Quote:
Originally Posted by brewster29
Not a one. I have seen how ELD-X blow up on close range shots and a match bullet is typically even more fragile. I am closing in on 40 bull elk kills myself and have assists on probably another 40 with family and friends. In every case I follow bullet path and damage during the skinning/ dressing phase. I have seen what works and what hasn’t - and I won’t use ANY conventional cup and core bullet anymore for bull elk. I have seen 200 grain Win power point bullets from a 338 WM completely fragment and not get into the rib cage after passing through the meaty back edge of a bull’s shoulder. The cost of premium bullets is peanuts compared to the cost of the rest of the hunt. Where I am we often call them close in brush, alders, and slides and need to be able to anchor the bull quickly, from nearly any angle, or risk not getting a shot- or worse yet losing the animal. We aren’t shooting them in open crop fields where you can wait for a perfect broadside shot.
As the late great Bob Hagel said (and I paraphrase) use the bullet that works not in ideal conditions, but in the worst. His books should be must reads for elk hunters.
I had several cases of inadequate penetration and/or jacket separation shrapnel wounding at the start of my elk hunting career and began using NP bullets, then Accubond. Now I have pretty much converted to TTSX or LRX. In fact, I won’t use cup and core bullets on antlered game of any kind anymore.
Now where was that thread about not arguing on the internet? Perhaps I should have heeded my own post. If I can help prevent an inexperienced hunter from even one lost animal I have done what I set out to. I’m out.
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When you say blow up, you are saying what? The bullet failed to penetrate the vitals and kill? I agree that they will be more violent in expansion but not fail to do the job. Gives me a lot more range with minimal expansion velocities required with cartridges that are easy on the shoulder.
I’ve been hunting elk a lot of years and have subscribed in the past to magnums and premiums. There was a 10 year span in there where I thought I needed my 338 to do this right. Nosler partitions, accubonds and ttsx. All killed elk but the last 5 years or so I’ve gone back to lighter cartridges right down to the 243 and guess what, they die the same.
Whatever makes you confident out there is important but I can’t subscribe to the fudd lore anymore given what I’ve seen and have been shown by others in ghe last few years.