Newbie Question

I have a CVA optima V2. Using power belt 295 gr bullets. They load fine and group great at 100 yds. Want to try sabots and bought some 250 gr Barnes tmz buckets and some black hph 24 sabots and blackhorn 209 powder. I’m having a terrible time trying to get bullets down the barrel and group is probably 3+ inches at 100 yds. Barrel is clean when trying to load. May just keep using the power belts but most people hate them for deer. Marginal blood trails if any at all. Seems hard to believe if you hit one with that kinda slug though. Any suggestions on a different sabot or bullet.
Thanks

I’ve been using 295 power belt hollow points(no tip) ever since buying an Omega almost twenty years ago. You are right about a lack of a blood trail as I rarely get a pass through. But I’ve never missed one and never trailed one more than 30-40 yards. They mushroom to about the size of a 50 cent piece. 30+ deer over the years. Thought about changing but if it ain’t broke, no need to fix it.

Good to hear that. I really like the way they group and are much more simple than bh 209 and sabots. Trying to decide if muzzleloader is for me. A lot of work with cleaning and all the stuff to keep up with.

Powerbelt "Aerolite". Load easy and shoot great.

I used Powerbelts for years. I had great blood trails with mine. The only time I didn’t get a pass through was when I shot bucks head on.

I had the same issue with the TMZ’s in my optima.

I went with TEZ’s and it was a lot better.

I killed 5 deer in one season with powerbelts, don’t push them too fast. They are basically a soft lead bullet.

Buy some 300 grain Harvester Scorpions with the crush rib washer and forget about anything Powerbelt
Push those with 100-110 grains of BH209
You’ll thank me later

My power belts never grouped consistently. Switched to the Hornady sabots and zeroed in quickly.

Bought some 300 grain harvester scorpion bullets and black crush rib sabots with 100 gr of bh 209 powder. Shot great and load much easier. Shout out to the harvester rep who was nice enough to recommend these and even sent 5 bullets and Sabots to try. Great customer service.

I like the Barnes Expander Spitfire MZ 285 grain bullets. They are harder to load than the powerbelts but they blow right through deer. I'm not sure if they still make them though. I haven't seen them in a while.

I definitely recommend using a solid copper hollow-point bullet though. Better for the blood trails.

I’ve slowly picked about a 100 of the .50 powerbelts over the past few years. I picked up the Knight vision that was on sale in November. I just slipped an old Tasco World class scope on it the other day with some new weaver rings. It will probably be in the spring before it gets zeroed in. There’s a box of 60gr and a box of 30gr pyrodex pellets too. I hope I can work up a 90 or 120 grain powder load that is tight.

Most of the defenders of powerbelts seem to indicate their sweet spot for accuracy is in the 80 to 125 gr load range.

I have shot 4 deer with the powerbelts and two 50g pellets and never had a pass through. All were broadside shots too. They certainly group nice and are easy to load in my rifle though.

I picked up a nice optima LR a few weeks back. Ive been enjoying tinkering around with different powder and bullet combinations. I shot several different powerbelts ,hornady xtp and remington accu tips. All 250 gr. The aerolites don't load or shoot worth a crap but everything else has had good groups and been easy to load. The solid copper powerbelts had the best groups. I've yet to shoot a deer with a powerbelt but the interweb is full of folks saying powerbelts suck. I'd prefer to get pass throughs every shot so I'm thinking about trying some of the hornady 330 gr elr's or federal bore drivers if I can get my hands on some.

Powerbelts are very accurate bullets. Their performance after the hit is what I don't like. Always have to go look for the deer. If you can get yor smokepole to shoot XTP's, they'll drop a deer before the bullet even gets there.

I tried some power belts and had decent accuracy but I’m not crazy about their penetration, or lack of at high velocity. I’ve had the best luck with XTP’s in crusher rib sabots. The crusher rib load the easiest of any sabot I’ve ever used (though definitely as easy as a power belt) and give excellent accuracy. I also always get great results with Lee R.E.A.L. Bullets. They load easy, hit hard and are very accurate but to my knowledge they are not commercially available and you have to mold your own.