Powerbelt held together
 

My nephew was out shooting his 22 and he went and filled up a gallon jug and was shooting it. I got ready and filled up two 1gallon milk jugs and one of those big liquid laundry detergent jugs. Grabbed a pizza box and but that all behind the jugs, got the camera all set up, hit the record button, or so i thought. the 225 grain aerotip bullet sliced the two thinner milk jugs in half, the heavy plastic container had a clean enterance bullet hole, an exit hole that had splits 4" long running around the top and bottom of the bullet hole. Pizza box had a clean hole. I figure that if the bullet can hold up all again that and keep going, I'll be using it for deer this year. Sadly this movie did not show up. I'll never buy a Kodak camera again, nothing but trouble with this thing since day one. Didnt find one piece of copper or lead from that bullet.

I did however load up a 1 gallon milk jug with water and placed a 4" thick split log behind the jug and the same pizza box behind it. I made sure this time the camera was rolling and this video finally took.
Load: 70 grains Triple 7, 225 grain aerotip powerbelt.
Distance : 32 yards.

I know some of you guys cant watch videos due to internet speed so heres what the bullet did.

Shot hit the water jug a couple inchs high of my bulls eye, Split the jug in half, You should have seen the massive amount of water that shot out. Im talkin SHOT out lol. You guys that are able to watch the video, Keep an eye to the right side of the tree and take note to all that water!
Bullet impacted the 4" log with a nice clean hole and exited and left spliters of wood the size of a golf ball. Total pass-thru and the bullet kept going.

http://s96.photobucket.com/albums/l2...Picture001.flv

RE: Powerbelt held together
 

Frontier Gander that sounds very encouraging for the powerbelt. And this was just a standard powerbelt to boot. It should be deadly on deer and with the kind of penetration you are getting, I think bigger game could be considered.

RE: Powerbelt held together
 

Yeah i was happy with it. Im getting ready to set up 4 or 5 logs this time and see how many it will make it through before coming to a stop. I feel comfortable with this load on deer.

RE: Powerbelt held together
 

That 225 grain bullet is amazing. I couldnt set up all the logs i wanted to but i set up Three 2x6's in a row and put a 20lb Dried Pinon log behind it. I fired and didnt see the target fall and was like WTF did i miss? Take a look at it was a little high but dead center of the bulls eye lol. Im like ok, i'll take that, i went through the boards and everyone of them had a bullet hole and the chunk of pinon stopped the bullet! Went just a little over 3" deep and i found a beautifully mushroomed powerbelt. That pinon was hard, 7 swings with my 10lb ax before i broke it in half and a couple little smacks to break it open enough to take the bullet out. Im happy as hell with this bullet and how it held up. Theres also a movie i'll add once it finishes uploading. You guys will see in the movie that the target hardly moved when the bullet impacted.

RE: Powerbelt held together
 

Well I'm still on dial up, but it sounds that at short range the bullet is holding up well. At 70 grains of powder it packs some awesome power. My question is I hear a lot of people say the bullet doesn't hold up at longer ranges 100 or so. Is this because they may be pushing the bullet to hard, say using 120 grains and up. I have never used them but the platinum series interest me especially in heavy timber where I hunt. have you weighed the bullet to see how much is retained after that shot?

RE: Powerbelt held together
 

i only have an Oz scale and it shows up as 0.6oz
Long range with the 245 and 295, ive used and all shots were enter/exit. Ive even used 150 grains RS loose with a 295 and that shot was a clean pass-thru shot that drop the deer. Lungs, heart,liver were, Well they didnt look like they are supposed to :D.

I just weighed two .440 roundballs that are 130 grains each and they shown up as 0.5oz. So theres 160 grains right there @ 0.5oz. I wish i had another powerbelt to weigh off the actual OZ weight when new.

RE: Powerbelt held together
 

Heres the other movie. Now that i watched it, That sucker did put a lot of force on that log.

Guess it'd help if i added the link :D

http://s96.photobucket.com/albums/l2...nt=Picture.flv

RE: Powerbelt held together
 

I've had the same happen with my 50 cal. 295 grain powerbelt aerotips, 100 grains of pyrodex. Took a plastic milk crate, filled it with newspapers 14 inches thick, soaked them in the sink overnight, shot it at 100 yards expecting to find the slugs somewhere inside. All 3 shots passed clear through. Had to dig a foot into the dirt berm to find the slugs and they were barely deformed. My rifle really likes these bullets, drew a ml bull tag for September....not sure whatthey'll do in the field, but I have alot of confidence so far.

RE: Powerbelt held together
 

But they ain't supposed to do that:eek:. You didn't instruct them to blow up on impact?:D Them powerbelts need to learn their place and behave.

Congrats on the bull tag. Good luck!

RE: Powerbelt held together
 

Had a complete passthrough on a cow elk at 66 yds with a 348 AT powerbelt with two 777 pellets. Went right through both lungs and nicked the shoulder on the off side coming out as she was quartering slightly. Only thing I have shot with them so far and did the job.

RE: Powerbelt held together
 

Shows me several things:

You don't need magnum charges to get great penetration

The bullets probably hold up better at lower charges/less velocity.

For those of us who shoot conicals with open sights only out to about 100 yards, anything above about 100 grains BP equivalent is an overkill that may actually hurt terminal performance.

RE: Powerbelt held together
 

Reading some reviews on powerbelts on Cabelas and others sites, a lot of guys seem to have the powerbelts explode on them, not penetrate etc...all the reviews I read said they loaded up hot, 150 grains either powder or pellets, all the shots on deer. Seems to me that the previous comment is right about pushing them too fast might get some unpleasant results. Thats why I was trying to get some sense of the terminal ballistics on them. Going clear through all that wet, densepaper convinced me. Talked to one guy at a Gander Mountain who hunted ml last year, shot a cow at 70 yds with 295 gr pb & 100 gr pyrodex. He said the shot went through the lungs and blew out the shoulder on the opposite side. He said the exit hole was 6" around. Said he was going to the 245 gr because the 295 caused too much damage!! Of course the elkdid not take a step which is what I'm looking for.

RE: Powerbelt held together
 

Correct, you cannot push them too fast or hit bone, some research I have done:

http://www.the-gleasons.com/powerbelt_page.htm

The Harvester SaberTooth is a better bullet for bone hits and longer range shooting where you need to shoot 150g.

Chap

RE: Powerbelt held together
 

No i wouldnt say that. Ive shot deer close to 150 yards both times with a load of 120 grains 245 powerbelt, pass thru. Shot one that was standing picture perfect with 150 grains RS loose and a 295 powerbelt. After the smoke cleared that deer was down and slid down the hill a few feet. I honestly cant say what the other people are doing wrong or if anything. All 3 of us that use them over the years have never had this happen.

RE: Powerbelt held together
 

Yes, you know how to use them, since your a life member on this forum. I use to use them for several years first with just 2 pellets where they performed as advertised. I then went the 3 pellet craze, not knowing that this bullet was designed differently.I was pushing them too hard with 150g charges. I was NOT aware that PB had to be slowed down to 1200 to 1400 FPS. So folks that use them should know this and don't hit shoulder or big bones.Chap

RE: Powerbelt held together
 

Yeah the powerbelt book that comes with the bullets has a recommended powder charge. In my x-150 i know it prefers 120grains loose RS to shoot them the tightest. Also a good load that performs well on deer.

RE: Powerbelt held together
 

If you want to figure out the retention it is easy. Just remember there is 7000 grains to the pound. The rest should be easy. Divide 7000 by 16 ounces, and go from there. Tom.

RE: Powerbelt held together
 

Here's my 2 cents on powerbelts. I agree with gleason.chapmans conclusion, if you use them, particularly on elk, go heavy, and I'd go with the flat point versions if you can find them, not hollowpoint.For deer, powerbelts in most cases are probably ok. I have used them for elk and deer hunting for the last 4 years, but will switch this year based on doing more research and personal experience.

My friends and I have harvested several elk with powerbelts, using .50 and .54 cal, 348g bullets or heavier, 100-115 grains of triple 7 or pyrodex. Kills have been good broadside shots at less than 90 yards or less, and a couple of really close range head shots on cow elk. Bullets were not recovered, no complete pass through noted,not even on the head shots (10 and 30 yards)whichis a little surprising. We have been more interested in getting the elk field dressed quickly in the warm temps than looking for bullets. However, 4-5 elk have been shot and lost using powerbelts,we don't know if it was shot placement (the most likely), bullet performance, or a combination.All of these were good broadside shots at90 yards or less, but the elkweren't found.I always have thought it wasprobably just bad shooting, but now I'm leaning more to a combination of not perfect shot placement, and less than perfect bullet performance, as in thepowerpointsare coming apart when contacting bone.There has been little to no blood trail on either the elk we have harvested or theelk that were lost.

I did a poor mans ballistic test last week, compared a .54 cal348 g PB aerotip and a 430 g TC maxiball. Shot both into wet newspaper, with a sheet of 1/2" plywood placed in the stack about 2" from the front to simulate hitting bone. Range was 30 yards, 85 grains of triple 7. Powerbelt penetrated 8.5", the bullet weighed only 211 grains, and had expanded to .75". The maxiball penetrated 18", expanded to .75", and weighed 426 grains.

I'm switching to the maxiball this year, they shoot way more accurately than the powerbelt in my great plains rifle (1-48" twist), 2.5" groups a 100 yards, and if the situationcalls for driving a bullet through a bull elk's shoulder, I think the maxi will stand a better chance of doing it.