ORIGINAL: cayugad
Getting back to the Powerbelts, we should start a thread for anyone that has shot anything with a powerbelt. When they tell of their experience, list Powerbelt type. rifle used, twist of rifle, powder charge, distance to animal, kind of animal, where the powerbelt hit, damage done, pass through or not, distance the animal traveled after shot, blood trail if any, recovered or not, and final their personal opinion of the performance of the projectile. Then I think a person could paint a picture of the true powerbelt.
Besides, it would make a good conversation and some interesting hunting stories...
cayugad,
Last year I spent considerable amount of time researching the results of powerbelts. Knowing the charge and range of impact, I was able to calculate impact velocities. There was alot of data on the 295 PB because it is the one most often used. Here is what I discovered. The 295 PB needs an impact velocity below 1300 fps to get pass through penetration. And a PB impacting at 1200 fps is more likely to pass through (
in fact none with impact velocity below 1200 fps failed to pass through)than one at 1300 fps. Charges for all lead HOLLOWPOINT should be chosen so that the expected impact velocities will be below 1300 fps, though below 1200 fps is ideal.
For expected impact velocities above 1300 fps, chose a solid point or a jacketed hollowpoint. Very simple. I might add that I have freely shared the results of this analysis with Chap.
If you recall, I didn't have a favorable opinion of powerbelts last year in January. But the truth will change one'smind. The same is true of roundball. I had only hunted once with roundball and had a bad experience which was the result of poor placement. I was 15 years old at the time. The opinions of others influenced me such that I had never hunted with them since. Thanks to your shared experiences and those of many other members of this forum, I changed my opinion of roundballs and now look forward to hunting with themin with my next rifle, a .58 cal flinter!