Sub gauge roundball sabots?

[BJK]

Reading the roundball thread has me wondering something. I like reduced recoil rounds more and more as I get older. Does anyone make a sabot to maybe shoot a .50 ball out of a 12 gauge? Or is there another way to do it that is escaping me at the moment? I like options.

[megasupermagnum]

The best way is to shoot them slower. I've got a load for my .735" ball with 18 gr Unique only does 1000 fps. that load only recoils like a standard 1 1/8 oz trap load. You can also load a .680"ish ball in a lead shot wad, and also shoot them at lower velocity. Technically you could put a .500" ball in the Ballistic Products sabot, but they are terribly expensive, and I've not heard of anyone getting them to shoot good with the suggested bullets.

[BJK]

Thanks! Things to consider...

edit: I just used an online calculator and the weight of a .680" D sphere of pure Pb would be 1.1oz. Knowing that makes it easy to gauge the recoil.

[centershot]

BJK,
As msm pointed out, you can reduce recoil by simply reducing velocity. Or you can do what I did when I got tired of being beaten up by full power slugs; Reduce weight and velocity. I use a 16 ga. ball in a 12 ga. wad at trap load velocity, works good!

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?369800-Centershot-Sabots&highlight=centershot+sabots

[bcp477]

Essentially, I am doing the same thing (as described by the OP) in my 20 gauge SxS project. A .53 caliber ball in a 20 gauge (.615) barrel, using either a homemade plumbata slug...or shooting the ball "loose" with the cut-off wad serving as a discarding sabot. To make the "loose ball" loads, as I call them, I add a 1/2" dia. card to the shot cup, followed by a dry-wrapped paper liner, folded at the bottom to form a sort of paper cup. This liner prevents the undersized ball from rattling around in the shot cup, which would not be good for accuracy at all. When fired, the plastic wad, card and paper liner fall away. In fact, I have found that the paper liner "cups" open up and fall in an elongated pile, 20 or 30 feet in front of the firing line, rather neatly. The ball, weighing around 225 grains, makes for a low-recoil projectile through the 20 gauge...and seem to be pretty accurate. I am debating with myself as to whether the homemade slugs (using the same ball), or the "loose ball" load will become my standard.

The recoil is the same with both, as the ejecta mass is virtually identical. It is only a question of which proves to be more accurate. I am still testing.

[gpidaho]

BJK: Slugs R Us .com for sabots 12ga or 20ga. Gp

[BJK]

Thanks gents, obviously great minds think alike. I'm copying things down and making notes. I want something to fall back on should my mini-slugs not pan out.

[longbow]

Yeah... going .50 cal. is likely a no go or at least you would be on your own developing loads. Easier to stick to slug/shot weights commonly available which go down to 3/4 ounce for 12 ga.

A reduced charge 1 oz. load recipe with a 0.662" round ball in shotcup is easy and a pure lead 0.662" RB weighs 1 oz. In WW a little less. These small RB's are loose in most regular shotcups but can be cloth patched into the shotcup in hull. That works well for me. They also fit well into CSD wads or similar thick petal wads for steel shot.

0.678" RB is a good fit in some shotcups and a bit small in others but again you can use a paper sleeve to tight it up some if you want and that's pretty easy.

By using birdshot load data (and possibly reducing that some) you get low recoil slug loads and lots of published data. As noted Slugs R Us has some reduced recoil data too and there are some subsonic load recipes available.

RB's are easy to cast, easy to load and work!

Longbow

[W.R.Buchanan]

My Round ball load is 18 gr of Green Dot with .662 RB and a 1/4" felt wad in the base to center the ball in the cup. This is my standard Trap Load with the payload substituted. Claybuster WAA12 clone, AA hulls fold crimp. Been shooting these for years now, and I use them for 3 gun shoots where the shotgun targets are 25-50 yards away they work just fine and the recoil in unnoticeable. Targets are pretty big so accuracy can be a little looser and be fine.

Sometimes perfect group sizes don't really matter. Sometimes accuracy only needs to be good enough for the task.

Randy