wildcard6 wrote:I've been given a bag of plastic sabots for shooting .224 calibre bullets in a .308 calibre cartridge and I'm hoping to get some suggestions for a suitable powder/load for them. My first thought was to load them with Trail Boss, but I realised that driving the bullets at low velocity wasn't going to give me any sort of accuracy because the bullets wouldn't be rotating fast enough to stabilse them. One other issue I thought of was that I'd need to bell-mouth the cases [the same as I do when loading cast lead bullets] and I've got the die to do that, so I won't damage the sabots as I seat them. US forums list Vihtavuori powder - 32.4 grains of N110, but the ADI load-data has no equivalent for it. If I read it right, it's faster than AR2205! If someone has done any experimentation [successful] with these things, I'd be obliged if you would share with me any ideas.
Blr243 wrote:Sabots are like a six pack of unpopular beer. They were given to u for a reason. So give them to somebody else or throw them in the bin
Larry wrote:Its really very similar to a 243W that is a going to be just a slightly larger bullet fired in a 308 case. You would be best to look up the loads for a 243 I would think. The most popular powder for the 243 is 2209. I have also used AR2206H.
I think the limiting factor would be what is the sabot made out of and will it stand up to the job, What sort of fouling will occur in your barrel?
No1Mk3 wrote:G'day bladeracer,
Sabot ammo is not much chop past 300 yards, even the old Remington Accelerator 30-06 was no good past that. Accuracy was mediocre as well. The fun was 4000 + fps muzzle velocity and huge bang but you need a good dose of fairly fast powder to get there. From memory in the 30-06 the max was 57g of IMR 3031 for 4450 fps and a 6moa target at 3 to 400 yards. 22-250 was a better option so sabots fell out of favour. A new generation of sabots that use a special die to seat them have been getting some fair revues, but I just stick to a small calibre rifle now days and use full size bullets in the larger calibres. Anyway, have fun playing and post your results for us to see, Cheers.
Blr243 wrote:Never tried sabots but never heard anything good about them either. I really don’t think you can turn a 3006 into a 223
Blr243 wrote:The sabot is a tight fitting sleeve The sabot engages the riflling. A five mm object can’t touch a 7 mm cylinder
Archie wrote:Blr243 wrote:The sabot is a tight fitting sleeve The sabot engages the riflling. A five mm object can’t touch a 7 mm cylinder
Thanks that’s what I figured must happen, cheers.
wildcard6 wrote:I'm still at the thinking stage, but one thing that's occurred to me is that using lighter bullets will require less velocity than heavy [and thus longer] bullets. I've put ten 61-grain FMJ bullets into sabots already, but I'm going to have a fossick among my bits'n'pieces to see what 40-grainers I have, because they won't need to be fired at insane speeds to stabilise them. .22 long rifle bullets stabilise at 750 fps [refer CCI Quite-.22's], so I might be able to test first with Trail Boss after all!
bladeracer wrote:US dollar is 61 cents just now, but I've ordered 600 sabots, A$180.
Actually, 700 sabots, and the sabot seating die for that price.