I took my TC Hawken with a 28" GM .45 1:28, and TC Hunter peep sightto the range today. I didn't have a lot of time, just snuck this session in between errands.
I found some .45/.357 sabots on sale at a shop, and remembering that I have a zillion .38 wadcutters thought maybe this combo would work. Long story short, at 50 yards I could have thrown them at the target and gotten the same groups. The bullets seem sort of loose in sabot, and I was using 60gr of fffg. More powder? Different (better) sabots?
Despairing of that experiment, I went back to patched roundball. Same powder load, prelubed patch and a .440 Hornady and the first group of three shots measured a bit less than 2" right on point of aim.
Has anyone used .45 sabots with .357 bullets? Any help would be appreciated.
Honestly I have not owned my .45 caliber long enough to start to experiment with sabots. Be sure the sabot diameter is right for the kind of projectile. Being loose like you described, I am wondering what diameter that sabot was made for?
Have you tried conicals out of the rifle yet?
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"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, a total wreck, screaming Yahoo, with a big smile on your face."
I haven't had the chance to shoot conicals yet, butI will.I'd also like to try paper patched bullets at some point.
These sabots say that they are for .357 pistol bullets, but my current combo is bad. I may try some jacketed bullets in them, but if I'm not going to waste a lot of time and powder on this given my first results.
If that is the case, I would look into some Hornady XTP's or Parker Ballistic Extreme. Some other good ones are Nosler, Speer, and even some shockwaves... I am sure it will not be hard to find the right load.
__________________
"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, a total wreck, screaming Yahoo, with a big smile on your face."
no suggestions on the sabot combo, but i'm surprised that the 1:28 barrel grouped the prb's as well as it did. good luck with the sabot/conical search.
Ron, these were Hornady .45 sabots for .355-357 bullets. Although they say you can use them with 9mm (.355), I'd guess the results would be even worse. I'll switch to .40s if necessary, but I'll probably try MMP sabots before I make that change.
Corey, don't believe everything you hear about rates of twist. I think there's a lot more SWAG and voodoo on that subject than tested knowledge.
Many fast twist barrels will shoot patched roundball very well. The trick is to slow them down so they do not start skipping over the rifling. One of my favorite squirrel rifles is my scoped Wolverine with a 1-28 twist shooting 50 grains of 2f powder and a patched roundball. It is very accurate and with more then enough power to take on about anything in the woods actually.
__________________
"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, a total wreck, screaming Yahoo, with a big smile on your face."
GM .45 barrel at the range
