Harvester Bullets

Anybody have some good or bad feedback on this brand? More importantly tome, how does the crush rib sabot hold up with BH 209?

Cant say much for the bullets outside the 300 grn scorpion PT gold, which I have shot in several rifles and always shot accurately. I have never used them hunting yet. I HAVE shot many hundreds of crush rib sabots with Blackhorn powder (mostly in knights and a TC triumph) and they work well for me. (with several different bullets, in .50 cal guns)

Good brand. The crush ribs were too loose of a fit for my rifles bit the 50 cal smooth black and 45 cal light blues work great.

Ron tested 260grn scorpion and if I remember correctly commented on how well they penetrated. I have shot both 260 and 300 out of my triumph. 300 was most accurate. I would think separation would be less of a concern with bigger bullet. I wouldn't be the least bit afraid to hunt with the Scorpion.

The 300 Scorpion is one of the most accurate bullets available. I've taken several deer with them and had good results.

The CR Sabot works fine with BH 209. It's really a factor of how tight the bullet fits in the barrel. Use the CR Sabot if you have a tight fit. Use the standard if things are a bit loose. I keep both on hand and will switch depending on the gun a d bullets being used.

Both the Harvester and MMP sabot have a set of advantages and disadvantages, as far as I know most of the sabots out there are made by one or the other.
The real key to shooting sabots is in the petal thickness, they have to fit the bullet to your barrel and what makes that an interesting process is the wide tolerance used in making muzzleloader barrels.
Find a sabot that is loadable with your choice of bullet that takes at least 20 pounds of pressure to seat but is not so tight that you want to pound on it.

Thank you for the ML School session this morning Lee. Now I don't have to lug around my Craftsman hammer and hammer-belt into the Huron National Forest for hunting this year. :yeah: :wink:

We have not had success getting them to shoot well in any of our 3 TC's.
I have several packages of the 300s as they initially seemed to work well in Dad's rifle so I bought a few more. Unfortunately they did not end up being consistent.
So, if you want some let me know. They are part of the collection I will sell once our testing is done.

How many bullets do you have and how much do you want for them?

muzz said:

How many bullets do you have and how much do you want for them?

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PM sent as per your request.

im gonna try the 260's first

Harvester stocks them also in 240 grain.

im not sure if the 240's would shoot good out of my optima.

Carlos at Eds gunshop stocks the 240gr and 260gr. $19/50 and $6 shipping IIRC.

muzz said:

im not sure if the 240's would shoot good out of my optima.

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I'd bet they would. 240s-250s-260s are the most popular grain size.

I have been using the 300 gr PT Gold, black Crush Rib sabot, Winchester regular 209 primer and 110 gr of BH 209 as my go to hunting load for the last 2 seasons. It's extremely accurate in all 3 of my Knights, as well as my new Redemption. It's also proven to be very effective on game. I use the 300gr over the 260 because it has better down range ballistics.

Email Harvester for some samples. I did and they sent me 10 sabots (5-44cal bullets in 50 ML and 5-45 cal bullets in 50 ML) and 6 nice bullets in black sabots to try., plus a catalog. Nice people. Going to try them this week.

pooldoc said:

I have been using the 300 gr PT Gold, black Crush Rib sabot, Winchester regular 209 primer and 110 gr of BH 209 as my go to hunting load for the last 2 seasons. It's extremely accurate in all 3 of my Knights, as well as my new Redemption. It's also proven to be very effective on game. I use the 300gr over the 260 because it has better down range ballistics.

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I have used pretty much the same set up the last two years and have taken a doe each of the two muzzy seasons with it in my Optima V2. (Check my sig at the bottom)
It is VERY accurate in my rifle.

As far as I know there is not a bad sabot on the market.
How ever this does not mean that all will fit your gun just right for the best results as barrel bore diameters vary.
You need a petal thickness that it takes both hands to shove down after short starting to loose can be dangerous and inaccurate to tight can cause inaccuracy or stuck loads.
Please refer to the sabot bullet combinations at the top section to get an idea of the variations that are common.

Is there more than the 2 sabot makers? Does harvester even really produce sabots, or is everything just on contract with MMP? Its probably all the same supplier, with only colors varying for different distibutors. Wonder what the options are in Europe? They cant ALL be supplied by one US maker. Im not even sure of the popularity of muzzleloading across the globe.