295gr aerotip with 80gr 777

saturday - doe broadside 75 yards, perfect shot, hair everywhere, no blood, deer gone

sunday - 6 point broadside 75 yards same spot, perfect shot, no blood again, deer gone

powerbelts great on paper, not so great in field

what's a good shooting bullet for an optima that isn't too hard to load?

Well that bullet isnt exploding thats for sure!! Sounds like a high hit to me.

Man, that's a bummer kclcpa. I've never shot Powerbelts so can't attest to their good or bad points. They seem to have a fair number of fans who really like them. But I've seen more bad reviews on Powerbelt effectiveness on game than any other bullet - enough that I decided not to even try them.

I can attest to the effectiveness of Speer Gold Dots, 250 grain, 270 grain, or 300 grain - whichever shoots best in your gun. Also, though I've never personally taken a deer with Hornady XTPs, bad reports on them are very few and far between. A lot of people I trust give them very good marks and I would have no qualms using and XTP.

As far as being hard to load, you can pick any good bullet in .452 or .429 and find a sabot that works for you. The Harvester crush rib sabots are easy loading in all of my guns.

How do you know they were perfect shots if you didn't recover the deer? Maybe try the Powerbelt Hollow Points. That's what I shoot although there may be better options out there. I've only shot the aero tips once and that's only because I bought them by mistake thinking they were hollow points. I shot them at a target.
I use the 295 grain Powerbelt hollow points

I shot a 8 point buck last year during black powder hunting season. I shot him from around 130 yards or so. He ran maybe 10-15 yards and fell. It was a great shot and the Powerbelt expanded pretty well. It wasn't a pass through though. You could feel it pushing against the skin of the deer on the other side but it didn't come out. That's the only experience I have with hunting with them but I'd say it was an okay experience. I will say I didn't find a blood trail I just saw the deer laying there.

I have another friend that said he is having trouble finding blood trails for deer he has shot with his BP rifle. He said he's found a couple deer but no blood and some he thought he hit perfectly and no blood or deer. He also shoots powerbelts so I don't know if it's just how the deer is hit or if it's this bullet.

thanks, i've got some xtp's so i'll give them a try, do most people use some sort of lube with sabots?

also wondering, is there a cleaner loose powder than this 777?

Ive shot a good deal of deer with powerbelts and can say, ive never found a pile of hair. Just a lot of blood and dead deer within a short distance. I used to shoot 80gr 3f t7 in a .45 with the 225gr aerotip and that sucker leaves a blood trail!! A 295 AT with 90gr RS shot into a doe at around 75 yards on a trot, dropped her in her tracks.

I'd take that rifle to the range and double check it. It really sounds like 1: Your are either over shooting it or 2: you are under shooting it.

i sighted my rifle in at the range at 75 yards with 295gr powerbelts 80gr 777, last 6 shots were in a 2 inch group, 3 of those on top of each other touching dead center

i set up 2 corn/buck jam spots 75 yards from my ground blind, both deer were feeding on the same spot when i shot them from the shooting bench

like i say, great on paper, not so much on killing, at least for me, i can't see taking a weapon to the field that you know is going to hit it's target but have to cross your fingers on whether it will kill it

yes, me too, i shot two deer with powerbelts in the past 48 hours, just nothing to show for it

Where you aiming at when you pull the trigger? Ive had my forum members shoot that same load and they had excellent success.

Did you look and see wich way the deer ran, then go as far as you can to make sure the deer just ran off a good ways and died? I had that problem with Sabots out of my Rifeld Barrel Shotgun, the first few deer I shot there was hair and no blood. I assumed I missed, I looked for about 30-40yds and found no hair and blood and gave up.I shot the gun the next day and I was hitting bullseyes so I know it was on. Well a few days later on a deer drive a friend found the deer I shot in the red brush about 40 more yds further than I looked, it was a perfect lung shot.
Them damn sabots just punched a small hole in the deer about pinky size and the exit wound plugged up with fat so no blood. I was bummed. The next day I shot a Big Doe at 50 yds, same thing, hair and no blood, this time I went further in my search and there she was dead and no blood trail no even a drop! This Doe went 90yds.
I switched from shotgun to ML and never went back with much better results using the 240gr XTP's. Now when I hit one there done. Also I never had a problem using a smoothbore shotgun with the old Foster Type Winchester Slugs, they did some damage but I wanted a better accurate gun with more distance so I went to a rifeld barrel, bad choice.
The ML Bullets you using will do the job on a deer, they may not do it on the spot or leave any blood, but if there put where they should be no deer can survive being shot through the heart or lungs.
I wish you all the luck and a successfull hunt!
breechplug
So if your a good shot and you know it and your ML is on, dont assume just because there's no blood and just hair that you did'nt get a kill shot, look as far as possible and you may be surprised what you'll find