257 Weatherby & Hornady ELD-X 110 gr. Bullet?
 

Has anyone tried the new Hornady EDL-X 110 gr. bullets in the 257 Weatherby? I was curious about accuracy with this bullet.

I shot a mule deer last night at 730 yards from a300wm with a 200 gr eldx. The bullet was found in many pieces under the hide on the opposite shoulder. Not real impressed with the way it held together.

How far did the deer go before it dropped? Did the bullet hit a rib on the way in? I'd rather have a bullet fragment than fail to open. I had tried the original Barnes X bullets many years ago in my (at the time wildcat) 7mm STW. That original X Bullet was bad for not opening up at close range/high velocity and just punching a pin hole. I tracked a wounded buck I hit broadside at under 100 yds for the entire day in the Duck mountains in Manitoba and found it half stuffed under a fallen tree 4 hours later. IMO that is a bullet failure! It went right thru and never opened up at all, doing minimal damage to the lungs on the way thru. That poor animal suffered unnecessarily because the bullet didn't do it's job. I switched back to Partitions after that. I understand that Barnes has fixed that issue.

The original X bullet had issues with fouling and with not expanding at times , but the expansion issues were worse at lower velocity. You can still run into issues with expansion with the TSX/TTSX at low impact velocities.

The theory we had at the time was that the high velocity was causing the bullet to implode on the small hollow point cavity. From what I have read the shape and size of the cavity has changed and they have scored the inside to assist in opening. All I know is, it left a bad taste in my mouth and I never used those bullets again. I went home & pulled all the bullets and threw them in the recycle bin, and loaded up the brass with Partitions. The problem with Partitions is poor B.C.'s and they bleed velocity quickly.

I am interested in this new Hornady ELD-X to see if it is as accurate as they claim. Specially in the 257 Weatherby. It would be nice to have a high B.C. bullet to hold the energy down range, as long as it's accurate and it expands well. The Accubond is accurate, but doesn't open up as well at longer range. I really wish Nosler would make a Ballistic tipped Partition...Best of both worlds, problem solved!

The buck was quartering away. Shot behind the shoulder and through opposing shoulder and was under the hide. He dropped in his tracks. One animal shot is probably not a good representation of the bullet.

If it dropped in it's tracks at that range, I don't see that as a failure of any kind, no matter what the recovered bullet looked like. Burger designs their hunting bullets to fragment and cause multiple wound channels. I think there is way too much emphasis put on "retained bullet weight." I couldn't care less as what the bullet weighs after impact or if it's even recovered, as long as the animal drops quickly. Wounding and losing an animal is what ****es me off. Just my opinion.
"There are many paths up the mountain, but the view from the top is still the same." LRB.

Well if you don’t care how they hold together then you should probably stocking up on any of the highly frangible bullets. I prefer mine to retain at least 50% of the original weight.

So has no one tried the the new .257 ELD-X 110gr Hornady's? If not what's the preference in a 110 gr bullet? Nosler Accubond??

The 6.5 ELD-X is outstandingly accurate. 1 hole group accurate. Search ELDX on ballisticstudies dot com for colour photographs of what happens to deer. Also a bunch of other info on it in other parts of the website. Go in "Knowledge Base, Cartridge Research" for a cool pdf. I haven't hunted it yet personally.

Thanks for the info!

got some 162's loaded for 280; hope to put em on game before end of the year. have 50 berger classic hunter 168's; this gun don't like em after several tests. eld's grouped well first load with good speed.

When I had my 7mm STW it shot the 162 gr Hornady SST really well...excellent accuracy and really good velocity. I tried the 150 gr range of bullets in a 270 WSM and just couldn't get the velocity I wanted without signs of pressure. I also think 150 gr is just a bit heavy for the 1:10 twist rate to give really great accuracy in my rifle. The 130 gr bullets give you the MV, but have relatively poor BC's. I can't load the really long bullets like the Burgers, they won't fit unless seated deep into the brass and pressure gets up again. I thought the 145 gr ELD-X would be a good compromise. Pretty good MV and the ability to hold it over a long distance because of the excellent BC's. Problem is it's so new there is no load data. There also seems to be a significant velocity difference between 130 gr bullets and 150 gr bullets from what I've read. I was hoping the 145 gr might be the perfect compromise and work with the 1:10 twist rate.
I should never have sold my 7mm STW, but it was heavy and long, and I'm no spring chicken any more.

I’m running them out of a 28” barrel and getting a lot more speed than I should be with so little powder and noise. Outperforms my ballistic calculator too by 150 fps in the figures vs real world trajectory. No problem, now that I know what to dial in.

I had a 28" barrel 25-06 that would duplicate 257 Weatherby velocities. A 28" barrel does make a big difference.

I just had a 100gr ttsx fail to expand on my whitetail just the other day, this was out of my 257 loaded hot, probably too hot. Shot was 300 yards. Needless to say I wont be using them again. I found the bullet in the shoulder and it looks like it could have been a fmj. Im going to try the 110gr accubonds next. I’ve liked the way they have performed in other calibers I own. Sorry no experience with the eldx

Yet another X bullet that didn't do what it was supposed to. There are stories and pics every year. Probably one of the least reliable bullets on the market.

There are hundreds if not thousands of stories of bullet failues every year, and they exist for every common bullet being sold. As such, I will continue to use the bullets that have worked well for me.

Yup too little velocity left to have this type of bullet at that distance open up, gotta find a better match.

I don’t think it’s a lack of velocity in this case. These are leaving the muzzle at over 3500fps and should have still been doing around 2700fps at impact. I’ve lost confidence in these bullets and will work to find something else.

If it didn't work well for you, then I would be trying a better bullet as well. Good luck.

Yeah I’m not knocking anyone that uses ttsx bullets, just posting my results and circumstances around the shot i took.
I’d be interested to see how the ELD-X work as well.

Barnes TSX tipped bullet? Might be your answer.

Or nosler partition...
Attachment 140047

Or swift A-frames...man you are cranking them out at 3500fps...would be concerned with conventional bullets 100 yards or less just acting like a varmint bullets and exploding if a should was hit not getting penetration...had this happen with my STW used Speer 140gr and they acted like thin skinned varmint bullets...settled on Barnes X bullets. Never recovered one:sHa_shakeshout: freezer full for many years...

ive since slowed my 257 wby /100gr triple barnes xxx down to 3750fps. whatever they touch is destroyed from 1/2 holes in ar 500 plate to moose, ravens and coyotes at 600.
no experience with the OP questions, never needed a better option, i am curious to find out the OP results though.

A 257 wby will punch through AR500?? At what distance and what thickness? The 30-338 lapua with 230gr otm bullets wont punch through 1/2" AR500 at 400yards.

small frontal diameter and extreme velocity do more damage to steel than bigger boomers. roger poked through 3/8" ar500 at 200m i believe. i punched through 3/8" ar500 at 200 m with 300 rum and 180 scirroccos this fall.

The TTSX is the tipped TSX

I seen 2, 143gr ELDX 6.5mm bullets blow through a large bull moose just yesterday.
Nice big splashes of blood in the snow on the off side.
The first bullet performed very well and the second shot wasn't really necessary.

Looking forward to testing out this bullet in 25-06.

Currently using the 117gr SST which was pretty devastating on my muley this season.

110 should be a better load with Retumbo, however.

I fail to see the problem here :snapoutofit: