Powerbelt Problems
 

Has any body out there had a problem with the Powerbelt. The first time that I shot the 295 grain aero tip with two 50 grain pellets, I was at 100 yards. I checked the holes and the thing was tumbling. (But it was a two inch group) I just did not understand why they were tumbling. All most every body on this message board says that they shoot great. After all the bad performance out of the Powerbelts I went home and took my breach out, and then I took the plastic off one of the bullets and stuck it in my barrel. I dropped it and it did not even touch the riffling on the gun it just went all the way through and hit the floor. I double checked the package and they were for a .50 cal. It is just mind boggling. Has anyone out there have this same experience?

RE: Powerbelt Problems
 

It sounds like you have a somewhat oversize bore. The bullet should be a sliding fit, at about .001 under bore diameter, but the plastic part should be a little over bore size. if the plastic part is falling through your barrel, it is too small for that gun. I would slug and mike that bore!! I believe the Big Bore Express folks make a slightly larger one (I am assuming a .50 cal. here) for the White rifles, which are larger by .002 or so. You might try some of these.

By the way, if you are getting 2" groups @ 100 yards from tumbling bullets, that's amazing!!

Keep yore powder dry!!

RE: Powerbelt Problems
 

I'll bet you have a T/C. Am I right?

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RE: Powerbelt Problems
 

One thing to keep in mind. The plastic cup is supposed to expand when the powder is ignited. It doen't explain the tumbling, but it may be part of the reason it slides through the barrel so easily.

RE: Powerbelt Problems
 

Thats whats so puzzleing to me about muzzleloaders. Bore sizes seem to be all over the place. Especially on the CVA and traditions. Thats the main reason I have stuck with the knights, they seem to be decently consistent. But still find variations on pushing down sabots from my gun to others. I think that will explain why I see some getting great groups and very consistent velocities out of the power belts and other say they get 250fps variations.

RE: Powerbelt Problems
 

Littlemac,

You shooting a TC? They didn't shoot out of my Black Diamond either. The bullet is supposed to be undersized and the plastic oversized to contact the rifling, this is why they are so easy to load. My opinion is thay TC's have shollow riflings and don't work well with the undersized bullet. Below is the thread I posted after I tried them, it explains what happened with me. I received several replies from guys shooting TC's that had the same problems. Most of the replies I recieved from guys that were shooting in a TC had to greatly reduce their powder charge/velocity to get them shooting well.

---original post---
Went to the range today to test fire some 295gr HP Power Belts and it didn't go so well. I had to leave scratching my head with confusion. I am shooting a TC BD topped with a Weaver V10 2x10x38. Keep in mind that I have made several recent trips to the range shooting my regular loads of 240gr XTP, Mag express Sabots over two 50gr Pyrodex pellets (lighting it with 209's) and had been getting consistent 1" - 1 1/2" groups at 100yd.

For my test with the Power Belts I kept my load the same, as mentioned above. I started off by finding my zero at 50yd. (2 shots), I was 1" high. Next I moved to 100yd and the first shot was no where to be found. I shot again and found it about 8" to the right. I went back to 50yd and shot about 5" to the right. Again at 50yd, I dialed the scope over and shot dead on again. Back at 100yd my next shot was on line but low, followed by one more shot about 4" to the left. I immediately wrote it off as a scope failure, however, I couldn't help but notice the bullet holes at 50yd were enormous and somewhat oblonged left/right, yet the 100yd holes were tight and round. The only thing left to try was to shoot my regular saboted XTP load for comparison. At this time I only had enough pellets for 5 more shots. At 100yd it took three of those shots to get my back near zero. Note, I made scope adjustments between each of those three shots and the scope tracked perfectly to the adjustments. The final two shots were side by side, less than ½ apart perfectly at my 1" high zero.

I don't know how accurate this is or if it means anything but I checked my scope adjustments with the use of my boresight. First, I made sure the crosshairs were even moving with the adjustments, they were. Second, I made sure that the click adjustments were consistent by adjusting several clicks one direction and then making sure the same number of clicks in the other direction would return the crosshairs to there original position, they did. Third I tapped the turret adjustment knobs with the but of a screwdriver to see if the crosshairs would shift from the impact, they didn't.

What do you guys think could be going on? Is it the scope or the new bullets? I am buying more supplies tomorrow and heading back to the range one more time before I start swapping scopes.
---end---

With all that said it was the bullet. I switched my load and went right back to consistent 1" - 1 1/2" groups @ 100.