Made the Switch

[thetoolman]

After almost losing my best buck and losing my first deer in 10+ years last year I decided to make the switch. I was shooting a 295gr Powerbelt with 2 777 pellets (100gr). This year I decided to throw it all away and start fresh; 250gr Barnes TEZ, 90gr BH209, and CCI 209 Shotshell primer in my TC Omega. First three shots at 88yds, I will take it. Also nice not having to deal with that crud ring. The TEZ's are a little harder to load, but thats ok.

 

[MUP]

Was it poor performance on the part of the powerbelt, or not grouping well? I know I tried using PB's way back when and couldn't get a decent group out of them, using powder pellets that is. Went back to using lead conicals and 90 gr of Pyro and good groups returned.

 

[thetoolman]

MUP, I shot powerbelts since about 2003, never had great blood trails, but never cared too much as I always found my deer. This last pack I bought I am not sure what happened, but the buck I did end up finding the bullet was fragmented, I actually had to shoot him more than once, I found one of the bullets had mushroomed and did not even penetrate into the opposite shoulder. A week later I shot a doe at 35 yds and had a ok blood trail for the first 50 yds then went to drops every 7-10 yds, tracked her a half mile before blood ran out. I have read good things about the Barnes, on paper they group a bit better, we will see how the performance turns out.

 

[wsm]

Nice grouping. :super:

 

[Southern Sportsman]

MUP, I shot powerbelts since about 2003, never had great blood trails, but never cared too much as I always found my deer. This last pack I bought I am not sure what happened, but the buck I did end up finding the bullet was fragmented, I actually had to shoot him more than once, I found one of the bullets had mushroomed and did not even penetrate into the opposite shoulder. A week later I shot a doe at 35 yds and had a ok blood trail for the first 50 yds then went to drops every 7-10 yds, tracked her a half mile before blood ran out. I have read good things about the Barnes, on paper they group a bit better, we will see how the performance turns out.

You'll like the performance of the Barnes. They're great bullets. IMHO, powerbelts blow.

 

[iowavf]

Did the same thing when BH came out. I've killed a lot of deer with power belts and they grouped well in my encore. I had a few of them pass through and some did very little damage and lacked good penetration if my shot placement was a little off. With the Barnes expander most are pass throughs with a lot of blood and a nice exit wound. I've hit shoulders with them and they break it down and penetration.