A buddy of mine and myself both reload for 30-06 and he got drawn for an elk hunt so he decided he needed to start stretching his shooting range to prepare. I shoot with him from time to time so we decided to split a box of Hornady ELDX in 178 gr. I have tried them with two powders so far. R19 at two different powder weight got me 3 shot groups of 0.857 and 0.841. I decided to try 4350 because I know my rifle likes that powder and again at two different powder weights I got 3 shot groups of 0.406 and 0.330. Needless to say I am going to buy myself a box instead of splitting them with my buddy next time. I hope others that have tried these bullets are having positive results.
178 gr ELDX!!!
- Thread starter ReloadKy
- Start date
FrankenMauser
New member
Excellent.
Care to share the COAL that your using, and some more specifics on the rifle, in order to help people looking for advice on the combination in the future?
Care to share the COAL that your using, and some more specifics on the rifle, in order to help people looking for advice on the combination in the future?
I've been loading them for 308 and 30-06 for a while. I'm using a max charge of Varget (45 gr) in my 308's for about 2620 fps and shooting them in the 1/2 MOA range.
So far my 30-06 shoots them well enough, slightly under 1 MOA, but for what ever reason my 30-06 just shoots 165/168 gr bullets better. Maybe I need to experiment more with the 178/180's. I've been using 57 gr of H4350 for just under 2800 fps.
I've been shooting 143 ELDX's in my 6.5 Creedmoor with excellent accuracy too. It appears Hornady has a winner at a good price. I'm hearing good things about this bullet in every caliber it is offered in. The question came up on another forum earlier in the week about using them in a 308 for elk. Several posters reported bang flop kills out past 400 yards on elk with that bullet.
So far my 30-06 shoots them well enough, slightly under 1 MOA, but for what ever reason my 30-06 just shoots 165/168 gr bullets better. Maybe I need to experiment more with the 178/180's. I've been using 57 gr of H4350 for just under 2800 fps.
I've been shooting 143 ELDX's in my 6.5 Creedmoor with excellent accuracy too. It appears Hornady has a winner at a good price. I'm hearing good things about this bullet in every caliber it is offered in. The question came up on another forum earlier in the week about using them in a 308 for elk. Several posters reported bang flop kills out past 400 yards on elk with that bullet.
Franken I had these rounds loaded up at 3.270 OAL. I am shooting a Remington 700 ADL thought I bought with a purpose of retiring my Dads old 270. I got the rifle on sale for $329 and put a vortex scope on it. These groups I got were my first test loads with this bullet. I will probably try and lengthen my OAL just a bit and see if the groups get better. 7mag I have shot the 150s in my 7 mag as well and get excellent results. I am wanting to try 162s. Jmr40 I would agree that hornady has a winner in this bullet too. No animals yet but I will be trying them this fall.
JeepHammer
Moderator
I picked up a habit of running accuracy bullets through Go/NoGo gauges and weighing each bullet.
Keep in mind this was the Marines where every shooter could hit targets at 1,000 yards with stunning regularity...
The top orifice was slightly oversized (0.3084") anything that wouldn't drop through was either too oversized or out of round.
Right under the top was a second orifice gauge (0.3077") and anything that dropped through was undersized too much to use.
If the second die caught the bullet, it was in tolerance to use.
Then each bullet got weighed, excessive +/- were scrubbed.
I qualified Sierra Match Kings until I went crazy...
I scrubbed/culled up to 25% of SMKs.
I use the same qualification process now in civilian life,
I use Hornady ELD-X now almost exclusively around 1% get culled.
I actually don't get enough culls for fouling shots anymore... A good 'Problem' to have!
The last 10-15 years Hornady REALLY stepped up their game, and I don't know their specific process, I have to say for me it's working!
For me it's a superior bullet, AND at way less cost than SMKs!
Tri-Fecta in my opinion.
Unless it just plain works, I don't recommend brand names.
I have ZERO issues with Hornady bullets. Their process, or their QC is simply outstanding.
I would have to believe it's the process since they can't afford to sell such a quality product if they were culling 20% at the factory.
This leads me to warn against buying bulk Hornady in other than Hornady packaging.
I did that with a bulk reseller, blank box bulk, and nearly every bullet was out of spec...
Obviously factory seconds... Glad I only bought 4,000. They became general blasting ammo for visitors that can't shoot anyway...
Hornady has a factory program that will sell first quality to loaders if you buy 10,000 or more, DEEP discounts!
That lead my friends to make a group purchase (which I got to store & repackage into smaller lots
).
Having a fork lift & loading dock sometimes works against you...
We settled on 178 ELDX and everyone is deliriously happy, although the 168 bunch had to work up new loads...
I just wish Hornady still made the 178 moly impregnated (not 'Coated') bullet, that was my all time favorite long target bullet. Crazy accurate and the barrel lived SO MUCH longer it isn't funny.
I don't know how Hornady impregnated the jacket like they did, but it was light years past common moly coatings.
My second complaint with Sierra is box count. I never worried about it in the military (never even kept track) but as a civilian, I often found the boxes to be 1 or 2 bullets short, never extras, always short.
Some guys say their counts are dead on Everytime, but that's not what I found... There goes 1% or 2% right off the top when it happens.
Keep in mind this was the Marines where every shooter could hit targets at 1,000 yards with stunning regularity...
The top orifice was slightly oversized (0.3084") anything that wouldn't drop through was either too oversized or out of round.
Right under the top was a second orifice gauge (0.3077") and anything that dropped through was undersized too much to use.
If the second die caught the bullet, it was in tolerance to use.
Then each bullet got weighed, excessive +/- were scrubbed.
I qualified Sierra Match Kings until I went crazy...
I scrubbed/culled up to 25% of SMKs.
I use the same qualification process now in civilian life,
I use Hornady ELD-X now almost exclusively around 1% get culled.
I actually don't get enough culls for fouling shots anymore... A good 'Problem' to have!
The last 10-15 years Hornady REALLY stepped up their game, and I don't know their specific process, I have to say for me it's working!
For me it's a superior bullet, AND at way less cost than SMKs!
Tri-Fecta in my opinion.
Unless it just plain works, I don't recommend brand names.
I have ZERO issues with Hornady bullets. Their process, or their QC is simply outstanding.
I would have to believe it's the process since they can't afford to sell such a quality product if they were culling 20% at the factory.
This leads me to warn against buying bulk Hornady in other than Hornady packaging.
I did that with a bulk reseller, blank box bulk, and nearly every bullet was out of spec...
Obviously factory seconds... Glad I only bought 4,000. They became general blasting ammo for visitors that can't shoot anyway...
Hornady has a factory program that will sell first quality to loaders if you buy 10,000 or more, DEEP discounts!
That lead my friends to make a group purchase (which I got to store & repackage into smaller lots
).Having a fork lift & loading dock sometimes works against you...
We settled on 178 ELDX and everyone is deliriously happy, although the 168 bunch had to work up new loads...
I just wish Hornady still made the 178 moly impregnated (not 'Coated') bullet, that was my all time favorite long target bullet. Crazy accurate and the barrel lived SO MUCH longer it isn't funny.
I don't know how Hornady impregnated the jacket like they did, but it was light years past common moly coatings.
My second complaint with Sierra is box count. I never worried about it in the military (never even kept track) but as a civilian, I often found the boxes to be 1 or 2 bullets short, never extras, always short.
Some guys say their counts are dead on Everytime, but that's not what I found... There goes 1% or 2% right off the top when it happens.
Watching with interest as I have 1,000 ready to load and 8lbs. of H4350. I had previously used Nosler 180 BT but wanted to give the ELD a whirl.
Thanks for the info @JeepHammer, this OCD soul just weighed 1,000 IMI Match .308 brass and from your observations, I feel comfortable skipping the same task with the bullets.
Thanks for the info @JeepHammer, this OCD soul just weighed 1,000 IMI Match .308 brass and from your observations, I feel comfortable skipping the same task with the bullets.
I'm very interested in this post.I'm trying to work up a load, using RL22. I'm seating to 3.47 OAL. my best load so far is alittle less than a 1/2 inch at 100yrd,velocity is around 3050 fps. i'm hoping the 178gr ELD-X will be my 1000 yard round. The rifle is a Sako finnBear,300 win mag.
ReloadKy,
A quick look at Hornady's drawing of the ELD-X shows an obtuse corner angle where the ogive meets the bullet bearing surface. This means it is a secant ogive bullet. Such bullets can be unusually picky about bullet jump. Berger found for their secant ogive VLD designs that different rifles shot them best anywhere from jammed into the throat to as much as 0.150" bullet jump. They describe the most efficient way to find what your gun likes.
A quick look at Hornady's drawing of the ELD-X shows an obtuse corner angle where the ogive meets the bullet bearing surface. This means it is a secant ogive bullet. Such bullets can be unusually picky about bullet jump. Berger found for their secant ogive VLD designs that different rifles shot them best anywhere from jammed into the throat to as much as 0.150" bullet jump. They describe the most efficient way to find what your gun likes.
I shot 2 days ago at 100 yds for sight in purposes. Bullets hit exactly where they were supposed to on every shot. I have these loads sighted in 2.5 in high at 100 yds. I will probably leave my COAL the same since the gun seems to like where it is. Thanks uncle nick for the article reference. Bill have you tried powders other than R22?