Eld-x

[.270]

  I have very limited experience with these bullets. With very mixed results . First deer was 100 lb doe bang flop. Next deer maybe 150lbs. Hit tight behind shoulder exit middle of ribs. Good blood for first 30 yards. Then blood trail went to one pea sized drop every 30- 40 yards. Straight line distance it made it 500 yards.

  What are your experiences with the eld-x?

[Graybeard]

I have none but I think it is an over hyped version of the standard Hornady Interlock bullets with a plastic tip added and otherwise no real changes. I love the standard Hornady Interlock bullet and have used it to take plenty of game. Adding the plastic tip doesn't do anything to help or hurt in my opinion.

I guess it might technically just be an SST which is an OK bullet and really just amounts to the Interlock with plastic tip added. Yeah that to me sounds just like the new over hyped ELD-X.

If anything the ELD-X has some changes to bullet geometry for supposedly better long range flight characteristics. But internally it's still just an Interlock with a plastic tip added.

Now to address your results. I'm thinking that due to adequate blood trail initially you hit it solidly enough BUT likely above centerline vertically or certainly no lower than middle of deer vertically. Assuming you hit lungs that's a fine bullet placement in my experience but leaves less of a blood trail than a hit lower in chest.

For blood to flow out of a bullet hole the chest cavity basically needs to fill up to that level. Or if the heart is still pumping and the lungs are still getting blood from heart it can sort of spray out.

"EXPERTS" say to aim 1/3 of the way up the chest from bottom. I don't disagree with that placement but admittedly more often aimed closer to 1/2 way up. I've only had one deer run as far as you mention when shot with a rifle. That was with a .270 Winchester if I recall correctly. I don't remember what bullet I was using. I had one go that far shot with a .44 magnum also.

I have no real explanation of why other than deer are individuals and how much fight to live they have is gonna vary from deer to deer just as it does in humans. So long as ya found it at the end of that blood trail that's all that really matters.

A sample size of two just isn't enough to judge bullet performance.

[.270]

Two deer isn't a study by any means. Just confused by how dramatically different the results were. I don't think we would have recovered it. If not for hearing the coyotes. By the way the blood trail started I didn't think it was going to make it 50 yards. Which would have been a very acceptable result in my opinion.

[Graybeard]

I once bow shot a buck at around 35 yards. It was a broadside shot thru the lungs. I sat in the stand for perhaps 10 minutes before the need to go see the spot where he was standing got the best of me.

Huge spray of blood from the shot. I figured he couldn't go far so in spite of knowing better I took up the trail expecting to find him dead in short order. The trail was one a blind man could follow with copious blood on the ground. I found where he fell 2 or 4 times with loads of blood on ground each time.

Honestly I thought all the blood he had was on the ground already. But he kept going. I kept following the blood even after it became just a drop on a leaf here and another 10 yards ahead.

Even now all these years later I still don't know what happened to that deer. My best guess is someone else found him and got him out. I lost the trail over a quarter mile from where I shot him. With so much blood on the ground I find it hard to believe he was still on his feet. Blood evidence told me the shot was in the lungs which I already knew.

If that deer was still on its feet where I found that last drop of blood it sure could operate with darn little blood.

A deer shot thru heart or lungs can run easily 100 yards on sheet will to live. Even if blood isn't flowing to the brain they can go that far. Beyond that I sure don't know how they do it.

That deer was double lunged and yet I lost the blood trail over a quarter mile from where I hit him with a blood trail that looked as if someone was throwing out buckets of blood. I have no explanation for such a thing. Perhaps your buck falls into that same category, maybe there just is no explanation.