bsteve
Do the SST's load any easier than the Shockwaves?
The simple answer is,SST's should not! SST's should come with an HPH-12 sabot. TC shockwaves should load easier - except theare some problems...
Explanation... There are probably morebut there are or have been at least 3 varieties if 250 SWs out there, depending on how old your package is.
As Cayugad and others have told the
Bullet is the same except for a different colored tip - yellow vs. red. The loading difference comes in the sabot. Hornady SSt's will most often come with a MMP HPH-12 black sabot (long petals)
THESEprobably will not go down your Omega. Omega's are notorius for really tight barrels.
Another thing I've noticed with the rifle-the sabot goes down hard for the first 6 or 8 inches, then it goes easy ,then hard for the last few inches.It's like the inside diameter of the barrel varies.
As you probably know there is no standard in ML barrels, what you are feeling could actually happen - the bore diameter could vary,
but, in an Omega barrel which is a quality built barrel I doubt that your barrel would do that, more than likely it is different levels of fouling. There could be a couple of things leading to this fouling depending on whether the barrel is new or has been used a lot. There are things that you as the shooter can do to help alleviate some of this fouling.
What I think I know about the TC 45 cal. 250 Shockwave...
a. The orginal Shockwave probably came packaged with a Harvester long petaled sabot, which really worked well in mostTC guns...
b. Then another sabot appeared a short petaled version that was really thick and most people were un-able to geitdown the tight TC barrels
c. MMP is now supplying most of the TC sabots (HPH-24)for the SW. They are a long petaled black sabot and they are .002 thinner than the HPH-12, and should go down the tighter barrels,although the TC Tech department saysthere are some really tight Omega's out there that getting the HPH-24 down is still really tough.
Just for your information, the
Harvester"Crush Rib" is the thinnest sabot I have found. If you can come up with some of them I think they will solve your sabot problem.
I condsider my Remington and A&H barrels tight also - I need to use the HPH-24 sabot to get things to go down correctly, and becuase of this I now use a
Crush Rib in a speed loader for the
quick second shot because it goes down so easy.
Good luck in your search for information - If I can help you with anything else let me know.