I'm with ya. I bought a 50 cal Omega earlier this year but haven't started to play with it yet. I have visions of elk hunting with it and had Thor send me the test bullet pack to size them. I'd prefer to only do load development for one bullet that will work for everything.
I've shot powerbelts in my other inline (Rem M700) and they did fine on deer. I have dug a few out of dirt banks and they do deform quite a bit. I was running them with 100 grs of Triple 7 and don't know the velocity and frankly didn't care - it was only for deer and under 100 yards. I've killed a bunch of deer with recurves and revolvers - a 348 gr hunk of lead moving faster than I can see will kill a deer out to any reasonable range.
For elk, I want any extra margin of error I can get. Last year was a good example. I ran into a small herd of elk in the timber headed back to their bedding area. I shot my bull at 30-40 yards as it quartered sharply to me. I had cows standing within 10's of feet when I shot; they were within seconds of bolting. I want to feel confident I can make that shot with a MZ. I would have passed with a bow but would have taken it with my large caliber handguns shooting heavy LBT style bullets. Situational ethics applies to hunting and I want to be sure of the outcome before I pull the trigger. If I can believe I'm better off with a more costly bullet, I'm in. Now if Nosler would just make a 50 cal Partition MZ bullet, we'd be set.
