jboyer

I finally got a doe Friday night withe my Knight using 2-100 gr pellets of pyrodex behind a 295 gr aerotip powerbelt. The doe was quartering towards me at about 40 yards. The bullet entered just above the shoulder on her left side and took out 2 ribs, passed through her chest cavity and stopped on her right side back of the ribs and just under the hide. The bullet mushroomed beautifully but there wasn't much left of it. I weighed it on my scale I use to relaod with and it weighed only 164 grains. I weighed another aerotip I hadn't shot and it weighed 299 grains (without the base, it was supposed to be a 295 gr bullet). The entrance whole was huge so I wonder if the bullet didn't break apart on impact even though it mushroomed.

Merry Christmas
Jeff

cayugad

Well it sounds like the damage it did was all that was necessary. How far did the deer travel after being hit? With the kind of internal damage you describe, I doubt very far. Congratulations on the deer.. nice shooting, that angle has always been a tuff one.

MO Archer

So you were using 200gr of powder and the impact was at 40 yards?

jboyer

In my origianl post, I should have have said I was using 2-50 gr pellets for 100 grains total. The doe only went about 30 yards and dropped. I was just surprised at how little the bullet weighed.

Jeff

cayugad

I kind of figured that what you intended in your first post. Others have reported the same thing about powerbelts. I have yet to enjoy the pleasure of getting a deer in front of me when I was loaded with a powerbelt. I too am surprised that the conical lost that much weight. You must have hit some massive bone structure.

gleason.chapman

My brother hit a nice buck opening day of Shotgun season in NY at 60 yards in shoulder, he found bullet fragments on the ground some hair and hide but very little blood trail, he never recoved of found the deer. The powerbelts are KNOWN for "blowing up" on bone and tough hits. Same thing happen to me 3 seasons ago on a huge buckand I did a lot of penetration testing shooting into a 5 lb bucket of packed potting soil, what I found was Nosler Partitions were the best on accuracy and penetration for my muzzie hunting.

I think you have to plan on bad hits once in a while, because we are all human and we don't always hold and get a good shot, any bullet will do the job behind the front shoulder in the ribs. It takes a real bullet to hit in the sholder and go into the chest cavity and get the deer. However Nosler Partition HG 300g are over $40 for 50 now, so I am switching based on feedback in this forum to either Speer Gold Dots or Speer 300g Sp Uni-core pistol bullets, which are onlyh about $15. I shoot Harvester Crushed rib sabots.

My brother switched after the bad hit to Harvester Sabretooth, which is a bullet similar to a PB, but all lead. See this article about PBs:

http://www.hpmuzzleloading.com/feedback.html

I think there are a lot >>better<< (penetration, weight retentionandexpansion)bullets at a much cheaper price, just poking a hole in them is NOT what you want to do, you want penetration, expansion to 2x the size and weight nearly 100%, so you get a big exit hole, or massive internal shock.

Chap Gleason

Chap

frontier gander

i used those sabertooth bullets one year. i got decent 3.5" groups at 100 yards and went with it. But son of a gun! dont carry the rifle barrel pointed down, my bullet fell out of its non holding cup while i was walking and i missed a doe the opening day. Went back to powerbelts that exact day. I'd put a drop of superglue in the base and then stick the bullet back into the lil cup.

Bake North

jboyer I know what you are talking about,I just started M/L hunting this year I shot a doe with a 245gr powerbelt(hollow point) and 100gr of t7 pellets.Shot her at just over 100yds and the power belt turned into shrapnel.The bullet did it's job(dropped her on the spot) but just disintegrated.

rks1949

My wife shot a huge buck 3 years ago. She was shooting the power belts,and 110gr. pyrodex. She shot the deer high in the sholder @ 25yds. to drop it right there. The impact knocked the buck down,but it got up and ran. We never found any blood,or the buck. She went back to her regular load of a 300gr. Hornady XTP,over 110grs. of pyrodex. She has dropped every deer she has shot with this load since.

gleason.chapman

I will let my brother know that. He tried shaking and hitting one out, by striking the butt of the stock. Thanks Chap Gleason