? Hornady bullets for smokepole

[doser]

Last year I started shooting Hornady .50 HP/XTP sabot bullets in my muzzleloader.They are hollow points too. When practicing I had really nice groups out to 125 yards. I ended up shooting a nice big doe from about 85 yards. I hit her through both lungs. She traveled 400 yards before we found her. Thank god we had snow or I would have thought it was a clean miss until I looked real close to see just a sliver of blood. I could even see where the bullet skimmed through the snow. She never bled and we never found any blood trail . Just followed her tracks until I found her piled up behind a log. Bullet travel straight through her without expanding. Heard from another guy later on that they were having problems with these bullets and expansion. Anyone else hear anything on expansion problems with these. It acted more like a full metal jacket . Entry and exit hole almost looked like it was shot with a .22 cal.

Any other suggestions for a good reliable bullet that you guys have had success with ?

[lawdog]

I'm using the T/C Shockwaves and I sure like them. Haven't shot a deer since I switched to them, but the older sabots I used did OK and left me a nice trail on the buck I shot with them. They were just Cabea's' no name sabots...

[JEV]

That seems about the opposite of what I've found. I use to shoot 230gr XTP's in my muzzleloader but found that they seemed to expand to rapidly. I then went to the 300gr XTP Mags and they have held up quite well. To me it seemed like the regular XTP's weren't made for the velocities that you get out of a muzzleloader. The XTP Mags, on the other hand, were developed for higher velocities, and seem to hold together better. I shot two deer and a bear with the 300gr last year and each time the bullet did tremendous damage. It's the same bullet I'll be using again this year for sure....

JEV