Yankee Doodle

I have taken 3 deer with .50 PowerBelts. Closest was 12 yards, furthest was 65. All were hit just behind the shoulder, halfway up the body. All dropped like they were struck by lightning. Well, one did crawl about 10 feet. All had impressive exit holes. My experience, small as it is, tells me that you are pushing a too light bullet too fast.
I used, and still have some left, the 405 grainer in front of 70 grains of either Goex 2F, or Pyrodex RS. This duplicates, to all intents and purposes, the original 45-70 rifle load. I don't think anyone can tell me that this load isn't going to work on a whitetail. Heck, it easily drops Bison.
So, I think you should either go to a heavier bullet, or drop the powder charge.
Just my opinion.

UncleNorby

If you don't want to use a saboted bullet, try Hornady FPBs. They shoot well for me and have given pass throughs on the 3 deer I've shot. All easy recoveries.

02bhntn

I useed to shoot Powerbelts out of my Optima until last year when I switched over to the TC Shockwaves 250gr bonded superglides. I love these things. 1" group at 100 yards with 2 777 50gr pellets and a 777primer. Haven't let me down yet

SWThomas

You don't want to use lube on sabots. If anything, just put a little spit on it before loading. Oil will cause erratic accuracy and can cause the sabot to slip over the rifling of the barrel instead of gripping it.

As for cleaner powder.... Blackhorn 209 is the cleanest loose powder on the market right now. I absolutely love the stuff but it costs a lot more than 777 or Pyrodex. So a forum search for either "Blackhorn" or "BH209" and you'll find plenty of good reading.

MountainDevil54

a guy just shot this doe with a 295gr powerbelt and 2 50gr pellets @ 20 yards.
http://www.huntingpa.com/forums/ubbt...16#Post1390946

TNHagies

This doesn't help. If he had shot the deer w/a Nosler and is saying this, then yeah there's probably reason to believe there's another variable at play. But the fact of the matter is that people all over this country have had this problem with Powerbelts. It's a fairly common occurance.

Even if someone else has perfect results with them, kclcpa now has no faith in them. So it's better just to move on to find a more trustworthy bullet for him instead of trying to prove that he did something wrong.

MountainDevil54

ive shot enough to tell you that big pile of hair means a bad hit or even a skimmed hit. Heck bigdaddy12 used that load and dropped the deer. With that load, its perfect! I think the right needs to be double checked just to make sure.

spaniel

What color was the hair? A skim belly shot will be white hair. Brown hair is a body shot.

A high shot may not bleed at all....with any bullet. The blood collects down in the chest cavity. If you shoot above the lungs they will not aspirate it out. If you deflate the lungs they won't work and won't aspirate it out.

When I've had problems finding deer I will search out as far as possible -- typically I'm only limited by property lines -- as long as I have a reasonable idea I know where the deer would go to flee. Sometimes they can surprise you. I shot a deer with a bow through the center of the heart once and he went almost 200 yards with zero blood. Only found him by following the most likely escape route as far as possible.

Good odds those deer are dead, hope you can figure it out.

TNHagies

The point is, you're not helping him. He has no confidence in the bullet now and by you telling him joe blow had perfect sucess with that load and bullet you're thinking he'll just forget his experience. All you're trying to do is defend the powerbelt. Let it go and help him find something else he's confident in. If he comes back next week and says 'hey shot a deer w/a Barnes or Nosler and got the same result' then we know there's something up.

BTW, I've killed many deer that had fistfulls of hair on teh ground and made perfect lung shots on them. It doesn't mean for sure that it was a bad hit. If it was white belly hair, then yeah I'll give you that.

kclcpa, I'm sorry you hit a nerve in the Muzzleloading world. Find you another bullet that you like and try that one out. Several people here have given good suggestions. Try them out and the range, make sure they shoot well and bust a big'n with it and see how you like them. Make sure to let us know how it turns out. And we love pictures

Slackdaddy

I shoot Extreme Elites from PRbullit.

http://www.prbullet.com/ee.htm

The in is about finger sized, the exit is golf ball sized,
The blood trail looks like a masicare scene.

Buckhorn 209 powder leaves almost no residue.

Slack