The 150 grains of Pyrodex and 295 grain Powerbelt out of my Thompson Center Encore Pro Hunter 50 Cal and Gold Ring Leupold VX-3 2-8x36mm took out the center of the practice target at 100 yards.

On this trophy 11 Point Texas Whitetail the 50 cal was like a lightning bolt. He fell stone cold, his legs up for dressing. If you look you can see the exit wound above the right G2 antler.  Since the Powerbelt tip hid a hollow point underneath, it mushroomed in a huge way and left a quarter size exit wound. The only problem was I had to ship my powder and primers to the outfitter and could not take the leftovers home.

The TC Encore has a special recoil absorbing stock and butt pad. Thus allowing the hunter to focus on the shot rather than the recoil.

Since I only had one shot, I had to make it count.

Energy delivered was over 1600 ft-lbs at 80 yards. Enough for Elk and even Moose with good shot placement out to 150 yards.  This model is a convertible, thus allowing many other calibers and barrels to fit. In fact I used a 30-06 barrel for my Russian boar hunt last year, see below.

Just like the buck…one shot, one kill.

The 30-06  is great medicine as this boar can attest. I may experiment with some round nose bullets in Creedmoor too. Hornady makes a 160 grain interlock for the 6.5 and there are videos on 300 lb pigs, all with exit wounds.

One of the things that my guides at Wildlife Systems said is that you don’t want to be trailing a mortally wounded deer very far of the trail as there is nasty prickly pear and barbed Christmas cactus out there that can ruin your day. And of course the ubiquitous Rattle Snake.

Better to drop them right there if possible.

On this hunt, none of us really needed a spitzer bullet as our shots were within 150 yards. I’m thinking Hornady 160 grain round nose 6.5mm for next year. Or 180 grain round nose in 30-06.

Good Hunting!

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