Its a CVA optima

You should be fine with the load you are asking about. I'd second Lee's comment on people using bullets outside of what they are designed for. A lot of tests that I've seen show that the regular 250 SST is a fairly "soft" bullet that works well when pushed at 1800 - 2000 fps max. At speeds above that - that's where it seems to have problems sometimes, and it would be better to used the bonded version or the 300 grainer.

Your 2 pellet load will put you around 1800 fps, which should work just fine with the SST. If you still have worries, I'd suggest a 250 or 300 grain XTP- they are cheap, easy to find and have a good track record.

Welcome to the most explosively controversial topic on the forum.

The 250 SST is soft, IF anything. And that's a bit of a stretch. With about 100gr powder you'll be fine. They DO expand. People who say they don't typically say that after having lost deer and finding no blood -- the real reason is more often that they made a bad shot.

I have yet to see a 250 SST/SW recovered with evidence of no expansion. I'm waiting for someone to post that in support.

I have never recovered a 250 but several 200s, all were well expanded. A little too much if anything (ie soft).

In summary, they are a great bullet. Your choice is fine. So is each and every other suggestion made by others on this forum. There are few terrible choices on the market today.

Don't drive a Powerbelt too fast, and try to keep jacketed bullets within their ideal expansion velocity range. That's about all you need to know.

well so far i have got the 250gr sst, 245gr power belt aero tips and the 240gr XTPs in the green sabot to all shoot pretty well out of my gun. I still might try the 300gr XTPs and the 300gr sst just for grins. Most of my shots are 60 yards but the longest i can shoot is about 130yards on my land. But most of them are pretty close. This is my first year going to try hunting with a muzzle loader. I have been using a remington 870 12ga with a pinned rifled barrel and sabot slugs for about 10 years now. So i decided to give the smokepole a try.

If your shots are going to be within 130 yards then I would lean toward a hollow point to aid on expansion...I shoot the SSTs because I have bean fields that I can hunt over and shots can run longer...

A muzzleloader has lower velocities than a centerfire and the design of a hollow point with help it open up better than a SST, so your wound channel should be wider...

ranger400ex1994

Reading your description of your hunting possibilities I really would suggest the Gold Dot, either the 250 or the 300. They are very economical, you can even afford to shoot them at paper.

The 300 grain has a very high BC for a .452 bullet (231) and flys distances better than you would expect... but in reality the 250 will do it all in your descrition.

Here is a pic of some expanded Gold Dots... I collected these from a torture test I conducted.

Same here. Matter of fact i have seen very, very few pictures of SST/Shockwave bullets that were recovered from game.

The 250 grain SST/Shockwave is a really good bullet. I have killed several deer and a lot of hogs with that bullet: It does the job if you put it in the right place. Most of my kills with the 250 grain SST/Shockwave have been bang flops or near bang flops.

This 250 grain Shockwave came out of a 120 pound sow that i killed at a distance of 192 laser transit measured yards. It fell out of the animal when i was loading it for the trip to the butcher. The gun was my .50 Encore and the powder charge was 90 grains of JSG. The bullet broke two ribs going in.

Were can i find the gold dots at?

ranger400ex1994

Try here... They list these as .451/250 gold dots - but they have not made these for several years... they switched to .452/250.

Call the 800 number and verify that they are .452/250 Speer Gold Dots...

http://www.gamaliel.com/cart/product...cat=874&page=1

You need to try the 348gr Aerotip Powerbelt with 90gr pyrodex P and the 777 primer. Let the barrel cool down for a few minutes between shots. Awesome accuracy in the Optima i had!