Some years back I decided to load some 22 cal bullets to scorching speeds and bought 1000 30 cal sabots. The experiment was a failure and I could not get any kind of consistent accuracy from 30-06, 30-30, or 30 carbine. It turned out to be a complete waste of money and time.

I was cleaning my shop today and found the remainder of the sabots. I guess it's been long enough so that I have forgotten what a waste it was because I got to wondering if they could be loaded to slower velocities to be used for plinking and other such noise making and have any degree of accuracy.

Has anyone loaded them down over Unique or such?

Alan

let me throw some rain on the parade.....

I tried it too and like you had some very high velocities.....I fired some 64 Grain winchester .224 bullets from a .300 H&H.....darn things keyholed....I have always assumed they spun in the sabot and did not stabilize because they didn't reach proper RPMs. The 1-10" twist of the .300 H&H probaly spun the sabot but the bullet was too heavy and spun in the sabot.....well that was my reasoning anyway!

Try some 40 or 50 grain bullets but avoid the super fragile ones....use the TNTs from speer....they hold up quite well.

If you shoot too slow the RPMs may again not materialize.....if you can get 2500 FPS or thereabouts there's a good chance you'll be successful but not with heavier bullets

Almost all .30 cals have 1-10" twist so I think you're on the right track to lower the speed.....(assuming my theory is true about spinning in the sabot)

Give it some thought.....and sorry.....I'm not able to offer the load to use.....maybe seafire has a bluedot load for you....PM him and see.

I had read that the bullet must be perfectly centered in the sabot and in the case neck which would entail a helluva lot more "work" at reloading than I was willing to put into it. There was even a device I could buy to make sure the rounds were concentric. I had never thought about the "Two different rotational speeds". Probably because so few of my shots actually hit the paper.

I was actually really interested in trying a cast bullet as the projectile but the results of the first experiments were so dismal that I never even bought a 22 cal mold. I just "found" my sabots again so I may try some lighter bullets at slower speeds. We'll see. Thanks for the response.

Alan