ORIGINAL: formula1
I'm pretty much a novice on ML, but I know my handloaded .450 Marlin 300 grain Nosler Partitions perform excellent in virtually all conditions and ranges (6 yds to 127 yds) on the whitetails I hunt. So I thought, if I have a sabot for that .458 bullet, that should be an awesome hunting load.
With Cayugad and Sabotloaders assistance, they lead me to the orange MMP sabots and recommended 100 grains of T7 2f. I went to the range and never looked back since. I shoot them from a T/C Encore 209x50. They are as accurate as I can be, usually 1-1.5" at 100 yds, with an overlapping hole or twoif I'm really shooting good that day.
Sure Noslers are expensive, but they are worth it. To save $$$$, I will typically go buy a cheaper bullet in 300 gr. to sight in my rifle, then fine tune it with the Noslers. It saves Noslers for the woods as much as possible. I am going to do a ML hunt in Illinois for the first time this year and it will be my bullet of choice.
Amen, you were lead by the best. I would recommend a Crushed Rib sabot with those .458 Nosler bullets, I shot the .452 Crushed ribs with .458 Barnes Origonals and the Barnes .458 TSX FlatNose, bullet number 45843, they are nice and tight, making iginition very good. I predict that they will be thego to bullets for Blackhorn 209 shooters, since the go downpretty nice and are very tight. Remember aim small shoot mall inthe movieThe Patroit, well "the tighter the sabot the tighter the group in general". Glad you settled on the Nosler, is is one of the very very best.
Best Wishes on your Illinois hunt, I was just asking a friend to day about a Pike County hunt hisson went on last year. What are the ML rules in Illinois?
Best Wishes,
Chap Gleason