Marty1
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2009
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We Powerbelt users have many, many great success stories. Unfortunately, the Powerbelt abandoners are quick to tell everyone of their bad ( and usually first ) experience using Powerbelts on game. While gun making technology has improved the ability of mass-producing modern smokepoles to handle heavier loads, technology cannot change the limitations of blackpowder or the physical attributes of pure metals (i.e., lead) found on the Periodic Table of the Elements. The science of metallurgy has certainly provided bullet manufacturers with the ability to create a unique bullet composition and design for every imaginable gun and game on the planet. With all that technology out there lead still remains a key component in many successful bullet designs, including all lead bullets such as Powerbelts. With their unique ability to consistently expand with somewhat predictable uniformity under controlled conditions, pure lead bullets have stood the test of time and retained that field proven ability our forefathers had relied upon to feed their families.
If the great buffalo hunters of long ago were able to harvest at long range these mammoth animals with lead bullets, why then are there so many horror stories on the web from hunters losing considerably smaller game like deer with lead bullets such as Powerbelts? For one, poor shot placement is probably the primary factor with lost game, but many of these failures can also be attributed to the less well-known reality of pushing pure lead to velocities beyond their optimum terminal performance level. An understanding of the Brinell Hardness Number (BHN) and terminal velocity may help explain under what conditions pure lead bullets shine in the field. ( Please excuse my interest in this trivia…but its my younger days of centerfire reloading and ballistics surfacing again during “non-hunting” season). For example, pure lead bullets have a BHN of 4 to 6. You may say “so what”. A hollow point bullet having a BHN of 5 may take a mere velocity of only 700 f.p.s. to expand or deform. Something to think about or re-consider before you propel your Powerbelt hollow points with magnum velocity loads for game shots under 100 yards. Think about it… it doesn’t take much velocity to flatten a .177 caliber air rifle lead pellet.
For those hunters like me who are not scientist or engineers but are interested in an overview of the technical aspects of why and what kind of lead bullets might be successful on game, here are two interesting articles from Ken Easterling (http://www.leverguns.com/articles/bullet.pdf ) and Norm Johnson (http://www.recguns.com/Sources/VIIB5.html ) who do a great job in explaining lead bullet characteristics in layperson terms. In a nutshell, they shed some insight on how bullet hardness may be related to terminal velocity performance in the field on game. (From there you can only theorize on what that might mean for your loads in the real world). Reflecting upon our own personal Powerbelt loads and their particular success on game in the field, the articles may explain why your bullet recoveries are what they are.
I will conclude my thoughts here with having owned many different firearms and calibers using multi-bonded-multi-partitioned-semi-jacketed-high-tech alloy bullets, limiting my hunting technology today to lead bullets is “simply” fun.
If the great buffalo hunters of long ago were able to harvest at long range these mammoth animals with lead bullets, why then are there so many horror stories on the web from hunters losing considerably smaller game like deer with lead bullets such as Powerbelts? For one, poor shot placement is probably the primary factor with lost game, but many of these failures can also be attributed to the less well-known reality of pushing pure lead to velocities beyond their optimum terminal performance level. An understanding of the Brinell Hardness Number (BHN) and terminal velocity may help explain under what conditions pure lead bullets shine in the field. ( Please excuse my interest in this trivia…but its my younger days of centerfire reloading and ballistics surfacing again during “non-hunting” season). For example, pure lead bullets have a BHN of 4 to 6. You may say “so what”. A hollow point bullet having a BHN of 5 may take a mere velocity of only 700 f.p.s. to expand or deform. Something to think about or re-consider before you propel your Powerbelt hollow points with magnum velocity loads for game shots under 100 yards. Think about it… it doesn’t take much velocity to flatten a .177 caliber air rifle lead pellet.
For those hunters like me who are not scientist or engineers but are interested in an overview of the technical aspects of why and what kind of lead bullets might be successful on game, here are two interesting articles from Ken Easterling (http://www.leverguns.com/articles/bullet.pdf ) and Norm Johnson (http://www.recguns.com/Sources/VIIB5.html ) who do a great job in explaining lead bullet characteristics in layperson terms. In a nutshell, they shed some insight on how bullet hardness may be related to terminal velocity performance in the field on game. (From there you can only theorize on what that might mean for your loads in the real world). Reflecting upon our own personal Powerbelt loads and their particular success on game in the field, the articles may explain why your bullet recoveries are what they are.
I will conclude my thoughts here with having owned many different firearms and calibers using multi-bonded-multi-partitioned-semi-jacketed-high-tech alloy bullets, limiting my hunting technology today to lead bullets is “simply” fun.
