Muzzleloader – Powerbelt Aero tip review

Just a update on my Muzzleloader season and my use of the powerbelt aero tips. On Saturday evening I shot a doe at between 100-125 yards. I was using the Powerbelt Aero tips with 120 gains of 777 pellets. With light getting a little low and the distance I was a bit shy about taking the shot. Being that it was the last 5-10 minutes of my 2018 deer season and with a shortage of venison for my group of hunters, I decided to go ahead and take the shot. I Went the whole deer season without seeing hardly any deer ( My worst season since I was really young – A long time ago ) And here I was in the last few minutes of the season and out comes 8 Deer. There was 2 of them that were noticeably larger that the rest. I picked out the closer of those 2 and after waiting for other fawns to clear my shot I squeezed the trigger. After the smoke had cleared I could not identify what deer I had shot at. They all cleared the field and went into the pines on the edge of the field. I quickly went out to check for blood in the field where I believed she was when I shot. Nothing. I quickly check the edge of the pines where I believed they entered – Still nothing. Without the proper flashlight to do a better search in the woods, I returned to my parked truck about a 1/2 mile away to get a better light source to continue my search for blood. I started ziz zaging across the pines looking for blood. About 100 yards or so into the woods I spotted some blood. Not A lot of it but a decent amount. after I easily trailed it for about 50 yards my hunting buddy showed up with even better light and we started back trailing the blood. It started getting really heavy ( Like several Garbage can size spots of blood within a few feet. Shortly after we jumped her and there was a ton of blood where she had laid down and I could tell she had a hard time getting up. With not wanting to keep jumping her and risk getting lost, We decided to back track the blood out and wait till the following morning. I didn’t really like the idea of waiting overnight with all the yotes in the area but thought it was best. We returned to the last shot we jumped her the next morning and had a Real hard time finding anymore blood. With 2 of us continuing to work out the blood trail ( Finding a few drops of blood here and there ) the 3rd buddy circled out ahead of use to see if he could find the blood in the area we believed she was headed. He yelled that he had blood and a few seconds later said he had found her. The shot had shattered the leg just a few inches down from the shoulder. I remember when I took the shot that her leg was pulled up to take a step. The bullet must have shattered on impact with the leg bone. There was no hole thru the body cavity at all. There was a blown hole behind the shoulder but it did not enter the body. I guess I was rather lucky that I must have hit a major artery and she bleed out or died from the shock once she laid back down. I’m sure had I waited a Hr more to start trailing her she would have been dead where we had jumped her. So due to a poor shot I cant say rather or not that the powerbelt did a good job or not. I guess in the end we recovered the deer so that’s what’s important. I do believe after some of others thoughts on here, and doing some reading I’m going to play around with a few different powder and round choices next year and see if I can find a better setup.

8 out of our group of 9 tagged bulls in NM. Every one of them was shooting 295-348 gr hollowpoint or Aerotip bullets with either loose or pelletized 777. This was 2003 when few bullets existed.

One bull required a 2nd shot because the shooter felt the need to lead a walking bull at 210 yards. The bullet nicked the shoulders on both tips and went through his windpipe. 2nd shat at 235yds killed the bull. He was so lovestruck that he never ran off until that 2nd shot. The rest of the bulls died quickly with solid kill zone hits.

My bull was 145 lazered yards. The 348gr Aerotip powered by 110gr loose 777 entered tight the the shoulder and lodged just under the hide in front of the far hip. He walked 20yds and died.

It’s where you put the bullet, long and short of it.

grpubl7 wrote:

8 out of our group of 9 tagged bulls in NM. Every one of them was shooting 295-348 gr hollowpoint or Aerotip bullets with either loose or pelletized 777. This was 2003 when few bullets existed.

One bull required a 2nd shot because the shooter felt the need to lead a walking bull at 210 yards. The bullet nicked the shoulders on both tips and went through his windpipe. 2nd shat at 235yds killed the bull. He was so lovestruck that he never ran off until that 2nd shot. The rest of the bulls died quickly with solid kill zone hits.

My bull was 145 lazered yards. The 348gr Aerotip powered by 110gr loose 777 entered tight the the shoulder and lodged just under the hide in front of the far hip. He walked 20yds and died.

It’s where you put the bullet, long and short of it.

Were these all Powerbelt bullets that you are talking about?
There seems to be 2 different groups of people when it comes to them. They either love them or they Hate them. Shot placement is always the #1 factor no matter what bullet you use. I wish I had made a better shot on this deer so that I could have had a better idea of its performance. A few factors that may have played a roll were: Lower than ideal light at the time of the shot, a bit longer shot that I would normally like to take , And the load had been in the gun for 15 days – I’m not sure if that makes a difference or not. Some say it does – Others say not. Overall I’ve had decent success with powerbelt bullets. I like how they load in my gun and so far they are the best grouping rounds that I have tried.

Years ago I had two similar instances using powerbelts, back to back years, both shots inside of 100 yards and both shots on shoulders broadside. Neither shot had enough bullet left to exit the other side. One shot never made it into the chest cavity and one stopped at a rib just behind the hit shoulder. Both deer required a lot of tracking but both were recovered yet both needed the kill shot. Both times pellets were used.

It wasn’t the pellets, it was the bullet. Shot placement identical using different bullets in subsequent years had full penetration with very good expansion at the exit wound while still using the pellets as the propellant.
Powerbelts have a long history of being inefficient at killing deer to elk sized animals, yet some people seem to have no issues. I personally won’t use any kind of powerbelt bullet again unless this new one from Powerbelt shows me something much different from their past. Currently I use Hornady XTP bullets in all of my long hunting guns, regardless of caliber. I also have Swift A-Frame and Deep Curl bullets for the inline guns and know exactly where they shoot and how they perform on impact should I need to use any of either. I have three recovered 300 grain XTP bullets that traveled roughly thru 18″ of neck/spine each, and in each case the deer dropped on the spot and never quivered. I would not ever expect a powerbelt to do what these three did.

In lieu of all the lead controversy I am probably going to order Barnes solid copper bullets to try, even in the pistol since I am getting just under 1700 fps with the current XTP load and a Barnes copper bullet will be 10 grains heavier. All of the pistol shots will be inside 50 yards so I am confident I’ll see reliable two hole performance from the copper bullets. Rifle performance with the Barnes copper is likely a no brainer.

I won’t dunn anyone for using the pellets but I do believe that the pellets really stand in the way of getting the most out of a person’s gun simply because the load options are restricted to combinations of 50 and 30 grains. And too, way to many of today’s guns are capable of using the BH209 powder right out of the box or after getting the conversion plug to be hindered by pellet use. Even granular T7 is superior in every way to the pellets.

Sorry to hear of your experience fishthumper. Good for you an the perseverance and finding your deer. Your story though is only one of a hundred such stories I have heard for people using exactly what you were using for load components. In this coming off season I’d really urge you to at least try some other bullet/sabot components and at least look into using granulated powders. I’ll argue all day long with the other comment on it being a matter of placement and not the bullet. For every instance of a good kill, there are probably fifty that spell things out as you have and most of those will be while using the powerbelts.

fishthumper, you have a pm.

Shoot Barnes copper.

Will not fragment. Will not shatter.

Throw them pbelts in the Garbage!

I have a love/hate with powerbelts. I love the heavy powerbelts for hunting cattails, standing corn, & willows; I feel like the “knock down” is better. They are accurate as well. But for stand hunting, or shots past 75 yards, it’s barnes sabots for me.

Yes, every hunter in camp used them.

Now I use PRB or SST with a blackpowder substitute. Prefer to shoot them 5 feet off the muzzle, but that is not always possible. So, I want a flat shooter to 150yds and it just isn’t the Powerbelt.

i’ve only been muzzleloader hunting a few years, and i’ve been very happy shooting a Powerbelt Platinum AeroTip 300gr bullet with 3 pellets of IMR White Hot (150gr) in a scoped CVA Optima v2. it’s not a rifle so i’m not taking very long shots, so my thinking is to use a larger bullet with a big powder load for max penetration/knock-down power. that combo is deadly accurate sighted to 100 yards on the range and very easy to clean, so i haven’t seen a strong reason to switch to the 209 powder.

last year i shot a doe broadside from 75 yards, bullet went through-and-through the lungs and heart, through a 2×4, and then buried into a fence post. deer never took a step.

a few weeks ago i shot a big buck broadside from 25 yards, bullet entered through the ribs and shattered on the spine, blowing one of the vertebrae completely away and shredding the heart/lungs. again, deer never took a step.

so i can’t speak to the Aerolite, but the Platinum AeroTip has worked very well for me.

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

Shoot Barnes copper.

Will not fragment. Will not shatter.

Throw them pbelts in the Garbage!

Righto on the pellets.

I ran out of time last fall, but was wanting to try some Barnes bullets in the guns. I’m going to order three different bullets: one for the 50 cal. long barrels, 1 for the 50 cal. pistol and one for the 45 cal. long gun. I want to see how they shoot at the ranges these guns are sighted for.

I’m bullet heavy but I always like to snoop and I do love to just shoot….so. I’ve killed deer with every blackpowder gun I own, except the Renegade sidelock which has never been fired by anyone, and all of the kills have come off the XTPs. Needless to say, I have a great deal of faith in them. I know the deep curls will offer the same terminal performance along with the A-frames too. I’ve never done anything with the Barnes animals and want to see what they’re all about.

Was never a huge fan of the Powerbelts, but in 2003 during that elk hunt, there weren’t many options. If I had used my noodle, I’d have just cast up some Maxi-Balls and been done with it. Penetration is never an issue and they don’t come apart.

Lots of great projectiles out there now including the 45cal 300gr Dead Center or the 300gr Harvester Scorpion PT Gold. If I were going for elk tomorrow with a BP-powered smoker, I’d use one of those two. With the Savage Smokeless, I’d likely use the Harvester.