Well, thanks to Chet I won his drawing for the Powerbelts in .45 and .50 cal of various weights and configurations. So I felt it only fitting that, after receiving them, I would go out and brave the heat and humidity between rainstorms today, to try them out and give a report.
The rifle I was using to test these bullets today was my trusty .45 cal T/C Hawken with the Green Mountain Long Range Hunter barrel which I believe is a 1:30 twist. All shots (except last) were charged with 70 gr of Pyro P
I only shot 3 shot groups cause the clouds were pretty ominous (sort of like Semisane in his Darth Vader outfit).
But anyhow, the first group was with my normal 'dead on' hold using the 195 gr Aerotips. These bullets grouped 3" higher than my base line load of 70 gr of Pyro P and 200 gr XTP with Harvester blue EZ Load sabot. Group size was 1.07" C-C.
Next came the 225 gr Aerotips. I switched to a 6 O'clock hold and hit the bull just high of center. Nice. My second shot I knew was high as soon as it went off and called about an inch high. I was right and discounted that shot. Shots 3 and 4 were right there with #1 producing a 0.60" group.
The 275 gr Hollow Points were next. Again with a 6 O'clock hold, these bullets group the 3 shots into 0.74". But amazingly, the POI was identical to POA but about 1/2 left.
I moved the target out to 75 yds to check the 225 gr Aerotips and the 275 gr hollow points. At this range the 225s grouped 3 shots into 1.60" but I had a flyer (shot #3) that opened the group up to about 3". But the 275 gr hollow points did exceptional. Putting the 3 into 0.75".
I fired an additional shot using 80 gr of Pyro P at 75 yds with the 275 gr hollow point and that hit about an inch higher than the 70 gr charge.
Again I noticed that the 275s hit right at POA while the 225s were now 4" high at the 75 yd mark.
These Powerbelts were a breeze to load and all 3 weights shot acceptable. The 225s and the 275s however show a lot of promise. More than the 195s. I would give them a rating of 5 stars each for loading and consistant accuracy.