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Old 12-08-2010, 06:17 AM
  #12  
DCM
Spike
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Byhalia, MS
Posts: 25
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I think on some things, like beer and pickups, there's a bit of personal preference involved. But a bullet seems a different thing, in the sense I don't reckon folks really care how it tastes, what it looks like as long as it does the job. From my pov a bullet only has a few jobs a) be easy (enough) to load b) be accurate c) make two holes in a critter, and bigger is better.

I used 300 grain Nolser hollow points (.429) and several other .429s including XTPs to kill several deer, generally just one a year, and every single one I was either getting small exit or no exit and finding my bullets fragged to tiny pieces. This after dozens of shots trying to get the muthers to group, settling for 4", 75 yard groups. So I was shooting at close range, relatively, from 20 to 50 yards.

Finally I changed my charge from 100 grains (Pryo) to 80 grains experimenting for accuracy... and because I'm a cheap bastid and ran up on some 30g pellets for 1/2 price. LOL Sha-zam! Other than dropping a fair bit, ~8" I figure on my zero, I'd have no problem taking 150 yard shots, and a 125 I'm in the black. Last year I got full penetration even on quarting away full diagonal lenght from last rib to first rib (doe) at 120 stops. Year before, another doe, shot straight through the base of the neck, big exit hole, again over 100 yards.

My point is this. I've never fooled with the power belt bullets or experimented too much with any of this but if the trouble has historically been fragmentation then one really should consider the velocity they are being used at. If you are pushing bullets past 1500 fps many of the hundgun designed bullets simply are made too soft for that. And from what I've read folks are pushing bullets up to 2200 fps or more. There are some great bullets for this, centerfire .451 stuff, customs, those frequently mentioned here... I'm rambling. But the point remains, pick the bullet for the kinda work you want to do. But don't get fooled into thinking just because a bullet has worked well that it will work well under any conditions. For example, even at 80 grain charge my 300g Noslers might still frag on me inside of 30 yards.
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