ORIGINAL: johnnydialtone
Wanted to try the bullets that came with my Omega today. They are afew years old, had a Thompson logo (I think), appear to be XTP 300s with a black sabot. Very hard to load in my barrel. Not a chance of getting them down the barrel with the glass range rod. Had a hard time getting them started with the metal rod too.
Groups were very poor. Switched to Powerbelt 295s and the groups were better. The Powerbelts shot about 6 inches higher at 100 yards.
Picked up some of the black crushed rib sabots and they fit the XTPs much better than the other black sabots that I have. Seems like the base of the older black sabotsare too small for the bullet.
Are all black sabots supposed tofit the same sized bullets? Like Purple for 16 gauge, Yellow for 20, and Red for 12?
No, not all black sabots are the same size. For example MMP12, MMP24 and MMP 3PetalEZ are all black but they vary in sabot thickness. Getting the proper "Goldilocks" fit between sabot and bullet is critical to accuracy, too loose and they rarely seal the bore and shoot accurate, too tight they are difficult go get down the bore and also no 2nd shot in the field is possible. So what is "just right", I would say what you experienced with the crushed rib is "just right". Also just because it says on thepackage for.452 diameter bullets, several of us that have Savages are shooting .458 bullets (Barnes Origonals,Flatbase)with .452 CR sabots. They appear to be "Goldilocks" right for the .458 in my Savage. I do shoot the CR with .452 Noslers and .452 Gold Dots in my TC Omega and Knight Disc. Best thing you can do is have 1 package of each of the following:
MMP shot black
MMP12
MMP24
MMP 3petal EZ
Harvester Black
Harverster CR
Harvester CR for Smokeless
The CR for Smokeless are VERY thick, so if you have a very undersized bullet (like the .450 Parker Ballistic Extreme), the red sabot may shoot it "just right" for you.
Usually when I am shooting a new bullet I try 3 different sabots, for a .458 bullet I try CR, 3Petal EZ and Orange MMP made for the .458. With .452 bullets I try the supplied sabot, the MMP12, 24 and CR.
See my post from a couple of weeks ago on shooting CR, Orange and 3PetalEZ in Savage with Barnes Origonal.
See this little experiment that Semisane did a while back, he shot like 5 or 6 different sabots with the same gun, bullet, load and primer--results vary drastically:
http://tinyurl.com/2qen2s
Chap Gleason