12-17-2022, 12:42 AM
Stinky Coyote Wrote:yes, good clarification to make here and I maybe worded that poorly, she's a sliding scale of retention to impact velocities, the eld-m does the same thing as impact velocities drop, not sure where 90%+ retention starts but I know it's going to start somewhere about 2000 or below. I'd guess about 1900 fps at this point. I wish I could have seen my 1800 fps impact from last years long doe, due to the exit and what I seen from exit its I'm assuming it was 90%+, and likely similar to this 1700 fps example just larger expansion/mushroom
we know it's ~95% at 1700 fps, and ~80% at 2100 fps from just two documented examples, the more we get the better, we may be able to fill out a bit of an 'expectation chart' for most body hits on big game as we collect more recovered examples?
if I had to whip up a retention/impact velocity chart and assuming things linear this what it would look like right now lol
100% 1600 fps and lower
96% 1700 fps (known whitetail example)
92% 1800 fps
88% 1900 fps
84% 2000 fps
80% 2100 fps (known whitetail example)
76% 2200 fps
72% 2300 fps
68% 2400 fps
however it won't be a linear relationship the front end and I don't mean retention in terms of all one piece recovered, I mean how much you'll find even if 3-5 pieces, we get a few more examples and will be able to give a better idea of these things but people can start visualizing off this, my observations on faster closer impacts where I've pulled shrapnel is maybe ~50% will end up the low end retention number
the closer or higher impact velocities we get rapid fragmenting expansion characteristics while still maintaining great penetration depths, we have been smashing black bears pretty close up and getting exits to offside hides on larger quartering bears with eld-m, this 1700 fps example is so good for showing closer to the end of the limits for the bullet to do good work, maybe 1500-1600 fps is the outer limit as the guy who shot the antelope at 752 yards with 24" AR figured 1500 fps impact with a-max (same bullet different tip density as eld-m) and it was a high shoulder shot that exited but blood out nose/mouth shows he got enough expansion/upset to catch lungs....good luck getting any of the tougher bullets to open up down to those velocities, so for those who may want shorter barrels like this guy with his 12" AR/320 yard buck/1700 fps impact...or those who want to shoot longer ranges from standard length barrels...the eld-m can do it all, every other bullet choice is a compromise to that versatility imo, the peak is the eld-m, you move downward from there
So do we think ELDM or SST in 123 grain flavor is the better hunting bullet? Maybe there is little difference in the field?