has anyone tried the new Hornady ELD Match 30cal 208gr bullets

[darkker]

Ahhhhh, but that's the beauty of the story, they left themselves an un-provable "out". Remember in the white papers they claim it only happens when bullets sustain very high velocity for a longer period. So essentially they said: "over-pressured Warbird velocity is the only way to get them to melt. Say, you guys want to buy some magic beans for your Creedmoor and 308's?!"

[bearcatrp]

Would think they would start melting right out of the barrel since thats when it the fastest. Will know soon enough. Have acquired 178, 200 and 208 ELD's to test out. Loaded up for the next warmer day but probably not until spring.

[darkker]

Gots to read the white paper. Not just the speed, but the duration. Anything short of the 300WM won't get it done.

As Harold Vaughn already covered long ago in his book, tips make surprisingly VERY little difference, even if they do melt off.
It isn't good marketing to say you are tired of getting your arse handed to you by Berger, so you redesigned your ogives and tails to compete. A little diversion about irrelevant tips and a stab at Nosler's wretchedly inflated single G1 numbers. Then introducing a new bullet with an actual appropriate rating(G7) is much more effective in stirring talk and interest.

[FW Conch]

Some years back, Handloader Magazine did an article on deformed bullet tips. I don't remember who the author was. They purposely messed up tips in every way they could think of, smashed, bent, ground off on an angle, etc. What they found was that it made no "practical" difference in how they shot. They got some unbelievable groups with those mangled pills.

However, they discovered that " any" damage to the base caused the pill the veer off course.

Pretty colorful fishing lures are designed to catch fishermen:-). The latest, tipped, boat tailed, Gthis, Gthat, catches a lot of shooters that dream of shooting over the horizon, but can really never shoot far enough to have the design take affect.

"Just Sayin" ;-))

[darkker]

That is exactly right Conch. That sounds like essentially a re-do of Vaughn's testing.
Yes the tips mean something, but really only that.

[Londerko]

I for one am much more excited about the ELD-x line of bullets than the ELD-m, which is essentially a re-tipped amax.
The headline should have been "Hornady releases new high BC, heavy for caliber long range hunting bullet, that holds together at close ranges and high velocity impacts".
In my opinion the big story should have been about that and not the tips. I guess my point is that a lot of people including myself see the whole "tip thing" as marketing hype. When in reality the "new innovative product" is actually the ELD-X line not the tips.
Just my 2 cents - Leo

[darkker]

Different ogives, not just re-tipped.

[Front Royalty]

While it is easy to get caught up in marketing hype, bc numbers, etc, its nice that we have so many options. We also have the option not to buy products we don't want nor need. I want a bullet that's stabilized at 1k yards for some steel plate fun. It would be nice if that same bullet gave me performance in the 3's or less at 100 yards. And explode a coyote when ravaging our chicken coop. I'm curious to try the 178 eld-x and TMK 175. Ive SEEN the TMK fit the bill, but the only bullets ive put through my rifle are Hornady 168 BTHPM, and when I'm not fighting loose scope bases and sub par barrel cleaning procedures, they've shot like a house afire, but don't do to well beyond 900 yds for ME. Like an idiot I let the clearance on the TMK's expire at Potterfield.com, and now I'm not sure which way I want to go.

[Front Royalty]

My 178's shipped!

Range report available at this time?

[bearcatrp]

Emailed Hornady if they were going to make a 178 match with the new tip like the 208. Was told it will become the ELD-M. Can't wait to test mine out.

[Front Royalty]

Emailed Hornady if they were going to make a 178 match with the new tip like the 208. Was told it will become the ELD-M. Can't wait to test mine out.

I would definitely give these a try when available! Awesome news.

[bearcatrp]

I would definitely give these a try when available! Awesome news.

I got mine from midway. They are finally starting to trickle in. The 200 and 208 XLD's have been out for about a month. I picked up all 3 to try out.

[Londerko]

My Sportsmans warehouse has had
The ELD-x in 30 cal 178, 200 & 212
The ELD-m in 6.5-140 & 30-208
I've tried the 200 & 212 ELD-x
Their definitely hitting the shelves,
Haven't seen any in the 7mm line yet

[Rob01]

I wondered if this isn't just a marketing ploy. Would like to see someone shoot identical grain bullet, one XLD and one non XLD and see if they see any difference @1000 yards. Only way I can think of to check besides there word on it. Am trying to find 178 XLD bullets to compare to the 178 match bullets I was shooting this past summer but not successful. Was able to score on 200 gr XLD-X and 208 gr XLD-M only.

That was done with the 140 AMAX. They replaced only the old tip with the new tip and Doppler tested both and the old AMAX was about .545 BC on the 800 average and the new tip was .588 which is where it should be through the old BC calculation put the 140 AMAX. So seeing that it proves that just the tip is making a difference. Then they redesigned the bullet and got the BC up to .610.

[Front Royalty]

Emailed Hornady if they were going to make a 178 match with the new tip like the 208. Was told it will become the ELD-M. Can't wait to test mine out.

Any chance they gave you a time from on the proposed 178 ELD-M?

[bearcatrp]

Any chance they gave you a time from on the proposed 178 ELD-M?

All they said was "in time". Wish I had some 178 A-MAX to compare the two.

[JASmith]

^^ This. It is in no small part marketing, not to say there is nothing else there.
Most of the Amax line is rather old designs, except for the 208gr Amax. If you use Hodgdon's max listed load for a 300WM and a drag function that is actually appropriate(G7) to these bullets, you can see the marketing. Compare Litz's numbers on the 208 with the purported "melty" tips, against the 212gr ELD-X. The difference in flight is only 0.2-0.3 mil out to 1,000. This difference is what you would expect to see from "tipping" a HPBT.

So do the tips melt? I can't say, but the fact that when shooting hornady found "something wrong" with their numbers, to me really speaks to the fact that they have too long held to the G1 for very long match bullets; AND a single G1 at that.
-- an insightful observation ...

[Russmerle]

Would be nice if they could capture a bullet down range with no damage to check the tip, but not sure there is a way to do that.

They can ;) Arnold AFB's Range G utilizes an air gun to fire 3" projectiles at speeds up to 23k ft/second and can adapt a rail guidance system to catch the projectile for inspection... http://www.arnold.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=19182

[savedsoul88]

Bass pro had a box of the 200eldx on the shelf so I bought it as they were out of the 208. Started looking into it and I'm gonna work up some loads with varget and re17. This is for my 20 inch 308, if I can find a node somewhere at at least 2500fps the ballistic chart for these rounds looks pretty good. Picking up powder tomorrow and brass is in the tumbler tonight so hopefully Friday I will get to report back on how they do.

[bearcatrp]

Please provide a range report if you would please. I picked up a couple boxes along with the 208's a few weeks later. Loaded up a series of the 208's waiting for good weather to hit the range. My 178's come in and messed up my plans. So reloaded a batch of the 178's. Since my 10T is already zero'd with 178 match, figure I will do these first. I use varget only so am interested in your varget loads.