Shooting sabotless....bullet recommendations.

[Chris W.]

Ok...I've got a .45 caliber knight ultra-lite on order. I plan on shooting sabotless with this rifle, so I'm already starting to think about bullets. For sabotless shooting, what bullets have you had good success with in sizing and overall performance?

 

[sabotloader]

you might take a look at this thread. Some pic's have been deleted and I can not edit them to put them back in. But still enough info to start some thinking.

Lehigh .458x260CF Sabotless | Modern Muzzleloader

 

[ENCORE50A]

FURY Black powder muzzleloader (furycustombullets.com)

Arrowhead NSR Arrowhead 45cal NSR Muzzleloader Bullets – Arrowhead Rifles

Both used by hundreds if not thousands of shooters/hunters.

 

[HC]

Have you acquired an adjustable sizing die?

 

[Chris W.]

Have you acquired an adjustable sizing die?

Yep, I ordered one from Hankins Precision. It came in last week. Already have a Lee press. Now just thinking about bullets.

 

[Chris W.]

you might take a look at this thread. Some pic's have been deleted and I can not edit them to put them back in. But still enough info to start some thinking.

Lehigh .458x260CF Sabotless | Modern Muzzleloader

I've seen you post about the Lehigh CF bullet a good bit. They are intriguing. I wonder how difficult they would be to run thru a sizing die using a Lee hand press?

 

[sabotloader]

I've seen you post about the Lehigh CF bullet a good bit. They are intriguing. I wonder how difficult they would be to run thru a sizing die using a Lee hand press?

That is what I use with a .454 sizing die...

But, I have also found that I really don't need to resize them. 1. you are not resizing the whole bullet you are only sizing the drive barbs around the bullet. I found that I can use a what I call a bump stick to push them through the crown of the barrel. Once through the crown they load with a normal ram rod.

You can use a normal short starter or fashion a bump sick that really works well.

These bullets a very accurate and have great Terminal Ballistics.

 

[HC]

Chris, those bullets should go through the lee hand press with ease, your only sizing the barbs.

 

[52Bore]

A Big heavy conical..

 

[ENCORE50A]

Chris it would help if your intentions, mostly future intentions were known. Lots of good bullets.


300gr Arrowhead XLD with BH209. Sized in a CLEAN bore at 9#.

Two 5 shot groups at 107yds.




Lots of energy at range..........



Arrowhead 300gr XLD ......... 120grs VOLUME of BH209

 

[Chris W.]

Chris it would help if your intentions, mostly future intentions were known. Lots of good bullets.


300gr Arrowhead XLD with BH209. Sized in a CLEAN bore at 9#.

Two 5 shot groups at 107yds.

View attachment 13584


Lots of energy at range..........

View attachment 13585

Arrowhead 300gr XLD ......... 120grs VOLUME of BH209

View attachment 13586

That's some good shooting right there.

This will be primarily a deer rifle with the occasional chasing of wild hogs up on the Cumberland Plateau. Depending on the area, shooting ranges can be right underneath the stand on out to 200 yards or so. My .50 caliber Optima is setup to shoot 270 gr, 44 caliber Speer deep curls with Harvester sabots and 110 gr of blackhorn by volume. It's done well but I've been wanting a fast twist .45 and to start moving away from sabots.

 

[ENCORE50A]

That's some good shooting right there.

This will be primarily a deer rifle with the occasional chasing of wild hogs up on the Cumberland Plateau. Depending on the area, shooting ranges can be right underneath the stand on out to 200 yards or so. My .50 caliber Optima is setup to shoot 270 gr, 44 caliber Speer deep curls with Harvester sabots and 110 gr of blackhorn by volume. It's done well but I've been wanting a fast twist .45 and to start moving away from sabots.

I'll just mention this for the record Once you start catching on to these fast twist 45cal rifles, it can get you bad. You find out what the rifle and a good bullet, and there are lots of them, will do at 200yds and then guess what.............. you want to know what it'll do at 300yds. Then guess what................ LOL

Any of the mentioned bullets so far will get you to 200yds and should do well on game. If you decide on the "or so", which I assume is beyond 200yds, then really good bullets.

Good luck. Hoping to see some target photos in the future.

 

[ronlaughlin]

..........I've been wanting a fast twist .45 and to start moving away from sabots.

Fury bullets is a good place to start/finish.

 

[sdporter]

All the above but, don’t forget Parker bullets. The Ballistic Extreme has shot pretty well for me from my Austin and Halleck, and I didn’t have to size them.

 

[brad502a]

i shoot the 275 Fury tipped bullet. Very nice.

 

[mgwett]

Parker’s fit perfectly down my ultra lite .45 without sizing (may not be the same for your barrel though). The 270 grain Parker Emax shoot about 1/2 inch group at 100 yards for me. They have a .015 jacket thickness so they engage the rifling very easily when fired. I’ll be testing some of the Parker black max bullets this summer to see how they shoot as they have a thicker jacket and should hold together better. Few others I plan to try would be the arrowhead and Pittman bullets. Both those options would require sizing (come as .452) so you’d need an adjustable sizing die with them.

 

[Chris W.]

I appreciate all the input. Thanks

 

[45-70]

I've seen you post about the Lehigh CF bullet a good bit. They are intriguing. I wonder how difficult they would be to run thru a sizing die using a Lee hand press?

don't try

 

[sabotloader]

That is what I am doing and it is really pretty easy with the CF sabotless bullet

 

[Chris W.]

Another question for the group........use a wad or no wad?