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Anybody use these TC bullets/sabots?
T/C® Shockwave® Bonded Core Bullets, Super Glide™ Sabots
They come in a 250 or 300 gr bullet.

I have been using Powerbelt bullets because they're easier to load than sabot bullets in my experience.

But, these TC bullets are advertised as easier to load than other sabots and also hold up to magnum loads better.

Any experience with these?

Depends on your bore, of course. I found the super glide sabot to load easy. Not NEAR as easy as a powerbelt. Not sure what load or gun you are using, but I found XTP'S to perform better on deer at muzzleloader velocities, with little practical penalty to bullet drop. Within 150 yards, there is not a whole lot of difference. I shoot 240, 250, and 300gr. XTP'S over 100gr (loose) T7, out of a 29" 1:48, 50cal.

I use a TC Encore.
Never needed to shoot over 100+ or so yards for whitetail in Mississippi.

Hoping to get drawn for a New Mexico elk tag and need longer range accuracy.

Never even shot on paper past 125, just hasn't been necessary.
The powerbelt has been accurate enough at that range.

I've been told that I will be disappointed with it at further ranges and I imagine that is true.

I've also been using pellets for some time and was told I should probably switch back to loose powder.

Loose will actually provide some additional velocity. I prefer the 300 gr. Over 240 or 250, for penetration. I found the SST'S to sometimes fail to expand properly. The XTP has performed flawlessly from 10 to 175 yards. Good bullet. Shoot what is most accurate. Gotta hit the thing in the right place!

I use the T/C bonded Shockwaves, but I put them in Harvester Crush Rib sabots. I've had very good results on the half dozen deer I've shot with them, but my brother used the same bullet and wasn't happy with the expansion and switched to something from Barnes.

Forgive me if this is too off topic, But I went away from the Power Belts and started casting the LEE Improved Minnie. I lube them with the LEE the Alox Tumble lube. I have had good luck on deer with plenty of penetration. And a lot less money.

Mark

I've shot several deer past 200 yrds with 250 gr. TC bonded shockwaves with the black sabot. 208,227,235,235,255,262,275,301 yards. All hits were complete pass throughs with good blood trails. Most rarely going more than 30-75 yrds. I use TC omega with the leupold ultislam 3-9x40 scope. 3-50 gr. Pyrodex pellets. The scope hold over dots are spot on. It shoots 2" groups at 250 yrds. Shockwave bonded bullets perform great for me. I bought a case of them.
I would use them on Elk but I might go up to 300 gr. Bullet.
Power belts would not group 4" at a hundred yrds out of my gun even with 2- 50 gr pellets.

I load my daughters Omega with 2-50 gr pellets and 200 gr shock wave. That must be the correct speed for that bullet, Ray Charles could track her deer. Unbelievable blood trails on her 5 deer. She is 13.

290gr Barnes Tez

Shockwaves are not a very good bullet.

I just switched to the T/C yellow tipped 300gr shock wave this past year with harvester red sabot. 105grs of TTT7 send it on it way. No complaints. It is fatal on the receiving end of the rifle and most accurate of the bullets it tried. Prior to the shock wave I shot the Hornady 458 cal 325 gr 45-70 bullet. It was very good but tough to load, 54 cal. The TC bullet shoots a little flatter and is better accuracy wise. I do not like the lighter bullet weighs in sabot rounds( 240grs). I love the XTP bullets as they are toung and affordable, however the stubby shape makes for a lot of drop at distances beyond 100yds.There is no substiude to bullet weight since speed will never increase that much in my rifle.

The 200 grain Shockwave / SSTs are the best ones. Pass-thrus are not indicative of being the proper bullet. For whatever reasons, the 200 expand well and the bigger ones sometimes don't. The bonded ones have the worst track record for opening up.

The only two Powerbelts I trust are the copper HPs in 295gr or bigger and the Platinums in 270-300 or 338gr. All the other flavors I pass-on.

I want 2 holes leaking. Lost a nice deer from a power belt, no blood trail. Obviously it must not of passed through. For me if I find a bullet in the hide on the exit side of a broadside animal, it ran out of gas. The bonded shockwave may not expand much compared to other bullets, but I have never lost an animal with them, and the blood trails are good. At full diameter.452 it's as big as an expanded .277 bullet. They work for me. The original post was asking if anyone was using them. I have confidence in bonded shockwaves.

2500HD, I too like two holes! I tried a power belt on one deer and the bullet did not exit. I think power belts at stubby for their weight and dia. They were not as accurate as other pills. Alot of hype with them. I shot two deer this past seasone with the TC's, both bullets exited and both deer died. For the money and performance, I will continue to use them. I just hope they continue to sell them. Good/affordable MZ pills that do not cost a buck a shot are hard to find. So far, they just work for me and based on the posts they seem to working well else where for others. Amen!

Looking big picture at those 2 bullets, Powerbelts easily have the worst reputation of any ML bullet on the market. So many bad reports.
Conversely, Shockwave/SST's have a pretty good overall reputation on performance and they are certainly known to be very accurate.

hey powerbelts suck so bad! Check this video out when they were used on an elk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ADcThW6pD4

Was that Falcon that made that shot?

lol no, my dad. Hes 10 years younger than falcon.

My one power belt deer kill ended ok, however I was able to find other bullets that were more accurate. There was no exit and the bullet lodged in the does neck. No blood was found the entire length of the her track.My switch from the powerbelt was due to finding better accuracy. Plus in 54 cal. they are very stubby due to bing full caliber in dia. They did work for that one deer.

well if its in the neck, hows there supposed to be blood when the shot is so high up?

Neck shots generally drop the animal on the spot and if that didn't, the shot wasnt placed well.

Ok, Uh, it was placed well. square on the onside shoulder. Your beloved powerbelt failed to penetrate thru the shoulder,broke it and traveled to up to the onside of the deers neck and stopped! All this at 42 yards. Launched from a rem 54 cal. 105grs of T7, loose powder. The deer did not bleed and what I could find of the bullet was in pieces. Yup,it worked well,sort of.................

I've heard it all and every time I use them, Im going home with a short blood trail and meat on the table.

Heres another powerbelt horror story on film. This time the fragile 250gr Aerolite should the deers shoulder.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-59NeE_OimM

Be better if ya had 'balls'!

thanks for the replies, guys.
If I get drawn for this muzzleloader elk hunt, I have some experimenting to do.

cs2blue

Worst posters here are the ones that do not describe the poor performing bullet they used.

You have multiple posts in this thread and we haven't a clue which Powerbelt and size used. Same with poster WV Hunter. In case both of you-guys aren;t aware and it seems you both aren't, there are many kinds of Powerbelts and some have poor reviews. But some are good performers, so lets not class the entire linup into one review as being bad.

OMG! If you are going to report something as bad, at least describe it and show personal proof, not somebody's else's comments on the internet.

Internet is full of lies. Proof is in your own personal hunts using Powerbelts W V Hunter. I heard horror stories in the internet about Lehigh bullets too. Even Barnes. Does that mean every manufacturer is bad and we should just scrap the entire muzzleloading season in 2016?

BTW..... there's been more deer killed with Powerbelts, than any other modern-day bullet. Yep, they must be terrible then. The Platinums I use and the copper HPs must be garbage in 270/295gr and above...... yep..... hahahahahahahahaha

You regurgitate more crap from online sources without ever providing a lick of proof you ever used them. Try taking your own advice sometime and quit shooting the pine trees to test bullets.

Typical liberal BS at its finest.

I like the powerbelts I've been using ok for Mississippi deer hunting. My shots aren't but about 100 yards or so.
I've tried 2 different weights. neither pattern tightened up.

In my rifle, I don't trust them at 200+ yards. Not in love with them even approaching 150.

I desire accuracy at longer ranges first, it doesn't matter how good the bullet impact is if I can't hit the animal well enough in the first place.

I will try some suggestions from here.

I use the 348's. Haven't failed me yet on elk.

Use enough bullet.

Powerbelts load easy and they shoot well IME.. But they aren't very good at poking two holes. Quarter dollar size expansion usually prevents that. Dead is dead tho..FYI I'm speaking of 295's....

powerbelts work great if you know how to load them.

Well, I did not draw the muzzleloader elk tag, so no need to do any changes.

Instead, I drew a rifle tag. already set up for that.

Do tell. I have a 24-pk of the 295 HP Copper Powerbelts. Been focusing on saboted bullets lately.

dp

does the pointed end or the flat end go in first?

If you wanna make 'wad cutters'....insert the pointed end first!!

December and January are the only months here in Southern Michigan where Powerbelts can be found relatively cheap on closeout sales at big box store sporting departments.

That's when I go shopping for the 270/300gr Platinums and HP Coppers in 295/348gr-varieties. I'm not interested in any other Powerbelt models out there.

I shoot the ones I mentione above, and the 300gr Hornady XTPs in 44-cal green sabot.

Well, if and when I have $600 to burn, I'll get the Labradar chrono unit. Pretty much don't have to work about sabots hitting anything. Doppler radar technology with the sensors sitting behind the muzzle.

http://mylabradar.com/

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/11139489/2

I had almost the exact same thing happen to me.The only differences was the deer was 25 yrds away and I was shooting a 270 with 130 gr Coreloks.It should have penetrated to the off shoulder but deflected off the bones on the near shoulder and traveled half way up the neck.[bleep] happens.Deer ran about 40 yrds and piled up.[bleep] happens.

First, the copper is just electroplated, it's not a jacket so it provides no additional structural integrity over and above the lead. They are relatively soft, so what srw is saying is, don't drive them too fast. My favorite load is a 348 with 80-85 grains of BH209. Got a pass-through on this guy:

Oh HELL yeah, boat tailed wadcutters!! Better BC and all ...

I've been using Harvester PT Golds and Crushed Rib Sabots in various weights for years out of Encores and now my LHR Redemption. Fantastic on paper and deer with Blackthorn 209

What ML are you using? I ask because I have a CVA Optima which the barrel is .50so a lot of .503 and up have a really hard time going down. I've had lead sabots swagged for me from a guy out of CO. Those went down the tube but the Powerbelts are much more accurate and expensive unfortunately.