powerbelt FAILURE!

[Archery King]

Shot 5 elk with 295 grain power belts and 150 grains of powder.  Never had one fail, shots from 30 yards to 154.  What does the bullet weigh that u recovered?

[Button Nubbs]

The picture is of the copper jacket, that's all I recovered, one little piece of lead with it. I don't know how much it weighed but I will say it wasn't anywhere near 295 and probably wasn't even half that. It was the 295 grain hollow point .50. There was zero blood, except for the place the shot occured there were 2 little pieces of meaty stuff. No exit just blood shot the hell out of the opposite rib cage from all the fragments.

[jrebel]

Why a hollow point?  I would think it did what most hollow points would at that distance / velocity....fragment.    Never used one for hunting purposes.

[Button Nubbs]

  like I said I'm still new, I've always archery hunted. they shot great for me at the range 1 ragged hole at 50. I heard good things about them and bad about the tipped pb's still trying to figure it out.

[splitshot]

last year I had 120 gr. of 777 but I am going to 100 this year cuz 120 kicked too much.  have not shot at  a deer yet.  mike w

[jrebel]

I hope I didn't come across as being rude in my last post....I definitely am no expert with Muzzleloader bullets.  I use and have really good luck with the TC Shockwave 250 and 300 grain bullets out of my 50 cal.  I have shot a big cow elk and recovered the bullet...it did the job and appeared to retain most of it's weight.  I took a deer last year with the 250 grain at 100 yards and it through and through the deer (avatar pic) and took off the top part of his heart.  Great wound channel and that deer did not leak an ounce of blood (in the snow so it would be easy to see) and died 50 yards later at the bottom of the hill.  Had it not been so steep I don't think he would have made 50 yards.  The only reason I can think it didn't leave a drop of blood, is cause the pump had catastrophic failure.   

Long story short I really like the TC Shockwave bullets if you want to try something else.

[Button Nubbs]

I hope I didn't come across as being rude in my last post....I definitely am no expert with Muzzleloader bullets.  I use and have really good luck with the TC Shockwave 250 and 300 grain bullets out of my 50 cal.  I have shot a big cow elk and recovered the bullet...it did the job and appeared to retain most of it's weight.  I took a deer last year with the 250 grain at 100 yards and it through and through the deer (avatar pic) and took off the top part of his heart.  Great wound channel and that deer did not leak an ounce of blood (in the snow so it would be easy to see) and died 50 yards later at the bottom of the hill.  Had it not been so steep I don't think he would have made 50 yards.  The only reason I can think it didn't leave a drop of blood, is cause the pump had catastrophic failure.   

Long story short I really like the TC Shockwave bullets if you want to try something else.

No harm done I have some 250 shockwaves and will try those. A friend shot a deer the other day with a hornady great plains bullet and it expanded to an inch and a half... Gonna give those a try also.

[snowshoes22]

I have shot the 460 gr 50 cal. Hornady great plains in my traditions 1:28 twist with great accuracy. Never shot them at game though. They are fairly hard to start but grouped better than most other bullets I have tried.

[whacker1]

I have been impressed with the barnes MZ Expander muzzleloader bullets. They shoot consistently and performed as planned on a deer I shot a few years ago.  100% weight retention and full expansion.

[Jonathan_S]

I would like to point out that, yes PowerBelts are infamous for this problem but...at 15' nothing performs well   

My sister shot a deer at 20' with a .25-06 and it wasn't even a pass through but it blew the deer wide open.  I don't know how long it takes for a PowerBelt to stabilize in flight but there isn't a bullet in the world that would perform the same at 5 yards vs 50 yards.

Let's see the deer 

[bobcat]

I would like to point out that, yes PowerBelts are infamous for this problem but...at 15' nothing performs well.

A Barnes bullet would be likely to perform well at that distance. As well as a few others.

[Jonathan_S]

I would like to point out that, yes PowerBelts are infamous for this problem but...at 15' nothing performs well.

A Barnes bullet would be likely to perform well at that distance. As well as a few others.

I guess my point was that bullets aren't designed for that distance.  Of course a Barnes would perform well but I imagine it would not be peak performance.  That's all I meant.   

[j rawl]

i shot a big body mule deer at 85 yards laying down, and went through the front shoulders and found the bullet on the hide. i was using 295 grain copper plated powerbelts with 100 grains of powder

[whacker1]

I would like to point out that, yes PowerBelts are infamous for this problem but...at 15' nothing performs well.

A Barnes bullet would be likely to perform well at that distance. As well as a few others.

 

100% copper means it shouldn't separate unless it breaks pedals off of the expanding portion.  Shot a whitetail at 25 yards, and worked as designed.  granted the Original poster was much closer.

[hillbilli]

Powerbelts are not my first choice, .. and I have read and heard of some dramatic failures- where it hits a shoulder or elk ribs and comes apart and fails to penetrate to the vitals. this however does not sound like quite the same thing- this, it appears, is a failure to EXIT.. if it came apart, as he says (and as the picture shows), but bloodshot the heck out of the OPPOSITE ribs, as he says.. then this bullet DID penetrate enough to destroy vitals and kill the deer- at least that appears to be the case, as there is no mention of a follow up shot. Bullets that come apart, but destroy vitals and fail to exit often dont leave much blood trail, I've seen this even with modern high velocity rifle rounds..  (and how many deer have you seen over the years, hit good-that ran 50-150yds before dropping?) There seems to be a lot of hangup here on the range, but remember with muzzleloaders there is a lot of velocity spread- how much difference do you think there really is in impact velocity between a 40yd shot taken with 150gr of powder and a 5 yds shot taken with 85gr of powder?