Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders please educate me on sabots for .50 cal rifle

I have a T/C Encore .50 muzzleloader, and I'm a relative newby to muzzleloaders. I've used it twice successfully, but I'm looking to try something different, not because of poor performance, but just to try something different. I currently use a Hornady .45 250 grain bullet with a sabot, but I have seen someplace that you can use a .40 bullet inside of 2 nested sabots (the first sabot for .45 caliber rifles inside a second sabot for .50 cal rifles).

My questions are following:
1. Is this indeed feasible?
2. Is it dangerous?
3. Will it increase velocity and flatten trajectory for a 200 yd shot (.40-200 grains vs .45-250 grains, both with 3 pellets)?
4. Does it degrade accuracy (using 2 sabots instead of 1)?

Thanks for the education and assistance,
kstockfo

In my opinion, it is best to understand that a muzzleloader (unless you use smokeless) will never be a high velocity, flat trajectory, weapon. Part of the mystique of the sport is to get closer, and make the first shot count. Heavy bullets carry more energy at longer ranges, so you have to be careful about sacrificing energy for trajectory. Honestly, if you shoot enough and know the range, 200 yard shots are certainly achievable with heavy (300+ gr.) projectiles. Lighter projectiles are also shorter, and once they begin to shed velocity, drop like a rock due to their B.C. Smokeless cartridge development allowed much lighter projectiles with higher velocity, but when you look at what was being used in the blackpowder era, the rounds are very underpowered by today's standards. They STILL killed game effectively AND you could "eat up to the bullet hole". You may also find that the heavier, full bore conicals shoot pretty darn good at longer ranges, as well. I DO like the advanced bullet construction allowed by sabot use, and really feel that anything under 240gr is getting kind of light for longer range work. Just my opinion.

kstockfo
A few bits of info. would help, is your ML an inline or traditional, is it a flint lock or uses a #11 or musket cap last is a sabot legal for hunting in your state. From what I understand many inline rifles do pretty well on their own at that distance. Some of the more knowledgeable
will be along shortly. Good luck. welcome to the fire. Cheers NC

MMP offers a 50x40 sabot. T/C even sells them with a 40cal 200gr Shockwave aka SST.

The 200gr SST has a better BC than most .452 or .458 300gr bullets but not by much. It can be shot well over 2200fps with some load work.

BTW ditch the pellets and get some Blackhorn209 if you want speed and accuracy. It should ignite just fine in an Encore with a regular 209 primer. Not the ML kind.

The duplex sabot idea doesn't work out too well. As has been said, you can get a .50x.40 sabot that works well.

Northcountry Its a TC encore. Don't make nothing in this line that not inline