I did a little informal testing of my own a while back and thought I would throw it out here for ya all to chew on. Took the 295 gr powerbelt hp' s and the TC 240 gr XTP' s and shot them at 75 yards with 90 gr. of Cleanshot powder. The targets were taped to wine boxes that were filled with a sifted damp and slightly compacted sand. Each round was retrieved prior to the next shot and the sand was returned to as close to same condition as before. The bottom row of the picture (assuming I can get that to upload and display) are the PB' s, middle row is the XTP' s and for giggles and a bit more comparison I sent a few 200 gr RN winchester factory 35 Rem rounds at it as well. You guys be the judge here but if you could have seen the massive cavities that the PB' s left in the sand you would wonder how they dont explode the deer. Hope the pic comes out. Enjoy

Hey it worked!
Forgot to mention that these were shot from the CVA Hunterbolt' s using Winchester 209' s The XTP were a PITA to load from the get go and needed a good cleaning with each shot. We ran a spit patch after each PB shot to maintain a clean barrel. The PB' s are so much more convenient to shoot. Based on what I saw at the range with the 2 different bullets I am going to stick by the PB' s until something concrete changes my view. Thanks for letting me show this.

Rodsmith your powerbelts, were they the aero tip points or hollow points. Basicly I got the same results (did not recover the bullets) with entry & exit holes with the PB hollow points into containers of water (actually blew up the container).

I am still wondering if all the problems which people are having is with the aero tip PB.

grump
I shot only the hp' s for this test. I picked up some of the aero' s and will try the same thing with them next chance I get, will post results (pics) here

Pretty impressive expansion ! I' ve been wanting to try the PB' s , I think you just made up my mind . [8D]

Rodsmith, Thanks for sharing your pics. I shoot the same gun and bullet. I use 90gr. 3F black powder though and it downed a dandy doe this year. Now looking at the pics I can see why

I also use the power-belt HP. took several deer with them,no recovery;complete pass through.
on had an exit the size of a tennis ball,didn' t have to worry about a blood trail (" it was a road of blood;not a trail" )[][8D]

works great for me.I will contune to use them!!

Rodsmith- I have been using 295 gr. HP Powerbelts with 2 50 gr. Pyrodex pellets with excellent results also in my Knight disc rifle. I have used these on whitetail deer and Russian boar and have had single shot kills every time. Most of the animals dropped instantly and a few went a very short distance after being shot. I was able to recover some of the bullets from the animals and they closely resembled the bullets you recovered in your tests. I find the Powerbelts to be very easy to load, very accurate, and dependable. This last Thanksgiving my 17-yr. old son dropped a trophy 12-point buck in his tracks with a 295 gr. HP Powerbelt with 2 50 gr. Pyrodex pellets fired from his Knight T-bolt rifle. I highly recommend them to other hunters. I recently test fired some of them using the new Triple 7 pellets and you may read my post entitled Tried Some Triple 7 Pellets for the results.

I' ve used the 295 gr hollow points to kill two deer, one was a 230 lb 8 point and the other was a 183 lb 8 point. Both deer dropped where I shot them. I hit them high in the shoulder but the impact of the bullet broke their spine. There was not a pass thru on either shot, I recovered most of the bullet. I use two 50 gr pyrodex pellets, 209 primer, out of an Encore. this load shoots to 1.5" at 100 yds. I think I' ll stay with that loading.

There has been so much negative press here on the site that I thought we needed to look at this some more. I know my " sand box" is not a true indicator of the actual intended target but I think it shows that tese can and do hold up under some pretty severe conditions. My plus points would be, full 50 cal size slug, easy/fast to load on 2nd shot (if it is required) uniform expansion, and great weight retention. The down side would be the cost. I will continue my quest here and post the results of the PB Aero tip bullets as soon as I get the opportunity to get back to the pits, its shaping up to be a very active few months ahead.