Northport buckslayr

Okay so I have a lot of newbie questions because I am new to muzzleloading, I just got my first ML. I had assumed I would shoot powerbelts but after doing a lot of reading it seems a lot of people hate them becuase they blow up on deer. Just out of curiosity I dropped one on my basement floor and it put a pretty big dent in it, to the point where I wouldnt shoot it. Seems pretty soft to me. A lot of people shoot them to, but I dont want to take the chance. Part of the appeal of the powerbelts is the easy loading and lack of plastic residue after shooting. Is the plastic from a sabot really that big a deal or is this mostly just marketing? Loading a second pwerbelt after shooting was pretty easy, how much harder is it with a sabot?

cayugad

The new sabots leave little to no residue in the barrel. I have shot hundreds of sabots out of some rifles and never noticed a build up at all. I do occasionally take a brass bore brush, dip it in a good solvent like Montana X-treme cowboy solvent or Birchwood Casey bore scrubber and will work that brush through the barrel. That removes any plastic, copper, lead, and gunk that might build up. A few solvent patches and I am good for another couple hundred sabots.

As for powerbelts being soft lead.. you want to use soft lead with muzzleloaders. Powerbelt's must be effective or they would not sell so many of them. Some people report lack of blood trails. I believe a lot of that is shot placement. Any poorly placed bullet can leave a bad blood trail. Also many try to push them too hard. If you slow them down a little, some people get excellent results with them. But then a good sabot load is hard to beat. And normally cheaper to shoot.

lemoyne

The power belts do have problem, or 3 the fragmenting can be handled by plugging the hollow point, but you still need to shoot them with a fairly low charge.
I personally have not found sabots any problem, the one thing you need to remember is that they come with different petal thickness and that they need to be tight enough to take about 50 pounds of pressure to shove on down after they are started at least that's what I have found gives me really good accuracy. They can be to tight as well as to loose to tight is when you feel like you need to pound it down with something to loose is when you can push it down with one hand.
If there is some one close to you that shoots sabots see if you can get a few from them to try. I do not usually buy the sabots and bullets packaged together because if the sabot do not fit right for my barrel.

hometheaterman

I worried about the same thing, but after switching I find it just as easy to load the bullets in the sabots. I don't find it any harder at all. The only only thing I guess you have to worry about is making sure if you put them loose in your pocket, I guess the bullet could fall out of the sabot, and you have to put it back together. This may take slightly longer if you are trying for a quick reload, but this wouldn't happen if you have them in quick loaders, and doesn't seem to really happen much anyway. I really hated to make the switch to sabots, but once I did, I see absolutely no downside.

Northport buckslayr

Thats good to hear, I guess sabots are the way to go.

cayugad

Just get the right thickness of sabot and the correct diameter to match the bullet your going to use, for the gun you shoot. For instance, I tried to load a Hornady SST in my Black Diamond XR and it was so tight, I broke my short starter. Yet I load their Shockwave (same bullet different sabot) with no problems and excellent accuracy.

Many rifles do require swabbing the bore between shots when shooting sabots, so keep that in mind.

cbower22

I personally like the powerbelts and have never had a problem with them. 245 gr hollow point with 100 gr of pyrodex pellets. never tried sabots so cant say. I will say with any blackpowder load, a clean barrell and a little bit of butter bore makes loading much easier and helps improve your accuracy

Gm54-120

Sabots vs PowerBelts are like pellets vs loose powder.

You have a lot more options with sabots and loose powder for much less money unless you want to buy premium bullets. Most premium bullets you will get what you pay for, unlike PowerBelts that have a limited design velocity. CVA even "now" says to keep the impact fps low for them to work correctly.

There is nothing wrong with other full bore options too like BullShop or No Excuses conicals. They are a fraction of the cost of a Powerbelt and just as deadly even with low powder charges. They also have a far better sectional density than almost any PowerBelt and that can translate into far more down range energy. A 245gr PB has a SD of about .140 which is terrible compared to most 50cal full bore options. If you like PBs i would stick with offerings over 300grs and powder charges that keep them well under 1800fps.

I do like the 300gr Plat in 45cal just for the reasons i mentioned and i got a bunch at close out pricing. Even that heavy weight 45cal turned into a grenade with heavy charges and it has a pretty good SD.

Northport buckslayr

If I did stick with a powerbelt would 2 50 grain Triple 7 pellets be too much for a 295 grain hollow point? I read that triple seven pellets are more powerful than pyrodex pellets, and like Cayugad posted powerbelts like to pushed slow.

hometheaterman

I shot 2 50 grain Pyrodex pellets and a 295 grain Powerbelt Hollow Point and I got very poor performance on deer. Shooting at a target they shot very accurately though. My only 2 friends that still use Powerbelts are using this exact same load, and they don't find half the deer they shoot. I can't figure out why they wont switch.

Shooting the same load with a Fusion 300 grain bullet, saw awesome performance on deer. I love how these perform, but they have a price of a premium bullet, and seem to just have the design of a regular old bullet. If money was no option I'd shoot these all the time.

I've not shot a deer with one of the Gold Dot Deep Curls, but it looks like it would perform similar to the Fusions.