Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Rifles and Sabots

My TC Encore is very accurate with MMP Sabots and Hornady 300 gr XTP's. Has any of the crew here used Sabots in their high powered rifles, 30-30, 30-06, 308 etc. I was just on a web site that mfg them and claims they work, do they and what kind of accuracy can you get?

"A sabot (pronounced sebo/ SAY-boh or /s�bo/ SAB-oh) (French for clog)"

My father, the gun designer, for 40 years was going to Rock Island Arsenal or Detroit arsenal to sell his designs or to Yakima firing range or Yuma to test his designs.
He pronounces it SAY-boh.

I have hundreds of guns, but mostly read, and don't visit people for guns.
I pronounce it sa-BUT.

I have lots of sabots here and can't get any accuracy.

That settles it, I am not going to have a debate with you over anything.....I am already dizzy trying to follow your train of thought!

Back in the late '60's and/or early '70's Remington produced ammo in .308, .30-06, and .30-30 that had (IIRC) a 55 grain .224 bullet in a 30 caliber sabot. They called them "Accelerators" and they were intended as a varmint load for rifles in those calibers. They received mixed reviews at the time and the idea kind of died out. My brother tried them in his .308. They didn't provide very good accuracy, nothing near what we got with 125 grain Sierras.

SabotReloadingPro,com, has a variety of 30 cal to .224 cal sabots for sale. I"m aware of the accelerator loads, and know a few guys who tried them. My question is, why is it always 308 to 224, why not 264-224 or 308 to 257, or even 338-284? Muzzleloaders go from .50-.452, not that big of a jump comparatively. Whats the answer?

A very few of the older guys in my home town use them. Accuracy is acceptable for guys that shoot 'yotes or woodchucks out the window of the farm pickup or off a tractor. Why 308 to 224? Simply that there are more 308 guns in the country than anything else and a .224 is going to give the biggest jump in velocity. The guys who use them around here have one gun for deer, a shotgun for pheasants and a .22lr for everything else. Sabots made sense for some, especially years ago when fur was worth something.