This is yesterday's 50 yd. 270gr Sabertooth w/90 RS. from my CVA Mountain Rifle. Nice and tight.




This is today's 50yd, same bullet, 80 RS. High was first shot, guess my fault.




Then, moved back to 100 yds., bumped to 90 RS, and a 2 1/2" group. Wind was 10-15 and I'm very ok with this.



Problem is, I tried 5 other combos at 50 yds. with awful results. Not even worth putting picture of the target plate up here.

3 loads off the plate completely, 3 on by maybe an inch. They ranged in weight from 240 to 310 grains, with 5 different sabots, all fired w/ 80 RS and swabbed between. 3 of the combos were easy to load, two medium, and one very difficult.
Just can't understand how the gun shoots these Sabertooth so well, and nothing else with a sabot. Would you keep on with the 3 that caught the plate? Raise the powder charge? Or just work with the Sabertooth to optimize powder/bullet weight combo for hunting?

I would get your hunting load figured first. Make it solid and do more loads for fun. You want cheap accurate buttets for fun shooting.
Did you try hornady sst ml's? 250gr w/80-100 gr of Rs should work. I would give them a try as well as power belts but they are not cheap!
Let us know!
SHills

SHills,

Haven't tried the SST's or the Powerbelts, though the Sabertooth is basically an inexpensive Powerbelt. Today's test bullets were:

Speer GD 300 gr .452
Speer 300 gr .451
Hornady 250gr .452
Hornady .458 (45-70) ?gr
Knight 310 gr .452

and a variety of sabots

I like the Saber Tooth Conicals. I shoot the 250 & 300 grain Saber Tooth. I use 90 grains of Kik 3f for this shoot. I was shooting open sights at 50 yards off a single bench bag. I was trying some Speer Gold Dot that grouped good also. Although the Saber Tooth shot excellent.

Out of my inline Knight Rifles, the Saber Tooth also shoot very good.



The Knight Disc Rifle is scoped. This was at 50 yards. I had one flier otherwise I was more then pleased with the way they shot out of my rifle.

Since you know that the Saber Tooth will shoot well out of your rifle, this gives you a little testing room to experiment with different powder charges with the Speer bullets. If all else fails, you can always go back to the Saber Tooth. If you happen to hunt with them and score, please let me know how they preformed....

Who makes the Sabertooth bullet. I have not seen any of those conicals.

Harvester I believe

Yeoman,
I didn't mention Hornady XTP's. I know a few guys here that like them. I shot my longest BP shot to date on a deer w/one. 245gr 45 cal w/ the blk sabots, 80 gr of FFG Goex @ 130 yrds on a boardside deer w/a clean pass through.Acolor blindcaveman could have followed that trail..
XTP are very cheap and though they are pistols bullets they perform excellent @ longer ranges as they have slowed up and mushroom great. I haven't tried the gold dots but I sell more GD rounds to LE depts and that new HST federal tactical bullet will repalce the Hyro Shok which looks just like a hornady xtp. Both great stoping rounds.
I do believe if your a long range shooter the SST is great but I have never shot that far again on a deer so some one else would have to advise you on bullet expansion.
I have heard great things about the harvester Sabertooths as well as the all copper red hots which are barnes bullets. My freinds w/ the Savage ML's love those Barnes expanders in 300 gr and they are big hole makers.
Leyt us know your progress.
LOL, SHills

So the Barnes shoot all they way thru and leave big blood trail. Is there any cheaper bullets that they use in the 10 ML?
Chap Gleason

SHills,

I have a whole box of the 44 240 XTP's @ .430 but the old green sabots I have are too darn tight to ram down this barrel. I'm hoping the new MMP greens are easier to get down. Are there any other sabots for the .430's that might be easier to load? Looks like the HPH 24 and EZ's are only made for .451-.452. I worry about the all copper Barnes expanding with less than 100 gr. @ 100 yds from my sidelock. I should probably try the SST's soon.

Chap,

I think the pass-thru and Ray Charles blood trail were from the Hornady (above quote) but at speed suspect the Barnes would do the job.

SHills
I doubt that you could get the 300 gr Barnes MZ to stabilize out of a traditional front-stuffer. Hornady XTP's 250 gr. work in most guns with 1:48 or faster twist. Almost all of the XTP's I've tried are very tight with MMP and Harvester sabots. The Knight sabots might work they are a little thinner. The Knights will not put up with a stout charge (especially in the MLII)

Chap
I plan to use the Hornady XTP's in both 250gr and 300 gr for much of my shooting in my MLII because they are so cheap. They punch a pretty good hole in deer too–shot several deer with my ML-85 with them. The Barnes MZ will be my bullet of choice for hunting. I have used them in my MK85 and my shotgun. In most cases, there was no blood "trail" because the deerfell over dead. When I didn't hit much bone (dbl lung +heart) the blood trail could be described as a "Ray Charles blood trail".