Thank you!! , I'm new to muzzleloading and I most certainly will!

That's why I tried to keep it simple for you. Using the pellets is easy, and you can't make any mistakes.

What primers are you using?

In my Optima I went to a Blackhorn 209 breech plug from CVA, and I have been shooting BlackHorn Powder. Because of some recommendations on this bullet for whitetail, and getting a heck of a deal on the bullets, I have been shooting the .40 caliber 200 grain Shockwave in the dark blue sabots. I too have a scoped rifle. This is what mine will do with that bullet at 52 yards.

At 100 yards I have really not played with the rifle that much. Other then shooting some paint cans, shooting oranges off a stump, that kind of thing. The Optima seems to like 90-100 grains of powder. And its a great shooting rifle. I never shot the TMZ barnes out of it. I have shot some Hornady PT Gold in 260 grain and they did real well.

As for powerbelts.. a 245 grains aero tip powerbelt is crazy accurate out of this Optima. I was sent some to play with, and theh accuracy shocked me. I really think I could take a deer with them. Even though everyone else will tell you they are horrible bullets. But deer hunting has been ruff around my place the last couple years.

Thanks man! I will give both of those a try too!

If you listen to everybody you'll be confused. Keep it simple. The Barnes is the best bullet you can use.

cayugad, I have to say you may be the absolute FIRST person, not waving the company flag, I've heard (read whatever) say that they got extremely good accuracy out of any ML'er with those fishing weights. I can tell you from experience that they perform HORRIBLY on whitetail. I watched a buddy of mine hit 2 nice fat doe in one week. I Saw the hits and they were spot on perfect right behind the shoulder shots and lost BOTH deer. Both were less than 90 yards. I looked for those deer for 2 days. Finally found one that had made it around 600 yards over a hill and into a ravine and it looked like it was taken down by either a fairly large yote or a dog. Never found the other one. Both left a small damn near untrackable blood trail for about 30 yards then nodda, nothin, zilch. Hoof trailed them for about another 60 yards till they ran into a heavily traveled part and couldn't pick out the tracks. I'd have to say performance wise they are the absolute WORST bullets on the market. Hell I got better terminal ballistics from a ball and patch!

Ok, I'm gonna give the Barnes a try first , then go to the hornady , then powerbelt aero top

Personally I agree. There is no other muzzleloader bullet made, that has such a bad reputation, which is easily backed up by a simple search. Its not because the hunters made a bad shot either.

I tried them once. Took a doe right in the "sweet spot" from a blind, which I'd taken many deer from. Shot was perfect. Even with a light coating of snow on the ground, there was NO blood to track. Had the deer not been in a picked corn field and I seen it fall, I'd have thought I missed it. I dug the bullet out of the ground, shot with 120grs 2f.



Now Barnes on the other hand.... well...........

Please forget the Powerbelts. It's not a dependable bullet. Too many bad reviews to trust it.

You don't see bad reviews on the Barnes muzzy bullet. They just work.

I would second that.

Since you already have the pellets, try 2 pellets with the Barnes, I bet you have a winner.