i went hunting last week for some freezer food, and shot a cow eland, probable weight 400-500 lbs., from about 100 yards. it was a standing broadside shot, using a hornady .376 steyr spire point, 270 grain jacketed bullet. the eland went about 5 yards before piling up. at gutting, this piece is all that was found. note complete core/jacket separation, an apparent nice mushroom of the core, but the bullet is sheared almost in half. this piece weighed in at 130.4 grains, just under 1/2 of the bullet's original weight. the bullet hit mid shoulder, left a 2 inch hole into the rib cage behind that and about a 3 inch hole on the other side of the rib entry. obviously the eland died quickly but i am surprised at the destruction of the bullet. and please do not flame me for using these, they are a reasonably priced round and have killed everything i have shot with it. i most likely will have the brass reloaded with something else in the future, possible barnes x or xlc. i still have over 200 rounds so i will keep using them until they are gone.
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Some might say "at what point in the animals death did the bullet fail???"

However I "think" that the 225 Hornady is a fairly soft bullet.
Soft bullets work good on broadside shots...

But I would not want to try a raking shot with a "soft" soft.

It would not hurt to find a load with a tougher soft, incase a raking shot was needed.

For an example, even with a 308 when hunting pigs or deer, if I am in a blind, I usually use a 168 Ballistic Tip.

If I am "walking them up", then I use a 150 Barnes X, a 165 Trophy Bonded Bearclaw, or a Nosler 180 Partition...

imho, 50% weight retention is bullet failure due to construction.

now, don't tell the boys using BTs that, they'll claim you are crazy .. you can't expect to find anything that big, they'll say .. "crazy talk" .. etc

comparing ANY cup and core bullet to X-type bullets only results in the Xtype beating it hands down.

the 225gr sp hornady is a nice hunting round, but is NOT tough...

in fact, Hornady recognizes that the needed newer and tougher bullet, have been working on it for years, and now has the DGS and DGX

your cow was a bit on the small side, yeah? normally closer to 800 for a cow, though eland are fairly tough critters, in terms of build and hide and muscle ..

An Eland is just a darned big animal. Summer of 2009 I hit a large one quartering away at 186 yards in South Africa.

Was using a .458 AR (yeah Jeffe!) loaded to 2400 fps using a 425 gr Rhino solid shank bonded bullet. He almost dropped at the shot and was down and dead in 10 yards. The bullet went in just behind the left shoulder, tracked through the vitals making a wreck of him and got lost in the offside shoulder muscle. The angle was upward due to the rise of the terrain.

Unfortunately, the skinners did not find the bullet. Wanted to see it, and asked that they look carefully!

BTW: The same load blew through a good sized Wildebeast with ease literally knocking him over and yielding an instant kill.

The point is that even a cannon may not get through everything with a soft regardless of how well it performs. Have had better luck with Barnes Xs ... having only had one recovered after lodging under the skin of a Cape Buffalo after breaking the femur and traversing the entire length of the buf's body.

I also have a .376 Steyr that is not quite finished needing to be rust blued. Will use the 225s for everything except large bear and African hunting ... where I will use the Barnes X.

thanks for the replies. the eland was not a real old cow, so the weight was down, but it will still fill the freezer. i really like the rifle because it is light, short and easy to transport and haul around in the field. i shot an asiatic cow buffalo with this rifle, but never recovered the bullets, other than the finishing round from the neck, as they were in the middle of the gut pile. i will keep using it but definitely look for better bullets.