OzFclass

I was dillydallying on my Ballistic Explorer with the BER 180 VLD, SMK 183 and the BER 184 HYB. There was not as much difference as I expected. For the same deviation (my parameters) the MV's were 2935, 2900 and 2895.( Food for thought.)

What I saw in passing, and can hardly believe, is the Hornady 180 ELD Match. Its equivalent was an astounding 2630 !!!!???

I have always had the highest regard for Hornady bullet design and have tod them so. When I suggested that they might improve quality control, they laughed and suggested I buy from match makers.

My (long ago) experience with Hornady A Max was you dumped 70%, making them a very expensive match bullet.

If 30% of their 180 ELD Match are up to scratch, with a 10% advantage, then need very serious consideration.

I have never seen one.

Any one with experience could be a hero.

Regards,
John T.

I shot the 140 ELD Match in 6.5. It was good but the Berger VLD proved to be just a tad better.
Point to note, despite the claimed BC, with the same powder charge, primer and seating, both came out of the barrel at roughly the same speed and landed in roughly the same place.

Hornady say lots about how they establish their BC, and even use the word "standard" but I remain unconvinced that there is a standatd test, or even a standard calculation used to provide a published BC.
You can compare Bergers with Bergers, Hornady with Hornady or Sierra with Sierra, but apples and oranges they are.

Ummm , John , looks can be deceiving. My opinion the Bc G 7 is more around the .370 -.380 ( Hornady Claim .401) which is still good . But I believe there is some dynamic stability issues in a 9 twist . Even though doing the Sg calcs with a plastic tip gave indication of a well stabilised projectile . I did the calcs on this forum somewhere on this forum around September 2018 , when I was looking for a replacement for Bergers .

Now I know this is a fact from my experiences , that in a 9 twist at Belmont 180 Eld’s suck ! They really suffer at 1000 yds . The poor dynamic stability amplified the vertical that can happen at this challenging range !
This proved to be the same in testing at Muckadilla 900 yds between Berger and ELd’s . The Bergers were just better in the choppy conditions!

However at 800 yds the eld’s in a slow load in the 280 Ai grouped very strong ! But the conditions didn’t have vertical rubbish at that detail .
Bare in mind I was recovering from a scope failure and sorting out the 280 ai and sorting eld’s !! Was a little bit of a tough year last year !!!

Ok so I trialed them in my 7-08 ai at Warwick which had some vertical chop coming of the mound and also coming off the above problems , I also really sucked as a wind reader ! But the Eld’s seem to be more sensitive to wind shear !??? My opinion!

But go back 2018 Northarm, 7-08 ai ( everyone has their little favourite cal !) eld’s won the 300 m 60.8 then did ok first 500 day two when conditions were calm . ( think I won it ?)

They measure very well base to metplate and base to ogive . But you really need to weigh them as they go from 179.5 gr with most weighing 179.95 and some in the 180.1 area . This can play havoc with SD’s and extreme spreads.
Please note all my ammo was what I call “ Super Match “ Grade . Which is just anal ammo ! So vert not from that I believe and results were repeated several times with 7-08 ai , .284 and a quite highly tuned .280 ai as a test bed . Which also included 1000 yds paddock testing in choppy conditions.

So I can only conclude in a 9 twist in calm conditions these projectiles are quite good . But at
Belmont 1000 yds , is just suicide !

If anyone has Better results with a 8 twist ???

Oh ... ok ... would I use them ???? Only at club level , even a week ago at 600 yds the wind was fishtailing from 11 to 7 o’clock and they suffered.
Sd of 8.2 over 20 shots