.400 bullets in a .50 cal barrell

[DennyRoark]

HI Folks, newbie to the forum but 30+ years of muzzle loading experience.  I would like to share an experince I had last fall.  I have been hunting with T/C's for thirty years and since my first Omega, I have experienced 2 or three fliers on each session at the range.  I shoot year round...Initally I was using a .40 cal bullet in my 50.  Last fall, T/C replaced my Omega x7 carbine right before our deer season.  In a quick trip to the range to get the scope swap sighted in, I had a 200 gr (.40 cal) shockwave hit the target sideways in the first 3 shots, at 25 yds.  After a few more shots, a good zero and a couple of more fliers, I found 3 sabots with 1 or 2 petals that didn't open.  I switched to 250 gr bullets (.45 cal) and the problem is now gone for good.  I may be going out on a limb here, but would like to share my thoughts on this and welcome what others feel.  I prefer a lighter bullet for flatter trajectory.  First, this happened with several different brands of bullets including PR and Barnes.  Also with a 180 gr XTP.  I feel that the sabots are too thick on the 40/50 load and they don't open as well.  With the 45/50's they pretty much look all look the same.  I only shoot around 100 gr of Pyrodex RS, but adjust the charge to get the bullet to group well.  Well, what do y'all think???
Denny

[sabotloader]

DennyRoark

I have shot 40 cals from all of my different inlines and have never seen the problems you describe, but I have heard other people voice the tumbling issue.  I have only shot a couple of boxes of XTP's so it is a very limited experiance.  The only problem I have had with them is when shot from the .504 White U-mag they open the group up to about 6" @ 200 yards. When shooting paper @ 100 they hold a great group.

I have used the Omega and a Remington to shoot praririe peepers with, shooting the 40 cal/200 grain XTP.

I am shooting a stiffer charge than you as I am shooting 110 grains of T7-2f and 120 grains in the Knight.

Hope you figure it out...

[AndyHass]

I've shot the 40 SW since they came out, to the order of at a couple thousand at a minimum.  Occasional flyers will happen but I've never seen anything remotely like what you refer to.  What do you mean by sabots not opening?  The petals will not necessarily all break off uniformly.  I've shot nice groups where the sabots each look different (some just the base left, some losing 1 petal, some 2).

This is out of a standard Omega and an X7.

[DennyRoark]

Andy, what i've found down range are sabots with one petal, one in the round I mentioned had 2, that are still paralell with the bore.  Not even remote signs of opening.  I too have shot to the tune of ARO 1000 200gr SW's and was wondering if maybe sabot performance is causing the fliers.  I do not check each sabot after each round, just look at them walking downrange when I see them.  I've only had one or two with the 250gr and have shot about 100 of them.  I did dig out a 200gr from the target sideways on that day with a perfect profile cut in the paper..  Just looking for a cause for fliers and other's experience with this bullet.  My theory may be all wet!

[sabotloader]

DennyRoark

I agree with your theory/thought that sabots can cause flyers... I would go as to say that I know they can.  But in most cases I think they work as designed - actually I think they work better than I would have given credit for.

[DennyRoark]

Just to clarify, I still get a flier now and then with the .45/.50 but the sabots open a lot more uniformly...

[burntmuch]

Harvester muzzleloading came out with a crush rib sabot for 50/40. I just ordered 100. Right now Im using the mmp sabot 50/40 180 grain gold dot over 70 grains BH209, no major flyers yet. If I let my barrel cool between shots I can get a 1 1/2 inch or so group. Im shooting an Omega X7.  Jay

[AndyHass]

Possibly you got a bad lot of sabots??  I have no doubt sabots CAN cause problems but keyholing a bullet is indicative of very severe problems.  Given the reliability I've seen with these sabots I can't believe they NORMALLY have problems.  I'd try a different bunch of sabots and see if the problem repeats.

The only time I ever keyholed a bullet was when I used a lathe to take 50 BMG .50-.308 sabots down to ML bore size and tried to shoot 125gr .308 Ballistic Tips....those sabots were NOT designed to expand and at ML velocities did not always even separate from the bullets and several did keyhole.  But that took a sabot completely not designed for the task at hand and a bullet that was already not really within the stabilization ability of the twist I was using.