Sabotless bullet sizes

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jims

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For those few that have shot sabotless, does the bullet generally have to be about .008 less than the barrel size? I see .450 bullets mentioned in a .458 barrel, .400 in a .408 and perhaps a 9.3 mm (.366) in a .375.
I realize many States have a minimum bore size for big game but if a State did not carrying this further would a .358 bullet work in the 9.3 barrel or a .257 in a .264 barrel?
Also if anyone has a 9.3 bullet available (not the cartridge just the projectile) they would be willing to send me I would appreciate it. I want to test the fit in my .375 barrel without buying $50 worth to try. I of course would pay mailing, for the bullet etc. Thanks
 
Maybe. My PacNor is a loose fit with even a 452 and it's a 458 CM. All others have been tighter to the best of RB's and my understanding. I used a SS PacNor of RB's, his own gun, to kill a nice deer with a 275 Parker BE which had a perfect fit. Yet my 458 barrel lets a 250SST fall to the breech end. We think this barrel is an anomoly and hopefully, likely will be replaced by PacNor. My loads and accuracy have always been different than all other PacNor 458 owners. Mine will only shoot duplex with 4759 or 5744 as the priming powder even with saboted 40 cal bullets, and then Knight only, MMP/Harvester are too loose. Now my Rem 700 MLS has a perfect fit with 250SSTs, sabotless :D , and its a 458 - obviously with 0.003" lands. If my PacNor is actually 450 groove, the lands are somewhat less than 0.003".
RB and I are really interested in the fit of the 0.400" bullets in the 408 PacNor, which hasn't arrived yet.
Once again, the answer is "maybe".
 
SW said:
Maybe. My PacNor is a loose fit with even a 452 and it's a 458 CM. All others have been tighter to the best of RB's and my understanding. I used a SS PacNor of RB's, his own gun, to kill a nice deer with a 275 Parker BE which had a perfect fit. Yet my 458 barrel lets a 250SST fall to the breech end. We think this barrel is an anomoly and hopefully, likely will be replaced by PacNor. My loads and accuracy have always been different than all other PacNor 458 owners. Mine will only shoot duplex with 4759 or 5744 as the priming powder even with saboted 40 cal bullets, and then Knight only, MMP/Harvester are too loose. Now my Rem 700 MLS has a perfect fit with 250SSTs, sabotless :D , and its a 458 - obviously with 0.003" lands. If my PacNor is actually 450 groove, the lands are somewhat less than 0.003".
RB and I are really interested in the fit of the 0.400" bullets in the 408 PacNor, which hasn't arrived yet.
Once again, the answer is "maybe".

The word from Casey at Pac-Nor is the loose fitting barrel is a fluke. He said the 45 caliber barrel should be no bigger than .4505" at the lands and if something bigger got into the field he'd be happy to replace it.

I also asked about the 40 caliber barrel and he said the same thing about it. So the lands should be between .40 and .4005 or they will replace the item. That would indicate to me a near perfect fit could be expected.

The barrels I ordered are in shipping at this time. They left Oregon on the 25th and they should be in my hands soon.
 
RBinAR said:
The barrels I ordered are in shipping at this time. They left Oregon on the 25th and they should be in my hands soon.

KOOL! :applause:
 
A point that needs to be made I believe is the extreme quality of the barrels RB is using. Std barrels have a max of +/-0.01 variance, semi-match max of 0.005", and match grade have +/-0.001" variance from end to end. This is what competition shooters, such as benchrest and Palma shooters use - ie no expense spared in the barrel. RB's barrels are match grade. I think that only the Bad Bull(at only $3,000 a gun) also uses a match grade barrel. His product is second to none. When I had his 45 for a short while , which I killed a nice deer with, I was so impressed with the absolute consistency of resistance as I seated both the bore sized Parkers and saboted 200SSTs.
 
SW,

Good point on the low variation of the barrel.

RB,

What does Pac-Nor recommend for a .50 cal barrel? I see they have .500" .505" and .510" barrels in their line.

thanks...jim
 
HunterJim said:
SW,

Good point on the low variation of the barrel.

RB,

What does Pac-Nor recommend for a .50 cal barrel? I see they have .500" .505" and .510" barrels in their line.

thanks...jim

Jim I don't think they have a recommended barrel for 50 caliber but I know they have 1 in 26 and 1 in 38 twist in that caliber.
 
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