First for the 300WSM

Over the last several weeks we have been testing various loads in Beeman's oldest son's 300 WSM. Wayne was keen to run the 200 gr or 212 gr ELDX in his WSM so we started to develop a load. What we found was most loads shot an inch or better which was great.
The 200gr ELDX load we have finally settled on runs at 2957 fps so is no slouch.
Yesterday after finishing off the load testing we headed to an area of young pines where Wayne and his brother Neil had seen 5 stags a month an a half back.
It was about 5.45 pm when we arrived and got our gear sorted for the walk to spot we could watch out for any animals, this would take about half an hour following a few ridges.

It was pretty warm as we made our way up from the road. As we climbed we noticed quite a bit of sign of both pigs and deer. As we neared the top where it joins the main ridge I seen Wayne looking across the head of the gully and readying himself for a shot, within seconds his Remmy boomed and I glanced a set of antlers dash through a gap in the young pines, the loud smack that came back signaled a good hit.
I stayed put and Wayne ran around the top of the gully and came down the spur the deer ( there were 3 of them)were on, I directed Wayne to where I had last seen movement of the trees.
A loud yahoo told me he had found the stag so I headed on over to give him a hand. The stag was a beauty, the velvet was well developed for the 1st Nov and the animal was in good nick as he should have been considering the feed available.
After the photo's we gutted him and then set to dragging him back to the truck. As luck would have it all we needed to do was drag him down hill about 400 yards to the road and load him onto the truck.
What a great way to end the day, a first for Wayne's new Rem 300 WSM and the first animal with the 200gr ELDX. Later we found the projectile, it had hit square in the shoulder and angled through the chest to come to rest about the middle of the rib cage. The bullet had lost it's core but still done a good job. Range was just under 100 yards and the stag went about 15 yards after the hit, all in all pretty good I think.Attachment 123331

Nice going, the stag has pushed up a bit velvet. I’m pretty impressed how the 200gr ELDX works on reds in a 300wsm too.

nice wee short action and walnut too boot,,choysa,,whats the length of barrel??

Beauty, nice short action rifle

Beautiful beast, and can't beat stainless/wood combo - lovely rifle!

Those 200g ELD X are wicked. Pole axed a goat at 690mtrs and another at 550mtr, both 1 shot drop on the spot. My rifle got 2 deer last weekend as well, 1 at 350 and the other at 255mtrs. It hits hard. We'll done on your stag, interesting to see the amount of antler already growing. We saw to stags last weekend with hard antler still 1 9pt and 1 8pt and the one I shot had just started growing.

animal looks to be carrying some great condition, well done. And all down hill to the truck - aye some guys have all the luck.:thumbsup:

Nice big body on that stag guys. Ive found the ELDX lose the cores too on a couple of recent animals (150 ELDX out of 7-08 2760fps). Good work guys!

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Originally Posted by 264 magic

nice wee short action and walnut too boot,,choysa,,whats the length of barrel??

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24 inch

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Originally Posted by Fred Fisherman

Nice big body on that stag guys. Ive found the ELDX lose the cores too on a couple of recent animals (150 ELDX out of 7-08 2760fps). Good work guys!

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We have had a mixture of results with the ELDX I have had them hold together at 25 yards with a neck shot on a big sambar stag out of the 300 WM and that was a 178 gr ELDX, generally the 6.5 bullets mushroom nicely probably due to the low impact speed. A lot of the ELD X bullets pass through so we don't get tp see them but they must be holding together pretty well. Strange for the 200 gr ELD X to separate but then it was probably still travelling at 2850 fps and went through the shoulder blade then penetrated 20 odd inches before stopping against the off side rib cage. We have had a few recovered out of the 7mm 08 probably because of the lower impact speeds again. They say they work best between 1800- 3200 fps.

Just shows the difference in areas. That stag I shot in National Park last week didn't even have 1cm up!

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Originally Posted by Kudu

Just shows the difference in areas. That stag I shot in National Park last week didn't even have 1cm up!

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I agree, these mature stags are dropping in early August and a well grown by now. Last year we got the drop tine 17 pointer on the 8th Dec on camera and was fully grown but still covered in velvet. These stags are hard by January. Last year on the 8th Of Dec I shot a big old 9 pointer which I stripped the velvet off and antlers were hard underneath.
Further south you go the later they drop.

They still haven't all dropped in the west CNI Brian. I was amazed.

What was the carcass damaged like on that stag Brian? Curious to know what the combination of .300WSM power, short range and the ELD-X did to meat recovery.

Not sure Dave it's at my brother in laws. It didn't look to bad where the bullet came to rest but I would think the front shoulder would have copped the worst of it. It surprised me that the bullet separated after having lighter (178 gr) bullets at closer range going faster and hitting meat /bone and still holding together. I suppose they are all different.
At the end of the day it did it's job so the bullet separating wasn't a fail.