powerbelt performance pictures

[DWHUNTER]

The PowerBelt IS the most loved/hated bullet in muzzleloading bar-none! . . . I personally don't like them for a BIG GAME hunting projectile and I feel we owe the animals we hunt a quick clean kill. . .

Even though I have limited ML experience, I have to agree with Busta. We as sportsmen must do everything we can to take game quickly and cleanly. This means placing a killing a shot with a killer bullet. The PB is, IMHO, not the best choice. We have no farther to look than this very thread:

because I lost one deer this year due to no exit wound and so did my buddy.  We were hunting forested area with tall grass, both deer probably expired within 100 yards, but we never found the things because thier was no blood trail!

Actually I found my buddies deer a month later while out stalking.

I keep trying to learn and understand the variables of bullet "terminal performance". I think that there's an important factor -- Sectional Density.

This measurement is important because it give us a good idea of what a bullet will do at impact.
"Sectional density (SD) is defined as the weight of a bullet (in pounds) divided by the square of its diameter (in inches)." (http://www.chuckhawks.com/rifle_SD_list.htm) For instance, a .50 cal., 245 grain PB has an SD of .140. A 300 grain PB has .171.

It seems that there's a minimum magic number (within the context of ML velocities): .210 (http://members.aol.com/randymagic/ballltd108.htm) I'm not willing to buy into "minimum magic numbers" but my own experience is in line with the premise.

WARNING!!! The following description is graphic and may not be suitable for young folks or the faint of heart.

I shot a smallish whitetail doe last year at about 25 yards with a 240 grain, .40 cal. PR Dead Center (SD = .214). It was a frontal, quartering shot. When hit, the deer almost landed on its rump but recovered instantly and ran about 15 - 20 yards. I thought that I had winged its right front shoulder as the deer was dragging that leg, dangling it actually, as it ran. It made it that small distance and then dropped hard. Dead.

When I opened up the boiler room the right lung was nothing but mush. The left lung had some crush, but it was obvious that the bullet traveled downward and went straight through the long axis of the heart. The hole was large enough to pass my index finger through.

What I couldn't figure out then was how that animal's leg got hurt so badly. It was only later, when butchering, that it became clear. The front shoulder was not hit by the bullet, but dislocated. Hydraulic shock did it -- the pressure wave from the bullet blew the leg socket out of it's joint.

Velocity is important -- that's energy. It's what a bullet does with that energy that makes the difference between a stocked freezer and a bad day.

Deer do not have sockets on their front shoulders only the hams. :roll:

[NimrodRx]

If you're still shooting PBs, you havent' tried many other bullets.  PERIOD.  


I understand that in some states a saboted bullet is illegal.  In that case, I guess I can understand it.  Otherwise, there's no excuse for tinkering.  


Will PBs kill a deer?  You betchya.  

Are they a "premium" bullet that I would trust on sacred venison?  NOPE!  

There are just too many other better options out there.  Options that don't even cost as much.

Ya gotta love marketing.....  

Let's see...  Swift A Frame, Partition, Barnes Expander, Hornady Interbond/XTP, Buffallo Bullet, PR Dead Center...............

THere are just too many other options from which to choose.  Why step back to a conicle - a poorly bonced connicle at that?  Well, outside of the fact that every PoeDunct GM has 1000 of them on the shelf....

[srwshooter]

if you dont likem then dont use them. and 4 outa 5 you suggested do not expand well at ML  velocites.