T/C 240gr. XTP Mag express

[toecutter]

Anyone been shooting these for a while? I have and my most recent batch is near impossible to load in a clean barrel! Just to look at, the sabot petals seem thicker. I will check them with the caliper but was wondering if I was the only one who noticed this. I had to drop down to 80gr. of t7 FFF to get 1-1.5 in. groups. I'm not really complaining about the groups but the loading is a bear. Thanks for the input

[Cuz]

You might want to look into the TC shockwave. Have better groups and also loading with the shockwave than the powerbelt.
I shoot an Omega 50 and the shockwave is available in 200, 250, & 300 gr bullet. As I recall, the sabot is black. will measure one this evening and get back to you.
this is a load NOT for close shooting. If you have a 'normal' range of 100 and over then this is a fine load, BUT if you are shooting 100 or less then I would use another load. When I know I will be shooting in close, I use the TC maxi hunter lube bullet. The shockwave 'seems' to need a bit of distance for the polymer tip to work correctly. From what I have seen, it will shoot clean thru a deer at close range, but do wonders at long range, say 150 yards or more.
So, it would seem that one needs to know just about how far he will be shooting when choosing a load. This in just my observation, of course.

Cuz

[toecutter]

Just measured: Old petals=.003 thinner, Old base= .003 smaller. Thanks for the input Cuz, I've tried the shockwaves with only mediocre results. If I remember correctly, they were pretty hard to load themselves, and my groups were only passable for an unscoped gun (3-4"). In their defense, the guy next to me was shooting three shot cloverleafs at 100. I only tried one box and probably just didn't find the right load.
  The other part of all this is that I've never had a chance to shoot anything over 85yds. so the HP xtp's work great for all my shots. They were shooting sub moa groups till a few weeks ago when they started throwing a shot and then I ran out. Went and bought a new box and these are what I got.  I'll definitely keep shooting this box but I hope the next one is a little bit closer to normal.

[lonewolf5347]

I find that the 45 cal hornady 240 mag. load into a 54 cal.harvester plastic sabot load easy in my 54 cal thunderhawk ,But the 45 cal. 300 grain sst just won't go down the barrel of any of my 50 cal. without a fight.
I found a nosler 451 diameter load like butter ,don't even need a starter hammer to start the bullet into the bore .

[toecutter]

Thanks for the reply lonewolf, which nosler bullet and what sabot are you using?

[lonewolf5347]

use the sabots that come in the package,check out midsout they may have a closeout on them
http://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/item.asp?sku=0011550301
seem they have a closeout on the hp.300 grain they will work but the full partition bullet are the best nothing walks away from that bullet

[lonewolf5347]

you can buy the 300 grain hp to get you on paper and then fine tune with the full partitions bullets,last year MidSouth had the 300 grain full partition  in 54 cal. on closeout $4.99 a card of 10  I bought 6 cards last year at the end of the season

[Bob the Cynic]

I've experienced some inconsistency with the sabots that come with the TC XTPs.  I bought one box, thick petals, hard to load, good accuracy.  I bought another box, thin petals, easy to load, poor accuracy.  Go figure.  I may have just got an oddball box that they threw the wrong sabots into at the factory, I don't know.  What I have noticed though is that with my gun I get much better accuracy with the tighter (thicker) sabots than with the looser.
 
I would echo Cuz.  Try the Shockwaves.  I got very good accuracy with them  and I am going to try them on deer this year.  Season opens in three days.

[toecutter]

Thank's bob, I've bought quite a few boxes of these and these are the first to be this thick. I'm a little disappointed though at the quality control on these if I'm not the only one here to experience this.
As far as accuracy goes, not much else has beaten these, especially when you consider price and terminal performance. From what I've seen and from what you guys have said, The shockwaves are more accurate, but for the extra .25" at 100, I gotta stay with a bullet that I can shoot a lot and get good performance out of. If I had a chance of taking a shot at 200yds or more I would definitely put the time in on the Shockwaves. Thanks again

[lonewolf5347]

toecutter: prescision bullet load great I don't know who sabots they use could be mmp http://www.mmpsabots.com/
I do think they no what they are doing when it comes to bullet that perform,but they are exspensive,I found that the QT'S 40 in 235 grain in a 50 cal. shoot outstanding.I took a cpuple of deer with there product ,I do favor the silver lighting in 300 grain in my 54 cal.
I also have a little problem when it comes to my thundrhawk in 54 cal. I use 451 diameter in 45 cal. and then buy sabots made by harvester ,they seem to load and shoot well.
I have three  54cal. and 1, 50 cal.all are t/c guns
http://www.prbullet.com/

[kjclark7]

i have also noticed a difference with the 240 xtp mags, thickness is different  and also the plastic sleeves are longer. the packs i have bought in the past had the plastic sleeve shorter than the bullet when you put the bullet in. i was shooting 3 shot groups at a hundred yards and you could cover the 3 shots with a quarter. i bought a new package of t/c 240 xtp, the same as per the outside of the box but different plastic sleeves. i was lucky to get groups in a pie plate at 100 yards with them. not very happy with that box of bullets. maybe because it was the 30 pack and not the 20 but everything should be the same.

[toecutter]

Mine were all thirty packs. Did you also notice them being much harder to load? I dropped down 10grs. like I said and they group pretty well again. They near give me a brain aneurism every time I try to push one down though. I've got about ten left and I know they shoot tight, so I'm stick'n with em till they're gone. No time or desire to change now. Good luck and good shooting

[Tn Jim]

I had a similar experience to the one that KJclark7 had. I was shooting the TC cheapshot with the mag express sabot. I put two shots in the same hole at 50 yards dead center and one inch high. These bullets came from a plastic box, the second batch was in a ziplock bag. The second batch loaded easier and the petals looked to be shorter than the first batch. The next group was one inch higher and an inch and a half to the left of where I had been shooting. The group also opened up to about two inches. I dont know if this is a problem of just different lots or if it was a different sabot design. Any thoughts?

[lonewolf5347]

I like to here from guys that used the 240 xtp mags [performance on light skin game(deer) :I have shot them in my 54 cal, thunderhawk they print some excellent groups, but I here mix reviews as far as performance some guy  love them other say they do not mushroom or may mushroom to early on impact .I here from some guys that the mag 240 need more of a charge since I only use pyrodex select 90 grains of powder.