sabotloader

It was a lousy day to go shooting... it was cold, the wind was blowing briskly, and the field was muddy!

But, since any day shooting is a better day than working at home - I headed to the farm to continue my planned testing of the 1-20 twist rate in a 45 cal.

I have long thought that the failure of the 1-20 45 cal might be more related to the bullets being shot and the quality of the sabots that the bullets were in.

I can not test the sabots, and actually really do not want to shoot the old polymer formulations from the rifle anyway - I am trying to avoid plastic fouling. In my efforts to cause sabot failure, I am shooting 120 grains of BH today. My last outing I was shooting 120 grains of T7-2f, I felt today I would shoot the BH because it burns at a much higher temperature than does T7, could it possibly cause the new formulation of sabots to fail.
The heaviest 40 cal bullet I have is the 200 grain variety and since I had already shot the longer Lehighs, I decided to start the with the shorter 40-200 grain XTP's.

Please remember I am not really shooting for accuracy in this or the first test - I am shooting to see if the sabot will with stand the heat and torque of the 1-20 twist. As in my prior experiment the sabots from today looked no worse than the T7 sabots from the first shoot.

You can locate the 200 grain XTP group on the target. While it is not a great group I see no problem shooting the shorter XTP's in this barrel.

From that I moved to the .40-155 Hornady XTP's. I was confident now that the sabot was not the answer using the newer sabots. I felt this would be a good time test of my other thought. The small bullets built for the 40 cal pistol might not be as stable in a fast twist barrel and cause wobble or even a tumble effect in the bullet.

Again look on the target and locate the 40-155 bullets. They accually performed very well. No sign of tumbling and accuaracy was not all that bad.

The next test... Sqezer had sent me some little short MMP 355/357-45 cal blue sabots. I really expected these to be the old formulation of plastic but after shooting them - I think they are the new polymere. The sabots recovered from the ground looked fine. Me first go-around with these sabots I decised to shoot the Speer .358-158 Jacketed Plinker with a Soft Point. I actually kinda like these bullets and think they would make a great varminte type bullet.

They again showed no real signs of tumbling and for no load development at all their acciracy was not that bad... The shooter had a problem with #1, but I do not think you can blame the bullet.

The target shows the little plinker hits also.

Last on the list was a bullet that i think might interest a few. jsteurrys had sent me some Hornady .358-200 gr. FTX along with some Precision Sabots. You can find this bullet combination on the picture showing the different bullet options I have for the Super DISC.

I really felt this bullet might be a real winner - 200 grain bullets, Spire point, and a long well made sabot to shoot them in. I only have 6 of them but decided today to shoot a group of 3 just to see. Shot #1 thrilled the heck out of me, two and three were not that bad for the weather conditions and by now the light - I actually think they could really be a great one

Again you can find the group on the lower left of target.



Bullet-sabot collection



All-in-all - I am still thinking the 1-20 holds a lot of promise from little short bullets to the longer Barnes and Lehighs...
More testing to be done... to verify.. I am thinking I would like to get some velocity testing in soon.

Grouse45

Lol.....no comment.

MountainDevil54

thats got to be a target under all that advertisement somewhere! :P

Grouse45

Your not Jealous are you.

1874sharpsshooter

Since you like them so much I know where you could probably get some if interestedLet me know.

MountainDevil54

not interested, ordered a 100 from BC last week with my other supplies. To much going on, on that target for me, i want to make sure i have a clean target with no distractions.

1874sharpsshooter

Too much going on ?? Like a dartboard or battleship target?

Grouse45

Good point, you don't want that rest of yours to move.

MountainDevil54

to much distractions on it. I like a clean target with some posts to help guide my cross hairs out at longer range but most importantly, i got to have that bulls eye size just right for my cross hairs.

cayugad

Some interesting results there Sabotloader, but I still am not sure I am sold on the .45 caliber. I have two of them. One shoots conicals and one shoots sabots. Neither of them can shoot BlackHorn 209. But some of them bullets are interesting. I am running out of the 200 grain XTP and I have some Speer 185 grain. I want to get some Powerbelts to try in the .45 caliber and then look at other bullets. What do you think would be a good bullet in the Green Mountain Barrel? I think the twist is 1-20 or 1-28 I really am not sure. It shoots well. I know that.


As for the new target he is shooting... I like them. The single large bull is easy to see at most distances. The quality of the paper and the printing is excellent. And as for the target being crowed... those little side pictures to me make an excellent target. It beats staring at a bulls eye. As for the advertising on it, well that is something that I can overlook because I don't let simple adds influence me all that much.