Questions on hornaday fpb (lemoyne)
 

I read lees report on this bullet and was excited to possibly give it a try out of the omega but i went to cabelas and out of the 20+ reviews 15 or so said it was so hard to load they wouln't buy this bullet. Hornaday swears its easy loading what gives also wheres the best place to buy the harvester short 50 cal sabots I tried a couple places and shipping is more than the sabots where do you guys get them i was gonna try them w/ my 250gr shockwaves and i know lee said this could and has been a killer combo I tend to believe lee call me crazy but he seems to know his muzzloading thanks to all especially lee cause I know he will steer me in the right direction on this .

The FPB will load in my Omega.

Here is a place to get that sabot you are looking for:

http://www.grafs.com/product/259633

I, myself, use the crush rib in my Omega.

i had an omega with a .502" bore and it was a SOB to load the FPB. Even on an oiled barrel it was horrible.

I have been shooting the FPB for two years in my Omega and I love them. There is a learning curve on how to load them, but after you do it a couple of times, no problem. The other question is if your Omega will shoot them. Many Omegas are very particular about shooting conicals, but most that I know of will shoot FPBs well.

You will need two things to load them easily: a short starter and a ramrod with a flexible T-handle. First drop the bullet in the end of the barrel. Then use your short starter with a Hornady loading tip and give the bullet a short "pop" to get it started. You have to realize that the skirt on the back is larger than bore size on purpose, and you have to size it to your individual barrel by giving it that "pop".

Now just use your ramrod with the T handle and the loading tip and it should load fairly easily.

Here is the short starter I use: http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/te...233&hasJS=true

and the loading jag: http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/te...233&hasJS=true

and the ramrod: http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/te...233&hasJS=true

I have mostly used them with BH 209 wWITHOUT swabbing, but they were OK to load with 777 as long as I swabbed between each shot.

What TX Hunter 58 said.

They load very easily in the TC and CVA guns. Just sit the FPB in the QLA or whatever CVA calls it; then give the short starter a hard rap with the palm of your hand, then it loads easily. It is important not to push on the FPB until you give the short starter a hard rap with your palm. My Encore is not a tackdriver with that bullet: It makes 2.5-3" groups at 100 yards but it is a real good hog killer.

If you have a TC rifle with a QLA you may need a short starter but it won't be a problem to shoot the FPB. The standard shock wave and the sabot that works best with your gun is very likely to do well as the far majority of gun will do well with the Shock Wave and quit often if its a TC gun the Short Black Harvester will group minute of angle off the bench. If you could tell us the brand of gun you wish to shoot them in and the bore diameter it would be a big help.

+1 on loading the FPB in an Omega. I shot them for the first time last week and I was surprised at how easily they loaded. A short starter with the jag that comes with the Omega helps but was not necessary on my gun.

If I can nail down the amount of BH209 in my next range session, I think it will be my hunting load this season.

I tried a little experiment on the old Knight. I pulled the breach plug and started some FPB nose first into the muzzle found a short starter that fit the back end and pushed them in about 4 inches. Then I took the range rod and pushed them back out again; this sizes them to that particular gun and relieves the loading problem considerable.
Matt 068, The real importance of having the right thickness of sabot for your particular gun can not be over emphasized because it is on of the things that a lot of people create their own set of problems on. A lot of us that have been shooting sabots ever since inlines became commercialized find the right sabot that will shoot good in a particular gun and buy a large quantity. Since there is a large tolerance on muzzle loader barrels no one can predict which particular one will work on any gun.
as a general rule TC guns have barrels .500 or a bit under, Knights often are .500+ whites are .502 to 504 and while the Bergara barrels run around .500 the others used in the lower priced brands run from .497 to .503 and there are lots of exceptions to these rule of thumb categories.

ive been shooting them for a few weeks and love them. easy to load and accurate.

Sizing them to your own gun as suggested will help a lot. I shoot them in my Genesis and they load very easily once started. I had a little trouble at first, but giving the short starter a firm thump gets them started.

I have re-loaded a few by pushing out loads after a hunt. These always load very easily, no ned for a starter. I think I will size a few for the season this year, as I don't like to carry the starter hunting.

I have tried presizing them, but as stated, they normally load very easy the second time. Since I shoot them with BH 209, and that requires a tight fit for good combustion, I have not presized them with the combination. When started as stated, they require firm, but not excessive pressure to load and they go off and shoot well with BH. If you are using 777 or pyrodex, then presizing would be great.

matt
I shot roughly 10 from my Omega in front of 90 grains RS. They were easy to load with a spit patch in between in each shot. The accuracy wasn't bad and could have been improved with some tinkering but it is not my hunting bullet this year so I did not do any further testing. Search my posts, I posted pics of the groups at the beginning of Sept.

If you only push them a short way into the barrel before pushing them back out it works fine with my knight. Thats why I do not push them on through. Lee

what type of powder is being used with the fpb? I have tried P, RS, and T7 2f. I couldnt get very good groups with my White or my CVA.

I have used almost exclusively BH 209, but 777 did pretty well too.

My most accurate load with these bullets has been in the 90-100 gr range

I have tried only loose Pyrodex RS, 100 grains.