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I've been looking for a muzzleloader bullet that does better in the wind. Accurate Molds in Salt Lake City had a mold that looked very similar to the Precision Rifle Dead Center (on the right). The listed turnaround time was 2 weeks but the mold arrived in 3 days. Using recovered range lead they cast a touch over .401 and weighed in at 280 gr (±<1gr in the ones that I've weighed). The Crush Rib sabots arrived today so I sized a few bullets to .401 then gave it a try and they snuggly slid down the bore. It'll be fun times at the range this weekend.

stomatador, They look great, but... A question! Does the sabot upset or destabilize the bullet (at all) when it separates from the projectile. I know there were accuracy problems with the factory (.223 sabot bullets for larger caliber rifles). Was this caused by such a small, lightweight bullet? Whereas, the much heavier bullet will not be affected! memtb

memtb,

Don't know for sure but I'll find out Sunday AM.

I have 260 gr, .452 bullets that work in a sabot so I'm hopeful that the 280 gr, .401 bullets will also be ok in a sabot. With their smaller .401 diameter these bullets are longer that my .452, 313 gr bullets but twist rate calculators say they will stabilize with my 1:28 twist rate.

Last Saturday there was 4 minutes of wind at 100 yards and I want to reduce that with the slimmer bullets.

A good article on Sabots. I loaded up some test sabots years ago to shoot out of my SKS rifles just to see if I could,how they would cycle and if there was any accuracy potential. I could get good consistent 4" groups at 100 yds. or minute of soda can at 50 yds. fairly easy considering the sabots were designed for .308" groove rifles whereas my SKS had a .311" groove bore. http://www.realguns.com/articles/700.htm

The tapered base of the bullet didn't adequately fill the bottom of the cup in the sabot, resulting in a "ring" of pressure around the bottom. The pressure would punch out the bottom of the sabot and the .401 bullet would rattle down the .50 barrel. Long story short, it was a total failure and wouldn't stay on 24" paper at 50 yards.






I had conversations with the sabot makers and they basically said that there was too much pressure for the combination to work. So I contacted the mold maker and after swapping a few emails he came up with another design for me that was wider at the base.






The new mold casts recovered range lead at 272.5 gr ± 0.5 gr. This last weekend I cast a few dozen, headed to the range and punched 3 holes in paper at 100 yards and then drew a bead on some milk jugs we had packed up the hill. After a couple calibration shots (near misses) I popped a milk jug at 410 yards. The wind drift seems to be about 1/3 less than my .452, 313 gr cast bullets.






I headed up to the range tonight, shot a few and then lined up 10 milk jugs and managed to catch the bullet in the 5th jug. It's about .75 to .80 inches where it expanded and weighs 252 gr.