Bullet/Sabot combination question

[Guest SuperKirby]

I'm kind of new to muzzleloading, and all I've ever shot are powerbelts. So, here's a question for you - when you decide to try out a new bullet & sabot, where do you start? How do you find the right combination without spending hundreds to try everything out there? What makes one more appealing than the other? Kind of a broad question, but hopefully somebody can help. I would like to try something other than powerbelts, but have no clue where to start. Thanks for the help.

[Guest gander215]

What king of set up do you have? Also you need to know your exact bore size because some sabots are a hair thicker than others i.e. I can not use Hornady in my Traditions does not fit but they fit my T/C great. Powerbelts, Hornady SST or L-N-L (very easy), or T/C shockwaves would be my first choices. The other thing is to think where you are hunting (open or dense) and your max distance that you are shooting. All in all you are going to have to try them. It helps if you have a buddy that needs to experiment too. The big thing is the ones that look alike more then likely are alike. I run in my T/C .50 cal 150 of 777 and a 250gr Hornady Lock and Load works awsome with the new nikon BDC 250. If you need more throw me a pm.

[billkay]

Get together with a few of your friends that shoot M/L's and you can each buy a different type of bullet and pass them around.

[wtnhunt]

Only tried I think 3 or 4 different sabots, and loaded starting with 85 grains of pyro for each, working up in 5 grain increments until finding what seemed to group the best 3 shot groups for me. Did not try all of the sabots at the same time either. Found that for my gun, the most accurate and best performing was a load of 120 grains of loose pyro behind a 240 grain tc xtp mag.

[Guest SuperKirby]

To start, I'll be shooting a Knight KRB7 (gettting it in the next week or two). I'll be hunting in WY, so I would really like to be able to get accuracy out to at least 100 yds, preferrably 150 just in case. And lastly, I don't know of anybody else around here that shoots a muzzleloader. Most of the people around here that I've talked to think it's dumb to hunt with a muzzleloader in WY. I picked up some clearance T/C Shockwaves the other day, so there's another option.

[Tominator]

I got lucky.

I tried powerbelts at first, then tried some T/C Shockwaves that came with my Black Diamond. The Powerbelts shot OK, but then I tried the Shockwaves in my Encore, and 3 bullets from 100 yards within an inch of each other has me convinced that's what I'll go with. I'm using 2 pellets of Pyrodex and a 209 primer.

[Guest skidmark]

I'm using 250gr shockwaves with the black sabot

and they really work well in my Omega w/ 2- 50gr. pyrodex

pellets, but I am wondering about bullet expansion with these

things, some say they don't musroom and others say they do.

I haven't shot any game with this combo yet and am curious

what others have experienced. Skid:confused:

[Tominator]

but I am wondering about bullet expansion with these

things, some say they don't musroom and others say they do.

I haven't shot any game with this combo yet and am curious

what others have experienced. Skid:confused:

I've shot two deer with this combo, well, I shot one, my son shot 1. First deer was shot at a distance of 80 yards. I don't know what the bullet did because it exited. Entrance was your standard .50 cal hole, but exit was much bigger, and did a lot of bruising damage to the off shoulder.

Second deer was shot at around 50 to 60 yards, and the bullet fragmented big time and most of it did exit the deer.

[Hardwood_HD]

i shoot the same setup as chris except im shootint a black diamond, i shot a doe last year with it a little over 100yds.. couldnt tell ya what the bullet did it exited too, came out her shoulder on the opposite side and left a hole no bigger than the entrance

[PA_RIDGE_RUNNER]

This is just my opinion but you need to have a bullet, bullet/sabot that fits pretty snug in your barrel not so snug that you have to pound it but snug enough to stay tight to the powder charge. I like my fit to push down the barrel in one push. I shoot a knight Bighorn and what works best for me is a 45 cal 300 gr Hornady XTP in a Harvester black crush rib sabot. Great accuracy too. OK one more quick opinion I do not try to push the speed of the pistol bullets or even powerbelts for that matter as they are designed to work at pistol speeds and may break up if driven too fast. My load for the Bighorn is only 80 gr of FFG real black powder.

[Guest SuperKirby]

How far is that accurate/deadly out to? I figure where I hunt I need to be confident that I can kill something 100 yards away, 150 would be better. If I'm getting good accuracy with 80 grains, is that enough or should I step it up a little to be confident that when the bullet hits something, it will kill it?

[PA_RIDGE_RUNNER]

I once used only 60 gr of FFG and killed a big doe at 83 steps using a 295 gr powerbelt which passed all the way through her. I sight in at 100 yds and feel very confident out to that distance. I have not killed a deer at that distance with the 300 gr XTP but have killed several from 18 yds to about 45 yds. I did an experiment last summer when my mom needed a new burning barrel. Yep you guessed it I got out my Knight and proceeded to ventilate that barrel. Now a steel drum is not the toughest steel but it is kinda tough. With 80 gr of FFG and 300 gr xtps and at 50 yards I shot one particular shot that went through both sides of the barrel and flew another 35 yards and plowed a foot long furrow before coming to a stop. That bullet had expanded from .45 to about 64 caliber in a near perfect mushroom. The entrance hole in the barrel was a 50 cal hole and the exit hole was over 60 cal. In my mind that set up would have enough punch at 100 yds to take a deer sized animal.

[johnf]

I got lucky.

I tried powerbelts at first, then tried some T/C Shockwaves that came with my Black Diamond. The Powerbelts shot OK, but then I tried the Shockwaves in my Encore, and 3 bullets from 100 yards within an inch of each other has me convinced that's what I'll go with. I'm using 2 pellets of Pyrodex and a 209 primer.

I did the same thing. My gun really likes the shockwaves. My gun can't shoot the pellets so I use loose 777. I started at 80gr. because that's what was suggested. I went up to 85 and my group wasn't as good. I dropped down 1/2 between 80 and 85 and it got tighter. I use @82-83gr. and get about the same accuracy as Tom.

I ran out of bullets this year and they were out of shockwaves so I got some Horady hollow points and had a sorry 4" pattern with them @ 100 yards. I limited myself to 50 yards with them, but never had a deer that close.

[Guest SuperKirby]

Well, I got my KRB7 yesterday, and I had heard that it has a tight muzzle, but it was much more worse than I expected. The bullet/sabot that came in a little bag with the right I couldn't get to go down the barrel at all. I have some T/C Shockwaves, and those I may or may not be able to fit down. Powerbelts were about the perfect size, so for now it looks like it's going to be powerbelts until I can get either some conicals or else some of the Hornady slick load sabots and try them.

[johnf]

Sabot's don't seem to be really consistent all the time either. I've bought shockwaves that I trimmed a little of the sabot off because I broke two ramrods pushing them down. Also a little bore butter on the sabot dose wanders.