Are you really shooting clean shot "pellets" or sticks? If they are pellets they have to be pretty old. Clean Shot (American Pioneer Powder- one in the same)tend to have problems with picking up moisture. If you stuff is old and has had a chance to get exposed to high humidity that could be the problem.

These are Cleanshot pellets I purchased 2 years ago but the bottle was just opened.

What is a "hotter nipple", larger hole?

The sabots I'm using are the ones that came with the barnes bullets, not made by Knight. The bullets seem to be .45 diameter will they fit in the Harvester sabots?


Thanks, Rob

I suspect the powder, but from the sounds of your post, you need to upgrade all three. Buy new powder, buy a hotter nipple & hotter CCI"Mag" #11 caps.



While you're in the hunting store, buy a 50-pk of Harvester plastic sabots for your Barnes bullets. They are s little thinner than your Hornady/Knight ones.