I think it was the burrs probably that caused the trouble with the 295's. There is no lubrication on a PB so on a clean, burred up barrel they were tough going down. I could load them easier after a shot was fired because the little bit of fowling remaining afterswabbingacted as a lubricant. With the sidekick, I noticed nothing about the PB's which indicated easier loading than the other projectiles I tried. Buffalo ballets and Buffalo SSB's were by far the easiest.

There was a usable blood trail and that is good. The deer only went thirty yards but it was over a shelf in the woods, straight down. Had there been more vegetation, the trail would've come in handy. I too liked the ease of loading with the 270gr. PB but I'm not married to it. I did not save the bullet so I cannot post a pic. It was almost completely pancaked with only the last 1/8" of the bullet recognizable as bullet. Reminded me of denseflat wad of aluminum foil. I noticed that the platinum seems to fragment into much smaller pieces than a copper bullet. Almost grains.
By the way, I was able to load fairly easily after 4 shots throughout the day with the PB's. And cleaning the Apex wasn't as bad as I thought either. Hot Soapy water followed by bore blaster and finished off with some Hoppe's did the trick. I may not have needed the Hoppe's but I did it anyhow. Breech Plug was cleaned with a similar concoction and all went well.

I have never had any bullet that loads as easy as the PB in a dirty bore. If the XTP could load as easy I'd buy it every time for one reason--the price. The PB's are horribly overpriced. I am perfectly satisfied with both brands as of now though.

outdoorslover

I really think I can tell you, that you can load a XTP almost as easy as a PB and have a better bullet, if you use the correct sabot.

The easiest way to let you know is to use MMP Sabots... MMP make three different thickneses of sabots....
a. HPH-12's-> these are the thicker variety used by some guns and supplied with the Hornady SST products....
b. HPH-24's ->these are mid range thickness sabotthat will work with the majority of tight bore rifles made today, these were the sabots being suppliedwith TC Shockwavesuntil they switched to the new super-glides.. whch you and I can not buy...
c. HPH-3p-EZ -> this sabot is the one made by MMP to compliment the super-glide and is available to the public. It is also the thinnest of the MMP .452 sabots - this sabot will allow you to slide the XTP down with little to no pressure - even with a dirty barrel...

With my tight barreled Omega or Remingtons I normally load HPH-24's but I do carry a speed loader with a HPH-3p-ez in it.

Just FYI -> the Harvester regular sabot would be equivelent to a HPH-24 and the Harvester "crush rib" would be the equivelent to a HPH-3p-ez.

Sabots do not need to load hard anymore... + you have a huge selection of really good bullets to choose from with a lot better ballistics than the PB's... even the areotips.