Robbob, We never settled for reduced accuracy in our lives and we will do just about anything to increase it. S0, when our friend Gary had a 1.75" bore and 1.681 steel balls with which to shoot, we said in unison, "Sabbots !!" The centering effect that sabots have on your solid shot is very helpful when you desire to hit the target not just near it. Below are a few pics by way of explanation. Good luck!
Tracy and Mike
Gary bought an inexpensive 2.00" spade drill bit from Lowes and Mike ground it on the pedestal grinder to a hemispherical shape, 1.685" wide for a easy, but no-rattle fit of the steel balls. The O.D. of the sabot was turned to 1.74" dia. to easily slide down Gary's bore. Rake angle of edges is non-critical, but 20 deg. seems to work well. Grind bevels so both sides will cut. The wood is poplar, authentic Civil War munition sabot wood, but you can use any wood you want except balsa!
At about 2 minutes each, it didn't take too long to fill the box.
Out on the prairie, Gary's steel fox balls with lightly taped on sabots changed his 50 yard target results to consistently on rather than close to but hardly ever on. In 2009 he did astounding work on a 500 yard target with this combo in Montana. It was simply wonderful the way he worked that gun, the puffs of distant dust drew ever closer until Success! Photo is of an early practice session in Colorado.
