Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Caught a 143 ELD-X last night

A pretty good (for this property) buck stepped out last night at last light and I shot him quartering-to at 90 yards with my HMR 6.5CM. I was doing my last-minute scans with my binoculars, as seeing deer that late with the naked eye was not much of an option on the big pipeline I was hunting. Deer generally are seen at 200-500 yards. I could see this guy was past his ears when he stepped out, but that was about all I could make out in the last few minutes of legal light. Flipped the illumination dial on the Bushnell LRTSi as I pointed it out the window and that made things much simpler. He bolted at the shot and I heard him crash a few seconds later.

I tagged him in the forward portion of the onside shoulder (red speck in the pic). He made it about 50 yards. No blood trail, but I knew the general area where I thought he'd gone silent.



Flipping him over revealed the telltale lump about 5 inches in front of his hip on the opposite side, so I sliced the hide and pulled out the bullet. It was 55.4gr of jacket.






Impact speed should have been about 2,630fps. I imagine it would have exited on a broadside shot, but this quartering angle stopped it under the hide.

I'd have liked to have seen some core retention, but dead is dead. Didn't get to see the internal damage as I ran this one to the processor 5 miles down the road. Other deer I have dressed out showed the 143ELD-X to behave much like other cup/cores at similar speeds from a 7mm-08 or .308.

Good stuff JPro, nice buck, nice shooting, and congrats.

Nice buck, JPro!
That sounds about right for performance with the ELD-X.

Hypothetical: had the deer been at say 50-75 yards broadside and you hit the shoulder, what could have been the outcome (besides probably a daed deer)? Maybe lots of damage or below average penetration? I have no idea what the MV of a CM is...Otherwise, GREAT shot and nice buck!

Good questions, jorge. I'm going to keep going with that bullet and see what more field data shows. MV on that load is 2,760fps.

I'd never consider the ELD-X (or SST, or Gamechanger) to be a great penetrator when compared to heavier-built designs, but it seems like it should be a good bullet for medium game when launched at moderate speeds. I noticed that they are now making a 110gr ELD-X in .257, which should fly nicely at 3,400 from my .257wby, but I think I'm going to pass on that combo for my kind of hunting....

I used the 150gr SST in my 303 to take a 150 lb buck at 115 yards and got complete penetration. Went in just behind the shoulder (he was quartering away slightly) and punched through the offside shoulder leaving only about a dime sized exit wound. I suspect mv was close to 2650 or so. i just had great luck accuracy-wise in my 308 Model 70 and Browning with the Game Changer, but no way I'd push it in my 257 even though the 100gr Hornady is incredible as far as putting them down. I prefer the 100gr TTSX. I could never get my Weatherby to shoot the 100gr Partition with great accuracy, although my 300 Weatherby likes the 180s and my Browning (Pencil barrel) 308 Safari ONLY likes the 165 partitions. Go figure..

Go to the 27 min mark.. you just gotta hit them 🤷‍♂️

That's really a cool video. Love the enthusiasm!

And yeah, it's more about where you hit them than what exactly you hit them with......

That’s a tough jacket on that bullet. My son shot a small buck with a 110 gr VMax in 6.8 SPC at 30 yds, no exit wound, lots of internal damage. The buck ran 30 yds and laid down. Maybe bullets with a canelure would hold together better.

Congrats on your buck! Good and healthy.
Greatly appreciate the information on the bullet performance.
Thanks.

I hope others will share their experienc with this load in 6.5 CM. Seems to be pretty popular load.
I have heard a fair amount of feedback on not much blood trail. Was wondering if that is typical for load.

Thanks for the report! While it worked well for you, I will probably stay away from them. I hunt thick stuff, and a blood trail is a must. I want blood leaking out of both sides of its body. I shoot a 260, so i would be running very similar velocities. Appreciate guys like you sharing bullet performance on game. Makes it easier for me!

If you really need high odds of an exit with a 6.5, I've had good luck with the Accubond and the TTSX.

Thanks for the info JPro, always good to get first hand info and pics. Good shooting and nice buck.

Awesome!! Been thinking about 120 grn TTSX

Congrats JPro. That's a nice UP buck.

Nice one JPro. Pace Brown?

Real nice buck JPro , bullet didn't do to bad considering the distance and the amount of flesh it went through .

Have you heard/read any comparisons ''on game'' eld-x vs. eld-m ?

Did you use the a-max much ?

Congrats on a fine deer! Your recovered jacket is what my limited testing indicated to expect at that impact velocity! memtb

Just north of there.

Mike, I never used the Amax on game but did use the old SST. It seemed to be a bit more explosive than the ELD-X.