I have killed 2 deer with 245 hollow point powerbelts and one deer with the 260gr powerbelts that were marketed by knight for awhile. 2 of the deer were dropped almost instantly. The only one that didnt drop was one that was my fault by taking a marginal shot. At 145 yards the bullet hit a quartering away deer and traveled diagonally thru him and stopped in the deers chest after hitting the opposite side front quarter.The bullet was mushroomed nicely with 170 gr intact from a 245.I know thats a pretty big loss of weight but the damage in the bullet path was pretty devastating. I seldom hear too much good here about powerbelts but some how the few deer I've shot went down quick.I bought some 300gr noslers and crush ribs to shoot in my mk85 but couldnt get them to group too well. I may try another sabot other then a crush rib.

deer655

In an MK-85... definitely try a different sabot, the crush ribs would leak badly - you will probably need and HPH-12 sabot, none of the Harvesters will be thick enough. The MK will/should have a bore close to .504

You may consider trying some of the 45-70 rifle bullets and use the orange mmp sabot to go along with it. Many of these bullets were designed to expand at the lower trapdoor velocities and can be bought pretty cheaply in bulk. I believe the sierra pro-hunter 300 grain bullet I used last season was designed to expand down to 1200 fps. For short range shots you should probably have enough velocity for the bullet to expand well.

I bought a bag of the hph-12's today. I'm going to give the noslers another chance with these, especially since i have 40 more of the 300gr bullets.

deer655

Here is a recovered Nosler 300 grain bullet



This is what it was recovered from....



But I normally use Nosler 260's on whitetail - but the 300 will work..

If the 12's are top tight let me know - we can work out a swap, but they should go just fine in an old Knight barrel...

Seriously, save yourself some trouble. 250 Grain Barnes TEZ is a great bullet, leaves an awesome blood trail, opens on flesh contact, isn't anymore expensive than a powerbelt. I have seen perfectly placed shots with other bullets NOT leave a blood trail for the first 60 yards. Barnes is all I will shoot now or maybe Nosler Partition

I agree. The T-EZ is an awesome bullet. It has the same performance characterisitics as a Nosler Partition but without the lead and with a little better accuracy. But the price steers some people away from them.

I like 250 grain for deer.

ASK

I had bought a box of 50 of the 300gr noslers about 4 months ago. I have heard good things about the Barnes but wanted to give the Noslers one more chance with the different sabot. I actually think the best my gun ever shot was the combo that Tony Knight told me to use; 110 gr of pyrodex and a speer 260 gr jhp. This was the only time in my hunting experiences that I saw deer hit broadside and literally flop over like they had been hit by lightning.But the grass is always greener theory applies and I keep looking for the perfect combo that may beat the speers.

Can't be done.