Powerbelt shooting.

[frontier gander]

I first started out with the deer creek, got good groups, nothing i was to happy about, went back inside, grabbed the traditions kentucky flinter and was Really happy with the groups i was getting, even though i forgot to use pillowticking patches

Beautiful cloudless, almost windless day, 56* "Nice T-shirt weather"
Loaded up the CVA Mountain Stalker .50cal, 100 grains Pyrodex Select "My cheek hurts" 295 grain Hollow Point Powerbelt "Chapbelts, Chap donated them to me"
Found a 1.25lb Plastic Icecream container, Took everything outside and went and set the container up "58 yards" and packed it with a mixture of wet/almost dry sand.
Went back to my shooting Log, Capped, Aimed and squeezed the trigger and i see the container jump in the air and tip over. Went and dug through it and found a couple small fragments, then dug deeper and found the entire bullet.

Loaded up again with 90 grains pyrodex Select, same bullet load, same yardage, Capped, aimed and fired, Bullet hit 3/8" to the right of the first shot, Dug though and found the bullet and it had just one small section of Pedals missing on the corner. Overall i was happy with it.

Next shot was with,... Can ya guess? Hmm? Anyone?
80 grains Pyrodex Select, same bullet,same yardage.
Aimed,fired and again saw the container jump in the air and tip over. Shot #3 hit just under a 1/2" high of #1 shot. This Mtn. Stalker is one hell of a shooting rifle if you dont mind the sore cheek. I blame my big head, Not the rifle

I would say it's safe to use 85 grains Max with the 295 grain powerbelt if you are shooting out to 100 yards and want it to hold together incase you get a close range shot.

Take a look at the 100 grain charge Powerbelt, Can you imagine what this bullet would look like if i were using that 150 grain mag charge? I'd have to be dressed in a Flax Jacket to be protected from the fragments.

Top to bottom:
100 grain Pyro Select " Fragmented"
90 grains Pyro Select " Slightly fragmented"
80 grains Pyro Select " My recommended charge, and the bullet that mushroomed perfectly with no issues"

[Semisane]

Well, that tells the story pretty well Gander. Got any Gold Dots to repeat the test with?

[frontier gander]

ORIGINAL: Semisane

Well, that tells the story pretty well Gander. Got any Gold Dots to repeat the test with?

I could buy'em But it wouldnt do me any good, I sold all the inlines

Ah Ha! I found some 255 grain maxiballs for my .45! I'm going to lube them up and shoot a couple tomorrow.
Wish i wouldnt have shot the kentucky today, I shot up all my powerbelt lead Round balls. That would have been interesting to see how they compaired to store bought.
Guess i'll be spending a couple days molding 45s 50s and 54's as soon as my Two molds come in.

[lemoyne]

I bumped into an other besides you that still uses them, you suppose they will get popular all over again ? I can remember back just before inlines when they were real popular, people sort of lost interest when they came out with all the good flat shooting stuff. Lee

[frontier gander]

ORIGINAL: lemoyne

I bumped into an other besides you that still uses them, you suppose they will get popular all over again ? I can remember back just before inlines when they were real popular, people sort of lost interest when they came out with all the good flat shooting stuff. Lee

Almost every hunter i've run into, in Colorado is using them. They are popular here. Even the Knight guys are using them.

[frontier gander]

Okay this works for me!

Goex users can use 100 grains of FFg Goex and have a bullet that works perfect with close range shots.
Pictured below is 100 grains FFg Goex and a 295 grain hollow point powerbelt. When i pulled the trigger, I jumped up off that log so fast, I thought my barrel exploded! That damn 6lb rifle kicked me so hard and the amount of smoke that came out was just amazing. That rifle gave off such a high pitch crack when the powder lit up

Heres the picture of the recovered Powerbelt, Along with the rifle and the group it shot today, All on a dirty barrel, No need to swab between shots with this'N!!

[frontier gander]

Yeah, I did it again. I was getting all my .50cal speedloaders and found one that had a 295 grain aerotip Powerbelt. Yup, We all know what i did lol. Down went 100 grains FFg Goex and the Aerotip into the mountain stalkers barrel. Setup the icecream container, capped and fired. The Aerotip shot 3" higher than the hollow points but was still center with the rest of the other shots.

I was amazed when i found the bullet. The Aerotip protects the center/base of the bullet as i just found out today.

When i compare the Hollow Point VS Aerotip, The Hollow point allows the lead at the base of the bullet to spread out and form thick Pedals while the Aerotip Prevents the spreading and leaves a massive amount of lead at the base while the pedals that do form, open up nicely. It reminds me kind of like a broadhead. They are also very sharp as i now have a bandaid on my thumb
But the amount of mass thats in the center/base of the Aerotip is just perfect. Easily 5 to 6 times the mass than what the Hollow point does.

On the Left is the Hollow point. Aerotip is on the Right.




This shows the Mass in the center of the bullet, along with those razor sharp pedals on the outer edges.

[hossdaniels]

As much as I hate powerbelts, I must admit thats some fine shooting. Everyone around here likes to shoot to fast for em and found out the hard way. Looks like they work well at that speed. A-

[corey012778]

pritty cool. that is good to see that spend alot of free time doing.
btw, what is up with your time stamp on your camera.

[frontier gander]

I had it off the charger for a few days and the battery went dead. Had to change'em out. Those battery packs they put in them are crap.