I am intersted in this bullet but want to use the .50 x .40 Crushrib with it in my .50 cal Optima Elite. Does anyone sell these bullets by themselves without the sabot?

Not that I know of. The SST and the Shockwave are kind of the signature bullet for muzzleloaders of Hornady and they do not let them out loose. Too much to gain by selling them in small quantities with sabots.

I think I may switch to these from the T/C SW's as they are a quite a bit cheaper and just buy either the crushrib or a regular .50 x .40 sabot. I think I will try the crushrib first as this Optima Elite seems to have a really tight barrel.

Marshall - I've been shooting the 40 cal 200 gr Hornady XTP out of my GM barrel using the Harvester 45/40 EZ load sabot with excellent accuracy. I am planning on taking this combo out on Saturday - the first day of PA's early ML season.
Also, with this same sabot, shooting the 150 gr Nosler 40 cal bullet, there is no significant POI out to 100 yds. BTW - I am pushing it with 80 gr of Pyrodex P.

Are you shooting out of a .45 cal? I am looking to shoot it out of my .50 cal. with an easier loading 50x40 sabot.

Sorry Marshall, yes I am shooting it out of a 45. Out of my 50 I am shooting the 300 gr shockwave or 300 gr XTP with a crush rib sabot.

If you want to keep your costs down, get the .50 x .40 crush rib sabots and buy some 200 grain .40 cal XTP's in bulk. The 200 grain .40 XTP is pretty much identical to the .40 200 grain SST/Shockwave, minus the plastic tip. The XTP's drop SLIGHTLY more at long range than the SST/Shockwaves, but for hunting purposes, unless you're shooting past 170 yards I doubt you'll be able to tell the difference. The XTP's have better terminal performance too, at least in my limited experience.