ORIGINAL: Rebel Hog
ORIGINAL: el deguello
I remember well when the 12-ga. BRI "dumbbell" shaped sabot slugs first became available around 1972. The makers claimed they could be shot from a smoothbore, as the rear "fins" would make them fly point-forward.
BRI ( Ballistic Research Institute) wasin California back in the 60's. They did all their testing with Mosberg 500's. I have a 60's Shooters Bible that has thehistory and all of BRI'sresearch.I started shooting BRI'sin Rifled Barrels when they werefirst placed on the shelves. In the 70's Winchester bought them out.
Yes! When they claimed they'd work in smoothbore barrels, it didn't take us (or Winchester) long to discover that wasn't so, and then they changed the claim to "in rifled barrels". We even went so far as to fire a few of them from a Brown Bess musket (.75-cl.) with 120 grains of FFg. No luck there either!
BTW, the ones I tried out first were in white & blue boxes marked Smith & Wesson. I don't know how they became involved, but it was at about that same time that S&W was marketing a pretty nice semi-auto shotgun! I think those were made by Howa, as well as the S&W rifles that are now Weatherby Vanguards!