win apex 45cal pounding down sabot loads
 

A few months ago I went to an gun shop before an range session and picked up some bh209 and an pack of tc shockwaves 185gr i be leave. I nearly need an mallet to start them. when I pulled my load at the end of the season I noticed some type of plastic looking chunks. I know i been testing with with teflon tape on the breech plug but did not have any on it at that time, just grease.

as of late, I been double checking all my bore diameters. getting ready for the switch to home cast conicals and boolits. the 45cals diameter is at .454 from checking the skirt of the powerbelts I have been using the only takes thumb pressure to start and slugging the barrel.
(yes my hunting load was an 275gr hollowpoint powerbelt with 75grs of bh209)
here is the 2 questions

1: should I see if i have any of the shockwaves left and measure the base of the sabot?

2: what do yall think the chunks of "plastic looking stuff" was? piece of sabot i may of broken off and missed cleaning or teflon tape i missed?

PS
plz, pb trashing, that is not the topic!!!!

changing sabot should make the SW's work fine.

Corey, measuring the diameter of the Powerbelt skirts, or sabots that fit your bore, "might" give you a useful number to work with for deciding what diameter you need your conicals to be. But that plastic flexes and compresses a bit when you push them into the bore. So the measurement you get from them may not work.

What you really need to do is slug the bore with an oversize lead ball.

Clean the bore well and oil it. Then flatten a ball slightly so that it is slightly over bore size and has to be pounded into the bore, cutting its way into the rifling.

For an in-line, push it about half way down the bore from the muzzle end then push it back out from the breech end.

It's a little harder with a sidelock where you can't remove the breech plug. What I do is use a eight or ten inch section of steel or brass rod as an "inside the bore" hammer. The rod should be fairly close to bore diameter but thin enough to slide easily in the bore when wrapped with tape to protect the bore. Slide the rod into the bore. Then pound the ball into the bore about a quarter of the way down. Then by repeatedly turning the barrel up and down use the rod as a piston to knock the ball back out.

Measuring the ball will give you an accurate bore measurement of both the lands and grooves.

did slug the bore 3 times all came out the same

Corey I had a lot of trouble using the sabots that came with the SW bullets.
I threw them out and use the Harvester crush rib sabots. This gave me easier and more consistant loading and hence better accuracy.

slugged my 45cal barrel with an .490 round ball, .454 grooves and .4525 lands.

also did my knight 50cal. .530 round ball, .507 grooves and .503 lands