Making sabot bullets

[claudester]

I have a 50 cal. in-line muzzle loader and I have shot T/C 250gr. shock wave controlled expansion bullets in super glide sabots using 100 gr. triple-7 pellets. The T/C bullets are .451. I found 50 Cal Crushed Rib Sabots for .451 Cal Boat tail Bullets at a site and Lee has a Minie bullet at 294 gr., 450 dia. Prod. #90467. Can I put these two together and be alright? Also, If this setup is O.K. and I'm not shooting patch and ball can I use wheel weight lead and not a pure or very soft lead.

Thanks Much and I hope you can figured out what I just asked:veryconfu

[Tatume]

Hi Claude,

Veral Smith made a mold for my 50 caliber modern muzzleloader. I sent him a couple of the sabots that I wanted to use and he made the mold to fit. The bullet is his M-style (Marlin), but without any grease grooves, and a very slight, almost imperceptible bevel on the heel to allow the bullet to seat fully into the sabot. The bullets are cast of wheel weight metal, come out 0.458”, and weigh 330 gr. They shoot with very fine accuracy and kill like lightning. I’ve killed a lot of deer with them.

http://lbtmoulds.com/

Take care, Tom

[10 ga]

I would definitly stay away from boattailed and hollow base bullets in a sabot for ML. They are not as accurate as flat base in sabots. A very slight bevel is OK but flatter is better. The base of a sabot bullet needs to be FLAT.

Crush rib sabots will handle .458 boolits just fine. I have a BRP mold opened up to cast .458s out of COWW and the bullets and terminal performance is just fine. I shoot them in my Savage MLII and get 2400+fps and it really knocks deer down. There is an orange colored sabot made speciffically for .458 boolits but it is too loose in my barrel so I just use the black crush rib and get a good tight fit and super accuracy. Best, 10 ga

[claudester]

I would definitly stay away from boattailed and hollow base bullets in a sabot for ML. They are not as accurate as flat base in sabots. A very slight bevel is OK but flatter is better. The base of a sabot bullet needs to be FLAT.

Crush rib sabots will handle .458 boolits just fine. I have a BRP mold opened up to cast .458s out of COWW and the bullets and terminal performance is just fine. I shoot them in my Savage MLII and get 2400+fps and it really knocks deer down. There is an orange colored sabot made speciffically for .458 boolits but it is too loose in my barrel so I just use the black crush rib and get a good tight fit and super accuracy. Best, 10 ga

Thank you both for the replies.
The sabots I received are for a 45 cal. bullet and says it will take a boattial bullet but they are flush on the bottom and the bullets I mentioned in my post are not boattail, they are flat on the bottom. I'm just wondering if what I asked is O.K. to shoot safetly and if I can just use the WWs for lead bullets

[mooman76]

Yes they are safe and since you are using sabot's I can't see a problem using WW lead.

[wgr]

i cast a 300 grain .45 cal. bullet with a wfn. its a gas check boolit have shot it both ways . it shoot a little bit better with gas checks but will hold 2in. at 100 yards without. the wfn will flat hammer a deer with 90grains of 2ff. i cast them with plain ww

[quilbilly]

I have found that any "plain jane" semi wadcutter seems to shoot just fine. Since the sabot forms the gas seal, almost any lead will work but I prefer softer alloys for hunting.

[johnson1942]

contact mmp sabots on the internet and tell them what gun you have and they most likely tell you what sabot to use and the type of bullet to go with it. i just had a barrel made just for sabots by a very good american rifle barrel co. it came well made but was a lot tighter than any .50 i had before. i have hundreds of sabots i bought in bulk several years ago, none fit way too tight. i called them they sent me two samples and one was just perfect. i was back in business with that new gun. ive never been able to get those crushed rib sabots to shoot in any of my guns. but that may be just me. mmp sabots have got me a few good deer and do great on target work. i swage my own bullets for them. and i love the kieth flat nose point. johnson1942