I'm shooting a CVA Optima with 100 grains of powder and 245 grain powerbelts. They perform ok, but there is rarely an exit hole and usually little to no blood trail. I've researched several others and the Hornady Boredriver FTX seems to be well liked. Any opinions? Thanks

I have had good luck with the Hornady 250gr SST for nearly a decade.

these https://www.hornady.com/muzzleloading/browse/50-cal-385-gr-hb-hp#!/

only once I didn't have an exit , and it went the entire length of the deer and she went down and never got up

Good bullets but unfortunately they didn't group well out of my gun. I went to the Hornady 240 grain xtp.

here was the one recovered , it wasn't the shot I intended , the doe turned to look back down the trail I was on and I intended to hit her in the back of the neck , i hit the base of the tail ran up the spine then down and through and found it under the skin forward of 3 broken ribs figure about 40 inches of penetration it was end to end on a good size doe , that was the only one I ever had with those that wasn't a 2 hole shot.
given that weight , expansion and penetration you can see why

Full bore I have a maxi hunter mold. Sabots I order mmp sabots and use 250gr .45 Hornady xtp pistol bullets. If you always want a pass through go with the 300 gr xtp.

I have killed around 50 with the 250gr and been happy with them. Also it's cheap to order the sabots and bullets separately

I like patch and roundball

250 grain XTP

X2

X3 on the Hornady SST. I shot Powerbelts for years and although they shot good I felt the terminal performance wasn’t there. I tested a bunch of bullet, powder, primer combinations. My most accurate combination was the SST with 110 gn granular FFF equivalent 777 and a federal champion 209M primer out of a regular TC Encore muzzleloader.

Started with XTPs. Liked them alot but when the SST became popular 20-25 years ago swapped over to them. I liked them until a few years back when noticed expansion wasn’t so reliable way at the end of their range. I’ve switched to Barnes. Probably not as disruptive at cliser range but Ive never seen one fail to expand and give extreme penetration. They are my go to now. XTPs get run outta 44 mag

You betcha!

I like patch and roundball too. I enjoy shooting the same kind of stuff my ancestors did. Shoot and hunt with modern guns too.

Thor 300gr for inline
350gr maxiball in the flinchlock

I’ve had good luck with the 295gr powerbelts.

Barnes 245 grain or 250 grain with 110 grains of blackhorn 209. If barnes arent available, hornady sst250 also shoot well out of my rig.

We've killed 100+ deer with Knight 260 gr all lead saboted hollowpoint over 90gr 2F.
Only recovered a handful, but they look like this.

I've always shot Hornady 240 grain HP/XTP. These are .44caliber in 50 caliber sabot. Pushed by 100 grain 777 pellets they have been deadly accurate. NY state is trying to ban lead bullets from use on state land so I bought some Traditions TPF Hunters, a solid copper hollow point bullet .44 caliber in a 50 caliber sabot. My first experience with them on a rifle range proved they are just as accurate as the Hornady's and group better. I am going to use these this season and see how it goes.

Interesting

Hornady 240 grain XTPs .44 caliber in 50 cal sabot - what we used and no reason to change. Punched paper and deer very well with our limited experience. I tried the patch and roundball and it was horrible in our CVA Accura V2s. THey are not designed for roundballs and it clearly showed. I shot and shot and finally read the literature - they clearly won't shoot a roundball accurately but have extreme precision shooting the hornadys