Pittsburghunter

Actually, I guess I have been really fortunate, I have been shooting sabots from all of my 1/48's with really good results for years now. My problem today was the condition of this particular barrel and and the 45/250's I was trying to shoot. The 1/48's work well with the bigger bullets. My other 1/48 TC, a 50 cal Hawkin, will shoot .458 - 325 grain bullets all day into a nice little neat hole. Theother 54, a Lyman Trade rifle 1/48, shoots 45/300 grain XTP's like theywere made for it, but it will not shoot any 44 cal consistently - might get 6or 7 in a nice little group ant then all of a sudden one will take as a flier.My hunting partner has a newer TC 54 Hawkin and he shoots 45/300's out of it has for years.

That is an interesting thought about the slippage and deep grooves- I wish I would have thought to recover some of those 250 sabots and compare them to the 300s. I can see where that might be a problem with the 54's the petals on thosesabots are really thick. Next time I talk to MMP, I'll pose that very question. I was thinking along the lines that the 1/48 might be to slow to stabilze the fast moving 250 grain bullet - I did not try to back down on powder - might be the thing to try.

I did not have the chrono set up on todays shoot, but in previous outings there certainly hasbeen no indication in the way of lack of velocity across the chrono.