rossislider Report post Posted September 23, 2019 I returned last night from my early rifle bull elk hunt and part one of my son's archery bull hunt. My hunt went very well and I was able to tag out on my dream bull. We are still working on filling my son's tag. But to the point, I have been shooting Berger VLDs out of multiple rifles for many years. Prior to this hunt, every hunting shot was a bang followed by an immediate flop of our target animal. However, I have come to the conclusion that VLDs will never be shot out of one of my rifles at a big bull elk again. Let me qualify this by telling you I was shooting 210 grain VLDs out of my 300 RUM behind 91 grains of Retumbo at just under 3000 FPS. My first shot on my bull couldn't have had much better placement (I have video and the entry hole to verify). However, after the initial shot at 162 yards, my bull took us on a 4 mile "marathon" sprint and finally went down for good after he had 4 rounds put in him. No doubt he was a tough old bull, but it shouldn't take four rounds out of my 300 RUM to put him down. Upon close examination, the first shot hit a rib and gernaded, breaking the rib, but only making enough impact on the vitals to slow him a little while we gave pursuit. Several guys in camp told me they had either personally or heard of similar results with VLDs on big boned animals. So now I am going to start working up a new load and am leaning towards Hornady's ELD-X. My question is what weight would you guys use in the ELD-X for the following calibers: 300 RUM (200, 212, or 220 grains?) 300 Win Mag (200, 212, or 220 grains?) Thanks Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
trphyhntr Report post Posted September 23, 2019 it was a big tough elk. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mike S Report post Posted September 23, 2019 Congrats and glad you were able to track it down. 200 grain partitions have worked great for me on my last 2 bulls. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cjl2010 Report post Posted September 23, 2019 Use a 215 hybrid in the WM and 230 hybrid in the ultra. Or for a traditional hunting style bonded bullet the accubonds are pretty proven. Read it again and see you only want suggestions for eld-x. What do you feel they will give you over a Berger? How far is your max comfortable range? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rossislider Report post Posted September 23, 2019 7 minutes ago, cjl2010 said: Use a 215 hybrid in the WM and 230 hybrid in the ultra. Or for a traditional hunting style bonded bullet the accubonds are pretty proven. Read it again and see you only want suggestions for eld-x. What do you feel they will give you over a Berger? How far is your max comfortable range? I am not stuck on the ELD-X, but have had them strongly recommended and have had great success in some of my smaller calibers. Our furthest shot on an animal to date has been 620 yards, we have shot several others in the 400-600 range, and have practiced out to 800 yards. I am curious about the hybrids. I have read the jacket is much thicker, and is why Berger does not recommend them for hunting. That might have been exactly what I needed on this past hunt. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cjl2010 Report post Posted September 24, 2019 Exactly, with something like a rum capable of launching them fast it will help with exploding on impact. To keep them from penciling I check all the tips and make sure they aren’t clogged. lots of horror stories out there on high speed impacts with eld-x as well. Always good and bad with everything. To be different you could launch a 180 hammer hunter at warp speed and not have to worry about closer high speed impacts. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cjl2010 Report post Posted September 24, 2019 What were the results of your other 3 shots? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rossislider Report post Posted September 24, 2019 Hmm, I am not familiar with the Hammer Hunter. Research time. As far as shot placement on the next two follow up shot, other than to say they all hit the target, I can't tell you where/order of where they hit. He dropped after each only to get back up again. There was a lot or running, breathing hard, etc. that didn't allow for video. I know the final one that put him down for good was a head on shot into his chest. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ctracingraptor Report post Posted September 24, 2019 Accubonds... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rossislider Report post Posted September 24, 2019 You can see the impact location of the first shot just behind the shoulder in this picture. 6 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Green Bullet Report post Posted September 24, 2019 Great bull. congrats. What unit were you hunting in? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Swivelhead Report post Posted September 24, 2019 Beautiful bull. Shot placement appears to be perfect. Sorry, no suggestions for a replacement projectile. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cjl2010 Report post Posted September 24, 2019 Sweet bull! How far was first shot? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rossislider Report post Posted September 24, 2019 5 minutes ago, cjl2010 said: Sweet bull! How far was first shot? 162 yards. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rossislider Report post Posted September 24, 2019 14 minutes ago, Green Bullet said: Great bull. congrats. What unit were you hunting in? This was the 3A3C hunt. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
