gila_dog
Since I live and hunt in Idaho I use both, I prefer to use sabots but during Idaho's ML season you are required to use an all lead bullet - no plastic at all.
In the ML season I use a .503/460gr. MT Nex Bull Shop conical. This is a really great shooting conicals and has a decent BC to go along with it. Leading in the barrel... The lube on the bullet hs a great deal to do with the amount of leading you might get. I beleive the lube Dan uses to be one of the beter lubes in all temperatures and works great for me. A second thing I do is I do use a shot card under the bullet to inslulate the bse of the bullet from the heat of the T7 powder. This card also acts to clean some of the foling on the way out and on the way in.
During regular rifle season, I still use a ML, I use sabots and Nosler Partition bullets. For deer I shoot a .451/260 gr HP and for elk I shoot a .458/300 gr (45/70) Nosler Partition Protected Point bullet. This .458 is a regular rifle bullet. The new self-lubricating polymere sabots have just about eliminated plastic fouling in the bore, so it really is not that big of worry any longer. And what does occur is easy to get out.
The big slow conical offers tremendous energy, but does take longer to get to the target while the Nosler is much faster and offers about the same amount if energy to 200 yards - the time in flight is greatly reduce and the trajectory is flatter.
So I guess I am in both worlds but given the choice I would use sabots...
