HuntingNet.com Forums - bullet conciderations

Quote:

ORIGINAL: beast44k

Looking at trying a couple of .50cal bullets, anyone have feedback on their long range capabilities?

Hornady 250g SST (.45)

Dead Center 300g (.44)

Powerbelt lead

The SST and Dead Center will have the higher ballistic coefficient and will fly further. I have shot the SST in the TC and the Hornady, they TC flew best for me. I tried them a few years back in my Knight and TC and had to pound them down with a hammer. I have since learned that there are a WHOLE bunch of different sabots out there that vary in thickness and are pretty cheap and I have a package of several different kinds to match the sabot and bullet to my bores. The SST are 1/2 the cost of the Dead Centers, also Dead Centers are not available everywhere and if you shoot a lot of em it is best to stock up. Both are accurate bullets with the right sabot is most guns. I have shot a 5 shot 1" group with a TC SW, black sabot, not the easy glide yellow. They also sell bonded SW and SST for elk, some shoot them also at deer. The only negative I have heard/read about the SW/SST is they shoot thru game without expansion on close shots and therefore leave little blood trail. Now, that said, some folks compensate for this lack of expansion by taking high shoulder shots with these bullets and then they expand fine, after hitting the big bone in the shoulder.I don't think theDead Center suffers the same problem, but I couldn't get them to group good in my Knight Disc and my TC Omega. Here is the groups I shot with them:

http://www.the-gleasons.com/DeadCenter340g.htm

Barnes TMZ, Parker Ballistic Extreme, Harvester Scorpion PTGold are all good long range bullets. I shot them all here:

http://www.the-gleasons.com/this_is_my_savage_10_ml_page.htm

The TC SW and the Parker BE shot the best for me. You mileage of course will vary with your gun.
Best Wishes on your bullet selection.
Chap