WOW!! suggestions... read your manual carefully and understand what is in it. Then go out somewhere and purchase the correct sabot for the bullet you want to shoot.

What you might want to do in the mean time is purchase some bullet/sabot combination packs. You can also shoot maxiball, and other conicals like powerbelts out of the rifle without a sabot.

Cloth patches are for roundball, not for sabots. You need the correct sabot to shoot the projectiles you purchased. Also do not just drop them down the barrel as they are too small. Why it only went a few inches down the barrel I have no idea.

Go to a wal mart or some other sporting goods and get some .50 caliber 250 grain Shockwaves if you want to shoot sabots. Load 90 grains of loose powder, and then a sabot bullet combination at the same time. Do you have a short starter as well, to get sabots into the barrel far enough?