I had my mind set on 100 grains of pyrodex powder in 2 5o grain pellets. With a 295 grain powerbellt aerotip bullet. The more i read about powerbelts exploding and not finding the animal the less confident i feel about them. I have a CVA OPTIMA 50 CAL. 1:28 inch twist. What would be a good bullet for this it willl be used for deer.

I've read posts about the pure lead hollow point Powerbelts hitting and fragramenting, but not some much the Aero Tips. I would think the Aero Tip would give excellent penetration especially with the load you mention. Granted you hit a shoulder bone, any projectile might tend to break up.

You could try some 240 grain XTP's with 100 grains of powder and see how they shoot for you. Perhaps people with actual field experience on the powerbelts will comment. All I can say is what I read from other people's posts. This might turn into a very interesting thread...

So lets hear some of your powerbelt experiences....

By the way my Staghorn magnum with 100 grains and a 245 grain Aero Tip is one sweet shooting little baby. I would not be scared to pop a deer with that out to 100 yards, although I might tuck it behind the shoulder instead of trying to bust the deer down...

A good bullet to try would be the 250gr Hornady SST or Shockwaves. When I first got my Optima I tried the powerbelts and it grouped good at 50 yards but past that it sprayed all over. I have since switched to the shockwaves with 130 gr 777 pellets and it now shoots tight groups at 150 yards and have took deer up to 200 yards with excellent performance. Although I use 130 gr powder, 100 gr will work good too, the only difference will be a couple more inches drop although the groups usually will be a bit tighter than the higher charges.

So Hornady shockwaves. How many grains. I still gota get my cleaning kit bullet starter Bushnell Banner (thanks cayugad for the suggestion) and then my bullets and sight in. We got a early Muzzy season here in October then one in December im thinkin of goin out on both.

I have to agree with Cayugad on the Hornady 240gr XTP.
He recomended them to me and never had a reason to ever
try any other. We both have the Knight Wolverine and they
have worked fine since. Thanks Cayugad!

i have a REMINGTON .50 cal. and i used to shoot 300gr. tradition ,i was bullseye at 100 yards ..i switched to POWER-BELT 295 GR.and at 100 yards dropped about 6" ..[which was not acceptable]..i finally ended up with DEAD CENTER 260 GR..AND FOUND THE PERFECT BULLET FOR MY GUN...

Hornady makes the SST and Thompson Center markets the same bullet with a different sabot under the name Shockwave. You might want to try some 250 grain Shockwaves and put 100 grains of FFg under them and see how they behave. They normall shoot real well, and that would be plenty of power for most deer hunting.

I used to use the 300 grn XTPs in my remington with 2 50 grn clean shot pellets with pretty good results. Great groups at 100 yards and decent performance on deer out to 80 yards. Not very good groups at 130 and 150 yards though. Probably never shoot a deer that far a way, but I like the feeling that I can if I want.

I recently switched to the 350 grn Precision Rifle bullets that are an all lead polymer tipped bullet with a better BC than the XTP's. I get better accuracy out 150 yards now. Haven't had a chance to shoot a deer with them yet, but I hear the perform pretty well, great expansion I guess.

My buddy has a wolverine too and it groups great out to 150 yards with the XTP's? It has a tighter bore than my gun does, maybe that makes a difference.


Paul

Powerbelt experience? Well, I can tell you first hand that the hollowpoint 295 grain .50 cal. bullets do, indeed, "blow up". Two years ago I shot a nice mule deer at about 70 yds., standing broadside. Just behind the shoulder...Caught a couple of ribs going in. NO exit hole. The bullet just disintegrated inside the deer. WIth no exit wound, there was no blood trail. Fortunately, the deer was mortally wounded and didn't run more than 70 yds. Had the cover been thicker, I would not have recovered the deer. No powerbets for me....460 gr. No Excuses conical sitting on top of 80 gr. 3F Goex. Bad Medicine!

As with ALL bullets, different folks have different experiences. I have use PBs to take several elk, and will use them again in about 10 days in CO. I use the 348gr hollow points, with 100gr of loose clean shot, and killed themeach with one well-placed shot. Plenty of good bullets on the market. Just find the one that is accurate in your gun and have fun.