I shoot into a 12x12" cardboard boxed filled with damp sand that i strain out by hand. I try to get all the smaller rocks/sticks out that i can but a few always slip in time to time. try to do my best.

Steve, Ive shot the BS conicals before out of my winchester, Dan used a lyman mold and sized them to .501 and some .502's. The lyman mold he used was around 390 grain and they shot good with 80 grains Pyrodex RS. I never got to play with them much after that. Powerbelts always shot best in that x-150 along with the great plains conicals.

May have to buy an assortment of BS conicals in .45 so i can try them out in that apex. Hope he has something that will work.

Also forgot to add that the powerbelts with charges from 80-100 grains penetrate 6 1/2 to 7" on sand.

Careful - once you shoot them sized right you'll be kissing BS feet
At 1/3 the cost.

Steve

Not even. They'll lead my bore which means i'll have to spend more money on solvent trying to get it out.

Oh yeah, The cost only hurts me the most when i am testing. I dont mind it when i go out hunting. One package for 3 rifles takes care of it all.

Not sure where the leading would come from.
I shoot up to 90grn T7 under 420 to 600 gr BS's and never get any.
That's about the same "real world" charge for PB's isn't it?

And I like to shoot - not just hunt.
Nothing like Dave, but burn 5 to 600 shots/year.
$.25 wins.

Steve

Frontier said: "BTW, That new conical hornady has coming out is nothing more than a dressed up lead minnie ball with a plastic tip."

If it is copper covered to help with leading, flies accurately, is 350 grains, and has better terminal ballistics than powerbelts, this is a bad thing? Of couse, they can jimmy tests if they want to, but the pictures of the bullets side by side with powerbelts (recovered bullets) seems pretty impressive. I am going to give them a try.

Yeah but BS bullets still only cost .25cent each VS hornady's $18.?? price.

True, but this thread is about powerbelts, which are $18-20.

This is the first deer I killed with a powerbelt 245 grn AT,TC Encore 50 cal 2 / 50grn pyro pelletts. I obviously pushed it to hard.


This is all I found



Thanks for posting you test results FG I learn alot from them

I have used potting soil mixed with sand in a 5 gallon bucket turned on it's side, I tampled mine with a 10# tamper. When you have a bullet totally penetrate an 18" bucket of packed top soild, it will certainly go thru a deer. Your looking for expansion, penetration and fragmentation at your speed/load with your bullets in your gun. Please see all these tests on expansion/penetration done by the LeftHand over on the Savage forum:

http://dougva.proboards34.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=Savage&thre ad=1147284597

The bullets he tested in the perma Gel were:

250 and 300g SW both bondend and unbonded

245g and 290g Barnes TMZ

300g XTP Mag.

The 300g Bonded is not post in the archives Tips and Hints yet but is here:

http://dougva.proboards34.com/index.cgi?board=Savage&action=display&thre ad=1206923789

The 300g XTP Mag is here:

http://dougva.proboards34.com/index.cgi?board=Savage&action=display&thre ad=1206924946

The 300g SST is here:

http://dougva.proboards34.com/index.cgi?board=Savage&action=display&thre ad=1206924145

The 290g TMZ is here:

http://dougva.proboards34.com/index.cgi?board=Savage&action=display&thre ad=1206924572

You do NOT need a user account over on Savage forum to view these.

He also shot thru a pine board and an oak board to simulate shooting thru bone, so with some bullets there are tests with and without the pine or oak board. Very good work, and costly.


There is also an interesting discussionof each post, about Bullet Performance. You can use Wet newspapers, bundled newspapers, just make it consistent with all bullets your testing for yourself.

Shoot for accuracy, and say be left with 3 bullets which you would subject to expansion/penetration/fragmentation testing. Any bullet that fragments at the speed your going to shoot them at on 25 yard shots don't use. Any bullet that doesn't expand well don't use.
You will learn a lot about your particular bullets in your particular gun with your loads. Basically just as FG has focused on PB, he knows by his tests when they start to expand, what depth they penenetrate to and when they start to fragement.

Chap

Correct, you pushed them too hard.How close was the deer? Buy 30g pyro pellets and shoot 1 50g and 1 30g and you will be about right or go to loose and save some money and shoot about 75g.
Chap Gleason