With the 1 in 32" twist I'd probably try the QT .40cal sabots in 215 grains, since the slightly shorter bullet will stabilize better in the slightly slower than "standard" sabot twist (1 in 28&quot.

Like Lonewolf, I've been shooting the QT .40 in 235 grains out of my Knight and have gotten excellent accuracy. Shooting off of an improvised rest (my range tackle box with a bath towel on top) with a Simmons 4x scope I'd say my groups average about 1.5" at 100 yards. Now that I have a nicer rest (got it for X-mas), and with a nicer scope (I've had my eye on a Leupold VXII 3-9x for it) it's likely the groups will get a little smaller.

As far as knockdown power, it's really hard to quantify such a figure. The deer I shot this year with these same QT .40 bullets was cleanly hit behind the shoulder at 75 yards with the deer quartering towards me at about 20 degrees or so. The bullet shattered a rib going in creating a 1" entry wound, the bullet and bone fragments obliterated the back half of both lungs, cut up the heart, and completely liquified the liver before making a 2" exit wound. The blood trail was huge, but the deer still managed to run about 75 yards before dropping dead.

Two years prior (took a year off hunting due to college conflicts) I hit a big doe with a .50cal 460grain Hornady flat point conical at 30 yards broadside. The bullet hit a little high, punching a clean entry hole and a nice round hole through both lungs. After going through the lungs it ricocheted off the rib cage, and tumbled back through the liver and stopped in the rumen. The internal damage wasn't half as bad as the QT, but the deer dropped 6' from where it was hit and didn't get up, but also didn't die quickly either. I shot it a second time through the base of the skull to put it out of its misery.

My Dad has fatally hit deer at point blank range with a 20 gauge slug at point blank range and had them run hundred of yards before expiring. While others hit a farther ranges were dead before they hit the ground. So "stopping power" is almost impossible to pin down. That being said, pretty much any bullet you can stuff down the barrel of a .50cal ML will kill deer, if you can hit it right.

As far as the effects of adding bullet weight goes, it effects a number of things. For a given caliber increasing bullet weight will increase its lenght (which in turn requires a faster twist rate to properly stabilize). The increase in length will typically increase both it's ballistic coefficient (a number typically between 0 and 1 that gives a rough indication of how well it will retain it's velocity downrange, the higher the better) and it's sectional density (which is basically the ratio of lenght and weight to diameter. Sectional density, all else being equal, represents the penetration of the bullet. A long thin heavy bullet will penetrate much better than a short fat bullet of the same weight.). Also, heavier bullets will typically expand more slowly than lighter bullets of the same design.

I hope this somewhat longwinded explanation helps you out.

Good luck,

Mike


Gun control means putting the second bullet through the same hole as the first- Ted Nugent
NRA Member
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