Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders First time muzzleloader owner. Blackhorn 209 / Powerbelt

This was my best 3 shot group at 100 yards with powerbelt aero tip 295gr and 110gr of bh209. My other groups weren't much bigger. Accuracy is outstanding with the powerbelts but I like to tinker so I got some 300gr sst's today. I'm hoping to shoot them this weekend. A few of the spots I like to hunt could present a shot near 200 yards and the bc of the sst a lot better. I hope they shoot well.

man you are really pushing past the limits of that 295'er. Stick with a lung shot and it will go down. Stay away from heavy bone. You'll learn over time that lighter pure lead bullets with hollow points are sensitive to high velocity.

That's why I'm looking into the sst's. The bullet looks a lot like the ftx that I shoot out of my 450 marlin. The 325gr ftx has been pure devistation on deer at close and med range and I hope the 300gr sst wil do the same.

Buy some Harvester .458/.50 sabots (orange?) and you can shoot those 325gr FTXs outa your ML

I shot the 300gr sst's today. They weren't as accurate as the powerbelts but still plenty accurate for the intended use. Most groups went 1" - 1.5" at 100 but I did have two unexpected fliers. I shot two groups where two bullets would land together and one would go 3" to 4" away. I don't know what that was all about. Any ideas? There was a guy at the range who said that he had better luck using harvester crush rib sabots with sst's. Maybe I'll give them a try.

I'll have to look into that. I have 300 of the 325 ftx's sitting around. Thanks for the info.

Harvester does not make a 50x458 sabot. MMP makes a 50x458 sabot that is orange.

Some bores are large enough a Harvester black crushrib will work with a .458 bullet. Its tight but.......

please send all of those 295PB'S that you are not going to shoot to me here in virginia. we'll find a use for them.

Fishing weights?

When I bought my T/C Impact, I tried Powerbelts, but I wasn't happy with their performance in that rifle. I don't think that the Powerbelts made as good a seal in the barrel as the MMP sabots that I now use. The sabot bullets are harder to get started in the bore, but perform well when fired.

we found a really strange use for them about 10yrs ago. we kill the hell out of deer with them. our group has killed over 400 animals with them.

I got my first muzzleloader deer yesterday. I shot a good size doe at about 110 yards. The 300gr sst entered just behind the left front shoulder and exited just in front of the right shoulder. She made it about 30 yards before she expired. The bullet made a 45 caliber entry hole and a slightly larger exit. Not that I needed one but the blood trail was ok and should not have been too hard to follow. I think I'm hooked.

Must be a big group? How many fish has your group killed with them?

They must have blown up......