Like I said, a little! I have dabbled with saboted bullets and conicals over the years, but have been oblivious as to the sabots actual diameters with bullets. I know all the exact diameters of the conicals I shoot, however. Well today, I figured I would document some sabot sizes for myself, and figured I would share this little information with others. This is probably nothing new to most of you guys that shoot smokeless, but may help some of the new Blackhorn 209 shooters.
I have only checked a few bullets, but if you use the diameter of the bullet, and the diameter of the saboted bullet, you should be able to figure out the exact size of what your bore likes.
First up was the 250/300 grain .452 diameter SST/Shockwave bullets.
250 gr SST./Shockwave
300 gr SST/Shockwave
In order from left to right in both pictures, as the diameters (.452") are the same for both bullets. The following is sabot and bullet diameters.
Black Harvester Crush Rib High Pressure Sabot = .503"
Black MMP HPH 24, T/C Shockwave supplied sabot = .504"
Black MMP HPH 12, Hornady SST supplied sabot = .506"
Red Harvester Crush Rib High Pressure Sabot (for smokeless) = .508"
Black Knight High Pressure Sabots (MFG# 900128) = .511"
Those Knight sabots are a SOB to load in my .5015" Knight! It actually deformed the petals. Might be just what you need for a loose bore though.
Next up is the 250/290 grain .451" diameter Knight PBT/Barnes TMZ in both the old yellow sabots, and the new blue EZ Load sabots.
The 250's on the left and 290's on the right are the same diameter, but the sabots are not.
New Blue EZ Load High Pressure Sabots with bullets = .501"
Old Yellow High Pressure Sabots with bullets = .506"
My Knight loves the old yellow sabots, I sure hope they have not discontinued them in favor of the new EZ Loads.
Last up is a couple .44 caliber (.429/.430) bullets. You can determine the bullets from the boxes behind them.
The Speer 270 grain Gold Dot bullets actually measured .4295, a tad larger than advertized.
Green Harvester High Pressure Sabots = .503"
Green Knight High Pressure Sabots = .5065"
The Hornady 300 grain HP/XTP bullets measured .430 as advertized.
Green Harvester High Pressure Sabots = .503"
Green Knight High Pressure Sabots = .507"
If you have a large bore, or desire a tighter sabot, those Knight HPS load hard, too hard for my liking.
I hope this little bit of information helps somebody. If your bullets are .001" bigger or smaller than mine, you can still figure it out without having to go buy a bunch of sabots that you don't need. I don't have many, so if anyone has other sabots they could add to this, PLEASE DO!
