LAbushman

I know someone who reloads 44 mag bullets (240gr) for his gun and uses the same bullets to shoot out of a 50 cal blackpowder. Will this hurt the gun in any way? Will the plastic liner that surrounds the bullet make up the difference in the bullet size vs. the barrel size? Is there a minimun bullet size for a 50 cal muzzleloader?

Thanks

cayugad

Many people shoot a .44 caliber bullet out of a plastic sabot in their .50 caliber muzzleloaders. A common .430 diameter bullet of .44 caliber is often used. Just be sure to get the right sabot for the bullet. If the .44 caliber is .420-.430 diameter then use that sabot VS the .451-.452 which are commonly used in the .45 caliber. Also the bullets your friend makes, try and have them made out of pure lead, although I shoot pistol bullets out of mine all the time. Just check your bore for copper and lead fowling from time to time. A good solvent and a bore brush will remove that.

sabotloader

LAbushman
Shooting a 44 with a sabot from a muzzleloader is quite common. Really depends what the twist rate of your barrel is.

.429-.430 - 44 cal bullets normally have the higher BC - therefor fly a little better
.451-.452 - 45 cal bullets probably the most common sabot bullet combination
.458 - 45/70 cal bullets and sabots are also available

I am shooting the .458/sabot combination from all of my 50 cals. fast twist inlines and 1/48 twist sidelocks.

Plastic build-up can be a problem - but so far, 6 years now, I really have not seen a problem in my barrels. I think it all depends on how you clean and treat your barrel.

The plastic liner - (sabot) made by different companies can be different thicknesses so you need to find the one that best fits the bore of your rifle.

If you want to step up in easy steps you might want to try a PowerBelt bullet, easy loading, accurate but not as effective on game as I want - but really east to load and shoot.

http://www.powerbeltbullets.com/products.htm

Here is some information on sabots

http://www.sav10ml.com/pages/sabots.htm

Information about Hornady Products

http://www.hornady.com/shop/?page=sh...dc029782da9a07

Hope some of this helps

HighDesertWolf

I saw a 50 cal sabot/bullet i believe it was called dead center or soemthing like that, but it had a 40 cal bullet in the 50 cal sabot, first time i saw that. normally a sabot in a 50 cal uses either a 44 or 45 cal bullet.

Triple Se7en

============================================
HighDesertWolf

Precision Dead Center Bullets