gregorybraswell

Really trying not to be real critical, Power Belts are not and will never be my choice of ML projectiles. They are a very questionable bullet - sometimes they perform sometimes they do not. I do think part of your problem might have been shooting to light of a PB with a really heavy charge. Remember a PB is nothing more than soft lead formed into a modern looking projectile - in fact is marketed as a conical. Add the polymere tip and I beleive you are creating another problem @ close range.

I am really not the best conical shooter in the world but it has always been my understanding if you are going to shoot a soft all lead projectile - heavier is better and speed (velocity)is not the criticalfactor.

If you want to use that heavy charge, and remember 150 grains of Pryro, is still comparable to 150 grains of BP you might want to look into a physically stronger bullet. Of course I am going to tell you that the Nosler Partitions (260 grain for Deer) is the best and the most time proven bullet out there, but really there are some other great bullets out there, Swift A-Frames, Barnes X-bullets, and others. Even the less expensive Speer Bonded Gold Dots will hold together better than the PB.

The most common reason for using Power Belts is for ease of loading, and they really are, but today with all the different sized sabots available for 50 ML's - difficult loading does not need to be a problem + you can shoot a wide variety of projectiles. Another thought, if you like oading and shooting big conicals there are conicals out there that are desgned to be "slip fit" and load very easily as compared to the old standby conicals. Bull Shop has a great selection of these slip fit conicals.

If you want to continue shooting PB's - I would suggest that you go to a 295 minimum and as much as you do not want reduce your charge to 100 grains of Pyro. If you use T7 you will need to reduce even more.

Hope you find what will really work well for you through all ranges... short to long..