Powerbelt Bull

[Whitman31]

It seems that every retailer will tell you that Powerbelts are the way to go. Last fall a buddy and I spent the day at the range testing a variety of sabots and found the powerbelts to be the worst, none within 5 MOA. Anyone else had this problem?

We were shooting two Thompson Omega's (one .45 and one .50) and one Encore. We started each test with a clean barrel then fired a total of 4 rounds. We tested with Triple7 pellets at both 100 and 150gr. The best performance came from the Barnes 285gr spit fire boat tail loaded with 150gr of powder, 2 MOA.

The powerbelts were bye far the easiest to load after the barrel was fouled. The Barnes the hardest...

 

[Mark whiz]

I've done a lot of testing with Powerbelts and here is what I've concluded.

1st - they don't like "hotter" charges. Out of my Knight .50cal, 90gr of 777 for the 348gr bullets and 100gr for the 405's is the hottest that works well. From what I've seen on target and in the field, hotter charges prevent the plastic cup from falling off properly which absolutely destroys accuracy. 3fg cuts of powder should also be avoided for the same reason.

2nd - You need to lube the posts holding the plastic cups to the bullet to help facilitate they're falling off properly. I usually pop and reinstall the cups several times, spinning them on the posts and then put a dab of bore butter on the post before I put the cup on for the last time.

3rd - as far as hunting goes, I prefer the pure lead bullets to the jacketed ones.................I've gotten zero expansion on large game (boars) with the jacketed aerotips.