes the onside meat it's all vitals. To reach the offside skins actually pretty impressive.

If you just made the entry and wound path the same size ie reduce all the damage in the near side you have what most Barnes do. I'd take from that that you've tested worst case or near to it and it was fine. If your cautious hold behind the shoulder.

A contract culler mate uses the 150 eld-x in his hunting rifle (708) and rates them said he’s shot well over 200 never had a problem


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Originally Posted by whanahuia

It shouldn't be happening on a fallow like that. Any chance there was an obstruction before the animal?

Absolutely clear path.

Originally Posted by buzzmann

A contract culler mate uses the 150 eld-x in his hunting rifle (708) and rates them said he’s shot well over 200 never had a problem
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Yep, 150 ELDX is ideally suited to 708.

Originally Posted by Stocky

It's to be expected entry wound is bigger theres way more energy imparted there at high impact less left. The hornady eld bullets have a very short neck length (the distance taken before expansion starts). It's an impact at probably 2800 with a soft bullet. As long as the shrapnel makes it through the organs im more than fine with this. This is a near worst case scenario. On a bigger animal it would still reach the vitals. Once it passes the onside meat it's all vitals. To reach the offside skins actually pretty impressive.

If you just made the entry and wound path the same size ie reduce all the damage in the near side you have what most Barnes do. I'd take from that that you've tested worst case or near to it and it was fine. If your cautious hold behind the shoulder.

Yes the bullet was put under a lot of stress. 2600fps would have been all different story entirely. Was a slightly quartering on shot, so rear lung not an option in this case. To be fair, it’s not really the cartridge for close encounters, but the point being that even though the ELD-X is somewhat tougher than the M, it can be pushed too hard.