T/C Black Diamond, sabots or conicals?

[bremraf]

Hey all, I just won a Black diamond .50 cal on auction (for 120 bucks!), and was wondering what would be better to shoot in it.  To clarify more i cast my own bullets, and have my eye on a lee .452 cal RNFP 250 grn mold out of clip on wws to shoot in sabots.  I feel this would be a good combo for deer and pigs.  Or i could get a conical mold and cast those up using stick-ons.  I am looking for best accuracy, proly 150 yard range, and like i said deer and pigs will be the quarry.  I have little experience with muzzleloaders so please all opinions welcome!

[quickdtoo]

My .50 BD XR shoots Powerbelts real well, the all lead 405gr in particular, never shot anything else in it. Shot several Precision Rifle sabots and one of their conicals in my Super XR .45, but Powerbelts shoot best in it also, all with T7. Best friend has a standard BD .50, he also shoots the 405gr PB, only with 2F Goex.

Tim

[moto357]

figure out which you would rather shoot and do some load testing and see if you can get an accurate load with what you want.  personally i like big conicals, so guess what my opinion might be? 

gives you a good reason to do lots of shooting with your new rifle too!!

[Confederate rifleman]

The Black Diamond is an excellent rifle! It was designed to shoot sabots and while some have luck with conicals( I have trouble with them) I find the sabots to be the better choice.An extremely accurate load in mine is a 300 gr (non-magnum) .45 Hornady XTP in a Harvester crush rib sabot over 90 grains of Swiss 3f black powder lit by a muskey cap.My XR (26 inch barrel) gives a flat 1600 fps and shoots right around an inch for 3 at 100 yards.My usual load is a 250 gr( non-magnum)45 Hornady XTP in the same sabot over 70 gr of Swiss 3f again lit with a muskey cap. Velocity 1550 fps and groups under 2 inches at 100 with boring regularity.If you cast bullets for use in a sabot be careful about your alloy.I cast for my Enfield musket, so I use pure lead.I tried using pure cast i sabot and accuracy was poor.Recovered bullets actuall obturated into the slots between the petals of the sabot and had 4 fins! No doubt this affected the release of the sabot in a bad way...best of luck! Enjoy your rifle.

[bremraf]

Oh thanks for the heads up about pure lead in a sabot... I've got both wws and pure, I'll use wws.   

[moto357]

always used pure lead for cast in sabots, and i too see where the bullet obturates into the sabot.  i'll also add i've never seen any poor accuracy from it.  that being said, with the lower velocities of any ML i prefer pure lead and its all i use

[bremraf]

Hmmm, interesting... well I'll let my casting teacher(D Crockett) make the final decision on that one. 

[Confederate rifleman]

By poor accuracy I mean that when I shoot T/C Cheap Shots ( non-jacketed but not pure lead) I get no fins and 2 inch groups.The pure lead cast grow fins and 4 inch groups are the usual result.Ymmv.