1st MLer! does anyone know what grain bullet I am shooting?
 

i bought my first Muzzleloader, a CVA optima. I am pretty darned pleased so far, it is easy to load and clean and shot a nice group a fifty yards right out of the box with open sights. i also bought a CVA beginner's muzzleloader kit to go with it that had all the loading and cleaning accessories one needs. The only problem is the package did not specigy what grain bullet the powerbelts it came with are. I am guessing they are 245 or 295 grain, does anyone know for sure?

Take one to your local archery shop and have them weigh it. They should be able to give you the exact weight. I have been hunting exclusively with muzzleloaders and bows for the past 15 years and have found those powerbelts to be the easiest loading muzzleloader projectile on the market. But, I have also found them to often be inconsistent grouping and not always the best performance on impact. I own muzzleloaders from Knight, Thompson Center, Traditions, CVA and Austin Halleck, and everyone one of them shoots something better then the Powerbelts. Just keep that in mind if you start to move your range out a bit and your grouping starts opening up then maybe change your bullet selection.

how much powder are you using?

if you have an scale that gives you oz. just use an internet oz to grs converter.

my guess, 295gr.

All my CVA's shoot excellent with powerbelts. 80-100gr blackhorn209 are the sweet spots.

I think the best bet would be to try to find someone to weigh them and see.

That being said to go along with the above post, I've found the Powerbelts to be easy to load, and I've also found them to be very accurate and to shoot extremely well. I used them for a couple of years, but I found the performance on deer to be horrible and they don't usually exit, and they don't usually leave a blood trail. I've since switched bullets and am much happier. I've got a friend that still uses the Powerbelts, and he constantly is complaining about the same thing I didn't like about them. He refuses to change bullets though as the shop that sold him his gun told him not to shoot anything else in it as the gun was made for the Powerbelts. He then had another guy tell him that his only shot Powerbelts well. So he chooses to listen to the bull those guys told him instead of shoot a bullet that performs well.

"Throw the power belts away" and visit this site often and ask questions about various bullet types and sabot combos to shoot.you can also search the internet for local clubs and muzzle loader shooters in your area.for what you will spend on powerbelts, you can shoot quality bullets for the same amount. and there are far less expensive bullets that will shoot better for a lot less money.. any person or shop that informs you powerbelts are the only bullet you can use.doesn;t have a clue when it comes to muzzle loading rifles (period) Ray

The new Powerbelt Aerolites are awesome for retaining weight. The older ones shoot excellent but can shed weight pretty quickly, i use them all and dont have any fear of losing an animal.

Someone here just shot a deer with a barnes and didnt get a blood trail, along with another using a Speer gold dot and not getting a blood trail.

geez, all the guy asked is if we know the weight of the bullet. it was just an simple question does not need an major debate.

I found the kit he was talking about at basspro's $60
http://www.basspro.com/CVA%C2%AE-Pel.../26159/-822089.

• Bore brush
• Universal hollow/polymer point bullet starter with 9 attachments
• 2 oz. breech plug grease
• 3 speed loaders
• 50 cleaning patches
• Breech plug/nipple pick
• 16 PowerBelt™ bullets
• Large breech brush
• Small breech brush
• Instructional DVD
• 4 oz. cleaning solvent

if you price all the items on that list he is shooting them cheaper the most people shoot them at

he is down range

by no means I am an major powerbelt shooter, only gun that gets feed by them full time is my 45cal, it does not like sabots. and every sabot round I found is 200grs or less, I like every bullets. I shoot 75grs to 90grs of ANY powder with them.

maybe that is why I am going to shoot cast boolets this year. ;)

MD

to one guys defense, the deer that was shot with the barns was almost at the 200yrds mark, good chance there was not enough energy left to go all the way or let it expand as it should. the deer was recovered.

thought I bring that up before some else does and would not be as nice doing it. .

3 yrs ago I shot an deer with an XTP at 25yrds and did not get an blood trail. have not taken another deer since then work gets in the way lol

I've not used the new Powerbelt Aerolites, so I can't comment on them. The problem I had with the old ones though wasn't that they fragmented on me, although I know they will if pushed too hard and at close ranges. My problem with them was that they didn't offer good penetration. I only got one pass through on the deer I shot and it was a very small doe. The rest didn't pass through, and most including the above doe didn't leave a good blood trail.

I'm not sure about the thread on the Speer not leaving a blood trail. I will have to read that one as I've not read it yet. However the one about the Barnes not leaving a blood trail was a guy that shot a deer and it dropped in it's tracks. As mentioned in that thread, the deer didn't live long enough for it to pump out blood, and it didn't run which is why there was no blood trail. I strongly suspect it would have been a totally different story had the deer lived long enough to run off.

I shot a couple of deer with Powerbelts and all were near perfect hits other than the one I didn't find. I suspect it was a good hit, but couldn't verify it. All ran off after being shot. One I knocked down and he got up and ran off. I searched for hours and never found him and only a drop of blood where he had rubbed up against a tree. The rest I did find, but 2 of them didn't have a blood trail at all including the doe I did get a pass through on. The one that did have a blood trail, something happened where the bullet hit the shoulder bone and left an entrance hole about the size of a baseball. It didn't exit, but did leave a good blood trail.