Got an email from Lehigh Dave today... He got a wild hair and ran a couple of NEW bullets yesterday in his plant. I wish I knew more about CNC lathes - but he set up a program to run two different bullets plugged it in to the CNC and when he came back he had two prototypes for testing,

1. A new .452x245 gr. Controlled Fracturing bullet for muzzleloaders with the sabot of your choice to fit your rifle.
2. A .500x260 gr. Sabotless bullet. It should possible fit the newer tighter bore CVA-Knight-TC. It will probably be to loose in the White 504's or the older Knight rifles.



Benefits of this bullet is that it should open at lower velocities when it contacts a liquid environment. So shooting extended ranges or even reduced powder loads should allow the bullet to open and break off the petals.

The real problem with the sabotless bullets is that there really is not a spec for a 50 cal, barrel that manufactures have to follow, In fact as we are finding out on this forum the barrels can vary in diameter up and down the bore and still pass and qualify as an excellent ML bore. Sabots cover up a lot of the different size bores on the market. So making a universal sabotless becomes somewhat difficult.

I am hoping to get a few of each for testing.

That's why Thor comes in 4 sizes. One size wouldn't be good.

Nice looking bullets

I agree, pretty tough to make most happy with sabotless.

that .500 bullet might be a good choice in a .54 sabot. Would that fit a .52 rifle too?

No, they only have sabots for a .458 and .475. so that eliminates the 52.

too bad, that might have been an interesting round.

Hmmmm, Sabotloader, just had a thought for another project for my big wheelchair bound butt. I have a small lathe that I can do either metal or wood work on. Just thinking, how hard would it be to maybe "mill" out a Sabot? Should be fairly simple. Mill out the inner, turn the outer and flip it to turn a cup. Put it on the scroll saw to cut the petals. Hi density plastic for stock should be pretty easily found? I don't own a .52 or .54 so I would need you to send me some dimensions for inner and outer sizing. The cup would, I assume, be a fairly generic depth so I would probably size that the same as probably MMP Sabots.

I doubt regulsr plastic would hold up and finding a polymer formula to use that would hold up better for a sabot might be more difficult

LOL, Yeah I know Sharp. I was thinking along the lines of a Delrin or a Poly/nylon type high impact/density. They are fairly "lubed" and not a dry type and could handle the friction heat. The polyurethane used in skate board wheels comes to mind.

I would be interested in how the conical version (right) shoots out of a CVA Optima V2. I can test it in the Optima V2 pistol if you like!!