gregrn43

I have to agree with head on this one. It is very difficult to tell the exact location of a shot. For example my wife and I was hunting together last week when she shot at one with her mz. To me the shot sounded like it came from straight down the hill from me. Actually she was down the hill and 350 yards to the south. I didnt think it was her, but it was. The terrian of the land and wind can play a big part in the sound of the shot.

slowr1der

Well, actually my buddies experience, but I was there in the next field hunting and helped him drag the deer out. So I saw that there was no blood trail, and I saw where the two well placed shots on the deer were. When skinning the deer, they pulled one of the bullets out and it looked like it just came out of the pack which was really weird as I really would have thought it would have gone through. The other expanded, but also didn't go through it.

That said, I've had similar experiences myself in the past when I used it, only I used the 295 Grain HP and he was using the 245 Grain one. I wanted to like Powerbelts as they loaded easily and were more convenient to carry imo than a bullet that you have to worry about keeping up with the bullets and sabots if you have them lose in your pocket. I also liked how accurate they were in everything I tried them in, but the results in the field were just lousy.

When I used them I used 100 grains of Pyrodex. The first one I shot, I found about 30 yards from where I shot it. It was kicking and flapping when I got there, but couldn't get up. I shot it again to put it out of it's misery. I didn't find a single drop of blood from where I shot it to where it lay, but I'd seen where it went so I went there to look first. Both bullets were stuck in the deer. The first one had been a lung shot, and the second one I shot in the back and it went down into the stomach area.

The second time I shot at a deer with it, I shot at a spike. I may have missed, but I kind of doubt it. It was about 175 yard shot, and I'm comfortable shooting up to 140 yards or so, but I decided to take this shot and just aim slightly higher than I would have for 140 yards. After shooting, it ran even closer to me, but a small 90 lbs doe also ran out of the weeds that I hadn't seen. I reloaded and shot the doe this time since she was closest. At this point she was right around 100 yards away. She took off running and while I was reloading again I saw her fall before making it to the woods. The spike ran even closer again and didn't seem to know where to go. So once I got reloaded I shot at him again. This time, as soon as I shot he dropped right there and started kicking. This was the last shot I had, so I just waited until he stopped kicking. To my surprise after about 45 seconds he made it back to his feet and took off into the woods. I waited, and got a buddy to help me come look. I first went and loaded up the doe, which had only run about 20 yards, and this was the only pass through I've ever had with this bullet, but it was also a tiny 90lbs doe. I still didn't see a drop of blood anywhere although I followed the tracks where the doe had run through the field looking.

So then I started looking for the buck. I never found any signs of him, but I know I hit him well when he went down kicking for that long. My buddy finally found a small spot of blood where he had rubbed up against a tree. That was the only drop of blood we found and we looked for a long time never finding him, or any signs of where he went. This ultimately was what made the decision for me to switch.

The next deer I shot was on the same trip, and I still had Powerbelts left and it's all I had to use. I shot a mediums sized buck from about 15 yards away. This is the only deer I've shot with these that left a blood trail. The bullet hit the bone going in and pretty much exploded. The entrance wound looked to be about the size of a baseball. It was huge, but the bullet didn't penetrate very deeply. This deer made it about 150-200 yards but it was some blood on the ground that led me in the right direction.

After loosing that deer, and seeing several friends shoot deer with the same results of no blood, I decided it was time to switch. I didn't really realize how bad of a bullet it was until I switched. As I mentioned there are only 2 guys in our group that normally use them, and only one has shot deer with them as the other one just started using them since it's all he could get to shoot well. The one that won't switch, shoots deer every year, and it's very often that they don't find them. I can't say for 100% certain he is making good shots on them, but in most of the cases, there is no blood, and he can't find anything. The ones he does find are all hit well, and he has found them from just pure luck. I'm not sure why he won't switch.

Had this just happened to me, I'd have thought it was a fluke, but it's happened to every one of us, and it's a repeating occurrence. My buddy that used this this past weekend as that's what that gun was sighted in for and he didn't have time to change it, and he had the same experience again.


I finally switched bullets last year as did most of my friends that hadn't already switched, and we are all much happier.

On the other hand I shot a doe on Saturday with a 300 grain Deep Curl. It didn't drop where it was, as it ran 80-100 yards, but it had a blood trail anyone could follow. It was a nice pass through with a small entry wound, and a large exit wound. There was a blood trail that looked like blood had been pouring out both sides of the deer from where I shot her, to where she lay. This is the kind of performance I like, and these things really impress me. It's even more impressive, when I think about how they are literally half of the price of the Powerbelts.

Kopfjaeger

Use a Barnes bullet and never worry about this happening again!

pluckit

You are correct. When I wrote my reply in this thread I was thinking about that. I thought about that deer and I couldn't remember if I was using a Powerbelt or not. Man, you have a good memory! I wish mine was even close to that good! But I believe that was a case of poor shot placement for sure. Even still, I switched bullets and I haven't shot at another deer with a Powerbelt.

falcon

What HEAD said.

Two or three years ago i started rushing my shots. After several long tracking jobs and long dragging jobs it was back to careful shot placement. It's a bad thing those animals suffered.

If you can't put the bullet in the right place then don't take the shot. No ones bullet is going to turn a gut shot into a bang flop.

donjose

Ten four on this,
seems every bullet maker out there makes one shot stop bullets dont they?

ADVWannabee

I am sorry to hear you lost your deer. I won't pile on the PB blame as I have no experience with them but I do believe that some bullets do suck. I use a .30-06 in rifle season and years ago was using cheap Winchester Silvertips. After losing the best buck I have ever shot even to this day, I switched to Federal Premiums with Nosler Partitions. That buck didn't leave a drop of blood behind so I assume it didn't pass through. It was found not too far away a few days later and had almost been entirely eaten by other animals. That day I learned about bullet performance and to make more effort tracking a deer even if you don't find sign that you hit it.

As to the bullet performance, I found the Silvertips still inside the deer on several deer. When it did pass through, it would leave a nasty exit wound as the bullet apparently was disintegrating. Since I switched to Nosler Partitions, I get pass throughs every time.

So maybe there is no way to know for sure, I do know that some bullets are junk and some aren't. With all the evidence against PBs I know I will never use them.

oldsmellhound

I'm sorry about what happened. I agree with the others, without finding the deer and doing a post-mortem, it is hard to say what happened. Most likely you missed the second neck shot, because a neck shot with any bullet will usually drop the deer initially (even if they get back up later) from the shock of the bullet passage. However, it's hard to say what happened with the first shot.

It could be IMO one of 2 things:
1. Less than ideal shot placement
2. PB blowing up. If the PB had stayed together and fully penetrated the deer, even without expanding at all, it would have killed it with correct shot placement. If the PB fragged and didn't fully penetrate the deer, it might have had one lung shredded, but the other lung intact. A deer can go a long ways on 1 lung I've learned from a lot of bowhunting.

But without recovering the deer to find out what happened, it's all speculation...