I'm fairly new to the game but I'm loving the Barnes Expander. Most of my friends use TC Shockwaves

Around here there are only 3 bullets really sold to the general public in large volumes.

Powerbelts
XTPs
Shockwaves

My top five:

240 grain .430 XTP
250 grain SSt/Shockwave
350 grain FPB
280 grain .430 Harvester hard cast
225 grain .430 Barnes XPB

Speculating is fine, it would be nice to have some facts...

Who wants to contact Graf and MidWay and see what are their top 5 most
popular, or can you go on their wensite and hit favorites and it be accurate???

Another point, I've shot round balls in my flintlocks since the 70s, haven't bought a
store bought ball since the early 80s, so how do you know how many hunters use or
don't use round balls???

It would also be interesting to know how many different bullets each had tried in his muzzleloader...I've tried 295 PowerBelts, 300 and 250gr Barnes MZs, Hornady XTPs in 240 and 300gr .429 diameter and 300grs and 250gr in .451 diameter as well as Dead Centers in 240gr and 250 and 300gr Shockwaves...

I waited to post on this and am suprised about how many people like the power belts. I can only speak for myself as I would never use them again.Very poor results on game for me. Thanks to busta for getting me off them and on to the FPB.

I would say
.452 300gr deep curl
350gr FPB
.452 300gr XTP
460gr No Ex

95% of the mule loader hunters I know have used Powerbelts because they were talked into them by the store or other people, yet after using them switched to something else. Now, I'm not sure everyone does, but it seems like a large majority of people don't continue to use them. I do know a couple of guys that do though.

First off, let me say i've never hunted with a PB. So, no bias on my part. I can only go by what i've seen, and not forum wisdom.

In my area we have one gun shop who sells BP components. I know it's a popular area for ML hunting, because it's hard to get a tag here. The gun shop only stocks PB's. There's a couple of boxes of MaxiBalls, but they have a 1/4" layer of dust on them. I've looked at them for years, and bought the only other box that was there. I noticed before hunting season that the supply of PB's are high. I notice after hunting season they are almost all gone.

I asked the shop owner if anybody complains about poor performance for the PB's. He gave me an odd look like he had never heard there was a problem. I asked if everybody was getting game with the PB's. He said sure........with another odd look.

So, I dropped it before he thought I was nuts. I don't know. Maybe we shoot better in Colorado. :p

Well, the shop owner isn't stupid. He wouldn't stock PB's if they didn't sell. It's what the hunters want here. There isn't a lot of options for Colorado. You can't stock Thors. He tried FPB's, but nobody bought them. Except me, and when I bought them all he never restocked. He sells a lot of RB's.

He won't stock any sabots. Nobody will buy them. Unlike me. Nobody uses a ML in rifle season where a sabot could be used.

Anyway, my point was, here's a bunch of hunters using PB's and doing fine with them.

I mentioned in a thread on Jon's forum about a thread I was in on a CF forum. We were talking about the Nosler Partition. As far as i'm concerned it's one of the best bullets ever made. Wouldn't you know it. Some guy posts the bullet is junk, and he couldn't kill anything with one. That's forums for you.

my top 5 is really a top two

1) 300gr gold dots
2) 285gr barnes spitfires


There are a few that I would like to try (325gr ftx for example) but these two bullets both shoot very well out of my guns and are proven killers