ORIGINAL: DukhuntChad
I've been hunting with the PowerBelt 295 grain 50 cal bullets with 100 grains of Pyrodex pellet powder. My CVA Eclipse shoots these bullets really well. I've killed around 10 deer with this set up and never had a pass thru. I shot a deer about 5 yards away last week and never found any blood, but did find him about 80 yds away. Should I keep shooting these or try to find a bullet that would give more of a chance of a Pass thru. Like I said I've been really sucessful with the powerbelts, but am afraid it will bite me one day.
Chad
You never mentioned if you were using the lead or copper-clad. You never mentioned if they were hollow-points or aero-tips. Lead bullets fragment alot more. Hollow-points decrease odds of pass-thrus -versus those ofaero-tips. Regular Powerbelts perform best using around 80 gr. of powder. Using more can sometimes lead to a heavier nose during flight - or increased fragmentation, plastic base not properly withstanding the added pressures.... among other things.
Alot of times, no blood trail signals shooting a tad too high - letting blood fill the deer's innercavities. All of the alternative bullets mentioned here are very good performers -- generally decreasethe amount ofyards a deer may run after being hit. There is no formula-guaranteefor pass-thrus - using any combination of bullet, powder, distanceor aim. There's no evidence thatpass-thrus improve harvestations.