Anyone use the sabots that allow you to load .224 bullets in .30 cal brass? I would like to try them in my 7.5x55 Swiss K31.

I've heard the only fun thing about them is the velocity increase--not very accurate. I saw some guys selling em on e-bay and starting thinking it might be fun but people came back and said 3-5" groups are very common--this reduces the "fun factor" too much for me.

I blew the sabot out from around a 300WSM, trying to get to 4500fps. Lotsa red plastic embeded in the face of the chrony. I think the problem in accuracy comes from the fact that there's just not enough grip on the projectile and when you're trying to go from 0 to 180,000 rpm in 1/1500th of a second it's not going to work.

IMHO.

BTW, Everything I shot was at 30 feet so I cannot verify the (lack of) accuracy...

i bought 100 last year and shot a dozen or so. accuracy definitely stunk. I was never able to successfully get a chrono read off one. not sure why.

It was still fun. I'm going to load some more when I get time. I just got my pressure trace system two weeks ago, and I've been waiting for that before i tried to really work with the loads.

I have been trying to work up some usuble loads so far accuracy has not been very good the best load so far has been just under 4moa best 5 shot group 1.98" @ 100yrds I have also had difficulty getting chronograph readings I suspect poor accuracy and the many flyers I have noticed a trend about 70percent group together the rest are flyers one of the flyers hit my chronograph luckily it still works so far I have only tryed 55grn V-MAX I plan on trying a boattail bullet before giving up on sabots note the only readings I have gotten were with the chronograph at 50yrd.

Looks like I won't waste my time or money.

Seems to me when trying to chrono such loads would be to fire through a sheet of heavy rubber or plastic hung between the gun and chrono to catch all the sabot remains and just let the bullet through.

Maybe?

quote:

Originally posted by sonofagun:
Seems to me when trying to chrono such loads would be to fire through a sheet of heavy rubber or plastic hung between the gun and chrono to catch all the sabot remains and just let the bullet through.

Maybe?

I dont think 55 grn V max will hold together very well hitting anything at 3800 + fps the sabots hitting the chronograph is not really a problem the sabots only weigh 5-6 grns and dont make it past 25 yrds it is the pattern type accuracy that is hazardous to chronographs

quote:

Originally posted by AOWM:
I dont think 55 grn V max will hold together very well hitting anything at 3800 + fps the sabots hitting the chronograph is not really a problem the sabots only weigh 5-6 grns and dont make it past 25 yrds it is the pattern type accuracy that is hazardous to chronographs

I don't think people are putting their chronos out far enough for load accuracy to be a problem. The problem with chronographing saboted loads is the bullet and the sabot pass through the chrono. At normal chrono distances the two projectiles are probably pretty close together, so you'd get weird readings.

Another thing you can do to protect your chronograph is to put a piece of wood in front of the parts you don't want to hit. If you're using a Chrony or something else that displays velocities on the part you're shooting over, you can use Lexan or Plexiglas to protect the display.

If the sabot pieces are registering and causing erroneous chronograph readings, you can fire through a sheet of plywood or Lexan with a hole drilled in it for the bullet to go through. The sabot pieces will likely miss the hole if the hole is small enough.

H. C.

I found that sabot rounds don't like copper.
I was getting 1.5"-2" groups at 100 yards.
A fellow club member heard me snotting and crying.He mentioned that he read somewhere about keeping the barrel clean of copper.I had been slinging 168 HPBT's just before the sabots.
I scrubbed the bore and groups got down to around .5"-.75".Not the tightest out of my old Savage,but I got a red mist out of a chipmunk at 80 yards.(did I use enough gun?)
If you want to play w/sabots,shine up the bore.

Fumbler that is the problem if the chronograph is too close the bullet and sabot both pass over the chronograph. I had mine at fifty yards when I nicked it. POLETAX any chance you would be willing to share load data especialy if its for .308 win your results are much better than what I have to report so far yes my barrel was clean I used my outers foul out 2 and followd that up with an ammonia scrubbing.

.233 bullets shot in .30 caliber work real well but it takes a bit of work to establish a good load. Also the sabot itself must be the best you can get. Some are softer than others and will not hold up. The ones made from 100%hard nylon do the best. Arthur Brown sells some that work well. I have seen published data and pictures showing 5800 FPS from a 300 mag and 1.5 groups. Also special made sabots that are longer bring the groups down alot. I pulled some out of 30/06 Acl rounds back when Remington wouldn't let me buy any and put them in a 300 mag using a powder load for the 80 grain bullet. We didn't get to test them to much but coke cans at 100 yards were no problem.
One .30 caliber that shoots the .223 well is the 30/30. Slower but accrute and fun to shoot!