Anyone used these? They have a very slick looking profile. Bought a box of 100 at Academy today just to try them out, bit concerned that my dies may not like them as pointy as they are though. (LEE)

Noticed one reloader video on YT seemed to like 8208XBR. Wanted opinions before I go buy any powder or a different seating die. I have some Reloader 15 and Accurate 2015 I'm going to try those but wanted to see what opinions.

the 75 eld as well as the predecessor, the Amax, is too long for AR mag length. You might be able to make some work, but the relationship off the lands in an AR is not going to ever be good. Save them for a bolt gun, 224 valkyrie, etc.

73 elds were designed for the AR.

Well crap, I looked at a box of 73's right next to them and wondered why not get the 75's... Still going to try to load one up just to see what it looks like at magazine length.

No expert here, but I'm working on developing a load with these right now.  I can share what I've learned at this point and the research I've found.

I'm going to use them in a 24" barrel AR that will function like a bolt rifle with a side charger upper with the gas turned off.  As you probably already know these bullets won't load at magazine length.  Are you going to use them in a bolt rifle or what?

My research showed that CFE223 and R15 were two popular powders for this round, and I already had plenty of both.  They are also two of the powders that produce the highest velocity according to my Hornady 10th.

Even though my 5.56 barrel is an AR, I was able to get this bullet to touch the lands with still enough purchase for the bullet and case neck.  I'm using Berger's suggested method of .010", .050", .090", and .130" off the lands to try and zero in on an optimum setup.

I'm using 24.4g of R15 right now with several rounds in those off-the-lands bullet seatings.  I did fire three of the .010" rounds through my chrono with an average of 2726 fps.  It was windy as heck, so no accuracy check was possible this past week.  It will probably be this next week before I can do more shooting.

Your Lee bullet seater will likely leave a small ring on the bullet just below the ballistic tip.  Of course Lee does offer that service for a small, reasonable price of providing a custom seater if you send them a bullet or if they have that bullet available in their possession...or perhaps have already made a seater for the ELD.

That's about all I have for now.

Well I was planning on firing them from my AR's. I'm going to load up one tomorrow to magazine length to see what it looks like. A friend's father of mine has a .224 Valkyrie rifle so maybe I'll see if he wants to buy some dies or something *shrug*.

Old Army, be careful of getting too much of that bullet into the case to achieve mag length.  You could end up with some high pressure.

That's fine, as long as it's not a .223 or 5.56 AR

Well, all of my AR's are 5.56
Again I'm just going to load 1 to see what it looks like, no powder or primer I'll take pictures and post them later today.

Effenpig, I was just curious on the "as long as it's not a .223 or 5.56 AR" comment...just wasn't clear on it.  I'm guessing you mean the 75g ELD-M was not intended for the AR platform?

While it's clear that Hornady advises that the bullet is not for magazine length applications, they also indicate in the manual that it is applicable for single loading for service rifle competition and longer range target shooting in an AR.

This 24" bull barrel setup I'm using is definitely more suited to longer range target and maybe even some varmint shooting from a fixed position, but others with a "more standard" AR application definitely need to know that this is more of a "special purpose" bullet for the AR platform.

You can always modify magazines to make them work. It’s not ideal, but across the course guys have been doing for years. They cut the front of the magazine off about half of the way down to allow for a longer COAL.

For normal magazines, the 73 eld’s are what you want. They work great with 8208, RL-15 and varget.

They will work for single feed. If you seat them deeply enough to be mag length, the ogive can be below the shoulder allowing the bullet to move freely.

You can load long. Service Rifle shooters often load 0.010” short of engaging the lans.

XBR is a great powder. I used it to leg out.

Well I grabbed my calipers and carefully kept track of where the ogive was, loaded the bullet as deep as I could without passing it. This is what I got.



To my surprise there really wasn't much of a mark left on the bullet from the die. I think since I got them, so they don't just sit on the shelf for who knows how long I'll try a few single loaded with RL15 and see what happens.

A PRI mag with the front cut out can hold 10 rounds of 5.56 loaded to 2.35", so I tried some 75 ELD-M at that length loaded over CFE and shot out of my 18" Stealth barrel.  I went up to 26.5gr without showing any pressure signs, and the result was shotgun patterns at every charge weight.  If anyone else can figure out how to get them to work at that length, I'm all ears.

I also believe the 75gr ELD is way too long for an AR unless you single feed those puppies.

However, I just recently ran some of the Sierra 69gr TMK's with both Varget and XBR8208 (it is an excellent powder for AR's in 5.56) with really good success.  I was shooting them out of my JP-15, 18" 1:8tw barrel.  Unfortunately, the Varget was a little too slow for my purposes, but was very accurate.  The same powder charge in XBR gave about 150fps more speed and was very accurate also.

The 69gr TMK's are about as long as the Hornady 75gr BTHP "Match" projectiles (no poly tip).  They are also long for an AR, right on the cusp of being too long.

I went out and shot some rock chucks with them two weekends ago and it was like a buzz saw going through those damn critters, total annihilation!

I'll single load a few just to see what happens, but what if... is there an easy way to remove the polymer tip without hurting the bullet?

I'll do that, but I still want to use these since I have them. I may just single load them all lol.

Hey, look on the bright side.  You could live in Britain where single shot on an AR is the norm/requirement...LOL!  But seriously, there's a fun and experimental element to single loading these VLD style bullets in an AR.

I have several other AR's for the magazine length rounds.  I'm treating this 24" bull barrel AR like a bench rifle for pushing out to farther range.  This is where reloading can open up some interesting options for performance.  I won't want to tote this 12.15 pound rifle around anyway.  It's right there with two other chassis rifles in other calibers for long range shooting.

Everything's a compromise, and there's some satisfaction in finding out pros and cons of each caliber and just how far you push them.

OP, since you reload, I think you'll have fun with these few cartridges.  For grins, see if you can attain contact with the lands and still maintain enough bullet extension into the case neck.  I was surprised that I was able to do so with my 5.56 bull barrel that I've mentioned here.

*shrug* I was already considering doing that, but didn't think they would reach. But if you were able to get them too...now I'm just curious enough to see.