got a new muzzleloader

[hickslawns]

yea power belt are the ones i was meaning to say, i have the hornady and my buddy said they are just to much cause they mushroom and just tear everything up on the way thru,

Not following this one. Isn't the goal to mushroom and inflict as much damage as possible? If they mushroom, then there is also a serious transfer of energy to the animal upon impact which (in my mind anyway) should make for a quicker and more humane kill. I would think the most transfer of energy from the bullet to the body of the animal along with the mushrooming of the bullet further ensuing carnage would be THE desired effect. Maybe Beentown or one of the guys can chime in on this one. I am no expert. Just thinking out loud.

 

[swamp_donkey819]

well had my buddy help me last night i wasnt to far off bout ten in to the left and bout 6 in low, 6 shots later its just about dead center and an in high at 70 yards, so hopin that should be good to go, only thing i dont like about the gun is the ram-rod is one of those cheap carbon ones thats real flimsy, other then that gun is in excellent shape and shoots good

 

[swamp_donkey819]

yes hicks that is true, the way he told me about them was that its just a big mess on the inside, powerbelts is what i shot last year out of my other buddies muzzleloader and they shot fine, deer only made it bout 30 yards and was done, i think what my buddy meant was ill be pulling some of the vitals out piece by piece, cause of bein so tore up

 

[hickslawns]

yes hicks that is true, the way he told me about them was that its just a big mess on the inside, powerbelts is what i shot last year out of my other buddies muzzleloader and they shot fine, deer only made it bout 30 yards and was done, i think what my buddy meant was ill be pulling some of the vitals out piece by piece, cause of bein so tore up

Gotcha. I guess I never broke it down and thought about it a ton. I am not an expert. Just try to make the best shot possible and inflict as much damage for a quick, clean kill as I can. I have heard complaints from guys that different ammo they are using did not seem to expand or mushroom very well which has failed to bring a quick death.

 

[swamp_donkey819]

yea im far from expert also usually ill see what ammo has the best reviews from people i know and go from there, my other buddy shot a spike last year with his 12ga using some remington core lokt sabot and it shredded all the guts and ruined the whole back left leg, took me a good 45 min to field dress it, i was literally pulln stuff out in handfull and diggin around finding more small pieces laying everywhere it was a mess, he said thats the last time he is using those shells, im wondering if some are just over kill even for what there made for

 

[CJD3]

Reviews are nice but each gun is different... just like women

Every gun is different. Even 2 guns, same make and model may like different weight of amo. Try to get some rounds from other shooters and try em out for grouping, then you can mess with loose powder.
I had trouble with the Power belts; other guys swear by em.
My Omega likes the Thompson Shockwave- 250 grain.
Try both and see. 245 and 250 gr vs 295 and 300. Even throw a few 200 gr. down range. Then move to the powder but the 50gr. pellets will do to start. Playing with loose powder will tweak the groups but really shouldn't have wild changes...
Be sure an clean the barrel after each shot so its fair.

I dont care if you chuck a 457 gr Buffalo ball down range , if the shot placement isn't there, all you did was wound a deer. If you can drop that sabot or ball into the kill zone every time, it won't matter if its a 200,250 or 300 gr round, thats a dead deer.
Best of luck with it!

Just settle on a "name Brand" . Fall in love with a odd bullet and some day you may not be able to find it and have to start all over again.

 

[swamp_donkey819]

very good point ill have to talk to a couple buddies see if i can get a few rounds from each and try the grouping and see which fires better and groups best

 

[Lundy]

Inch high at a hundred and the bullet drops from there. Three at two hundred and around six inch low at 250.

http://www.powerbeltbullets.com/ski...rbeltbullets2010/docs/PBB26inchballistics.pdf

 

[Lundy]

im just wondering if its hittin good at 150 how much will it be off at say like 70 if i held the sights on like i would at 150? does that make sense,

You really need to shoot your gun at the yardages you intend to hunt to verify impact at different ranges.

There are a lot of variables when determining the actual ballistics of any given load, powder, powder charge, bullet BC, barrel length. Change any of these and the ballistics change, sometime a bunch. You need to find a load that groups well from your gun and then set you zero yardage and verify elevation at other yardages.

Some ballpark numbers for what you asked that will be close with Powerbelts, Areo Tips, 270 gr. BC .220 shooting 150 gr, Vel- 2085 FPS

70 yd +2.7"
100 yd +2.5"
150 yd zero
200 yd -6"
250 yd - 16"

A 240 or 250 grain Hornady SST or Shockwave with vary slightly with velocity but will still have similar ballistics with 150 gr powder change.

If you reduce your powder charge, which may happen to obtain accuracy, the ballistics change. Many can not get their guns to groups well at 150 gr loads. Get you best accuracy first and then work on learning the ballistics of your load.

Good luck this season, I know you will enjoy hunting with a muzzle loader.

Kim