Force on Ramrod to load sabotted bullet
Today at the range I was trying a couple of different bullets and sabots. I was using Blackhorn 209 and CCI primers.
The first bullet was the 250 grain SST that comes prepackaged with a red sabot, and the I was also trying 300 grain Hornady XTP with the MMP black sabot. I was wiping the barrel with a clean patch twice after each shot and letting the barrel cool. The SSTs with the red sabot shot fine and loaded easily.
When it came to the 300 grain XTPs with the MMP black sabot I could barely push it down the barrel. I shot it and it was fine. I the did the same with an SST and the MMP black sabot and this also loaded with great difficulty.
I then tried the 300 grain XTPs with the red sabot that came with the SSTs and it loaded fine and after 5 shots I had a 2" group at 100yds.
When I came home, I cleaned the gun, lubed it, and then ran a few dry patches through the bore to remove the oil. I the put the gun on a scale and ran one of the 300 grain XTPs in a MMP black sabot and it took 18 pounds of force (26#-8# for the weight of the gun) to drive the sabotted bullet down the bore. Just from how it felt at the range, with the the barrel wiped 2 times with a dry patch, I would guess that it took at least 30 pounds or more to get the black sabotted bullet down the bore.
What do you think? Different sabot, or use it with the higher loading in a dirty bore?