Deckape... haze gray... underway... sound & security watch... memories...

ON POWERBELTS... I used to use them. Rifle shot well with them. I killed one little itty bitty doe, the 295gr Powerbelt blew through both shoulders, breaking both... little deer dropped straight down. Of course, she was a little deer, and only about 25 yards away.

I quit using Powerbelts because they're expensive, and I want the most bullet for my buck. I've gone through packaged Hornady XTPs and the T/C version, and I'used big old Hornady conicals... last season used sabots (.429 XTP wgreen sabot) and they worked okay. Only one of the five deer I shot dropped immediately, and that was because I deliberately shot her i in the shoulder, and so learned that a shoulder hit will drop 'em. I'm pretty well convinced now that the key to killing the deer quickly is hitting the deer in the right place, with bullet choice being a distant second.

I've shot 300gr XTP sabots at the range, my rifle seems to group best with these... I'm going to use that next season, on 100gr Pyrodex. Seems to be a potent enough setup... I've not killed anything with it, but paper ballistics seem to indicate it'll be better than lighter (240-250) gr XTPs. Anyone have real world experience using 300gr sabots, instead of lighter, for whitetail?