ORIGINAL: frontier gander
They shot horrible in my Omega, Loading them was a dirty bore was about as easy as removing cement from a 400 yard old cannon that was soaked in salt water for about 20 years.
Prone to shedding the pedals that form when bullet impacts. Not bad but still limits the size of the hole. I prefer a Big hole all the way through.
Should be interesting to see how they open up, if at all, on game on lung shots.
If you shoot them, swab between shots or else its pretty bad getting them down. I can load sabots easier on a fouled bore than i can with these.
You shot, what 7 shots? and you are ready to condem them? I know of your love for powerbelts, that that is a little early to condem a new bullet in my book.
If you really don't want to swab between shots, use blackhorn 209. I suspect that they would shoot accurately with pyrodex, if you swabbed between shots. Out of my Omega, they shot very well with 777 (with swabbing) and with 209 (without swabbing). They also shot very well out of my KRB with 777 (with swabbing)
You make allowances for powerbelts indeosycries, so you have to make some allowances for FPB's. They ARE larger than bore, so it makes perfect sense that if you use a somewhat dirty powder, they will be too tight to load well without swabbing. AND IT ALSO MAKES SENSE THAT THAT WOULD DETRIMENTALLY AFFECT ACCURACY. The only reason you can load multiple powerbelts without swabbing is that the bullet itself is smaller than bore, and the plastic gives a little.
I have never been able to shoot 15 times without swabbing (even with pyrodex and powerbelts) and have the last five shots be just as accurate as the first 5, but with my Omega, BH 209 and FPB's that happened for me with the last 5 shots making a 2 & 1/2 inch group at 100 yards with a peep sight.
Truth be told, neither of us know much about the FPB's and won't until many critters go down with them. I am taking a wait and see attitude, but for the time being, I personally consider them as good as, if not superior to powerbelts for what I want to do with conicals. Only time with tell if I am right or not. WIth 90 grains of BH 209 behind them, they are going to be getting a try by me this fall.