Thread: ELD-Match for hunting?

I've been thinking about the ELDM's too (particularly the 7mm 180grainer). I found a thread where Nathan Foster was quoted & thought others might be interested.
http://www.rokslide.com/forums/firea...et-review.html



"By now, many of you will be aware of Hornady’s new 7mm 180gr ELD-M. It’s the A-MAX that many of us waited several years for. Lately I have been using this bullet in the 7mm Rem Mag and 7mm Practical. Please take note that this bullet can develop higher pressures than the Berger VLD. You’ll get the velocities but you need to drop powder charges when starting out. If you are switching from a 160-162 grain bullet to the 180 grain, go down at least 6 grains, not simply 2 grains (based on 1 grain per 10 grains bullet as is common in the manuals and proves safe when using start loads). Start way down low, then come up. You may find that the sweet spot is 4.5 grains lower than where it was when you were using a 162 grain pill.

It is also important to understand that being such a long bullet, the tip (rather than the ogive) may contact the button of the seating stem within your seating die. If the button touches the bullet tip rather than the ogive, it will play merry hell with concentricity during seating and you will see fliers downrange. If you have such issues that need to be remedied, the options are to contact your die maker and ask for a stem suitable for match style bullets or failing this, you may need to have your existing stem altered (drilled) by a gunsmith.

The 180 grain ELD-M is a hard hitting pill. All I can say about its performance is wow. That should be enough for most of you. It meets and exceeds all of my expectations as predicted in the Cartridges book second edition which was released just before this bullet became publicly available. It does however need a good deal of magazine space, boasting max OAL’s of around 88.3mm (3.476”) in the Rem Mag (and therefore .280 Rem and AI) and up to 93mm when using the Manson Reamer Practical (3.661”), leaving around 1mm or 40 thou for smooth feeding (and a wee bit of room for throat wear) when using the M700 and factory box magazine (non-detachable). I can tell you that it took a good deal of back and forth to ensure that the Manson fixed throat reamer would suit the new ELD-M prior to actually being able to handle and measure the new pills. Fortunately, we nailed the throat design. The ELD-M has to my way of thinking optimized the Practical. A gentle stroke of the trigger results in a horrendous thump followed by two sets of hooves pointing straight up in the air. It doesn’t get any better than this.

I suggest that you do not chase every ounce of velocity with this pill. If velocities are down by 50fps from where you hoped they would be, then leave well enough alone. If your Rem Mag yields 2800fps, so be it. If your Practical yields 3000fps, so be it. This bullet will still deliver the goods and boy oh boy does it cheat the wind, putting a lot of other combos to shame. Dave Emary and his team at Hornady really have made an outstanding bullet.

As for the G1 BC, I suggest trying the following (as per Hornady’s basic predictions):

2500fps and above = .777

2230fps to 2500fps = .748

1400fps to 2230fps = .731

You will need to tweak these to suit your individual rifle and twist rate but so far, these BC’s appear to be close to Hornady’s predictions and as a basic guide to the 9.25 (factory rifles) and 9 twist magnums. Those who wish to shoot to extreme ranges will want to drop another .3 at 1500fps. If you do not have a ballistics calculator that allows for multiple BC’s, I would suggest setting the G1 BC to .750 (the 8 twist rifles average out at a BC of around .810). This will put you slightly high when shooting at around 600 to 700 yards but it is better to strike high than to have a potential and ever increasing low POI error. Do keep in mind that there is no substitute for actual down range field testing of the individual rifle. Also keep in mind that at very long ranges, small errors in turret calibration become much more exaggerated. It is very important that you take this on board and not be too quick to blame all ills on the BC."