success with new Apex
 

Took my new Apex out saturday for last day of Ohio ML season. I had not sighted it in as well as I'd hoped to. Didn't really have enough time but I had it shooting decent groups at 50 yards so I decided to take a go at it. I took my 6 year old daughter with me. It was her first deer hunt and it was a beauty. I had to fill a doe tag and we were able to do that just 45 minutes into our morning stand. It was a gorgeous day, sunny, warm, no wind. A piebald doe came within 60 yards with a button buck. The landowner didn't want the piebald shot so I took the button buck at 75 yards. Perfect heart shot quartering away. The gun perfromed beautifully. 100 grains Pyrodex with 270gr. platinum aerotip powerbelts. We pushed deer for the rst of the day for my brothers and saw several more. A great day.

RE: success with new Apex
 

Awesome. Congratulations! Did you get a pass thru or recover the bullet? Also, did it drop in its tracks or run a little? For those of us who recently purchased Apexs, I'm pretty sure that you are the first to score. Congrats

RE: success with new Apex
 

Congratulations on your hunt. Also I commend you for introducing your daughter to hunting. That is the root of this sport. We need to involve our young people making them aware that we are not out there slaughtering helpless creatures, but controlling deer populations while providing excellent table fare for our family at the same time.

It sounds like the powerbelt did a great job. I too am interested in how well these platinum powerbelts works.. Way to go.

RE: success with new Apex
 

Awesome!!! I'm glad it all worked out. I'm shooting basically the same load and just finished shootingfor the day.

I fine tuned my sights soit's exactly DEADON and1-1 1/2 inches high at 60 yards. It was snowing today and it performed like a charm. I can't wait to take it hunting next year.

Any more details on the hunt would be awesome. Did the deer drop in it's tracks, etc?

RE: success with new Apex
 

The deer did not drop in its tracks. It ran downhill 30 yards and died. I might attribute this to the powerbelt but I'm not sure. The same thing happened to me during shotgun season with a similar deer. I shot both right in the heart, nearly destroying the upper front leg and both ran 30 yards downhill and fell over dead. I did recover the bullet. It flattened out nicely and did not disintegrate but then again this was not a tough bone shot as it entered the rib cage just behind the shoulder. Also I was shooting from an elevated ledge downhill into the deer so it entered high and lodged low. The entry wound was substantially bigger than that of the shotgun slugs I'm used to. My conclusion is that the powerbelt did its job but I'm anxious to experiment with other bullets. Like I mentioned before, there are also hogs in this woods and I would like to have something I can count on for taking one of those down.
On another note, my brother bought a Rem. Genesis around the same time I got my Apex. He got skunked during shotgun season. Never fired a shot. However during this past ML season he was able to shoot 3 times and saw plenty of deer. He seemed to be missing low so he planned on spending more time sigthing in this summer. All of his shots were 100+ yards. Not something we shotgun hunters are used to. But he loved ML season and he loves his Genesis. I shot it once just to see what it was like and it had very little kick with the same load I was shooting. Nice gun.
After the report of the hunt to my father, he plans on buying a ML for next season. So 3 more of us join the BP ranks. We loved having a hunt where the deer were less pressured and the shooting was more methodical.

RE: success with new Apex
 

teachhunt - I realize it is not important since the deer dropped probably in your sight, but did the powerbelt produce a good blood trail? It would be intersting if you could post a picture of the recovered powerbelt. Also, no pass through. All very interesting facts. I really thought the platinum powerbelt would have penetrated without problems. This might account for the excellent expansion and lack of fragmentation.

RE: success with new Apex
 

Those Powerbelts performed great for me last year on deer. I used 245 grain ones and shot a buck through the heart. It just fell over and never got up again. It was a complete pass through. There wasn't a drop of blood on the ground by it.

My doe this year was shot with a 300 grain XTP MAG sabot. It fell over at the shot and then crawled 30 yards. It was shot through the neck. I hit the jugular or some major artery and it spewed literally gallons of blood out of both sides of the entrance and exit holes.

Both performed well. I think basically any bullet can kill a deer if hit right. This year I'll use the PB's for ease of loading though.

RE: success with new Apex
 

outdoorslover

So if I told you that you COULD load the 300 grain XTP about as easy as you can load a PB would it make a difference in your bullet choice - cause it is possible to do that

RE: success with new Apex
 

I'd bet this is right. Of all the bullets I shot in my sidekick, the one that gave the most resistance going down, was the 295 PB. Definitely surprised me, I actually broke the OEM ramrod loading one on a perfectly cleaned barrel. After crowning, even the GP conicals went down easier.

RE: success with new Apex
 

Pglasgow

Now that does surprise me... I have shot a few 295's from my tight bore Remingtons and the A&H and never had any trouble - seems like the weight of the ram rod would push em down.... I use to shoot a few of them through each new gun to help break in the barrel, remove some of the burs & stuff...

RE: success with new Apex
 

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.

RE: success with new Apex
 

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.

RE: success with new Apex
 

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.

RE: success with new Apex
 

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.