At least the 295 grain lead hollow points do. Ok so Sunday I was still hunting down a ditch line that seperates my property and I cut off through a briar patch. I was stalking slowly and I see a spike walking 30ft in front of me. I kneel down slowly and I rest my gun on a pine tree. I see the spike's head and neck appear from behind a maple tree then his shoulder and chest. I squeeze off a shot right behind his shoulder blade. My muzzleloader recoils, my ears ring, and a thick cloud of white smoke hang's in the air. I watch as the spike calmly walks away with his tail down just like nothing ever happened. I stand fast and see him disappear I reload and I wait a few minutes. Then I walked over to the spot where I shot him and I started looking for sign. There wasn't a darn drop of blood or a flipping fiber of hair. I walk to the spot where I last saw him and still no sign. So I walked back to the road and I found my dad who was turkey hunting, we went back to the scene of the crime and together we still couldn't find any sign. We decided to split up and grid search the property. Let me tell you we tromped through every single inch of briar patch ,bedding area, needle grass, and pine thicket not a single sign of that deer. So what are the possibilities or what could have happened? I was shooting a 295 grain lead hollow point powerbelt per recommendation powered by 100 grains of pyrodex. I got the lead hollow points because an old timer said that the "new fangled" copper jacketed ones are known to chisel through. I made perfect sense to me that the lead hollow point would have more reliable expansion. Is it possible it over expanded? Please help me understand what happened.

#1 your bullet struck a limb
#2 your scope is not on
#3 you didnt load your rifle (happened to me one time picked up the wrong gun and was hunting with a cap gun)
#4 you got buck fever
#5 the buck was superman

Lol ford how did you pick up a cap gun ? Did you sight in your muzzle loader before going hunting?

The rifle was loaded and it had a piece of electrical tape over the end. It was only 30ft away so I don't think i missed. Does sight height affect anything at closer ranges? The shot looked clear through the scope and there was no sign of the bullet impacting a tree (I looked) . And it was a regular sized spike and I didn't have buck fever it was as natural as could be, kneel, rest the gun, pull the hammer back, breath out, squeeze, bang. Im not a new hunter just new to muzzleloading and this was just plain weird.
#5 is seeming more plausible

I recommend using Precision Rifle Bullets. They are made in Canada. I have used them for the last couple of years and love them. Just got a gobbler Saturday from about fifty five yards right threw the neck with one. They offer the best of both worlds with their polymer tip ones. Great accuracy and great expansion. They make them in a huge variety of weights for all game. This is the second turkey I have killed that way so it's not a fluke. I swear by them.

I used powerbelts for a couple of years and went to hornady sst's. I had a couple of deer shot with powerbelts do the same thing you describe. Shot one at 75 yards facing me and the deer ran as if I missed. No blood trail but I found the deer within 50 yards with a drop of blood coming from it's chest. The hornady sst's will leave a blood trail and in 15-20 deer I have shot with them they all were complete pass throughs.

#6-You just missed the shot

Limbchicken what was your rifle sighted in for 100 yards? 50 yards?

if your rifle was sighted at 100 yards the curve arch the bullet travels could have gone over the spikes back with the simple deviation of trigger pull, powder inconsistency, powder burn rate, pressure the load was packed ie air gap between bullet an powder.

If i recall the powerbelt package has a estimated bullet arch on the back. think about your shot. not that you missed but were you level with the target? what was the distance 30 paces? or did you range it? did you possibly pull your shot a bit. is there a pine branch that is frayed you didn't see at the time.

not saying it is not the ammo or the load but there are 100s of other factors. Sometimes it is the Indian not the bow. I missed one last year i should have hit. ranged at 120 yards was really 80. found the dirt hole 3 days after.
So go look at your shot when you get a chance.

I was still hunting so I was ground level with the spike. The muzzleloader is sighted in at 100yards but I don't think the bullet would rise that much in 30 feet. What I really don't understand is why if I missed him he didn't run? Like I said he continued on his way like nothing ever happened. The shot looked good through my scope but the scope image might of been different than what was actually in front of the rifle but I checked for bullet impact and didnt find anything.

Single shots with the muzzleloader seem to not phase many of the deer I have shot at. For some reason the tone or something doesn't have the same effect as a shotgun or rifle.

i went away from powerbelts as well, the entire reason was that they didnt produce a blood trail. i lost a couple really big bucks that were found later by other hunters. i went to the Thomposn Center Shok Waves they are great and produce an excellent blood trail.

deer are funny critters. I hit one with a 300 wm 185gr blew a daylight hole out the other end she sat there eating still blowing blood out the side of her till she laid down few second later.

They don't always run.

I gotta say maybe I have just been lucky. I have been running your exact same set-up for years now and I would swear by it. 295gr Powerbelt HP, two pellets of 50/50 Pyrodex, 24" CVA buckhorn(which has earned it's weight in gold for a $100 muzzleloader). One and a half inch of deviation from 25 yards out to around 135 yards. If the shot is not on target then I did something wrong. Good luck to ya.

Have you killed any deer with that setup? If you have what's the closest range you've shot one at? Im starting to think that since I was so close the bullet might of over expanded. I've got a 24" barrel on my wolf do you have a scope in your buckhorn? Thanks

That has been my experience with them.

Though very accurate, I never had a through and through with them, instead finding most of them under the skin on the far side, flat as a silver dollar. Had they been more resistant to expansion, they would have fully penetrated, and that's where you can get a good blood trail.

I discontinued their use and went to a saboted Sierra .451 300 grain bullet. Those would sail through without a problem, leave a better blood trail, and the deer would die just as quick.

The Powerbelt's only real advantage I could see was that they were easier to load. The saboted bullet was harder to start and push down the barrel. And to be fair to the Powerbelt, I never tried any of the plated versions. I suspect that they probably expand pretty quickly, also.

Yes it is scoped. Dropped least a dozen or more deer in the last five years. I hunted primarily in Prince William County where a rifle is a no-no, so I toted the CVA in the woods the whole time. I will say the closer the deer, 30 yards or less, the less of a blood trail I had to work with. I have shot a deer inside 10 yards with it and there was a very slight blood trail. At distance I had a much larger wound cavity and breakup of the bullet. I also found the long shots dropped the deer almost right where he stood and the close-up shots made for a search and recover evening. I drilled a doe last year up close out of a really tall stand and I dug this round out of the ground after it passed through the body.

Those appear to be plated, and also very similar to the ones I recovered in regards to the amount of expansion.

I was running mine along about 1550 fps at the muzzle.

Hornday SST's have been acting a little strange lately for me. Shot a buck Monday morning at 126 yards, through the near shoulder and out the other side. Shot a big coyote yesterday morning at 40 yards quartering away and bullet never exited. Shot a buck yesterday evening at 93 yards, bullet went in behind the shoulder and out the other side. I can't understand why the bullet never exited the 'yote. The other deer I shot this week was a neck shot at 7 yards, bullet did exit on her.

I'm afraid I don't have much good to say about the SST as a game bullet, either. I used some in my .308 and they were an absolute grenade. Immediate blow up on contact and no penetration, requiring multiple shots and one ugly deer when they finally did go down.

I gave them the benefit of doubt with the first deer. When I had shot the third one and the bullet performance was the same as with the first, I pretty much figured I was seeing a trend.

They were .308 150 grain SSTs, started out 2750ish fps. The Deer were shot at short range, under 50 yards, but other cup-n-core 150 grain bullets hadn't even begun to get close to this level of frangibility.

the coyote probably moved with the bullet as it hit him sorta catching it and absorbing energy

Hornady XTP 240grains works for me

Last season I had a mid-size 6 point sneak up behind me while in my treestand. I managed to get turned around and waited for him to clear a tree that was only about 5 feet in front of me. He moved into the open, and was maybe 20 or so yards away. I lined him up in the scope, dropped the hammer, and watched as he turned and ran maybe 10-15 feet back the way he'd come. Stood there for a minute, flipped his tail about, and walked right back out in front of me. I nailed him with the second shot, he went maybe 20 feet, stopped and fell over. After he was down, I started trying to figure how I missed a 20 yard shot. On the tree, 5 feet from me, was a freshly broken branch.

This is a very possible scenario for you as well. In my opinion, the fact that you found no blood at all, and the deer never seemed fazed would suggest a complete miss.

I used the powerbelt aero-tip 295 grn copperplated bullets for many years with good success. Last year I switched to the powerbelt aero-tip 245 grn copperplated with 2 of the 50grn pellets. The max distance I have shot them is about 100 yards though, most of my hunting is in fairly heavily wooded areas.

I have not tried most of the other bullets mentioned here as this hobby gets expensive real quick.

Im thinking about shooting conicals then I don't have to worry about expansion or penetration.

Yesterday I shot an 80 pound doe with the 245grn Aero-tip w/ 2 50grn pellets of Triple7. Oddly enough in almost the same place I shot the little buck from the previous story, so about 20 yards. Entry was just behind the shoulder about centered on her chest. It went straight through and based on the exit wound, there was excellent expansion. I found the first spot of blood within 5-10 feet of where she was shot and from there it was a steady trail about 40-50 yards to where she fell.

I would suspect that given enough time and research, you can find negative reviews on almost every, if not every, brand or style of bullet. Nothing is 100% foolproof.

me and my hunting buddies all use 295pb hp's copperplated. we've killed over 400 animals ,mostly deer but 8-10 bear with out any problems. you can overload a powerbelt. 100-110 grains is all they are designed for. i'd bet that deer was hit high ,midbody. bleeding inside he ran off and died without a blood trail.