powerbelt FAILURE!

[Button Nubbs]

[Smg id=12155]

First season muzzleloading and I Shot a deer last night at 5 yards. Bullet hit the front rib and exploded. No blood on the ground, had to bust brush in a monsoon to find it. 85 grains of 777 Ffg. What the hell?

[BOWHUNTER45]

O.K man ... Thanks for the post but I want to see the deer  Yeah sometimes a guy gets to close and all that muzzle velocity does a number on its victim....

[jrebel]

Never used a powerbelt....so can't help you, but would love to see a pic of the deer.

Sounds like you got a recovery congrats

[sirmissalot]

Can't see the pic for some reason, but a 5 yard shot is impressive! I'll bet an exploding bullet at that distance made a mess of the insides.

[Mfowl]

There has been many posts about Powerbelts performing at the range but failing on animals. It seems that the bullet fragmenting instead of mushrooming on impact is pretty common. Looks like you got to learn first hand. Glad you recovered your deer!

[bare.hunter]

had that same problem on a deer with the powerbelt lead bullets.I now use bloodline and have had no problem with them.

[h2ofowlr]

I picked pieces out of the deer I shot with my powerbelt 295 gr hollow points.  I did the work though.

[HornHoarder]

Powerbelts are junk. After similar experiences I am done with them. They are just to soft.

[bobcat]

That's typical performance from a Powerbelt. I wouldn't expect any different results, especially at 5 yards.

Which bullet was it?

[Hunterman]

At 15' why didn't you shoot it in the head or neck? At 5 yards you have the full velocity of the projectile. Straight lead will detonate. I've never had a problem with power points out of my .50.

Congrats of getting your deer 

Hunterman(Tony)

[deerslyr]

How did it fail if the deer is dead? Or is it? Maybe the bullet bounced out since there isnt a pic of the deer? 

[MountainDevil54]

5 yards, wow, why not just tape your skinning knife onto a stick and stab it the ol fashion way?

Hard to tell how much weight that bullet retained, but you shot it, you tell us what the results were in the end. Did you lose the deer? Poor blood trail, no internal damage?

All I see is a recovered bullet that seems to have done the job and was under the hide most likely.

[Maverick]

all ive used for deer is powerbelts the 2 years ive muzzle loaded. 2 shots and 2 deer. they work great for me!

[Hilltop123]

tagging...........

[snowshoes22]

I went away from the lighter power belts because of that reason. The 245 and 295 have both failed for me. The 338 gr platinums seem to stay together better. I didn't like the 250 gr Hornady SST either. I'm sticking with 300 gr and above for everything from now on. Lesson learned the hard way. I have only shot mule deer with power belts and all needed follow up shots with the lighter bullets even with behind the shoulder hits.