Here is a video showing the testing....sorry for the amateur dialogue and video!

Hornady ELD-X Penetration Testing

We shoot the Hornady 143 Grain ELD-X into wet phone books as well as several other bullets for comparison with a .260 Remington.

We also shoot the SST 140 grain out of the 6.5 Creedmoor into the phone books.

Interesting results....

jungle, thanks for sharing your test results. I have found that a bullets penetration depth is determined by how much it expands, e.g., if a bullet expands to a larger diameter on impact, it will transfer more energy more quickly and penetrate less than a similar bullet that doesn't expand to as large a diameter. Did your AccuBond have the least expansion diameter of the group? I have had numerous examples where the same bullet impacting at a longer range (less energy) will out penetrate the one shot at closer range because it expanded less.

I have tested the terminal performance a .308 178gr ELD-X looking for its minimum opening velocity. At an impact velocity of 1650 fps, the bullet did not expand, just started to yaw on impact and over-penetrated. Hornady does not list a minimum opening velocity but does show nice expansion at 1800 fps in their picture. The second test had an impact velocity of 1740 fps and the .308 ELD-X did expand well. Looks like its minimum opening velocity is around 1700 fps. The picture below is the same recovered bullet just the image on the left shows the orientation that the bullet penetrated. Slightly yawed but still with a nice 0.6"+ mushroom. There wasn't a very large temporary wound channel but the ELD-X did better than any of the 130gr to 168gr .308 monolithic bullets I tested in this speed range.

However, a bullet's expansion is determined by energy not by velocity alone. Example, Nosler claims their AccuBond Long Range has a min opening velocity of 1300 fps. That is for their heavy .308 bullet. The .270 ABLR has a min opening velocity of around 1500 fps which is around the same energy level. Thus, the min opening velocity of the .308 ELD-X may not apply to your 6.5mm ELD-X. If its constructed with the same copper jacket then your min opening velocity should be at a higher velocity (same energy level), if a thinner copper jacket than the .308 ELD-X then you might have a similar opening velocity. I know that Berger uses the same copper jackets for 6.5, .277, and 7mm bullets but don't know what Hornady did with their ELD-X. Can you measure your jacket thickness?