.30cal > .223 sabots- anyone try them?

biggerhammer · 04-23-2003, 10:38 AM

Hello-
I' ve been seeing nylon sabots that let you load a .223 bullet into any of the .30 cal rifle cartridges, and the claim all sorts of good things: 4100-4700fps, low recoil, negligible barrel wear. All sounds good so far.
My Lyman' s 47th reloading guide tells me that if I can get an 80 grain bullet hustling along at 4500fps, I can drop up to 600lbs of game. Since in NH where I hunt that would be a whole family of deer, that' s OK too

So, my questions:
[ul][*] Has anyone used them?[*] Anyone know who makes them?
[/ul]
Thank you!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3605355523&category=73 08
is one of the several auctions. I do not know the seller, though I may be the buyer if I can ever scrape together my nickels

frizzellr · 04-23-2003, 11:55 AM

Saboted 55 - 80 grain .224 caliber bullets out of a .308 caliber rifle are very inaccurate so all that speed does absolutely no good. Second of all they are varmint bullets and are not meant to penetrate. They are made to break up on impact to make quick kills on varmints while minimizing ricochet. I wouldn' t even consider using them on deer. Any .308 caliber bullet of 150 grains is far better.

biggerhammer · 04-23-2003, 12:31 PM

80 grain .223 is not a varmint bullet; it is the heaviest bullet available (to my knowlege) in that caliber.

Thank you for the advice.

frizzellr · 04-23-2003, 12:45 PM

Yes, you are right. The 80 grain is supposedly a game bullet, but in my opinion it isn' t enough to cleanly and consistantly take deer sized game. I am sure I will get arguements but I stand by my convictions. At any rate there is no need to use a .224 bullet in a .308. They just don' t fly well. What are you thinking about shooting them out of? BTW, the heaviest bullet I know of in .224 is a 78 grain.

biggerhammer · 04-23-2003, 01:23 PM

The 80-grain is a HPBT bullet. I don' t have it; my local gun shop does. They' re professional enough that I don' t expect it to be a 78-grain rounded up or any such.

I plan to use a 30-06, sporterized military carbine. It' s quite light, and the kick with a full-grown bullet is too much for my wife. That' s why I was looking at these. Even at the minimum powder load with a 150-grain bullet she couldn' t fire it without a flinch- and the penetration at that charge was pitiful.

I may just buy her a 30-30 instead, and load up the 30-06 with a fast 180

frizzellr · 04-23-2003, 01:36 PM

Just a suggestion, but instead of a 30-30 Win in a lever try a 260 Rem or 7mm-08 Rem in a bolt. The bolt action stock lends itself better to recoil reduction than the stock on a lever action and the 260 Rem and 7mm-08 Rem are both far superior ballistically than the 30-30 Win with very light recoil. Another option is the H&R single-shot. It will be out in 7mm-08 Rem this summer.

NE Hunter · 04-23-2003, 01:48 PM

This really isn' t the forum for this but instead of the .30-30 how about a 7mm-08 or a .243 for her. Either one has mild recoil . It sounds as though your wife is a small stature (I' m guessing here by the comments that the .30-06 is too much as my wife is 5' even and while she can shoot a .30-06 it isn' t her first choice).

Back to the reloading side of things they make 120gr bullets fro 30 calliber I' ve never used them or even handled one, but maybe they' d do the trick for you. Frizzellr, what do you think? What I' m thinking is if there' s a light enough bullet suitable for deer he might be able to load it down enough to ballance out reliable expansion and penetration with mild recooil too. Again thiis is just a thougt as I haven' t had the need/desire to do this myself.

frizzellr · 04-23-2003, 02:16 PM

I know they make 125s but most are varmint bullets as far as I know. Speer makes a 130 grain flat nose which would probably work well in a light load and expand fairly well since it was designed for a 30-30 Win.

NE Hunter · 04-23-2003, 02:50 PM

Thank, frizzellr. I knew I could count on you.

Vapodog · 04-24-2003, 08:42 PM

I used to shoot a Winchester .224 cal 64 grain bullet from a .300 H&H and got 4300 feet/sec.....they also keyholed!!!!

The barrel heated very quickly too.....I used IMR 3031 and a lot of it!!!

Wish I knew what Remington did to their accelerators......now there was a good idea that never blossomed!!