I have been reading a bit and am looking for some unbiased or at least the least biased info on this cartridge. I will be shooting up to 200 meters, with 100-125 being a typical shot. However, I would like to be able to make shots up to 300 on the range with the same ammo.
Obviously, a round capable of taking a deer through the shoulder is important and I would like an exit wound. Still, I would like to dump a lot of energy into the animal. Maybe shedding 30-40% of the bullet’s mass and a lot of expansion would be appropriate to dump energy, but retain enough mass to exit.
Being that I would still shoot at the range, I would like to keep the cost below $1.50 a round and know I am not going to misfire when it’s time to take a buck.
I will leave it open to discussion.

Hornady eld-x has been good to me so far. A lot of guys use the eld-m, which,I imagine would give you more shedding of weight as it is a target round.

Lots of good killing bullets given the velocity window of the 6.5 CM, which is another of it's endearing qualities. A 139 Scenar, 143 ELDX, 130 AB, 147 ELDM, 140 partition to name a few.

It depends on your barrel length on the 6.5 CM. I’ve seen guys shoot 18” barrels run the 143 eldx shooting factory Hornady ammo running slow at 2550 FPS. That bullet was ice picking through game. If you have a longer barrel and can get your speeds up to 2700 or faster, then the bullet will have some expansion. I like the 140 eldm as a good dual purpose round for target and hunting. If you want a faster round, the 130 eldm would really well also.

But, your wish list of an exit wound and dumping a lot of energy into the animal are opposites. To dump a lot of energy you need good bullet expansion. For an exit wound you want a Bullets to hold together well and penetrate which lessens the amount of energy dump. A good tough bullet would be a 130 accubond, but would raise your cost some. So, where do you want to compromise?

If I’m running a 6,5 CM, I’m shooting a 130 or 140 grain eldm and having some fun!

Welcome to the forum-- since Chad decided to be modest I will go ahead and make some recommendations.

6.5CM hunting round-- based off the distances you discuss I'm assuming you are hunting whitetail deer, maybe pigs and most likely around a feeder.

1. BUY CHAD'S AMMO!

For the price you cannot beat what you are getting-- his 'Speedmoor' load gets a verified 2850fps with a 140gr ELDM from a 24" barrel which absolutely torches anything from the factory. Quality is second to none. I've shot quite a few animals with the Amax (the ELDM predecessor) and they perform wonderfully on whitetails, pigs and even Red Stag.

Most recently a good sized sow (150lbs) took a 140gr ELDM 'Speedmoor' through both shoulders, stopping just offside hide, dropped in her tracks at just over 100 yards.

2. Take Jason's class!! -- He will make 800 yards feel like 300 and you will never be more confident in yourself and your rig when you head out hunting.

Hornady 143 grain ELD-X has been great for me. Between me and my boys, we have taken deer sized game from 75-300 yards with it. Have been shooting factory Hornady ammo, but will be sending my empty brass to Chad for refills.

I’ve had a lot of success with Hornady precision hunter 143 eldx on Deer the last few years. Bang, flop.

really dont even need to handload for the creedmoor, lots of good factory ammo out there very cheap, and the creed needs nothing special in way of bullet construction go's. first animal i killed with my new to me creedmoor was a big hog using hornady standard 129gr btsp. intentionaly shot him in the shoulder and it blew right through , but it dropped him. on a big buck it did fail and come apart, found under the off side skin with core seperation, dropped him also. blew through a few other hogs and deer.
im currently using winchester 125 gr xp, it has a big tip covering a large hollow point which means to me rapid expansion. took a 175lb buck with that one and it blew through ,dropping him also.
my buddy shot several with the 143 eldx factory ammo and it did leave some big nasty holes.
i found some federal non typical 140 gr it was 16 bucks a box. its shot ok in my gun nothing great but would easily hunt, i bet it would work just fine too. the 125gr win. xp is 20 bucks a box and shoots lights out in my gun. cant find no info on the bullet as far as bc and sd. but i pulled one and put it next to my 130 gr accubond and they are identical in length.
oh my buddy has killed a few with the federal fusion ammo and hes not liking the results, says hes pin holeing them.

I have killed deer from 60-300ish yards using the Federal Non-Typical. My rifle really likes the stuff for some reason. I always get pass through shots and all deer have piled up within 10 yards. I double lunged a doe at 300 yards last season and the Non-Typical performed flawlessly. I am lucky my gun likes it because it may be the cheapest 6.5 ammo available.

I appreciate all the feedback. I found some precision eld x 143g for $29 a box. After tax it came out to be $1.56 a round. I haven’t shot any yet. I will hunt the opener with my 30-06. Nobody is walking away from any load shot with this.
After I get it shot in, I will let you guys know how it performs.

Is there any range around here to take 200-300 meter shots? I saw the place near Granbury, but I not going to pay a membership to play around a few times a year. I’m not that serious.

^^ That same factory ammo was running 1900 fps in a 16" creedmoor bolt gun. I thought my chrono was broken it was so slow. I have seen on multiple occasions the factory ammo running very slow. That 143 ELDX will have trouble opening up and exp-anding, and would most likely ice pick straight through. Report back to us after you shoot something with it.

I haven't seen any issues with the eld-x not doing it's job. That said, I do handload, and I am shooting it out of a 24" barrel, so I doubt that I am having velocity issues. I have not had a chance to run it through the Chronograph yet, but I'll try to do that Friday before the opener.

^^^ Correct. The longer barrels get the velocity up, and handloading usually gets your velocities up more than factory. Velocity helps the ELDX open up.

I don’t use heavy for caliber bullets for deer and hog hunting, and prefer using 120 gr Nosler Ballistic Tips. It’s a deadly bullet and has exited on all deer I’ve used it on. I rarely get exits on pigs. The longest shot on deer so far was 300 yards, and 400 on a pig or two. For what the OP wants to do, I’d go with a bullet weight between 100 and 130 grains. I used 100 BTs in my 260 for about 5 years, and it killed like a laser beam. I’ve since moved to 120’s, but really can’t say that it’s more effective.

Don’t worry about the BC of a hunting bullet, unless you are going for really long shots. It’s a non-issue inside 400 yards. As for velocity, I have a 20” barrel on my rifle, and I want a MV of around 3000 FPS. I can’t quite get there with the 120’s, but I can get reasonably close. My preference is the lighter bullet and short barrel over the heavy bullet and long barrel, and I sure don’t want a short barrel and a heavy bullet (heavy slow bullet).

Chad, what is the min velocity for the eld-x to open up?

Not 100% sure. But I've taken many phone calls with hunters complaining about the 143 ELDX not opening up and ice picking through game, including pigs. Almost all were shooting factory ammo and running shorter barrels. My 6.5 Speedmoor ammo is a good solution, or going down to an ELDM bullet, or dropping down in bullet weight, like a 123 or 130 grain, to gain velocity. We generally go to the 130 or 140 ELDM for easier expansion. But a 130 grain ELDM in a 6.5 CM would be a very good choice for Texas hunting, IMO. I'd lean towards that.

Bullets have increased expansion the faster you push them (generally). The slower they go, the harder it is for them to open up. Different bullets require different velocities depending on how tough the bullet is. The ELDX is a controlled expansion bullet, and is very tough. The jacket is thicker and gets thicker the further down the bullet you go. (Here's a good cut away I found on the bullet). It also depends on what you hit. I've seen several animals hit in the lungs with ice pick wounds. There's not much substance there to open up the bullet. Put that bullet in the shoulder, and your results may change. But my rule of thumb is about 2500 fps or more velocity at impact. Or, go to a softer bullet for easier expansion. For example, I wouldn't recommend a 180 grain Barnes TSX in a 308 Win with a shorter barrel. The muzzle velocity of about 2500 maybe 2600 fps, would have an impact velocity of about 2300 fps, and that bullet would not expand. Generally, if you can launch a bullet about 2800 to 2900 fps, you will have good expansion on almost everything you hit. So, I lean towards going lighter in weight to gain speed. If you are hunting a bigger and tougher animal, you can keep up the bullet weight for increased penetration and good expansion in the more dense animal. I don't think there is any magic velocity, though, that will guarantee expansion. There's many variables to consider. But what I like to do is minimize the conditions that would cause the bullet to not expand. I also like to cater the right bullet to the rifle with the game being hunted. Some of my most interesting phone calls are guys wanting a round for varmints, deer and elk. Ok, with those parameters, I have to lean to the toughest critter, which is the elk. So we pick a good premium bullet. That same premium bullet will still kill a coyote. But a light weight V-max bullet going fast wouldn't be an optimal choice to kill an elk. I get that question asked all the time.


ELD-X

Do we know what length barrel the OP has?

Barrel length is 22”. It’s a howa 1500.

I left the ELD-X and went to Sierra Gameking in 140gr with great results. 9 bang/flop kills in the last 18 months on deer and pigs.

I shot two does Sunday morning with Chad's Speedmoor 143 ELDX load. The first shot was slightly quartering-to at 263yds, I put it in the shoulder-chest crease and probably got the bottom of the spine in addition to lungs, etc. She went straight down so I really didn't autopsy but the devastation was evident when I cleaned her. Second doe was ~230yds, perfectly broadside. I hit her just a little higher than I wanted, taking a good portion of the top of the lungs but not all. I don't know if I got a rib on the way in but I must have on the way out as the exit wound was easily 1.5". She had some adrenaline going from watching her friend go down and made 75 yds in the brush. Bloodtrail was easy to follow and was evident from her first step.

I've shot several animals with the 143 ELDX and it has not let me down yet. About half of them went straight down, the longest track was the doe above. I mostly shoot for heart-lung area. These are the ones I could recall quickly

Spike - 0 yds, head
Doe - 35 yds, huge blood trail heart/lungs
Buck - 15 yds, heart
Doe - 0 yds, heart/lungs
Doe - 0 yds lungs
Doe - 5 yds lungs
Pronghorn - 0 yds, lung/spine.
Doe - 0 yds chest/lung/spine
Doe - 75 yds - lungs

16" bolt suppressed.

OP, for your parameters, try a 140 grain Sierra Gameking. It will not be finicky within the range of velocity your 6.5 operates in. In my experience, heavy for caliber, high SD soft point cup and core at modest velocities is the recipe for good energy transfer and deep penetration on deer sized game, and what earned it the reputation of killing beyond its weight.

Pretty dumb for Hornady to release a long range hunting bullet that won't open at reduced speeds.

I think the new Speer Impact will likely be much better in that regard since its a high BC, tipped, skived, FUSION bullet.

https://www.speer-ammo.com/news?id=1183

Downed a 10 point buck last Thursday at 180 yards. Centered the crosshairs of my 6.5 Creed on its neck, and the 143 ELD-X launched at 2770 fps blew through its neck. It shattered the neck bone and made a nice exit. It was my first time I used an ELD-X on game, hopeful to try a broadside double lung soon on a 2nd buck this season and see the performance.

Here is a Hornady 143 eld-x that I recovered. This deer was quartering towards me more than I thought and the bullet entered just behind the shoulder and ended up tucked against the back ham on the opposite side. 22 in barrel suppressed at 100 yards.