I have been swabbing every shot, even though with Shockeys you're not supposed to have to do that. Even with swabbing every shot the suppied MMP sabot with the 200gr SW loads like a bear in my Optima Elite. I even started lubing my sabots with bore butter to help, but I really don't want to have to be doing that, and that may actually be fouling the bore up more doing that. I did try the Hornady 250gr HS/LD but they loaded way to easy and the accuracy was not there.

I think what I'll do is get some 50/40 Crushribs and try on a pack of SW's and then if I like the results I'll start buying the 45/40 SST Combo since they are much cheaper. I wish Hornady sold the 50/40 SST combo.

marshall9779
I suggest the cotten ball test, it sounds like you may have some burrs that need polishing out. Lee

Good point. My Encore came with a very rough barrel that was nearly impossible to load. After 2 or 3 sessions with a patch coated with jeweler's rouge it got much easier to load.

If you are not already doing something like this,put a golf ball with a hole in it on the end of the ramrod. Makes it much easier.