(Best lead muzzleloader bullet for elk)

[OutHouse]

I heard from a guy that he did not recommend the power belt pure led with the hollow point. I have used it and works just fine for deer but he said it may not punch through the shoulder of an elk if that's the presented shot.

Throughout the years I had a lot of experience on deer with 348 grain all lead hollowpoint powerbelts. I would never recommend them for elk. Even for deer I made a switch. I had multiple deer die very very quickly dropping within 5 steps to 20 yards with heart shots. But hitting higher up in lungs and shoulder shots I've had very mixed results. Won't get into too much details because I can go on and on but these bullets are very soft and pancake completely flat and loose a lot of energy very quickly. Alot of times on standard ranges of close muzzleloaders they don't pass through and some animals took quiet abit of time to expire. Longer shots over 100 yards or low heart shots I've seen some pass throughs. If you want more details about this bullet I can add to my response. I will also dig out a pic that I can give another story on about these. For elk yes any bullet can kill one but other options would be more reliable. I've heard many good things about hard cast harvester bullets.
In my area I can use what I want and we've had great success with Barnes and bloodlines but those aren't what this topic is about.

Very interesting. Last deer I took with a pure led power belt hollow point--it was shot at about eight yards and the bullet ended up right under the skin on the other side of its body. It expired quickly but I was questioning how in the heck the bullet didn't pass through. Sure enough it pancaked just like you said.

[kselkhunter]

Does Idaho have a bullet length restriction for lead conicals?

Oregon did have a length restriction, but relaxed it this past year so that opens up more bullet options there.  Idaho and Oregon had similar muzzy restrictions, so just curious what Idaho's rule is on length.   I'll be testing some of the No Excuses bullets out for Oregon muzzy elk tag.  Obviously haven't had a chance to use one on an animal yet, but have read really good things about the performance of these bullets. 

https://www.muzzleloading-bullets.com/shop/

[MountainDevil54]

Using this bad boy in colorado this year.

[duckmen1]

This is another story on powerbelt all lead .348 grain bullets.  100 grains of powder. Sorry the pic is pretty narly but used for reference. This buck took 4 shots with the muzzleloader to expire. All 4 shots lined up on the shoulder line. 1 shot was about 130 yards. All the next shots were between 45 and 70 yards. These bullets did the same thing pancakes 🥞.  I don't fully understand why animals shot with these bullets have such inconsistent results in a quick humane kill. With the Barnes bullets and bloodlines they are always 1 and done in seconds with my experience from many animals. The powerbelts have always been accurate in one of my muzzleloaders. But I hate to see an animal take so long to expire.