GrumpyTom

I shoot both PowerBelts and horniday sabots. I hear many claim to have expansion problems with the powerbelts. Other people claim to have fabulous expansion with the powerbelts. I was wondering if it was the Arrow-tip or the hollow point that has the expansion problems. If you have any experiances with expansion of the powerbelts maybe we can get an impromt survey on here. List if it was good and what type of Power Belt you shot.

Mark whiz

Tom,

I had a problem with a PowerBelt on game for your survey. Shooting a 348gr Aerotip behind 115gr of CleanShot powder, I had a complete pass through both shoulders on a 125lb Boar............target range, 15yds. There was 0 (zero) %expansion of the bullet - entry & exit holes were identical in size. Fortunately the boar dropped dead immediately when hit.

vERN

We got new inlines last year (my son and I) and tried both 245 and 295 hollow pt Powerbelts. It seemed that the 245' s grouped a little better so we went with them. My son hit a deer at about 75 yds. and nocked it right down, but it was lying there with its head up so he tried a 2nd shot - for the head- and missed. While reloading it got up and walked away. We tracked for about 3/4 mile and only found five 1/4 inch drops of blood in all that way. The next day we went back to the range and he settled on 320 Maxi' s and I tried the 295 all lead as I really liked the way they loaded. I hit a doe on the last day, at about 10 yds running. She droped about 35-40 yds with a hole through her front leg and a huge hole in her brisket but not a drop of blood until she dropped! I had been shooting the Hornady Lyman 385' s but they are rather hard to load, so may try the 350 or 370 maxi' s before next season. I had noted the very mixed performance on game with the Powerbelts on these pages. It' s too bad because they are so easy to load and don' t foul up the barel with plastic like some others, but we don' t use them for punching holes in paper.

slee

Has the company addressed these concerns, or offered some sort of explanation? I don' t mind paying their price if they perform as designed, but it doesn' t sound like they are. Judging by the responses on this board alone, they have a problem somewhere. Whether it is with all of their bullets or only specific ones, they won' t stay in business long if they don' t do something about it. Could it be that they work better at a specific velocity, or something to that effect? I enjoy shooting my muzzleloader, but I don' t get to do it that often. I don' t know if I want to waste my time shooting these bullets if they aren' t going to perform well on elk this fall. Think I' ll work on fine-tuning loads for my Renegade with 385gr Maxi' s until I find out more about Powerbelts. The worst thing I could do is wound an elk and not find it. Been there, done that, had nightmares for weeks. Not a good experience.