58 cal sabots

[Charles/NM]

My muzzle loader hunting friend shoots a couple of smokeless Savage ML rifles, the original and the 2nd version. At the range in practical shooting situations my .50 cal T/C Hawken is every bit as accurate as his rifles. But he insists that I sould try shooting saboted bullets. My question is why should I? I can shoot free lead projectiles that I cast from lead scrap, have fun and can hit what ever I'm shooting at. In addition he is constantly amazed at the size of hole my lead bullets and patched balls make in targets. I keep telling him he needs to get a real side lock rifle. He gave me a bunch of sabots and bullets, but I have to say that I have no intention of ever shooting them.

 

[Rebel]

Charles, now you really should shoot them Sabots. Set them up on top of your target stand at 25 yds and see how many shots it takes you to Shoot them. :crackup:

 

[BS]

Tahquamenon, As usual, I didn't read all the replies, or I would have seen that! The same applies to the 45 cal, longer bullets need more twist to stabilize. Try the Speer 200 or 225 HPs. I have had excellent accuracy with the 225s out of one of my 54s.

Out of my 54 with a 1-36 twist, I could never get 300s to group worth a darn, but I did get the 225s to shoot darn good! ::

Try a Speer 45x225.

Thanks for setting me straight!

 

[Tahquamenon]

My muzzle loader hunting friend shoots a couple of smokeless Savage ML rifles, the original and the 2nd version. At the range in practical shooting situations my .50 cal T/C Hawken is every bit as accurate as his rifles. But he insists that I sould try shooting saboted bullets. My question is why should I? I can shoot free lead projectiles that I cast from lead scrap, have fun and can hit what ever I'm shooting at. In addition he is constantly amazed at the size of hole my lead bullets and patched balls make in targets. I keep telling him he needs to get a real side lock rifle. He gave me a bunch of sabots and bullets, but I have to say that I have no intention of ever shooting them.

Hi Charles,
Why should or should'nt you? I'm certainly not telling you or anyone they should shoot sabot's. Just that they can be effectively shot from 1:48 rifling barrels with shallow depth rifling. If you don't want to then don't. ::

I would be all too happy to take the sabot's and bullets off your hands and I'll cover the cost of shipping. Let me know.

As far as your T/C Sidelock 50cal being as accurate as the Savage, that may very well be the case. Great for you both! :thumbsup:

 

My muzzle loader hunting friend shoots a couple of smokeless Savage ML rifles, the original and the 2nd version. At the range in practical shooting situations my .50 cal T/C Hawken is every bit as accurate as his rifles. But he insists that I sould try shooting saboted bullets. My question is why should I? I can shoot free lead projectiles that I cast from lead scrap, have fun and can hit what ever I'm shooting at. In addition he is constantly amazed at the size of hole my lead bullets and patched balls make in targets. I keep telling him he needs to get a real side lock rifle. He gave me a bunch of sabots and bullets, but I have to say that I have no intention of ever shooting them.

Charles,.... I agree with you, muzzleloaders don't require rocket-science technology to be accurate, or lethal on game-critters. (Some folks seem to thrive on "over complicate'n" things!! :haha: :youcrazy

YMHS
rollingb

 

[jim gray]

mmarke,

No offense, but since you are new to muzzleloading, are you sure that you really want to go with the sabots? If that's the way you want to go, I think you would be better served with a .50 caliber with a fast twist barrel like the Great Plains Hunter. You could also get a fast twist drop in barrel for your T/C from Green Mountain that would make your gun a great sabot shooter.

The reason I am suggesting this is that you would have so many more options for shooting .50 caliber sabots than you will ever see for a .58. All of the bullets that Taquamehnon mentioned will work in .50 caliber sabots as well and the sabots are far more readily available.

On the other hand if you are just trying to find the best projectile for hunting with your Big Boar then you should try the PRBs.

Whichever way you choose to go will be perfectly okay as long as you stick with what works best for you. I don't think sabots from a .58 caliber will be your best option, but there's certainly no harm in trying them.

 

[Charles/NM]

Thare are several reasons I'm not interested in sabots. One is the pressure of loading them. They all use aluminum rods with brass tips I've machined for them to load their very tight sabots. And I mean tight. They also all have a problem with plastic residue in their barrel bores. Then there is the light weight bullets, you have to shoot special ones made for rifle velocities. Light jacket pistol bullets don't perform so well on heavy animals at rifle speeds.
BTW, of all the muzzle loading hunting friends I have I'm the only one who shoots a side lock rifle. I feel they fell into the trap of believeing the advertising hoopala inline makers put out. On my last ML mule deer hunging trip near White Oaks,NM myself and one other hunter with a .54 caliber T/C Hawken were the only side lock hunters in the area that I saw. And he was shooting Power Belt bullets with a polymer tip (yuck!). He was pushing them down the barrel with the stock factory ram rod not realizing he was squashing the pointed tip. Oh well, what can you say? At least he had a side lock rifle.

 

[Rat]

In the last four or five years, I've only see two other hunters in the field, while hunting, that had side-lock, traditional rifles. And they were together. Every other last-man-jack was packing black plastic, fiber optic and stainless steel. Thankfully no scopes allowed in Washington state.

All my hunting partners use in-lines or modern guns. They call both my Bess and Jaeger "The Blunderbusses". (they sure do beg to shoot them though)

It's a lonely world out there.

:cry:

Rat

 

[mmarke]

Thank you everybody for replying to my post. The vast knowledge of all the members and resources on this site is quite impressive. It

 

[Rat]

Now don't let TQ hear you say "tiny pistol bullets"!!!

:sorry: eace: :relax:

Well good for you, try them all, do a lot of shooting and thinking and then decide. Jolly good. Well done. Bravo!

Be sure to stick around and give us some range reports, and how the big .58 is shooting for you.

Rat

 

[Tahquamenon]

eace: ::