Sabots: .22 cal bullets in .308 cartridges?

[lgm270]

On Ebay they list sabots that allow one to load .22" caliber bullets in .308 cal rounds such as the .30-30, .308, 30-06, etc.  together with handloading data.  A hundred of them cost about 8 bucks.

Remington makes "Accelerator" rounds with sabots and .22 cal bullets, but I've never previously heard of being able to hand load them.

Has anyone had any experience with these, either in the guise of factory ammo or handloads? 

Any opinions?  Comments? 

[coyotejoe]

I'd not bother. First, it is not so simple as it may sound. Remington put in years of research to get those things to work and they still were not reliably accurate. It's one of those things that sounds like a good idea but doesn't often work out in practice. I suspect that is why you generally don't see them available for handloading.

[beemanbeme]

A fellows got to try everything once.  My efforts weren't too successful but "each rifle is a law unto itself, etc, etc..." I have read about some guys that had pretty good luck with them so ..........

[R.W.Dale]

two words


nonexistent accuracy

[quickdtoo]

Here's a little readin on em.

Tim

http://www.loadammo.com/Topics/March02.htm

[jhalcott]

 a friend and I bought the remaining stock from a gun shop years ago. We got about 2000 sabots in the deal. We tried them in various rifles  and TC's. Accuracy was a some times thing, depending on barrel ,powder type and charge. Bullets with cannelures were the worst accuracy offenders.  Also care must be taken to seat the bullet FULLY into the sabot. Crimping the case/sabot is important .You don't want the crimp TOO loose or the bullet could move due to recoil. To tight and you'll damage the sabot If you can get 100 or so to try,I'd go for it. If it doesn't work out ,you wouldn't be out too much money. You can always get more. Those sabots CAN be reused if they aren't damaged by losing a petal.

[Lloyd Smale]

im starting load work with a tc carbine in 3030 when i heal up and one of the projects with then gun is sabots. I did a little fooling with factory accelerators back years ago and the accuracy was spotty but some guns showed promise. Id about bet that while they may be finiky with enough load experimenting i can get them to shoot in about anything. You have to keep in mind that trying a box of factory anything is pot luck in a gun. Ive had bullets that ive handloaded that shot like crap in some guns but with enough expermenting you can make about any bullet gun combo shoot exceptably well. It just takes work.

[STexhunter]

My experience with sabots is that I never got good accuracy.  I have loaded them in 30/30's and 308's JUST FOR FUN.  jhalcott got it right when he said to make sure the bullet is seated in the sabot.  In loading sabots, watch what you are doing and be consistent, it is a different game in reloading them.  If you are loading them for fun and not expecting a whole lot go for it.  Who knows you might find the load.  Be careful and have fun.

[jhalcott]

  I think sabots would work best in a single shot. No recoil worries there. As I recall we had fliers in the middle or end of a group. That is THE first shot USUALLY went where we expected it to, but later shots would be out of the "group". We shot 5 shot groups back then! A trick my buddy used to get the saboted bullets seated was to bell the mouth like when using cast bullets. Just a hint of bell is all that is needed. He worked in a machine shop and tried making sabots from Teflon rods with different numbers of petals. It wasn't a profitable venture! He had to pay for the 3/8" rods!!

[rickyp]

I took my savage model 10le2 out in the field for the first time today I carried a bunch of 308 loaded with the sabots  and 22 caliber 55 gr fmj bullets.
I took a groundhog at 30 yards with it from a standing and off hand position.
The bullet struck just where I wanted it to. I couldn't find a entrance hole but the exit was large enough to drop a quarter in and still not touch the sides. the critter fliped over and expired on the spot.

[Lloyd Smale]

intial testing showed me this. It was just at 25 yards because my back wont allow me to set my 100 yard back stop up yet. The 3030 worked best pushing them very hard. At 3000 fps the accuracy was dismal with all bullets at close to 4000 fps it started comming together. But if found one thing out that surprised me. A saboted load is just as finiky when it comes to finding the exact bullet your gun likes as a nomal load. Using ball military bullets at 25 yards best groups were around an inch and a half. Using sierra 55 grains bullets 25 yard groups of just a little over a 1/2 in. The surprise and where it showed enough promise to make me thinks its going to work at long range were the 50 grain hornady amaxs. They would consistantly put all 5 shots into on tiny hole at 25 yards. Now i wont give out the load data it was given to me by someone else and isnt listed on any loading book and sounds a little scary and made me hold my eyes closed the first time i pullet the trigger but as i was told by him it ended up not showing any excessive pressure signs at all. My advice to you is the same as what he gave me. Use a quality bullet make sure it is seated all the way in the sabot and run them as fast as your dare.