It got up to 50 here this afternoon after a month of cold weather, so I took the opportunity to go out to the range to try some new loads. A friend of mine had molded some 300 gr. lead Keith style bullets for me last month - sized to .451 - and made them out of relatively soft lead. I tried them in my 26" Black Diamond (most accurate rifle I own) at 100 yards. Using the Harvester Crushed Rib sabot and 100 gr. of 2F Jim Shockey Gold, they shot about an 8" group. I switched to the regular Harvester sabot and the group shrank to 7" [:-]. MMP sabot was no better. For some odd reason, this bullet is very hard to start and, once you get it down the barrel about 2", goes down reasonably easy. Checked a number of spent sabots down range - didn't note any sign of sabot failure. Made nice round holes in the cardboard target.

Just for fun, I shot a group with the 338 gr. Platinum Powerbelt using 130 grains of 2F Jim Shockey Gold. This load had worked very well inmy new Genesis back in September; and produced a 1.5" group out of the Black Diamond today. Colorado Legal