Hornady Lock n' Load speed sabots ?
 

I was thinking of tring these in my remington 700, and was wondering if anyone has tried them, and what do you think? I tried the barnes expanders, and although they were accurate, they did not do much damage on game, and they were hard to get down the barrel. My muzzleloader is a 50 cal., and I was thinking of trying the 250 grain sabots. Anyone who has tried these give me the pro's and con's. Thanks, and good shootin'. Bhunter32.

RE: Hornady Lock n' Load speed sabots ?
 

Even though I am a strong Hornady fan.....I am hesitant to try this product. The hole in the center of the pyrodex is there to provide a channel for the ignition flash to travel through,blocking it with a piece of plastic just seems like a bad idea.Besides,how long does it really take to drop a couple pellets down a barrel ???

RE: Hornady Lock n' Load speed sabots ?
 

i use real BP but seen these gizmos at the stores.....wouldnt the plastic melt when the powder burns and possibly stick in your combution chamber/bore??? just a thought i got by looking at them......i know powder burns pretty hot....

RE: Hornady Lock n' Load speed sabots ?
 

gimmick gimmick gimmick and expensive. Save your money. Sometimes company's go overboard on having another thing every year to sell the sucker hunters.

RE: Hornady Lock n' Load speed sabots ?
 

EXACTLY buy yourself the SST, sabot and drop the powder down the pipe..cheaper and just as effective

RE: Hornady Lock n' Load speed sabots ?
 

I was thinking about trying them myself but you guys make a good point maybe i will just stick with my power belts

RE: Hornady Lock n' Load speed sabots ?
 

I am the king of trying new stuff and this is one of those that looks a little silly.

RE: Hornady Lock n' Load speed sabots ?
 

They seem to be a solution to a problem that never existed.

RE: Hornady Lock n' Load speed sabots ?
 

I saw them at Wal Mart the other day when I was there checking out the sporting goods. Ours finally has its muzzleloader supplys back. The trouble is they are the same high prices as they were last year...:D

I guess if people want to spend their money on a gimmick which is all they are, they are more then welcome to do so...

RE: Hornady Lock n' Load speed sabots ?
 

I'm always willing to try something new and since I have two packs of 50g pellets that will never get used otherwise, I bought some LNL Speed Sabots just to try them out.

With two pellets and a 300g LNL I shot three groups at 75 yards within 1 inch and two of the shots in each group were in the same hole. My 50 Cal Encore loves these things and I may use them for antelope and deer in Sept.

I picked up most of the sabots expecting them to be melted but nothing was burned, not even blackened. The petals were spread but other than that they looked like new.

They work great with the TC Flex Loader quick loads.

Call me a sucker but if it works, what the heck! It's all about results!

RE: Hornady Lock n' Load speed sabots ?
 

I'm not partial to pellets, especially now that I own a Savage and can and do shoot smokeless powder. Too darned expensive. The LNL sabots are also too darned expensive for my taste. My first thought when I saw them was "what keeps the 'tail' from flailing randomly in the bore after the pellets that support it are burned up?". I would think that the tail part would disrupt accuracy, but IF people are shooting 1" groups with them (pardon my scepticism, 'Bulls, that I'd like to see before I believe it) they can't be that bad. But since that accuracy level can be achieved with a normal sabot with pellets AND powder, and plain Jane HP sabots with SST's or PR Dead Center's are much cheaper, I'll stick with those.

If you're looking for a trick to improve accuracy with sabots, expecially with heavy/fast loads, try using a sub-base under the sabot to protect it. MMP makes a "Magnum Sub-base" that I've seen available only through Precision Rifle's website (www.prbullet.com), but I just cut mine down myself from the pinkish-white Winchester 28 gauge AA wads. Just take a sharp knife or straight razor blade and cut the shot cup off right leaving only the obturator cup. The MMP Sub-bases are something like $5-6 for 50 plus shipping. The Win 28ga. AA wads are $7 for 250, and cutting down 50 of them takes maybe 10 minutes.

I found that the Savage and smokeless powder especially are VERY hard on sabots when the sabot is loaded alone. Even with "mild" loads of N110 (to the tune of 2250fps, chronographed) sabots would shot signs of partial failure. With the 28ga sub-bases none of the sabots showed ANY sign of failure and functioned perfectly. The sub-bases were also intact and sealed the bore perfectly. I'm sure the guys who are partial to 100gr+ loads of T7 would also benefit a great deal from using these cheap and simple sub-bases. Something for y'all to consider.

Mike

RE: Hornady Lock n' Load speed sabots ?
 

>>I would think that the tail part would disrupt accuracy, but IF people are shooting 1" groups with them (pardon my scepticism, 'Bulls, that I'd like to see before I believe it) they can't be that bad.>>

I understand your scepticism, I was sceptical myself. I just took a photo of the two groups on my target stand but the files are too large to post here. Drift, I'd be happy to send it to you and maybe you could post it.

The photo shows 6 shots all within 2 inches. I use a scope for grouping and they are 75 yard shots.

The other three shot group is on my buddies target stand and not readily available but it has the same pattern.

As for cost, it's never been a big deal to me to save a couple bucks on ammo especially when you consider the high costs of a big game hunt here in the west, even a DIY hunt as I do. I want whatever shoots the best and after trying everything from Dead Centers to Hornady, to Power Belts to Hydra Cons and several others, so far these shoot the best.

RE: Hornady Lock n' Load speed sabots ?
 

I was thinking about trying them out but ya`ll brought up some good points had I not read this I would have been one of those "sucker hunters"

RE: Hornady Lock n' Load speed sabots ?
 

Here's the picture of 'Bulls group with the LNL sabots. I guess they aren't too bad after all.

Mike