Should I Use ELEY match Ammunition for Hunting Instead of Hunting Ammunition?

ELEY’s own answer starts with the thing that decides the outcome: accuracy in hunting is key, and a well-placed shot with any ammunition will do the job. You can use ELEY match for hunting. What you cannot do is let a bullet profile substitute for shot placement. The round that puts its shots where you aim, in your rifle, is the round that works in the field.

With that established, the two ranges are engineered to solve different problems, and it is worth choosing deliberately. ELEY match is engineered to put a flat-nose bullet into the smallest possible group on a 50 m paper target. ELEY’s two hollow-points, subsonic hollow and high velocity hollow, are engineered for terminal performance on quarry. Both are made to the same manufacturing standards in the same factory; they simply have different design briefs written into the bullet.

The Design Difference, Side by Side

*Group size is used when statistical precision is not required.

All three share ELEY’s universal .22LR specification: 25.4 mm / 1 inch cartridge length, ballistic coefficient 0.112, drag model RA4, ideal strike depth 0.012-0.015 in and recommended headspace 0.040-0.041 in.

What the Flat Nose Is For

The flat-nose bullet is a patented ELEY design, developed in 2003, and it exists to serve one job: accuracy on paper. As the projectile cuts through the air, the flat nose pulls the centre of pressure forwards, aerodynamically stabilising the bullet and increasing accuracy at the target. It also cuts a clean, clearly defined hole in a paper target, which is how scores are decided.

ELEY match is graded on Radial Standard Deviation (RSD), which averages the distance of every shot from the group’s mean point of impact. Its published maximum is 4.74 mm, established by testing 200 rounds from every batch across four different firearm brands. Its beeswax-tallow lubricant is softer, thicker and stickier, chosen to minimise the effects of repeated chambering in a target rifle.

Every element of that specification is optimised for the 50 m competition target, which is what ELEY’s own discipline guidance reflects: match is recommended as the alternative to tenex for ARA Factory benchrest and for ISSF and Olympic smallbore.

What the Hollow Nose Is For

The hollow-point range starts from the opposite end of the problem: what the bullet does when it arrives.

ELEY subsonic hollow is a hunting cartridge with target shooting accuracy and reduced velocity, offering a quieter muzzle report compared with other .22LR hunting rounds. ELEY’s design intent for its innovative hollow-nosed profile is unequalled expansion characteristics, giving short penetration with outstanding stopping power. ELEY describes those as the essential features for vermin control. It is designed for standard rifle barrel lengths.

ELEY high velocity hollow is built around a low-antimony, soft-lead hollow-point projectile that accelerates to high velocity while retaining the structural characteristics needed for controlled expansion and deep penetration on small game and pest species.

Neither behaviour is something a flat-nose target bullet is designed to produce, because a target bullet has no reason to expand. Both hollow-points carry paraffin wax lubricant, thinner, harder and drier than beeswax-tallow, less prone to picking up debris in the field and less likely to clog a semi-automatic mechanism.

The Sensible Way to Use Both

Plenty of shooters own both, and that is a perfectly rational setup:

• For quarry, use the cartridge designed for terminal performance: subsonic hollow where a quiet report and short penetration matter, high velocity hollow where reach and deeper penetration matter.
• For paper, practice and club target shooting, ELEY match gives you a flat-nose bullet at 4.74 mm RSD with a lubricant suited to a target rifle.
• Zero with the ammunition you hunt with. A different bullet weight, profile and velocity lands somewhere different: match is 2.59 g / 40 gr, both hollow-points are 2.46 g / 38 gr. Confirm your zero with the round that goes in the magazine when you go out.
• Prioritise the shot. Whichever round is in the chamber, accuracy is what does the work in the field. Practise at the distances you actually shoot.

ELEY ammunition is supplied in 50-round boxes, 500-round bricks and 5,000-round outer cases. Stockists are listed at eley.co.uk/retailers.

[ELEY TO ADD: any market-specific legal requirements on bullet type or minimum energy for particular quarry species that ELEY wishes to reference here.]

The Bottom Line

Accuracy in hunting is key, and a well-placed shot with any ammunition will do the job, so ELEY match will account for quarry if you shoot it well. Where you have the choice, use each range for what it was engineered for: ELEY match for the smallest possible group on a 50 m target, with a patented flat-nose bullet held to a 4.74 mm RSD; ELEY subsonic hollow or ELEY high velocity hollow for quarry, because expansion, penetration and report were the design brief those cartridges were written to.

Whichever you shoot, the last step is the same: find the lot that suits your barrel. Book a batch test at eley.co.uk/vip, and if you shoot ELEY match, look your batch up on the free Lot Analyser at eleyxshot.com, which now carries all lots for ELEY tenex, ELEY tenex pistol, ELEY tenex biathlon, ELEY tenex rapid fire pistol, ELEY match, ELEY semi-auto .22LR benchrest precision, ELEY ultra and ELEY club. The firearm, the ammunition and the shooter are the Triangle of Success, and matching the ammunition to the task is the first half of getting it right.