Hornady 243, 103gr ELD-X, first samples report

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SteveD
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Hornady 243, 103gr ELD-X, first samples report

Post by SteveD »

At the SHOT Show I talked to a rep from Hornady about 6mm bullets for Rams. At first he didn't understand the problem but after some conversation explaining the situation I think he did. "Oh, you have to knock the steel plate off the stand, not just hit it?"

Initially I was asking about Hornady bonded bullets like the Interbond. He explained that it is not possible to control the movement of the the lead core during the bonding process so the Interbond bullet will not shoot well enough to be usable for HP Rifle Silhouette.

He did recommend the ELD-X. It has a somewhat thicker jacket and employs a construction method intending to to accomplish something like bonding but without the inherent non-concentricities and went on to say that the process used would result in bullets that shoot well enough for HPRS and would stay together better than a traditional lead core/copper jacketed bullet. This is Hornady's answer to needing bonded bullet like weight retention with the accuracy required for long range shooting. I ordered a box to try them out.

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When they arrived I opened the box to check them out. On the first one I noticed that the leading edge of the jacket was not uniform and that in some places, one on about 30 bullets, two on about another 30 bullets, there was actually a 'scallop' looking gap.

I pulled out a box of Sierra 224 77gr TMKs for comparison. I looked at about 20 and the uniformity of the leading edge of the jacket was excellent. In fact out of 100 Hornady ELD-X bullets, only one was 'as good as' the 20 or so TMKs that I looked at. That meant 99 out of 100 were not at good as the first 20 TMKs I pulled out of a box at random.

I contacted Hornady and explained the situation. They replied and asked me to send pix. I tried taking pix with my phone but they did not adequately show the deficiencies. I contacted Hornady again, offering to send some to them to examine and they sent me an RMA.

It will be interesting to see what they have to say.
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Jerry G
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Re: Hornady 243, 103gr ELD-X, first samples report

Post by Jerry G »

Steve, When you load them, try keeping the velocity under 2700 to keep the bullet together longer. The high velocity bullets seem to turn to dust on the rams and don't have enough push. I think you need time on target, hot max energy to push them over. Might be worth a try.

On another note, I have shot seconds and that is all the goo roo shoots when he can get them. The blemishes don't seem to affect accuracy.
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Re: Hornady 243, 103gr ELD-X, first samples report

Post by Bob Mc Alice »

Jerry, they all turn to dust upon impact with steel. Light bullets, heavy bullets. Little bullets, big bullets. Slower bullets, faster bullets. Little bullets, less dust. Big bullets, more dust. Advantage more dust. 8)

Your not going to beat the physics.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfDoQwIAaXg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p1kQQPqlVQ
Last edited by Bob Mc Alice on Sun Feb 11, 2018 9:26 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Hornady 243, 103gr ELD-X, first samples report

Post by SteveD »

Nice vid Bob!

Jerry, I don't have a chrono so I'll have to guesstimate velocity until I can get to use a chrono.

I have seen seconds before. :D These go well beyond what Sierra sells as seconds. Hopefully they shoot ok and if they shoot it will be interesting to see if they do any better on Rams.
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Re: Hornady 243, 103gr ELD-X, first samples report

Post by Bigfoot »

While i can't speak to the 6mm ones. I started using the 140gr 6.5mm. Dave Brommer shot my rifle at Raton year before last and they bucked those cross winds pretty handilly. If the 6mm are as good as the 6.5mm I'd be all over them.
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Re: Hornady 243, 103gr ELD-X, first samples report

Post by SteveD »

Bigfoot wrote: Tue Feb 13, 2018 9:01 am While i can't speak to the 6mm ones. I started using the 140gr 6.5mm. Dave Brommer shot my rifle at Raton year before last and they bucked those cross winds pretty handilly. If the 6mm are as good as the 6.5mm I'd be all over them.
Thanks for the feedback.

How did they do on Rams? I will be testing the 6mm version on Rams in the next few weeks.
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Re: Hornady 243, 103gr ELD-X, first samples report

Post by SteveD »

Bigfoot wrote: Tue Feb 13, 2018 9:01 am While i can't speak to the 6mm ones. I started using the 140gr 6.5mm. Dave Brommer shot my rifle at Raton year before last and they bucked those cross winds pretty handilly. If the 6mm are as good as the 6.5mm I'd be all over them.
I think the 140gr is an ELD-M, not -X. Can you confirm which Dave was using, ELD-X or ELD-M?

The ELD-X (expanding)has mass retention features and is intended to shoot as well as the ELD-M (match) which doesn't have the mass retention features.
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Re: Hornady 243, 103gr ELD-X, first samples report

Post by Bigfoot »

Sorry for the late reply. They were the ELD Match. The Hornady guys confirmed they have thicker jackets as they aren't designed to expand.
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Re: Hornady 243, 103gr ELD-X, first samples report

Post by SteveD »

No worries. :)

Especially since they did not do as well as the Sierra 107gr MatchKing on Rams. :-s
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