Knight 45 Elite with 250gr Barnes TEZ Sabotless

I wanted to experiment with some sabotless shooting with the Elite and some Barnes all copper bullets. I had 4 of the Barnes 250gr TEZ flat base bullets left, so off to the range.

I loaded a 195gr Barnes Expander first to check my POI, it hit about an inch low of the bullseye at 100 yards. I then lightly knurled the 250gr TEZ. After trimming the petals off a MMP sabot and placing it in the barrel, I loaded the bullet which only took a little effort to get the base of the bullet passed the crown, then it slid down the barrel with very little pressure on the ramrod, IMO, too little pressure. The next 3 shots, I tried to put a heavier knurl on the bullet which did load with more resistance and seemed more accurate for me.


1st shot with light knurl: high and right
2 and 3 with more knurl: left of bullseye, right of bullseye
4th: low on bullseye
no cool down between shots

with all 4 shots, 2 3/4 inch group, not too bad and will get the job done on a deer at 100yds but I need to get some more TEZ bullets to see if the more aggressive knurl will hold a tighter group. Leave out the light knurl shot and it measures 1 3/4 inch. All shots were with 120gr of BH209.







After letting my barrel cool down, I shot a 3 shot group with the 195gr Barnes Expanders with a blue Harvester sabot and 120gr of BH209. No cool down between shots, all bullets shot with a light knurl. This will be my hunting load this fall, although I will be doing some cold weather testing between the Harvester and MMP sabots this winter.

Slightly less than 3/4 inch group. The low shot is my first shot on a clean barrel before the sabotless test.

Pretty hard to pursue the sabotless route when it shoots the 195's that good! Nice shooting!

Those 195 gr BXs are an awesome bullet. All they need is a sexy blue plastic tip.

The Barnes 195s are proven deer takers.

BuckDoeHunter

I have been doing about the same experiments only working with the 50 cal more than the 45...

What I have found is the knurling using standard mil files was not quite aggressive enough so I have switched to the rougher bastard type file. With this more course file I have been able to get the bite in the bore that seems to work for me.

Instead of cutting sabots I am using MMP sub-bases, but since you are shooting a 45 a sub-base would not be available...

Thanks for the file info Sabotloader, I hope to pick a couple up soon.

Dude I would so like to try those.

Sent from my SGH-S959G using Tapatalk 2

Sabotless accuracy can be achieved. Ii have done a lot of experimenting & it can get frustrating but if you stay patient you will come up with the right load eventually. I have found the PT Gold bullet to be a very consistent sabotless performer in both the 240 & 260gr weights.