I'm not partial to pellets, especially now that I own a Savage and can and do shoot smokeless powder. Too darned expensive. The LNL sabots are also too darned expensive for my taste. My first thought when I saw them was "what keeps the 'tail' from flailing randomly in the bore after the pellets that support it are burned up?". I would think that the tail part would disrupt accuracy, but IF people are shooting 1" groups with them (pardon my scepticism, 'Bulls, that I'd like to see before I believe it) they can't be that bad. But since that accuracy level can be achieved with a normal sabot with pellets AND powder, and plain Jane HP sabots with SST's or PR Dead Center's are much cheaper, I'll stick with those.

If you're looking for a trick to improve accuracy with sabots, expecially with heavy/fast loads, try using a sub-base under the sabot to protect it. MMP makes a "Magnum Sub-base" that I've seen available only through Precision Rifle's website (www.prbullet.com), but I just cut mine down myself from the pinkish-white Winchester 28 gauge AA wads. Just take a sharp knife or straight razor blade and cut the shot cup off right leaving only the obturator cup. The MMP Sub-bases are something like $5-6 for 50 plus shipping. The Win 28ga. AA wads are $7 for 250, and cutting down 50 of them takes maybe 10 minutes.

I found that the Savage and smokeless powder especially are VERY hard on sabots when the sabot is loaded alone. Even with "mild" loads of N110 (to the tune of 2250fps, chronographed) sabots would shot signs of partial failure. With the 28ga sub-bases none of the sabots showed ANY sign of failure and functioned perfectly. The sub-bases were also intact and sealed the bore perfectly. I'm sure the guys who are partial to 100gr+ loads of T7 would also benefit a great deal from using these cheap and simple sub-bases. Something for y'all to consider.

Mike