mnprohunter

So, a couple reports on Powerbelts:

First, in cutting up dad's deer, I found the 245gr just sitting in the hide, almost went completely through, the powerbelt had a perfect mushroom shape.
Mine went through completely...so nothing there to look at. However, mine ran into a spruce swamp...made it 40 yds I suppose, never found hardly a drop of blood in the snow until right before the deer itself....
One of my friends shot a buck in the chest...the deer fell down a big hill, busted half the rack off, no find!!
Sunday, they found a buck bedded down, they shot it and low and behold, it was the one they shot the other day...it had half a rack and a hole in the chest..the Powerbelts never made it to any vitals, dissintegrated on impact....
I love how Powerbelts load. I have never lost a deer from one but am bothered by hearing of fragmenting...which happened to me last year, but my deer died, and from a seemingly lack of blood trail until after the 40yd marker....lots of in-cavity blood....
anyone have any thoughts to go along with this?

IL-Cornfed

It seems that you can find similar feedback with EVERY bullet and load.... crap happens and many shots we simply can't explian. For everyone that swears by one bullet... you'll find someone to complain about that same bullet. Personally, I believe there are MUCH better bullets to chose from the Power Belts and this seems to be the general opinions of most of the industry.

Big Z

Push 'em slow. They'll work...

mnprohunter

Yeah, it does seem like the consensus...and shooting lower powder and slowing them down does seem to make a difference...I am switching when I run out...or start trying others anyway..we'll see....as long as they get on the ground and I don't lose them thats what counts.

MountainDevil54

slow them down or go heavier. We lost an elk that was shot with a 30-06 last week. Shot placement.

If there was a ton of blood in the body cavity, it tells me the shot was high. I like low heart/lung shots.

SteveBNy

X2!!!
I want something that will proform from 5 to 150 yds and not let a little bone stop it.
For me, thats not a PB.
For conicals, a real one like the Bullshop 420 grns plus.
Sabots, its a Nosler.

saxman1

If your going to shoot Powerbelts then go for it but take the time to work up the right charge for that bullet,low and slow seems to be the order of the day with PB's,however, MountainDevil54 has some custom PB's you should try.
I have killed a couple deer with the 245 AT in 50 cal,the first I pushed to hard @ 100 grn (2 50g pyro pellets)
The bullet fragmented but I recovered the deer in sight.
The second was shot was with 80 grn (1/50 & 1/30 grn pellet)
This was a boom flop with a good mushroom on the bullet.
I would hunt with them again,no problem.

omegasmoke

I've had the same experience with powerbelts. 5 deer shot, 3 of them Drt, the other 2 ran about 40 yds with no blood whatsoever. Not one bullet passed all the way through on any of the 5 deer. I was using 100 gr.( 2 pellets) and the 245 AT's. I did not know that 100 grains was too much until I read comments on these forums. If you ask me the pamphlet that comes with the powerbelts should state the CORRECT recommended load. The pamphlet says 110 to 150 gr.s of pyrodex pellets recommended for .50 cal. magnum rifles. They should be suggesting the 80 or 90 charge load and helping out the hunter using them. I don't use them anymore. I use Barnes and Gold dots and have a lot more confidence in these bullets. I don't want to use any bullet that I have to worry about fragmenting on impact. If you ask me it's a fussy bullet.

lemoyne

Power Belts were designed a long time a go, I believe it was during the time when every one was using the at that time new 1-48 twist. I personally believe the 1 in 28 twist we use in most inlines makes them open to fast if you put more than 80 gr behind them, so even though they can be very accurate they are not at the top of my list. If you want a lot of info on them check out Ganders web page.
Most of use feel sabot-ed bullets are better but if you want to find an other conicals there are a number of them available, the FPB from Hornady is excellent and I have had good results with the heavier Bull Shop and No Excuses also the Thor and the Sabertooth. It is important to have confidence in what you use. Lee

ampelart

got a big doe in catskills today first deer i seen in 3 weeks hunting. barnes expander 300g best blood trail in 55 years deer went 50 y fell over cliff longist drag of life went 1/2 mile wrong way. Gun Krb 7 love that gun