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- Dec 24, 2009
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I would love to see Harvester or MMP make a greatly improved sabot. If you have ever looked at the base of the Harvester 54x45 sabot or even a Knight 52cal sabot you will see the first step IMO to make a really tough sabot. The powder cup in the base of that 54cal Harvester sabot is brutally thick. Max load of BH209 and a 300gr bullet hardly phase either of them.
Next is longer petals. IMO the polymer is fine in the Harvester. Guys have been shooting that sabot with a 200gr bullet well over 2600fps for ages with loads making over 30kpsi. You wont ever make 32kpsi with BH209 and a 45cal sabot load so it aint the peak pressure that is killing the Harvester sabot. Its most likely the bullet since the Lehigh and Barnes have done it also.
Guys have managed to shoot the 250gr cup and core bullets faster without blowing the sabot? So it aint the sabot per say. Its the combination of a long/heavy/hard monolithic bullet in that sabot. You need to grab the bearing surface better with the petals and beef up the base a little too.
The transition on the base of the bullet from bottom to side has to be perfect. Too rounded it blows sabots, too sharp it blows sabots. We learned this when Barnes sent out a bad batch of 195s and all of a sudden known good loads were shredding sabots.
Something like this might help the CEB 40cals grab the sabot petals better too.
Next is longer petals. IMO the polymer is fine in the Harvester. Guys have been shooting that sabot with a 200gr bullet well over 2600fps for ages with loads making over 30kpsi. You wont ever make 32kpsi with BH209 and a 45cal sabot load so it aint the peak pressure that is killing the Harvester sabot. Its most likely the bullet since the Lehigh and Barnes have done it also.
Guys have managed to shoot the 250gr cup and core bullets faster without blowing the sabot? So it aint the sabot per say. Its the combination of a long/heavy/hard monolithic bullet in that sabot. You need to grab the bearing surface better with the petals and beef up the base a little too.
The transition on the base of the bullet from bottom to side has to be perfect. Too rounded it blows sabots, too sharp it blows sabots. We learned this when Barnes sent out a bad batch of 195s and all of a sudden known good loads were shredding sabots.
Something like this might help the CEB 40cals grab the sabot petals better too.