trophy hunter

looking for some easy loading bullets,.50 for deer hunting, tried the powerbelts, not sure i trust them as i have lost the only deer ever with my muzzleloader.
thanks

frontier gander

http://huntingnet.com/forum/tm.aspx?...86&mpage=1

They work excellent on deer.

Some over charge them with to much powder.

rafsob

One thing the Power Belts do goodis load easily. Sorry you missed a good deer. Are you sure it saw the bullet and not some other condition? They only other bullets that would load easier then most is conicals. They all seem to load nicely, with little effort. No sense mentioningsabots, they are very hard to loadbutaremore accurate I believe.

I likethe TC Maxi Huntersonly because they shootthebest from my inline NEF Sidekick .50 cal. But there is also the TC Maxi Ball, R.E.A.L bullet and Hornday Great Plains bullet.

The best part about this project is going outand getting a box of each and shootingthem tosee which one you like. Have fun!

gleason.chapman

Just like every person is different, every bore is different so get some different sabots and load the bullet you want to shot in the sabot for a tight fit and SWAB between shots. Sabots you should buy:

MMP HPH12, HPH24 and 3petal Ezload from here:
http://www.mmpsabots.com/

Then get some Crushed Rib sabots from MidSouth Shooters Supply:

http://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/item.asp?sku=00072H15045BR

I would shoot an accurate penetrating bullet, like a Nosler Partition, Barnes MZ or TMZ or Speer Gold Dot:

http://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/item.asp?sku=0011545350

http://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/item.asp?sku=0003545162

http://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/item.asp?sku=000213974

You will not have trouble with these bullets on penetration and expansion with no fragmentation.

Take your breech plug out of your gun and load and with a clean barrel load 1 bullet and 1 sabot combination in your gun, write it down for how much pressure it takes to push the bullet down the gun.

Examples of loading pressure:

very easy---falls down the bore easily, 1 finger can push it down
easy--------push down with little effort
goes easy but effort required--push down with some effort
goes down hard---push downbut hard to start in barrel and you got put your weight into itto get to down
hard-----have to drive itdown the barrel with a hammer, "almost broke my ram rod"

A sabot bullet combination should be tight, like goes down hard, but does not require pounding it down the bore.In my experience the crushed ribs performed well in my inline BP guns--they went down snug, was not a lot of pressue to load them, and they shot accurate. In my Savage shooting smokeless I had to use an MMPHPH12 to get .450 Parker Ballistic Extremes to shoot well i.e. they loaded "just right". So think "I need a Goldilocks Sabot (just right, not too easy or too hard)for a givenbullet in my gun."

Once you find the right combination of sabot for your bore and your bullet, shoot the bullet at the range for accuracy. Shoot hunting load, i.e. 100g of 777 or pyrdex, whatever is your load in your gun. Note very seldom is 150g of powder required for best accuracy---read the gun makers book and find out what bullet they recommend and sabot they recommend in their gun and shoot that first for grouping, then you know what the rifle is capable of, since no rifle maker is going to ship an inaccurate rifle/bullet combination. You may have to go down to 80 or 90g for best accuracy. A 3" group at 100 yards is considered good hunting accuracy.
Chap Gleason

HEAD0001

I have found that with good consistent pressure I can load the first shot with any sabot. The problem IMO usually arises when you try to load the second round.

I han an Omega that was the greatest shooting MZ I have ever seen in my life. The problem was you could not get a second shot down the barrel with a hammer-and I am not joking. The barrel would not take a second shot. Not being able to load a second shot cost me a good buck a few years ago. It did not take me long to get rid of that rifle. Accuracy is great, but depenability is paramount. Tom.

gleason.chapman

That is why I said to Greenbay to SWAB between shots. I have an Omega also, and experienced the same problem of difficult loading with a dirty barrel, however I swabed the bore with a lightly spread bore butter batch and that was enough to get the sabot to load easy and shoot accurately. When at the range I swabbed with windshield washer fluid and a dry patch, I didn't dare do that in the field however since the patches dry out so quickly in a sandwich bag, easiest thing for me was to just use the bore butter to swab. It worked for me in my Omega. By the way this is what the Omega manual says on page 37 concerning "field cleaning". Best Wishes.

Chap

HEAD0001

Swabbing did no good in my Omega. The barrel had to be completely cleand and slightly oiled. Very slightly oiled, but nevertheless slightly oiled. If the barrel was not slightly oiled then the bullet would not load. The amount of pressure it took may have been the reason it shot so well , but if a rifle can not be used properly in the field, then I have no use for it. Regardless of how well it shoots. Tom.

gleason.chapman

Agree with you a 1 shot rifle with no reload capability is useless as a hunting rifle. Chap

frontier gander

With my 'ol X-150, 7-8 sabots before swabbing was optional. Usually started to lose accuracy after the 8th shot with a sabot. Conicals it was 14 shots before the groups opened.

So far my GPR will group really good even after 15 shots and zero swabbing. I was pretty impressed with that.

lemoyne

trophy hunter, If you want the best combination you can get and you can use sabots where you hunt the way I would go about finding that fit is:
To aquire a set of different thickness sabots
a set of the weight bullets you are interested in , in .451 ,.4515,.452
Take out the breach plug and try all possable combinations, the one that loads just a bit tighter than you would prefer will likly shoot the best.
If you choose to or need to go with the other style try a 300gr Sabortooth from harvestor, if you feel you must use PB's use the heavy ones with no more than 90 gr of RS or the equvilant thereof, most problems with power belts are from loading with more powder than is recommended by the people who make them. Lee