How effective are the Bore Driver ELD X Muzzleloader Bullets? | 100-yard Ballistic Gel Test
Hype or Hunt? Hornady released their latest Muzzleloader bullet this year in the Hornady Bore Driver ELD-X. The Bore Driver ELD X are a muzzleloading take on Hornady's popular ELDX bullet found in a variety of calibers for center-fire rifles. The Bore Driver variant pulls the same "skirt" from the BoreDriver FTX and adds it to the base of this LONG, 340 Grain copper jacketed bullet.
Today we’re on the range testing the new for 2023 Hornady Bore Driver ELD X bullets. We’re testing these bullets at 100 yards using a regulation 100 yard muzzleloading target. We’ll be shooting the ELD X out of my CVA Accura LR V2. This muzzleloader may not be the latest and greatest, but it’s been a workhorse for me. For propellant in this test, I’m going to be testing 80 grains of Blackhorn 209 measured by weight.
Before we get into the test, I want to mention that you shouldn’t use my tests as a substitute for your own testing and practice. Just because something works for me doesn’t mean it will for you. It’s our responsibility as hunters and outdoorsmen to be proficient with our equipment and take ethical shots.
Test Parameters
Rifle: CVA Accura LRV2 (Originally released in 2015)
Bullet: Hornady ELD-X (Purchased randomly from a retailer)
Powder: 80 Grains of Blackhorn 209 (Measured by weight, this is 4 grains less than the max charge)
Primer: Federal “Blue Box” 209 Shotshell Primer
Distance: 100 yards
Ballistic Gel Block: Instead of trying my own homemade gel for this test, I bought a 6”x6”x16” “Clear Ballistics” gel block. This is a 10% Gel Block that meets FBI Standards for ballistic testing. Backing the gel I’ve placed a water-filled 1 gallon milk jug and two wood blocks to ensure I trap the bullet.
This is a concession to the test as I don’t think the gel will fully stop in the gel, so there may be some distortion from the water and wood.
The Test
As with just about every bullet I shoot with blackhorn out of this rifle, the Hornady ELD-X Bore Driver bullet broke true and found its target down range, clobbering the gel and busting the water jug behind it.
Hornady Bore Driver ELD-X Ballistic Gel Results
Looking at the gel, we have an interesting result. Instead of one large wound that diminishes over time, we have two. The first large wound looks like it was possibly caused by part of the copper jacket coming loose. The second large wood is adjacent to the polymer bullet tip, could this be part of the cause?
The gel itself wasn’t enough to stop the bullet, but we were able to recover it in the water jug at the back of the table. The recovered bullet shares some similarities with the other tests we’ve seen done online.
The Hornady Bore Driver ELD-X Muzzleloading bullet comes as a 340 grain bullet. We recovered 310.6 grains of bullet outside the gel.
For a more in depth test of the Bore Driver ELD-X, check out this thread by “El Diablo” on the Modern Muzzleloading Forum.
