I am just sick
 

Well, this guy will be foreveer on my mind. Got in my blind about 6:00 this morning. It os overlooking an overgrown gravel pit. I have a trail cam on the trail behind my blind. If you look at the pic above, my blind is just inside that tree line on the other side of this buck. I heard a buck grunting around 6:30, just to the right of me. Then I heard him grunting behind me just as the trailcam took this pic. Just before 7:00, I saw a buck come back into the pit on my left. I am sure it was the same buck. He started to go away from me, so I turned my can call over twice, and did 2 small grunts, and he turned and came right to me. I had him at probably 50 yards broadside with nothing in between us. He was walking, so I stopped him with a mouth grunt. He stopped and looked right at me! I put the crosshairs right behind the shoulder, and pulled the trigger. He turned to start running, and ran right into a bunch of small trees and fell down. Got right back up and took off. He stopped after running about 50 yards, and dissapeered heading out of the pit. Gave him 45 minutes, and then found blood where he stopped at 50 yards. After that it was just drops every 50 yards. After looking for more blood for a half hour, I decided to go check the river. (the river is only about 25 yards on the other side of the camera. I am standing about 5 yards off the bank, and I look to my right, and there he is standing there looking at me at about 15 yards! He was just standing there looking like he was in a world of hurt. He gave me time to take the sling off my shoulder, and get ready for another shot. I either had a wide open gut shot, or a small opening where I could see his neck, so I took the neck. Have no idea if I hit him or not. He took off running along the river, and out of sight. I sat down on a log to get my bearings straight, and give him some time. I had been sitting there about 5 minutes, when I heard 1 shot across the river where he was heading. I decided to back out, and drive around, to the other side, and see if some one shot a buck with at least 1 hole in it. I wasnt going to demand thte deer, I just wanted to know if I should look more for him, or if I was wasting my time. The guy who owns the land sais no one was hunting over there this morning. Well, someone had to be over there hunting over thtere, I heard the shot. Anyways, I went back and looked some more. Never found another drop of blood....... So, we just searched for him, but never found him. So, drops of blood when he was moving, and 2 beds with a good amount of blood in them. Blood was bright red. No gut matter.Went at least 200 yards. Gun was a CVA Accurra V2. Load was 245 grain PB Hollow Point, 80 grains of loose 777

When I started reading this thread and I knew long before I got to the end you were shooting a Powerbelt.

A buddy hunting in the field next to me shot a nice 7 pointer deer with a 245 grain Powerbelt yesterday. He also hates the Powerbelts, but used a gun his father in law gave him that was sighted in for them and he didn't have time to sight it in for something else so he shot them. The first time he shot it, the deer took off un hit, it then stopped looking around and once he'd gotten reloaded he shot it again, and the deer took off again. Neither bullet passed through, and there was absolutely no blood from where he first shot it to the where he shot it the second time. The second place he shot it, there was a couple of drops a blood, and he did find the deer, but no thanks to the blood trail. The first shot was as perfect shot just behind the shoulder, and the second shot was a little far back, but still a good shot. Every single person, myself included, that I know that's tried PB's has had this exact same experience.

Why anyone would ever use this sorry excuse for a bullet is beyond me.

+1same experience

boy that sucks, ive had great luck with the 245gr powerbelt with 120gr RS back in the old days.

Sure would be interesting to find him dead or alive and see what went on.

Sorry to hear you lost the deer. That really is too bad. That deer should have went down and stayed down if hit good.

I was all set to prove that a 295 grain powerbelt and 80 grains of 2f would take a deer easy.. now you have me questioning my selection. The rifle also shoots a 300 grain XTP with 90 grains, so I know that might be the ticket.

It is a shame you could not find that deer and examine the wounds.

When i started reading the thread i also knew it was a PB that the deer had been hit with.the bullets are simply high priced junk and not worth using under any circumstances.the new PB Aerolites are no better and should be avoided as well.there are a lot of better bullet choices on the market and most of them are less expensive and give far better terminal performance..

Having used this bullet for a couple of years, I think you can definitely bring a deer down, I just would expect for him to run off without leaving a blood trail. I also wouldn't expect a pass through unless it's a very small deer.

I just don't get why anyone would want to use these things when they are a lot more expensive and perform a lot worse than many other bullets on the market. This is just opinion anyway.

I thought they sucked when using them, but after switching to the 300 Grain Deep Curls, I realized, just how much the Powerbelts sucked. I will never go back. The accuracy was the only good thing about them, and I got just as good of accuracy with the Deep Curls once I found the sabot it liked.

Out of the group of guys I hunt with, most of us have used the PB's and all of us except two have switched to something else, and won't go back. The two guys that still shoot them, one is an older guy and when he bought his Optima, the gunshop told him that it was made to shoot Powerbelts and wouldn't shoot anything else accurately. Even though we told him they were full of it, he refuses to try anything else, and says that's all they can shoot.

The other guy hasn't used Powerbelts in the past, and doesn't really like them, but got a Wolf, and was having issues shooting the Shockwaves he wants to. He says they were tumbling no matter what he tried. The Powerbelts were the only bullets he could get locally right before the season started that would shoot decently, so he is using them.

Just too much negative info on them out there for me to even ever try them. I will stick with my Barnes. Really sorry that you didn't find him. We all have lost deer and it sucks.

Dave
Stick with the 300 gr xtp I have been using the 265 gr made for the 444. The fly well and are a little stronger than the pistol bullets.

I am surprised know one said its cause you used Triple 777 :)

I do not shoot Power Belt bullets. Never have, never will. But that is because I am cheap. Not because of the bullet.

I do not want to get in any arguments. But there are basic truths here that we have to live with.

First off the power belt is 1/2" in diameter. So no matter what, you have a 1/2" entrance hole. If the bullet did not expand a bit you would still have that entrance hole plus that same sized exit hole. If the bullet did not expand then it would definitely pass through.

So to blame the bullet right off the bat is just not the correct thing to do. A properly placed bullet will kill-period. Even with ZERO expansion it will kill. Maybe not as fast or efficient, but it will KILL.

So I am not buying the blame the bullet crowd. The problem is, as it always is, with the shot location. And improper shot placement will cause a failure with even the best bullets.

I would bet $100 to a donut that an experienced tracker would find that deer. If that deer laid down twice in 200 yards and left blood pools then it did not go far. Get back out there and find that buck-for surely he is there. Unless someone else took him. And if they did you will find the final spot. Tom.

zero trouble killing my last muley and that bullet fragged badly as well. Im suspecting a poor hit. Even the neck shot at 15 yards didnt do anything do him which was most likely a missed shot. I swear, mule deer go down right away or leave blood, but its these whitetails that are bullet proof when it comes to powerbelts.

I think judgment is being rushed a bit to much right now. Without the deer, its easy to jump on the wagon and blame the bullet. 80gr T7 pellets is going to be a good performing load when its placed right, but again, without being able to see what happened, theres just no telling until you can recover the deer.

I agree always poor bullet performance
Never a bad shot :)

you know, i was trying to look for some pictures and ran across an elk hunt from 08 or 09 i forget which. But my brother in laws nephew shot a cow elk with a 30-06, you could hear the solid hit. We tracked her for a mile and a half. She'd lay down, leave a puddle of blood, get up and walk another 300 yards or so, lay down. We never found her at the end. Maybe a low chest shot in the breast bone, who knows.

You'll have better luck next time out.

I have only taken one deer with a PB. I realize that bullet performance can't be judged by one head of game with them. The bullet I used to take this deer preformed perfectly. I shot him at 60 yards broadside, bullet entered behind the shoulder and exited the far side. The bullet took out both lungs and he barely made it 20 yards before crashing. This bullet expanded nicely taking out two ribs on the way out. I don't use PB's anymore and a lot of that has to do with all the negative reviews I read on here about them. I truly believe that shot placement is far more important. I have seen deer taken with a 22 rimfire before and I dont think anyone would consider it to be a good deer rifle.

I'm not going to say people haven't had problems finding deer using other bullets, only Powerbelts. I lost a big doe last year using a 12 gauge Winchester sabot slug. But this is far from the first horror story about the performance of Powerbelt bullets. I had some and they shot extremely well, but after reading all the terrible reviews about their terminal performance, I never hunted with them. I switched to the 240 grain XTP that I had taken a deer with before and had confidence with. No bad reviews on that bullet, and I have yet to lose a deer that I have hit with them.

I don't understand why people pay premium prices, for a bullet with questionable performance? Yes, shot placement is important, but not every shot can be properly placed, in a hunting situation.

Well, that sucks! I can't imagine how you feel.

I think your load was too light for deer. It could work, or it could not. I wouldn't be comfortable with it.

Today I went and shot my Optima with some 300gr Aerolite PB's. I used 100gr of BH 209. Very accurate to 200yds. I wouldn't use anything less for deer, and I wouldn't take a chance with the load on elk.

Just my .02. Maybe only .01.

Muley, she group good?

Pluckit, I thought the 245 grain powerbelt is what you were using last fall. http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/blac...ails-only.html

Bragging isn't my style. I'll just say..real good.

Going to 100gr woke them up. BDC reticle works perfect. Much easier than guessing at the holdover.

Now I need some 300gr Thors for the elk. :D

yep certainly will do good with the 300gr. Might have to take her up to 110gr though for some extra grunt power!

I have taken 3 deer in the past 3 years with a 295 grain PB, and 80 grains of Loose 777. 2 of them dropped in their tracks, and the other one didnt go over 25 yards and piled up. Maybe its the bullet, maybe not. Wont ever know for sure unless I can find tht deer, and I am 99% sure that he crossed the river and someone shot it. Like I said, I went and talked to the landowner, and he told me that no one was hunting over there today, well then who the hell wasshooting over there?

I shot at 200 yds, because that's what the range has. I would have preferred 150yds. 200 yds is a long shot. I had to play 8" of windage, and it felt like a light breeze.

I'd like to think I can get closer than 200yds, or i'm not much of a hunter. No wise cracks!

It was Pluckit! :action-smiley-099: just kiddin pluckit.
:s1:

From all i've read. The 295 gr is a better performer than the 245gr. Not just the extra weight. It just seems like a better bullet.

If we have 200 yard shots, im grabbin your gun :p

We can all say maybe the poster(Bigdaddy) made a bad shot, which i doubt! take a look at Slowriders experience with the same bullet on a recovered deer. 2 kill shots with no pass through.let's be realistic about this, if those deer had been shot with a XTP,deep curl, barnes, lehigh or even a full bore lead metplate style bullet, i can about assure you the bullets would have passed through and even if the deer didn't go down immediately, there would have been a good blood trail.if folks feel they must use a PB, at least use the flat point bullets offered by PB and not the hollow point lead, which have no way to control expansion and leads to the problems.

No problem, but then I get 1/3 of the meat.:p

I don't want to get into an argument about what shots you heard. But if you are hunting in the woods then shots in the woods can be very very very deceiving. Especially MZ shots. Many times it is very difficult to tell the exact direction of a shot. And the distance is virtually impossible to tell, unless they are right on top of you.

You could have a loud heavy load shot, or a light load shot. Distance is virtualy impossible to tell. It could have been 1/2 mile away. And if the woods was thick enough and the load light enough it could have been 200 yards away. I have seeen it way too many times over the years. Tom.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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...