Powerbelts?

[timberjack86]

Wife picked up some powerbelts by accident. Anyone have good performance on deer with the 295 grain hollow points?

 

[knightrider]

Trade em, or trash em. They pancake flate on bone , hate em

 

[Remi]

The 295's were too soft for me to like. I never had a deer get away but I wasn't pleased with the penetration.

I switched to the Harvester Crush Rib sabots with whatever bullet I wanted to shoot. They load as easily as a powerbelt, shoot extremely accurate and allow me to shoot whatever weight and diameter bullet I want based on sabot size.

 

[Southern Sportsman]

IMHO, powerbelts are the worst muzzleloading bullet on the market.

 

[vonb]

Trade em, or trash em. They pancake flate on bone , hate em

Spot on right here. They're accurate but that's about it. Hornady XTPs are tried and true.

 

[archer19]

I guess I'm the lone wolf here…… been killing deer with them for 20+ years.

 

[DoubleRidge]

I've killed deer with powerbelts but was not impressed with the performance at all. Almost no blood trail. Many times no exit. Swithed to Barnes T-EZ and I'm very pleased with the performance.

 

[Carlos Viagra]

Trash.

 

[348Winchester]

To get optimum performance from Powerbelts the heavier bullets are needed. Like many others posted they tend not to give full pass throughs.

Several years ago I tried their 348 grain pure lead hollow point. Over 80-90 grains of 777 full penetration has happened on every deer killed which amounts to 15-20 deer. The blood trails are very good too and the exit holes are big!

Powerbelt makes a 405 grain bullet also.

 

[Tweeter]

That's the 50cal 330gr ELR Powerbelt 2 different deer

 

[Southern Sportsman]

I've killed deer with powerbelts but was not impressed with the performance at all. Almost no blood trail. Many times no exit. Swithed to Barnes T-EZ and I'm very pleased with the performance.

Same. Untold thousands of deer have been killed with patched round balls, but that doesn't make them a "good" option in 2024. In my experience, powerbelts were more accurate than round balls, but that's about the only positive I can say for them.

I prefer the Barnes 245 gn Spitfire MZ, which is basically the same bullet as the T-EZ, minus the polymer tip. And I load them with the Harvester Crushed Rib sabots. I've recovered a couple bullets over the years, and they all look like a magazine ad picture. Perfect expansion, excellent weight retention, and incredibly accurate.

Old blurry picture, but you get the idea. Bullet was 245 grains when it left the barrel. 150 yard shot through both lungs, a rib bone, and lodged in the off-side shoulder. Perfect expansion into six petals. Very short but VERY thorough blood trail, which is absolutely the norm in my experience.

 

[DoubleRidge]

Same. I prefer the Barnes 245 gn Spitfire MZ, which is basically the same bullet without the polymer tip. And I load them with the Harvester Crushed Rib sabots. I've recovered a couple bullets over the years, and they all look like a magazine ad picture. Perfect expansion, excellent weight retention, and incredibly accurate.

You described my exact experience...very pleased with the performance of Barnes.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

Never lost a deer with them, but also don't think I ever had a good blood trail with them. I switched many years ago

 

[Remington700]

Another Barnes Spitfire T-EZ fan here.

 

[OakHillHunter]

Im not a fan. I went away from them a while ago and went with the bore loks

 

[ROVERBOY]

Spot on right here. They're accurate but that's about it. Hornady XTPs are tried and true.

Spot on right here. They're accurate but that's about it. Hornady XTPs are tried and true.

I've never tried them but, do have some. I had similar experience with Shockwaves 250 gr. They shot awesome but, expansion wasn't great, unless you hit bone or heavy muscle.

 

[Biggun4214]

I've killed several deer with the 295 powerbelts, all were bang flop. One of my boys lost almost every deer he shot with them though. Great blood at first and then just quit.

 

[mike243]

Never lost a deer but I don't do tv shots, heart/lung and almost all have been bang flops. If you want to shoot bone this might not be the bullet for you, if you like lung shots and bang flops you will like them. going to shoot some deer with the 250g this weekend, I hope will take pictures if I see anything to shoot.

 

[chris1976]

Never lost a deer but I don't do tv shots, heart/lung and almost all have been bang flops. If you want to shoot bone this might not be the bullet for you, if you like lung shots and bang flops you will like them. going to shoot some deer with the 250g this weekend, I hope will take pictures if I see anything to shoot.

Clean double lung shots don't produce "bang flops"

 

[mike243]

I got over 50 kills and most with a muzzle loader and will disagree with you. I will say this if I used premium bullets in any weapon and got a pass through they might have jumped 20' or so, when the bullet expended all of the energy inside and didn't pass through, that was almost always a bang flop, lungs poured out on the ground, when the bullet penciled through very little internal damage and a possible runner.

 

[archer19]

I've not had one clear the 60 yd mark with them.
No pass thru but when they hit, the K Energy destroys the vitals!!!

 

[jman 125]

I got over 50 kills and most with a muzzle loader and will disagree with you. I will say this if I used premium bullets in any weapon and got a pass through they might have jumped 20' or so, when the bullet expended all of the energy inside and didn't pass through, that was almost always a bang flop, lungs poured out on the ground, when the bullet penciled through very little internal damage and a possible runner.

I agree with you on this. Im different than most i want the bullet to stay inside the hide on the off hand side so they will soak up all energy from whatever i shoot them with. Thats how i was taught of energy transfer = very little tracking. I usually shoot the heavy stuff.

 

[chris1976]

I got over 50 kills and most with a muzzle loader and will disagree with you. I will say this if I used premium bullets in any weapon and got a pass through they might have jumped 20' or so, when the bullet expended all of the energy inside and didn't pass through, that was almost always a bang flop, lungs poured out on the ground, when the bullet penciled through very little internal damage and a possible runner.

Unless you disrupt the central nervous system deer don't "bang flop". Spine, high shoulder and Neck will accomplish that. Now if your bullet fragments on the behind the shoulder shot and makes its way to spine it will drop. But again a CLEAN double lung shot does not cause lights out.