Would this work?

[siamese4570]

My hunting buddy and I were driving back from deer hunting (armed hiking) last night and were talking about this. Wanted to know if anybody had tried it. The 50 caliber M/L sabot loads use either 44 caliber boolits or 45 caliber boolits in conjunction with the plastic sabot. Do you think that you could substitute a cloth patch (of the correct thickness) for the sabot. It would probably require a lubed felt wad between the powder and patched boolit. I already cast 44 boolits. My buddy is trying to draw in for a Colorado M/L deer hunt and they don't allow sabots. What do you think. Anybody done this?

Siamese 4570

[chuebner]

Maybe I'm missing something here but if you have a 50 cal ML why not shoot a 50 cal. projectile. My brother got a doe weekend before last in Wisconsin to earn his "Earn a Buck" tag with a 50 cal Lyman Great Plains with a plain ol' patched roundball.

charlie

[frontier gander]

i'd worry about the bullet slipping out of the patch while hiking.

Go with a conical, loose powder and of course, open sights to follow colorado rule book.

[Kuato]

To patch a .44 slug into a .50 cal bore would be a hell offa thick patch. Less trouble to just use a patched ball or conical like the other fellers said.. Remember, K.I.S.S.

Sabots are overrated IMHO. I've NEVER had a problem dropping game with ball or conicals. Never seen the need to use a sabot for hunting.

[WickedGoodOutdoors]

Are you trying to get more speed or distance by using a lighter smaller diamiter bullett?

I suppose you could tightly roll a smaller bullett with some type of super slippery cloth saturated with silicone or Teflon fluid. (For a Natural slippery try KY or Fluid Film, made of lanoin. makes your hands soft too)


.338 seems to be the ultimate long range bullett.


but you could also try 7mm


You may want to Cronograph some test loads and then calculate power.

Then again. Just use a Maxiball and sneak up closer until you can hit the deer.

[northmn]

No it will not work with a 45 bullet, Yes it would if you could find the correct bullet of about 490 diameter. Slug guns were patched with paper formed in a cross over the muzzle. Patching was used historically as well. As some have stated sabots are overrated if not ridiculous. Essentially they turn a 50 cal rifle into a 44 cal pistol. Why jacketed bullets? Have you looked at the powerbelt bullets?

Northmn

[Jim Macklin]

Leather was a common patching material on the frontier. It was most common with round balls, but you could pre-cut some patches like flower petals so they folded neatly and fit the bore.

Just a little grease on the patch, it is a leather sabot, but not plastic so it is completely historically accurate.

[Bigjohn]

IHMO; the thicker the patch, the more give (flex), the increase possiblity for wild shooting (inaccuracy).

A patched .490" or .495" RB; or maybe a REAL slug/Minie.

John.

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

If you could find paper that was .008" thick and wrap the bullet 3 times you would have a paper patched slug. Paper that thick might be tough to deal with.

Maybe you could roll a bullet in a patch of cotton cloth the same way they put a paper jacket on a bullet. If you roll it in the correct direction it would unravel the instant it left the bore.

What's the motivation? Longer range? I can understand the sabots from the standpoint of getting a flatter trajectory from a .50 without punishing recoil. But if the reasoning is some belief that a bullet is deadlier when encased in copper - that's plain false.

Copper jackets were invented for the main purpose of preventing leading at higher velocities (think .30-30 velocities). At those velocities the copper jacket doesn't do much for terminal performance unless you really want penetration and beef up the jacket so thick. This year I hit a fawn just between the brisket and the left shoulder with a pure lead roundball leaving the muzzle at 1950 fps. The fawn wasn't more than 25 yards so she got nearly the full brunt of the load. The ball broke the left shoulder, & ribs going in, and a rib behind the right shoulder going out. The fawn dropped. I found the ball, flattened to 2x diameter, under the right-side hide. The ball weighed 225 grains going in and after recovery it weighed 223.5 grains.

[Baron von Trollwhack]

I just use a RB and patch in my 50 caliber huntsman with rifling designed for sabots. The thought of a moderately tight ball and patch loaded with the ramrod under the barrel moving barrel position in a carrying, walking, hunting situation is silly.
BvT