You guys worry way too much about the match bullet thing. Ive used nothing but for over a decade now, never had a problem, especially when you shoot the right spot.
I think far too many people (and with some justification) because the marketing hype and then apply some interesting logic. A bullet marketed as a match bullet must have been designed as a match bullet and therefore cannot be expected to work in another other capacity, seems to be the logic. However, if marketing intent or design intent were the determining factors of function, then a lot of products we use today would be products we would not be using. One of my favorite examples is kevlar ballistic vests. Kevlar was designed to be used to replace the steel belting in vehicular tires, not to stop bullets. Hornady originally advertised their A-MAX bullets as match bullets, but then later advertised them for hunting as well after learning how many people were using them for hunting.
I test a variety of bullets on hogs in 6.5 Grendel. Some match bullets perform fairly well. Some are pathetic. Some varmint rounds do very well on hogs, even large boars. Some are pathetic. Most hunting rounds seem to perform as advertised, but a couple I have tried were not very good at all. Some hunting bullets perform exactly as advertised, but that sometimes turns out to not be the type of performance I want. Can't fault the manufacturer for delivering on what they said, however.
A proper hunting bullet is whichever one you can immediately and humanely kill an animal, just because there is a deer on the box doesn’t make it so.
I could not agree more with this statement. I think if you buy most hunting loads that they are apt to be more likely to perform as advertised (so you know what to expect) than you might get from a match bullet because the manufacturer doesn't usually tell you what to expect when using match bullets for hunting.
The OP mentioned a fist sized hole on exit. What I have typically found when I see super large exit holes is not that the bullet is not the only factor at play. Generally the bullet has struck the spine (probably not in his case as the deer traveled some distance before expiring), or other large or dense bone (humerus, head/neck of scapula, femur, portions of pelvis) and the bullet and shards of bone tear out the large exit hole. While I have seen it on hogs, it has been most dramatically apparently on coyotes that are both smaller and much thinner skinned.
Large holes can also result from shots exit at an acute angle, such as on severely quartered shots where the bullet doesn't cross the body laterally, but travels down one side.
From what I have seen of ELD-M in 6.5 Grendel, I would offer that the bullet's behavior can vary quite a bit when going through the body. It may perform akin to a normal hunting bullet and expand nicely, but it may also break up quite irregularly. I know people like them for a variety of game, but their seemingly inconsistent behavior is bothersome.
With that said, use what you find works well for you. If you are able to put game on the ground quickly with the bullet that you are using, why change?