Sabotless 45 in the Rock Pit
 

An open note to Lehigh Dave

Yesterday I was cleaning up in the back room - trying to put stuff in an organized mess. One of the things that I know I had but probably would not have found if I were looking for it was a mailing box of Lehigh 45 cal. sabotless bullets... (45x220 gr.)



These bullets were an experimental bullet produced in 2010 and I had pretty much given up on this bullet in that I could get it to load in any of my 45 cal. Knights. I had gone to the extent of trying to resize them to get them to possibly fit. Finding the box peaked my interest again and I thought I would try them in the older Super DISCs that I have now that I didn't have then. They will absolutely not go down a new Mountaineer 45 barrel, but the other two older Super DISC's and I good pop on a short starter and they went through the crown. From there it was a relative easy push with the gun rod down the bore. After getting them to work in the Super DISC I really wanted to try them in the rifle.

Headed back to the Rock Pit this morning - the floor of the pit was solid ice and very tough to navigate but I got a set of birds placed on the wall and began the testing. These things shoot fantastic!

Both the 50 and the 45 Lehigh Sabotless are very accurate and shoot very IF you can find a bore that they fit in.

This is the first version of the bullet Lehigh Dave produced (Ver #0) placed in the crown of the barrel ready to be pushed through with a short starter. If you look closely athe the bullet you will see there are 3 cut sizing rings cut around the bullet.



Version #1 is the same size but has four cut rings that need to be forced through the crown - The fourth ring probably occured because I thought the bullet would stabilized and center better with another ring/band higher-up on the ogive of the bullet.



I can tell you now that pushing Ver. #0 through the crown is easier than the pushing ver. #0 through. Not a lot of difference but enough you notice. Accuracy??? I could not tell the difference. They both shot equally well.

I was shooting of my normal portable folding bench with two supports...



This picture shows my tailgate work bench



After popping all nine birds - I really wanted to do more shooting. It is so dang fun shooting when the shooting goes great! So I continued to load up and started shooting chips that I could spot on the rock wall. Great Fun! AND it was a beautiful day!!!

I sure wish my 45 bores were just slightly larger. I could probably get mine started if i had another .0007-.001.

I know what you mean!!! and I believe the bullet is such a performer I really wish it fit a larger group of rifles.

You can always slug your barrel and buy a custom bullet sizer from Lee. Sizing down a couple thousands shouldn't affect accuracy

I have tried re-sizing them - but the solid brass and copper Lehigh uses are pretty in-movable...

Yeah. i have a sizing die in .451 and .449. I can resize the bands but without a monster press that brass aint going through the die. Plus i need the bands at .451ish. The actual bullet needs to be .450 or just .0002 smaller.

Even .0005 larger than lands and that bullet aint going nowhere without a hammer. My Parkers are .4505 and they will not load in my bores. .449 goes down with 1-2 fingers. Basically falls with just the weight of a ram rod.

I did find a ballistic chart for the bullet...



This was shot with DISC Extreme. I had resized the barbs to .451 to get them down the bore. But even then it was very difficult.

If you have to walk on ice get a walker pUT some sMALL nuts and bolts through rubber stops on the feet sharpen bolt and walk as AS IF ON GRASS GET. A BASKET THAT HANGS ON IT TO HALL YOUR STUFF.
I FOUND THAT OUT AFTER TWO KNEE RTEPLACEMENTS LAST YEAR AN USING A WALKER IN WINTER