BHBowhunter

Last year was my 1st year ML and i only had about a 60 yrd max shot.
I have a TC black diamond xr
100 gr 777 pelelts and a 240 gr TC xst worked fine.

This year i can see about 200 yards clearly. I work at gander mountain and talked to the guy there. This is my plan,,,,

130 gr 777 pelets (2 50's and 1 30)and 50 cal 245 powerbelt. I am gonna sight in at 100 yards. If the deer is at 200 ill put the crosshairs on the top of his back.

also how should the new load shoot at say 25 yards?

This site is great and i thank you all in advance!

mauser06

hmmm i heard powerbelts arent the most accurate thing and drop more then most bullets at farther ranges....and dont perform too great out at 200 either.....someone should have a better bullet recomendation...200yd shots take practice...not just a hold high and pray.....im not sure on the ballistics but i bet it drops about a foot if your dead on at 100....id definently hit the range HARD..and i love shooting black powder.....

newguy23

2nd what Mauser was saying... I love my powerbelts, but I would only take a 125-135 yard shot with mine. If I were planning on taking longer shots I would probably look at a saboted round such as the shockwaves. By the way, I find the powerbelts to be quite accurate actually... They shoot the best out of my Omega, 1.5" groups at 100 yards easily.

dmurphy317

That light of a powerbelt may not be the best for 200 yard shots. If you sight in 3 inches high at 100 yards you should be close to dead on at 150 and 3 to 4 inches low at 200. Basically a point and shoot out to 200. Make sure you remove the plastic cup, lube the rear post, and put the cup back on the PowerBelts to ensure the cup comes off quickly and doesn't cause accuracy problems.

I perfer the 250 ShockWave over the powerbelt.

Good luck.

cayugad

Running the ballistics on your 245 grain Powerbelt with a BC of .161 and sighted dead on at 100 yards, there is a 20+ inch drop at 200 yards. You hold dead on the back of a skinny little deer and you will probably gut shoot it our scare the devil out of it.

A shot like that without a lot of practice is just not practical and should not be attempted. Not that the powerbelt does not have the power at that range to dispatch a deer, but you would need shot placement at best. That takes practice.

Also out of some rifle, Powerbelts do not like to be pushed too hard. Only your rifle knows for sure, but many find that anything over 100 grains (1515 fps) and they get flyers all over the place. Now put that out at 200 yards and all you have is a mess.

If this is what you're facing, I would suggest getting some 250 grain or even 200 grain Shockwaves and working up a load with them and some pellets. I think that would give you the best chance of harvesting a deer.

Paul L Mohr

If you are going to try and shoot that far you are going to need to do some experimenting. We can't just tell you what will work. You really need to find a load that will group well at that distance, and then worry about trajectory.

I suggest Precision Rifle bullets if you want to shoot longer ranges. They have better ballistic coefecients than most other muzzle loader bullets.

I shoot 350 grn QT's with 90 grn of 777 and they are 2.5 inches high around 90 yards and 2.5 inches low at 150 with a 130 yrd sight in. And they carry more energy at that distance then a lighter bullet.

Lighter and faster is not always better for long range accuracy. You are doing a lot of guessing here and this is not going to fly in the woods. You are just asking to wound an animal. You need to try a load and see how it actually shoots at that distance so you know where to aim.

And like cayugad said, with that load and sight in you will most likely miss the deer. I think the average size for a deer is 16 inches from belly to back. If you aim at the back you will most likely shoot under the deer unless it is big, then you most likely will not kill it. If you want to shoot out to 200 yards I think you will need a 130-150 yard sight in. And that is assuming you don't miss judge the yardarge by 20 or 30 yards.

And I can't stress it enough that you HAVE to verify what that load will do at those distances before you hunt with it. Don't just assume that because it shoots good groups at 50 and 100 yards that it will at longer distances. As much as these things resemble high powered rifles they are NOT. With the bullets we use and the twist rates in these guns a bullet can destabilize and get very inacurate fast.

My remington would over lap bullet bullet holes at 100 yards with 300 grn XTP's and 100 grns of pyrodex or Clean Shot. At 150 yards they didn't group well enough to kill a deer. I changed bullet styles and weight and played with my powder a little and now I can get around 2 inch groups at 150, which is my limit where I hunt.

Some guys get lucky and the rifle and load they use will pull it off. For others it takes a little work, and some it just won't happen. And YOU have to be capable of 200 yard shoots as well.

Paul

little-d

If your guncan handle the 150gr. powder loadtry it in the loose powder form because at 200 + yards you need all the power and practice you can get. Next is sabots ,you need to use the black magnum mmp sabots,for the 45 cal.bulletin the 451.dia. xtp or the speerpistol bulletsboth will workfine.We have beenusing xtp 230gr.hp. for deer at long ranges,but you need to find what load your gun will group best with at long rangesfor you and yourgun,for closer shots i use a mk 85 knight 50 cal. when i'm looking for hogs i will use a 300 gr. bullet from speer with 100 gr.powder loador just a little more powder.I have neverused the power belts but was setting in my brother-inlawsshooting house last year with them that is on a gas line that goes on forever.One of my brother-inlaws bobbymissedone of two bucks at 75 yards with the power belts i think he just shot to quick and didn't make a good shot,the two bucks were following a doe.Then my other brother-inlaw billydropped the bigest of the two bucks in its tracks after bobbys shot missed .For to much longer the doe and the smaller buck came back across the wheatfield for the second time but they were way down at the other end of their food plot.Billy handedhis gunthat was already loaded with the same load thathe had just used on the first buck. Billy was watching the deer through a range finder and toldus the deer was at 220 yards ,billy said put thevertical line on the deerschest areathen rase the horizontal line about 16 inches above the deers back, bobbywaited for the buck to stop.Boom then the smoke cleared ,the wheat and oats were so high we had to ride down there on the atv to see if he hit the deer,I told him the deer hunched up and went into a pine-thicket when he shot walking side ways.We found the buck about ten foot into the pine thicket with a shoulder hit.The bullet went through billys buck at the 75 yard markbut bobbys shothit buck in the front shoulder and the bullet was lodged under the hide on the other side ,it was a perfect mushroom shape.After that day bobby changed to the 230gr.xtp and losse 777.

Paul L Mohr

You don't have to shoot 150 grn of powder to be effective at that distance. Maybe if you shoot a really light bullet you will to get your energy up there. My 350 gn bullet only goes 1600 fps with 90 grn of 777 and I have 1300 ft/lbs of energy at 200 yards.

Paul