Went to the range today with my brother to site in my muzzleloader barrel. I thought I'd use some suggestions I gleaned from the site to assist in the process. I've had the barrel for a couple years and used T7 pellets w/Barnes 290 gr. Polymer Tip Boat Tail (PBT). Groupings were under 3" at 100yds. I was hoping to improve on that at the range today. I brought with me T7 loose powder and Shockwave 250 gr. bonded sabots, Hornady SST 250 gr. sabots and Barnes Expander Spit-Fire TMZ 250 gr. sabots. I started with the Shockwave with 100 gr. of T7 and found them grouping consistently at well under 2" groups at 50 yds. I only had two sabots left for 100 yds. and both performed well, grouping about 1.5" apart. The sabots fit snug going down the muzzle. Not overly tight but very snug. Next I went to the Hornady SST. Info from the site indicated they were very similar to the Shockwave. I did not find that at all! First of all, there was very little resistance going down the muzzle. Secondly, they just didn't group very well...just over 3.5" at 100 yds. I quickly went to the Barnes sabots and found them to group very well....under 2" at 100 yds. I ran out of time before I was satisfied with Barnes's consistancy . I used the shooting vise again today. The weather included a slight breeze. I also cleaned the barrel after every shot. After returning from the range, I elected to go to Cabela's to reload on ammo. I decided to further test with the Shockwave and Barnes sabots the next time out to the range. I didn't realize it at the time but I picked up the Shockwave 250 gr. sabots instead of the Shockwave 250 gr. bonded sabots. Is their a significant difference? Can anyone share their range results with these sabots? I will be going back to the range sometime shortly and will post my results.
Liv2hunt
