Triple 7, do a search on my name on powerbelts. You will find complains.
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What was your complaint? Were they copper-hollows or leaded? How much/what powder did you use?

I use my ML only for the times I can draw an elk tag in CO. I shot an elk in 02 and another in 04 using my 50cal and 348gr hollow-point power belts. First elk was broadside at 40-50 yards and the next was head on at 6-7 steps. Both were one shot kills and both exited. Obviously, I am well satisfied with power belts! PBs are just like any other bullet; some like them and some don't. Much like Ford and Chevy. Nothing wrong with either one. Ain't America Great? good hunting.

[quote]ORIGINAL: 17 Pointer

MLKeith
Why do you only use the PB on the second shot?

I prefer the Hornady bullet over the Powerbelt (some of that is just because I like the Hornady company and have had good luck with centerfire bullets). I shot 348gr. Powerbelts on one elk hunt which worked just fine. I started shooting the 300gr. hornady this year and because it loads so much harder than the Powerbelt I use the 295gr. Powerbelt as a quick follow-up shot bullet as I can load it in a hurry. I needed the quick shot this time as the cow elk was hit pretty hard but I was not sure and when she broke into a full run I had to get another shot off quick before she reached the top of the hill. The Powerbelt did its job. Four holes in the elk made good blood trail. All bullets exited. Both plastic tipped. 90gr. of Black Mag'3 at about 90 to 100 yards. With the Black Mag'3 I don't have to swab between shots so the second shot is pretty fast. Elk are tough and sometimes do not fall down when they are dead.

Triple, my complaint is I could only get accuracy with 85-90gr of pyrodex and had to use 11 caps. I could get 2MOA accuracy. Anything pushed beyond that or with winchester 209's, and accuracy would go to crap. I just don't like a bullet with limitations like that and especially with that cost. I like a sabot with little to no blowby like the barnes expander. Or my trusty ole 240gr XTP and harvester sabot. I buy .430 XTP's by 100 and sabots. Pretty cheap shooting and darn hard to beat thier performance at 1550fps or 2000fps. Usually if I am going to shoot 3 777 pellets, I like to use the XTP mag made for the 454. They were the aerotips I tried. I have a range rod and rugged rod, so hard seating doesn't bother me a bit.

I am sure they work, just alot of cheaper bullets out there that I believe work better, cheaper, and don't have all the limitations on how hard you can push it.

I have some left and thinking about putting a subbase on them and trying again. I at least want 2MOA accuracy with 100gr of 777. I was told to try the real heavy powerbelts. But have a bad taste for em after first experiences.

It seems to depend on the specific rifle. I can't get accuracy with powerbelts above 95 grains of 777 but my brother with the exact same rifle (Omega in SS) gets great accuracy with 110 grains.

However, 90-95 grains of 777 is equivalent to 105 to 110 grains pyrodex, so that is plenty of powder for what I hunt (elk out to 100 yards)

I have heard that pyordex is a little more forgiving with powerbelts.

I am going to try American Pioneer Powder with cooler 209's (cci's) and see what kind of results I get. I like the clean up of cleaner powders vs pyrodex and I like the ease of using powbelts, so it is worth figuring out the accuracy issues.

Some, like bigcountry, like to push the envelope both in power and distance, but for me anything over 110 grains equivalent kicks the fire out of me and I think my accuracy suffers. Since I am limited to conicals (Colorado) and don't shoot over 100 yards because I only use open sights, powerbelts fit what I need to a "T".

So much for accuracy performance. However, I think the jist of the original question was terminal performance. And I do remember hearing several complaints in that regard. The first one was a guy that killed a cow elk and he was dissatified with them because they did not exit and give him a blood trail. After much searching, he foud the elk 20 yards from when she stood when he shot. He called this a "failure". I asked him at what point of the elk dying within 20 yards of where she stood constitute a failure.

The second was a guy that said he had a broadside "double lung" shot on a bull elk with a powerbelt but never found him. I asked him how he knew that he had gotten a double lung shot on the bull, since he never found him. I contend that if he had actually hit the bull with a broadside shot and double lunged him, the bull could not have gone very far. He didn't have an answer for me. I suspect he hit him too far back.

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That's not the fault of the Powerbelt copper hollow-point. That's not a performance issue with the bullet itself either. Powerbelts were designed prior to 3-pellet use in muzzleloaders. 120-150 grains was never Powerbelt-intended due to the integrity of the plastic cup/base. Many folks using 110-120 grains with Powerbelts load the cup with Bore Butter to substantially reduce blowby & maintain accuracy.

Also... depends on the rifle bore diameter too! Knight Rifles are overbore.... not a good choice for Powerbelts in those rifles unless you slow the bullet down first. Using 348 & 405 gr Powerbelts in Knights seems to work best.

Here you go RESULTS,95 gr. 777 405 gr aerotip PB 25 yard shot at elk from TC OMEGA PB retained near 100% weight and mushroomed perfectly,PB didn't blow up as some suggest http://tinypic.com/1heag7 http://tinypic.com/1heanb http://tinypic.com/1hebk3

txhunter58: If you can find it you might want to try Black Mag'3 powder. I have shot for comparison loads of 100gr. volume of ffg Tripple Seven and 100gr. volume of Black Mag'3 with a 300gr. bullet in Harvester sabot. The Tripple Seven three shot group kicked me so hard I would not shoot four on a bet. The same volume load with Black Mag'3 was a comfortable recoil that I could shoot ten or more comfortably from the bench. The velocity of the "killer load" of 777 was 1643fps. the velocity of the BM3 load was 1920fps. I just shot a fair sized cow elk this year with the first shot 90gr. of BM3 and a Hornady 300gr. SST bullet in a Harvester sabot and a second follow up shot with a 295gr. Aerotip Powerbelt. Both bullets passed completely through the chest cavity. First was angled and hit one lung and clipped the liver. Second shot was at running cow hit at rear of lungs and passed through. Neither hit major bone although they clipped ribs. Holes were about one inch coming out. I also limit my shots to 100 yards and this was at about 90 yards. Synthetic stock Omega .50cal. (light gun kicks fairly hard).

Nice elk dvdegeorge! I'm curious, how far did the elk go after the shot?

This is my first post as I've just started back muzzleloader hunting after a 3 year hiatus due to work obligations. I hunted Mon-Wed of this week here in Mississippi during the week long primative weapon season. I harvested three deer - two does and a 4 point buck using a TC Black Diamond .50cal with .295gr Aerotips and 100gr of Pyrodex. The first doe was taken at 40 yards and dropped in her tracks. The second doe was shot at 100 yards and ran about 50 yards. There was one quarter-sized drop of blood on the ground at the site of bullet-impact and a very light blood trail. The area around where she was found was saturated with blood. The buck was shot at 60 yards and only ran about 20 yards into a thicket. There was no blood trail but a lot of bleeding at the site where I found the deer. Not trying to sway anyone's opinion - just sharing my experience. The Aerotips seem to shoot well from my rifle and appear to pretty effective in stopping whitetails quickly. My only complaint is the lack of blood trails, although I had this same problem with maxi-balls out of my Hawken years ago.