PB Bullets any Good or not

[fuzzy]

:? Ive been hearing some pepole are not happy with the performus of the Power Belt`s On deer Any of you guy`s have frist hand Ex. With the 295`s on Deer Kill`s Rich

[rjo3491]

Most folks on this forum love 'em.  I could not hit the broad side of a barn with them.  Several people at the range I usually visit had the same problem.  We went with TC cheap shot sabots and accuracy improved significantly.

[quickdtoo]

That's odd, I know of or have shot them in several rifles, and just like any other bullet, they require some load testing to get the best accuracy...they all shot the power belts extremely well. My experience is you can't use full mag loads and have great accuracy too, 120gr T7 was max for my 3 rifles, then accuracy started to deteriorate.  As far as terminal effects on game, that remains to be seen for me, anyway. But I have read enough good kill stories to believe they are effective with good shot placement, as with any bullet.

[Redhawk1]

:? Ive been hearing some pepole are not happy with the performus of the Power Belt`s On deer Any of you guy`s have frist hand Ex. With the 295`s on Deer Kill`s Rich

That is all I will use in my Encore 50cal. I have had great success with the 295 gr. power belts and 100 gr. triple7 pellets. I have not recovered any bullets yet, all of my shots have been complete pass throughs. Very large exit holes.    The 295 gr. power belts for the 50 cal get my vote.  :-D

[rjo3491]

Quickdtoo-

I was pushing them with 100 gr of T7 (two pellets - actually, a bit less than 100 gr I believe).  Got lots of flyers.  I tried the TC sabots with the same load and viola, my groups tightened. I also noticed that the sabots fit much tighter in the barrel - perhaps this had something to do with it - who knows?   Last year, a guy in a range stall next to me was having the same problem with PB's and I offered him up one of my bullets - he hit the paper for the first time that day.  Last Saturday at the range another fellow noted that I was using the TC sabots and said he had switched to them as well after having terrible luck with PB's.  Clearly, they work very well for many of you guys, I wish the did for me as well.

I've learn a great deal over the last year, hunting, reading, at the range, and, here on this forum and am now working with loose powder (T7 still).  Perhaps I'll give the PB's another try with a lighter load as you suggest.  Currently I'm using about 90 gr with good accuracy.

[Darrell H]

Powerbelts work good for me in my Encore rifle but not that great in my Encore pistol.  I'm talking about accuracy here, accuracy in the rifle is good but poor in the pistol shooting Powerbelts.  Sabots work better in the pistol barrel for some reason.  

I don't have any experience with Powerbelts on deer, but I did kill a 175lb. wild boar year before last with my Encore rifle.  The load that I used on the boar was 100 grains Pyrodex RS (loose powder) and a 295 grain HP Powerbelt.  I shot the boar at approximately 40 yards.  The hog ran about 35 yards and piled up.  The bullet did not exit.  I'm satisfied with them so far.

HTH,

X

[toecutter]

I had the exact same problem with PB's as everyone else, and the TC'S were the cure. Don't have first hand experience shooting deer with them, but friends had devastating performance with the PB HP's, and no expansion, pass throughs with the Aero tip. moral of the story from what I gather is- hollow points= cheaper and larger exit wound. This is not an entirely scientific study though  :wink:

[sabotloader]

In Idaho it is legal to use sabots so I do not have first hand knowledge of performance from my own gun, but my hunting partner uses PB's.  He has taken a deer for the last two seasons with PB's.  I am somewhat unimpressed with their performance.  Both deer were relativly short range.  First one probably 30 yards second maybe 50 yards.  Shooting a 295 PB/HP/Copper both bullets passed through, not much difference in entrance or exit holes.  Both deer were dead and did not go far but the internal damage from hydrostatic shock was not what I would expect at all.

On the other hand the two deer that I have take in the last two years with Nosler Partitions showed significant hdrostatatic damage internally and the exit hole was much bigger than the going in - if I had needed to track blood would not have been a problem - both of these animals dropped on the spot.

[quickdtoo]

Well, that's the reason I don't like pellets, you can't fine tune a load as easily. Just because you tried a 100gr load doesn't mean the bullets are bad, it's just a bad combination in that particular rifle. I started with 90gr and worked up in 5 grain increments until accuracy dropped off. Just as in handloading centerfire ammo, there's usually a sweet spot that is more accurate than other choices. If you are stuck on a 2 pellet load or pellets in general, you're shootin yourself in the foot as far as load selection. Pellets probably are convenient, but I'm not sold on em in the least. In some rifles I've even switched from 2f to 3f or the other way round and found a good load, not gonna happen with pellets. Stepping off the anti-pellet soap box..... :wink:

[Redhawk1]

quickdtoo, you are 100% correct. If I did not get the accuracy I do with the pellets, I would go to the triple7 powder.    It is like fine tuning a rifle load.

[fuzzy]

Thank`s guy`s i have good acrecy with 80gr pellets 295 pb hp in my nef huntsman cron about 1300 fps .Just some of the guy`s up on the nef froum been talking about not getting good performust with them opening up .and not ancoring there deer. but hell ive shot deer at 35 yards double lunged and destored the heart. and deer ran 75-100 yards