Originally Posted by
megasupermagnum
I tried out the sabot slugs today. I started with 40 grains of bluedot and went up to 42 grains. No chronograph data, but that has to be up there in velocity. I can safely say that in my USH, all shots released well, and the sabot's look great. They did not break apart. I was shooting at 100 yards, and the first three shots were touching. I was shooting my cast full bore slugs, and they were leaving quite a bit of lead in the bore. I then shot another 3. Up until then, I had not check the target. I found 5 in a group about 1 1/2", and the 6th straight down 7" away. I really hope that was due to the fouling, and I will be trying these again. To test the theory, I shot some more lead slugs, and shot another 3 sabot slugs. 2 more were in the 1 1/2" group, and the 6th far away. It would be great if the accuracy really is as good as I think it is. The load was a Fiocchi 3" hull (new, primed, trimmed down from 3 1/2"), 40-42 grains Bluedot, X12X, either 2 or 3 nitro cards, then the sabot and slug with a roll crimp. I plan to load 41-45 grains next time, and will shoot them over the chronograph. The hulls got the slightest of ejector marks at 41 grains, and was more pronounced at 42 grains. In my experience, these marks are premature, and 42 grains is plenty safe. BPI has a published load with the LBC slug and 50 grains of longshot at 11,500 psi. Those hulls show more of a mark than 42 grain of Bluedot and the sabot slug.
Now, unrelated to the value-slugs, I also shot my new hollow base cast slugs. I really hope that I was off target, but I couldn't seem to get a group. I tried a couple of wad stacks. I loaded these, in this order, X12X-nitro card-(2) 1/4" 12 ga. felt wads-(3) nitro cards. The second stack was the same, but I substituted the felt wads for one 1/2" 12 ga. fiber wad. With the felt wads, the bore had leaded up worse than I've ever seen with slugs, even rifled slugs. I had only loaded 5 with the fiber wads, but those 5 shots seemed to clean the leading out. The slugs themselves are over sized at .735-.736". I cast them with wheel weights and heat treated to about 26 BHN, then one coat of Lee Alox. My groove diameter on the USH is just over .731". I'm going to try more with the fiber wads, and I think I'll try some cast soft next time. The nitro cards showed a slight concave shape like they were starting to get pushed into the hollow base, but not bad. Next time I'll put a big sheet of pattering paper behind the actual target, and I'll start at 50 yards. It's worth noting that there were absolutely no oblong holes on target, including the sabot slugs.