300gr Powerbelt Aerolite VS... ...
 

NOT A WATER JUG! :s2::s2:

Just a teaser for now. I am to beat right now to give the story or do any video editing tonight.


They sure do act differently in water jugs though! Personally I prefer in the field, actual result tests such as this one.

Wow, that toothpick you duct-taped to your bullet never penetrated. :p

what did you shoot? How much powder did you use? What distance was the shot made at? And did you get total pass through? That is a nice entrance hole I believe I am looking at.

When I am able to upload the video, all the info will be made. It was an extremely great hunt though! One LONG evening and night of hiking.

Notice the lung? It looked like that through both sides!

I don't watch videos because of my internet feed. But its an interesting hole.

oh i know how you feel! Our Wildblue sucks too LOL. Although at 2am you can download for free. You have the youtube video downloader installed on your browser?

i started shooting aerolites a couple of seasons ago but have yet to take an animal with them so i'm definitely going to be paying attention to your findings :)

That's a wicked looking hole...

you aint seen wicked yet! The video is very nasty at one point.

There you go. Un-disputable proof that Powerbelts don't work on game. Same thing happened to me when I shot a big old doe with one. I had to track her almost a full 50 yards.

I actually think the water jugs show those results. A 300grn bullet is a very big bullet.

Here's a little 200grn bullet for example.

Yep and at 146 yards with 100gr blackhorn209 and through the SHOULDER, I say that Aerolite did a HECK of a job on her!

You say yours went 50 yards? Why so far? At the sound of the shot, this cow dropped in her tracks and fell into a darn muddy creek :s2:

High shoulder shot at a downward angle. The video will show it best when I can upload it.

We spotted the elk around 6:30 and got on the herd a little before or after 7pm and this one popped out of the brush and my dad popped it standing up with no support whatsoever. The brush was so high that I couldn't see anything due to the smoke cloud and that high brush. Plus she fell into the creek LOL.

In the end, we didn't take it back to camp until 5 minutes short of 2am.

This is his first muzzle loader elk. The last elk kill for him was 23 years ago.

One part of the video shows us stalking quietly after the shot until we could get around the brush and check for blood. The look on his face and in his eyes tell you all the excitement we went through LOL. Hell, my breathing will tell you how excited and nervous I was as well.

Just had to keep telling the ol man to slow down, take your time. I've learned from years of hunting with my brother in law, Every time you celebrate and get excited, it usually doesn't happen and then you spend the rest of the hunt thinking of what you should have done.

I'll have more later on guys. I pretty much videoed a lot of our stalking and spotting and planning.

One thing my brother and I regret is not getting pictures of my dad with the elk. We left the bags in the truck and didn't have them and due to the excitement, no one even considered using the video camera to snap the pics. Time was short and we were just thrilled out of our minds on how the hunt turned out. Took 4 days but we had enough exercise to pack her out and fill the freezer.

That 300gr Powerbelt Aerolite is a monster though. What ever it hits, it HITS with authority. The fragments of bone that the Aerolite leaves in an animal is just unreal.

No exit as expected. They are not really made for exiting but causing huge amounts of internal damage on bone and organ.

The deer he shot with the same load last year had 4 exit holes, only being the bullet and the other 3, ribs :eek2:

He shot his CVA Optima V2. 50cal

We had a huge scare and the front optic broke due to the soft gun case, so I did an in the field fix and got him going again. I've since replaced the front sight and am going to fill in around the fiber optic with a clear epoxy so this is no longer a problem. His Hawken has a williams sight and the same thing happened years ago. At least I can bend a german silver front sight back straight on my rifle!

Very exited and VERY proud of my pappy on this hunt.

all about shot placement as my 67 year old father shows boys. Through the SHOULDER on an elk with a lead powerbelt and a huge over sized hollow point.

Heck, I may keep my 58cal at home and use the Powerbelts just for more testing!

After busting up some pretty nice scopes in soft cases during transportation, I only use hard cases. It never was my fault. It was always some bozo I was traveling with throwing his stuff on top of mine or shoving stuff around when he had no business, hard cases are the way to go.

BTW I meant to ask in the other thread. I noticed you ditched the Traditiins scope on your Striker fire. Did you find the Optics weak in some way or just want better clarity?

MD, your Pappy shot well. No question about that. Hate to rain on the powerbelt parade but your example right there tells me how actually poor that bullet really is. Reason I say this, at 146 yards with 100gr load of BH and a 300gr bullet, that bullet STILL violently exploded (hence the fist sized ENTRANCE). Did it kill the cow? Yep sure did. Would it have killed her at say 70 yards with the same shot placement? Maybe, maybe not. I would have to surmise that if it blew up that much at 146 yards, it would have flat blew to pieces on the shoulder of that cow at 70 and just wounded it. I want expansion not explosion performance. I also want the bullet to perform the same at close range as it does at longer ranges. 90% of my BP shots are no further than 75 yards. The other 10% are usually within 150 so I set my loads up for performance out to 150 but capable of performing well at the normal ranges of 0-75.

Nope, the scope started giving us problems and wasn't tracking. With that rifling being as light as it is and the recoil with 110gr BH209, it just couldn't handle the recoil.

The problem is, not many here realize that the aerolite is a FAST expanding bullet, that's the way it was designed to be to give a huge entrance wound and just clobber the organs.

The "fist' size entrance was on the ribs. You'll see the first shot entrance wound in my shoulder when I can upload the video. Its no where near as big. Once that bullet starts to open, its just a massive amount of energy that blows holes right through the animal.

Same thing happened on the doe he got last year and that WAS with a full exit wound.

75 yards on deer, you'd really love the 300gr Aerolite. The damage they are leaving inside of these animals which passed through BOTH lungs, bullet and bone, the size of a "fist" was just amazing. And to drop her on the spot with just your typical shoulder/lung shot with no spine or neck being hit is just true performance.

Yes 100% she'd have been finished at 70 yards, even 20 yards she'd have dropped like a sack of potatoes pronto.

We ( Bro in law, friend and I) still have our new mexico deer tags to use so I am still not 100% certain what rifle or bullet I'll use.

Heres another pic as well. I should have wiped the foam off, but hey, it was freezing with the wind howling like it was. 10,700 gets mighty cold this time of year when the wind kicks up.


A view of where we got her. This doesn't show the true steepness.

I was very suspect of the Optics. It's Clear to me Traditions is not in the Optics Business and was having someone put their label on them. Probably someone like Tasco or Simmons. They just screamed cheap to me when I looked at them in the showroom.

By all accounts the Konus that CVA are selling are holding up well, I have handled a few in the field and while I find their optic quality far behind Nikon and Leupold a man could sure do a lot worse.

I know you are spending a lot of time between the Strikerfire and the Accurras . In your opinion overall. What's the best overall and why?

Sorry don't mean to hijack. Maybe you can start a whole new thread titled CVA accura VS Strikerfire comparison.

Congrats to your dad MD! Looking forward to the vid. :D

I'm not gonna jump in on the bullet debate, I'll just say that I prefer to use a bullet that doesn't perform like those are designed to. To many "if's" for me. Glad it worked out for you guys! I hope it continues to.

My philosophy with the bullet is if it works for you and your happy with the results then have at it. I prefer to have exit wounds as it makes it easier for recover. I have found that not every animal is impressed when shot; meaning that you can shoot 2 animals with the same load and have a different reaction by each of the animals. That is some fairly extreme carnage with the aerolite and it's hard to argue with the results. Congrats to your dad on a successful hunt and to you getting to share in those memories.

Jon:



Congrats to your Dad on a good kill. You can't beat a bang flop.

Mine went 50 yards because I never take a shoulder shot. I always wait for an angle so I can shoot behind the shoulder and through the vitals. I will take a shot that hits the offside shoulder without hesitation. I have yet to lose a deer with this method whether using rifle, handgun, bow or muzzy. And if it ain't broke - don't fix it.

Video is less than an hour away!

She's up! !!!!!!

Up where? Link?

Super, video is back on post #1.
MD, congrats to both of you for the successful hunt and video.

Cool video Jon. Congrats to your dad! He made a nice shot for sure. Too bad he didn't have a bull tag! :D

Did you end up finding the bullet?

No, I didnt cut the check cavity open, we basically cut the meat off the bones and neck and packed it out. With it being dark out it was just to hard to do any real inspection or picture taking of the damage inside. Throw in that freezing wind and a skinny guy and it made for a real uncomfortable and long night.

open sights, very windy and a shot that is by no means a gimmi... fantastic hunt and shot by your dad man!

Yeah, sometimes the fun stops about thirty minutes after the shot.

oh it lasted a couple hours until half way back up the mountain with a load of meat on your back LOL. Then it was a 30 minute break.

Impressive video. The Platinum and Aerolites are the best of the Powerbelt bullet models and the 270, 300 and 338 grain versions all perform well.

Nice shot old man!!

It kinda surprised me the elk was still kicking when you fellas walked up on it.

Actually, the carpet, plywood, water jug test of the 300 grain Power Belt, predicted the field result you fellas experienced on a live critter, did it not?

Yep, pretty much did from what I could see. Explosive expansion just like it did in your test Ron. After seeing the video I still have to say that bullet just didn't perform as well as just absolutely TOO MANY other bullets would have. Again, did it kill the Elk? Yep, sure did, but I still have to say that at closer ranges that bullet would have seriously failed muster. For just the hide and the light bone of the UPPER shoulder that bullet being 300 grains should have just opened up and punched right on through instead of violently exploding. Just my little ole opinion based on many years of hunting and bullet performance comparisons.

I'm glad you notice that as well. I see pretty similar results in your testing as in the field.

On another note, That's a fabulous shot!!!! I know I cant make that shot with open sights for sure. Great times with your Pap for sure. Just gotta get him a better bullet next time.

Heck of a nice shot by your dad. Lots of good eats for you guys. Congrats

I'm assuming it required a second shot?

There's only a couple conicals on the market that can duplicate that shot and that performance.

There is nothing in that video to suggest failure or disappointment in that harvest.

Edited by JW HNI Rule Bashing and HNI rule 7 & 8 & 12
OMG!

I really want to get an elk. I've been on 3 different hunts and have yet to release an arrow or drop a hammer. The only decent bull we saw my friend had won the coin toss earlier and bagged him. At that time had I know how delicious they were I would have dropped a cow or young bull.