I got a bunch of the new 338 gr. Platinum Powerbelts last fall, and have been favorably impressed with themahead ofmagnum loads. I'm using 130 gr. of 2F Jim Shockey Gold. One thing that has been interesting is the new skirt they put on this bullet - it is thicker and longer than the original, and has serrations on the inside of its diameter. Recovered bullets still have a little wafer of black plastic attached to the base of the bullet. Apparently, this new skirt is designed to flare out and break away from the base; whereas the old ones were supposed to slip off the stem of the bullet in flight. We used to lube the stem of the bullet on the old ones to guarentee consistent separation.
Today, I was shooting a few of these through my Omega and one round hit almost a foot low from the rest of the group. Examination of the cardboard target and the plywood backer indicated, almost certainly, that the skirt had stayed with the bullet all the way through the target. Initially, I am tempted to lube the skirt of all the rest of the bullets like I used to do with the old ones. But from a design standpoint, this seems almost counter productive. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Thanks. Roskoe
__________________
A man has got to know his limitations . . . . .
Roskoe,Have you ever tried the lube that is for monofiliment fishing lines? I have not tried it on the new Platinium PBs yet but it sure tightened up the regular ones. Lee
No, I haven't. In the past I used Gorilla Grease. I guess at the heart of the matter is that it doesn't appear CVA designed these new skirts to completely release from the bullet. Every recovered bullet I have seen so far, with the new Platinums, has a black wafer of plastic still attached to the stem at the base of the bullet. The rest of the skirt appears to be scored so it will flare out and break away as soon as the bullet leaves the muzzle. I have shot almost 40 of these so far, and this is first one that clearly carried the entire skirt downrange 100 yards. Hit a foot low. Maybe it was a bad skirt that someone/something in quality control should have caught before it left the factory. I'm sureglad this wasn't the bullet I had in the pipe when lining up on a big bull elk out there at towards thelimits of my effective range. []
__________________
A man has got to know his limitations . . . . .
Platinum Powerbelt Skirts
]
