i shot a doe this year during ML season in ohio and check out this bullet. the shot was good right in the boiler room went in one side and did not exit at 40 yds but had great expansion. no blood no hair. i'm not knocking them cause i have been using them for a while with great results as this on only ran 15 yds and dropped but it was at dusk and i did not find the deer until the next morning. if it had ran like some do i may not had found it. its a power belt and i use 100 grain charge. my question is what are you using to get a good blood trail?
I've been using a TC Scout 50 Cal with Sabot 44 Cal 240 Grain Jacketed Hollow Point with 70 grains of black powder for years. Good clean kills. Longest was a doe at 120 yards. Straight through the boiler room. She went about 20 yards.
I experienced a similar issue with powerbelt's in the past...now I still hold they are solid bullets though (see another post I discussed my ML loads), but I'm all T/C SST's or XTP's now. This year I chose SST's as I planned on some farther shots and their tips are just a bit more aero than the XTP's. However, every single deer I shot with an XTP in the past died within eye sight! My dad shot two does and a buck with his ML this year (XTP's for him), first doe was found 20 yards from where she stood, buck died within sight of stand (maybe 30 yards from shot), and final doe was a DRT. I'd recommend experimenting with bullets, but to be honest I'm a huge fan of the .44 cal bullets inside a sabot...I seem to get better accuracy. And if you're not looking at far shots 80-100+ yards I'd say any brand with a XTP mold is going to treat you just fine! One small change is if you're shooting pellets go to actual powder...many guys, including me, feel you get a more consistant ignition and push from powder than pellets which may or may not have "large" air gaps inside or between them.
thanks guys. i have been thinking of going to loose powder for a while. The sabots load in my optima elite are extremely hard to load so i stopped using them plus the fact i have had really good groups with the powerbelts out past 100yds 2 years ago i shot one at just a fuzz over 200yds in an open field. sst's are too tight for my barrell. have you guys tried those no sabot hornady's? Are there any other non sabot bullets out there?
There are some but I find it odd you can't get the 44cal bullets in a 50cal sabot down your Elite...I'd almost think about contacting CVA about that....buddy of mine shoots an Elite as well and loves the SST's but they do fit snuggly as he puts it. I also got really good groups with the powerbelts as well, but never liked the results really to be honest...and I never had one run out of sight even...just wasn't happy with the bullet performance. They did the job though like I stated. I have zero experience with the no sabot hornady's..not sure I've ever seen them even, and I'm a sabot fan so haven't paid attention much to other avenues.
I have been using muzzleloaders for over 20 years and still have no answer for your question. My friends and I have killed over a hundred deer with muzzleloaders so I have seen it all. Some will leave a huge blood trail that seems to start immediately and others will not leave a drop until they tip over. I wish I had a good answer, but I really dont think it has that much to do with the particular brand or type of bullet you use. A bullet hole is very small, even if it passed through. It does not take much fat/etc. to plug the hole and that is really the only explanation I have been able to come up with. Also, if the hit is very high in the body cavity it seems the blood trail will be nearly non exitstent unless a major artery is hit. By high, I mean anything above a horizontal center line. Best of luck to you and enjoy muzzleloading!
What fletch said about shot placement is crucial and sorry I didn't mention it. It doesn't matter what the bullet does but the higher the hole goes the less blood and like fletch said even heart shot deer can leave sparse blood if a chunk of fat or something gets stuck in the hole.
I used power belts for a couple of years and never had a pass through, but all the deer dropped in their tracks. Hit a deer with my 30-06 and they run. Go figure.
CVA Wolf - loaded with a Hornady SST and 150 grain 777 (3 pellets) - wrecks everything I shoot. And is accurate as hell via my testing over about 30 shots.
Ditto, except i am shooting a TC.....and TC shockwaves( just hornadys sst under TC name). Shooting three pellets with the 250gr Shockwaves, killed about a dozen deer so far with no issues. That said I just started shooting the same bullet with two pellets and its a little tighter group at 100 yards....easier on my shoulder too....
I too noticed better groupings backing down to 100grains instead of 120 and 130 I tried first....been on 100 even for years now!
thx for all the answers, tynimiller i can load the sabots its just alot harder than power belts. i must be spoiled.
