Powerbelt ELR terminal performance

[Brushcrawler]

The 50 cal 330 grain shoots sub MOA in my muzzleloader. Given the mixed reports on powerbelt performance, I’m looking for any first hand experience with terminal ballistics on these things. What animal, how far, where was the hit, what did the bullet do? I’d really like to find out more before I test one on an animal. Thanks for your thoughts.

[bkaech]

I've never shot the ELR put the original powerbelts had terrible terminal performance on wet newspaper and plywood. If you want to know what the ELR's will do I suggest making up a bullet trap with wet newspapers or old test books and maybe throw in some plywood to simulate bone, or anything else you might have around. This will actually be better to gain knowledge about performance than anecdotal data from hunting scenarios because hunting scenarios very by many more factors than you can account for. Compare 3 or 4 bullets at different speeds (you can change distance or just powder loads) and you can at least have a good comparison of bullets your interested in even if your bullet trap is ideally suited to match an animal.

[Jonathan_S]

At close/high speeds, definitely not impressive for weight retention. Soft lead and not even a real jacket on the copper electroplated ones. I like the higher weight PBs and have killed about a dozen animals with them, deer and bears. That thin plate and soft lead which makes them easy to load, makes them a riskier projectile on shoulder bones/elk hide.

My personal opinion, if you can put a 300+ grain bullet in the ribs of an elk, you'll not be claiming any "failures" 

I've never shot the ELR put the original powerbelts had terrible terminal performance on wet newspaper and plywood. If you want to know what the ELR's will do I suggest making up a bullet trap with wet newspapers or old test books and maybe throw in some plywood to simulate bone, or anything else you might have around. This will actually be better to gain knowledge about performance than anecdotal data from hunting scenarios because hunting scenarios very by many more factors than you can account for. Compare 3 or 4 bullets at different speeds (you can change distance or just powder loads) and you can at least have a good comparison of bullets your interested in even if your bullet trap is ideally suited to match an animal.

how far did the newspaper make it?  I understand the pursuit of real information but at the end of the day, shooting plywood and newspaper gives you information for that specific application. In the case of a polymer tipped bullet like the ELR especially, I don't believe the results on plywood are going to be relevant to shooting animals 

[tank21]

Touch off subject, but what gun are you using?  I bought some ELR power belts to try out in my CVA Optima 2...

[Brushcrawler]

Thanks for the ideas. I am shooting a Remington Ultimate with 110-140 gr Blackhorn by volume. The 338 gr PB platinums also group quite well. I’m trying some Thor bullets next. Saboted Parkers and the Remington accutips shot ok, but nothing like the PBs.
Will post more info as I go. I may test one of them on a doe tag this fall.

[bkaech]

I've never shot the ELR put the original powerbelts had terrible terminal performance on wet newspaper and plywood. If you want to know what the ELR's will do I suggest making up a bullet trap with wet newspapers or old test books and maybe throw in some plywood to simulate bone, or anything else you might have around. This will actually be better to gain knowledge about performance than anecdotal data from hunting scenarios because hunting scenarios very by many more factors than you can account for. Compare 3 or 4 bullets at different speeds (you can change distance or just powder loads) and you can at least have a good comparison of bullets your interested in even if your bullet trap is ideally suited to match an animal.

how far did the newspaper make it?  I understand the pursuit of real information but at the end of the day, shooting plywood and newspaper gives you information for that specific application. In the case of a polymer tipped bullet like the ELR especially, I don't believe the results on plywood are going to be relevant to shooting animals 
[/quote]

I don't recall the depths, my testing wasn't about what the bullet would do exactly to an animal as I can only test (hopefully) one or two bullets a year in an animal, but how one bullet compared to other bullets in the same circumstances. The Powerbelts penetrated about the same as other bullets in water jugs and wet newspapers even though they didn't expand like the others did. When the powerbelts hit something hard, like wood, they broke apart, while other bullets stayed together and continued to penetrate.

My main point in bringing it up here is to do what you can to test bullets yourself, and compare them to other bullets. It's really hard to test in animals but there are ways to compare bullets with whatever materials we have laying around, won't be perfect, but it is something.