Anyone try these yet? I'm going to fire some through my TC Impact and see how well they fly. Might get to it tomorrow if my hunny-do list isn't a mile long. I'll report back my thoughts on flight.
Sst-ml
- Thread starter giles
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Never heard of them. I'll have to look into that possibly. I've been pretty happy with the ones I was using (shock wave), but the store I went to today didn't have any and I was interested in these when I seen them a couple months back.
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I shoot a CVA Accura V2 with 150 gr of Tripple 7 pellets pushing a Hornady 240 gr 45 cal XTP Mag in a 50 cal sabot. Pushes a little over 2,000 FPS and knocks em deader than shit. Point and shoot out to 200 yards. I would say those SSTs will do pretty damn good. You also got a hell of a deal on them.
Big_Holla
Senior Member
I've used the Hornady sabot's for years with the .45 JHP inside. They are hard to find any more and looks like the SST's would be a great option to change over to. Just wonder how the polymer tip holds up after being rammed down the barrel or if you have to get some sort of adapter for the end of your rod?
I was happy with the shock waves, just hated trying to force them down the barrel. What a PIA...
After losing a deer that I hit square in the shoulder with a powerbelt, I went back to the shockwave. I have killed a dozen deer with them in the past. But as Giles said, PIA loading them. I lube all the jackets with vaseline now and it helps some
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I shot a small doe down at strouds a couple years ago. High shoulder at 30 yards with a powerbelt with 150 gr of triple 7 behind it. The bullet grenaded and didn't exit. Both front shoulders were polluted with tiny bits of lead. I trimmed all the bloodshot meat and still found bits of lead in the grinder. Had to toss the front half. Haven't shot them since.
I abandoned PBs a while back as well. Got tired of the fragmenting and lack of accuracy. The Shockwaves are the cat's ass out of my Optima Elite.
Lundy
Member
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You are defeating the purpose of the sabot when you lubricate it, or at least one of the purposes that leads to accuracy.
A sabot is used to seal the gasses and provide friction and contact with the rifling in the barrel. Lubricating a sabot can cause some significant accuracy issues.
A tighter fitting sabot bullet combination will typically provide better accuracy than a loose fitting combination. That said all barrels vary slightly and some of the standard sabots bullet combo's are damn near impossible to load, certainly not any fun. Sabot manufacturers have tried to address that problem in a couple of ways. One is to make a crush rib sabot that compresses more easily on tight fitting barrels and they work OK. Another way is to make the sabots in slightly different sizes to address barrel differences. A friend of mine was really unhappy and ready to get rid of his Thompson Omega a few years ago for a couple of reasons. The primary reason was that it so difficult to get the bullet down the barrel. I sent him some MPP HPF 24 sabots that are .002 smaller and they work like a charm and he shots sub MOA with them at 100 yds all day long. The only other problem was he had to quit shoot that nasty Tripe 7 to get rid of that terrible crud ring that made reloading and cleaning difficult. He shoots BH209 now and all is good.
MZ's are no different that any other gun in that you need to find what works best in your gun, trying to cheat the system never allows you to fully appreciate the potential of the gun.
I would suggest you order some crush rib sabots and some MPP HPF 24 sabots, shoot BH 209 if you can find it, and have a gun that will shoot little bitty groups downrange. It is really easy to get great accuracy out of any MZ, the low cost and the high end, they all shoot about the same out to 100 yds, you just need to understand what you need and where to get it.
This will help with some of the sabot explanation and availability. Harvester makes good sabots, but so does MMP, in fact at smokeless pressure Harvester isn't always the best choice. I shoot the MMP sabot's they work well for me
http://mmpsabots.com/store/hph-sabot-series/
Just say NO to Powerbelts!!!
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Lundy
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Just my observations and personal opinion. I have nothing against SST's they work very well. However I have been hunting with Barnes bullets in my MZ's for over 20 years and have extreme confidence in their ability to do the job even when I haven't done my job as well as I could with shot placements, Shoot them in the shoulder, full stem to stern, it doesn't matter, they plow through and stay together with great damage on the way. I know of no other bullet for a MZ that I can say that about at such a wide range of velocities.
It would never be a bad choice for any of the Barnes 4 MZ designed bullets.
http://www.barnesbullets.com/muzzleloaders/expander-mz/
It would never be a bad choice for any of the Barnes 4 MZ designed bullets.
http://www.barnesbullets.com/muzzleloaders/expander-mz/
They had BH209 at this store also...should I go back and buy it? I'll need to pick up a way to measure the powder also, any suggestions on that?
Lundy
Member
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You don't have to have BH209, but I think, as do many, that it is the best available powder today for MZ's. Very clean( no barrel swabbing required for reloads), very energy efficient (fast), less corrosive, easy cleanup. Not all guns have a flame path design that ignites it well, most do however.
Any powder measure will work, you will be measuring any of the powders by volume. Follow the load recommendations on the powder container and do not exceed the powder rating of the gun.
USE a witness mark on your ram rod. The most common bad times with a MZ are when it is double loaded or the bullet has moved off of is not fully seated of the powder charge
Any powder measure will work, you will be measuring any of the powders by volume. Follow the load recommendations on the powder container and do not exceed the powder rating of the gun.
USE a witness mark on your ram rod. The most common bad times with a MZ are when it is double loaded or the bullet has moved off of is not fully seated of the powder charge
I was very pleased with how this bullet flew out of my gun. I was also very pleased with its performance on a deer. Deer didn't do anything but drop. High shoulder shot took out both lungs and some spin. Complete pass through @120'ish yards.
I'm not sure if I'd taken a shot with any distance yesterday with it, as I havent shit this bullet with any cross winds yet.
I'm not sure if I'd taken a shot with any distance yesterday with it, as I havent shit this bullet with any cross winds yet.