[Misfire99]

Hi All
I took my cva 54 cal with 1-32 twist out to see how it liked a couple of different bullets. I shot power belt 406 grain bullets and some Buffalo Bullet company 460 grainround nose flat base bullets. The powerbelts shot for crap. Had about a six inch group at fifty yards. This is just not exceptable. The Buffalo bullets did much better. All of them were touching except for the ones I jerked the trigger on, my shoulder was getting sore. The Buffalo bullets fit very tight in the bore. Had to really work to get them started they were so tight. The power belts almost fell in. I suspect this is why they didn't shoot so well. I also noticed when I walked out to check my target that I could only find one belt on the ground. I suspect this means that the others didn't come off as they should.

So my question is for the other shooter here what bullets do you like and why? How do they fit in the bore, tight or lose? And how do sabots compare to regular bullets? And what powder charge, and type of powder, do you like for that bullet? Thanks.

[arcticap]

What's nice about the .54 is that you can use the appropriate size .54 sabots and choose between using .430 bullets (.44 magnum), .45 bullets (.45-70), 50 cal. bullets (conicals), or .shooting straight 54 conicals & PRB's.
I shoot tight fitting .54 sabots with .45 caliber bullets in my inline. The most popular .44 or .45 bullet/sabots are 240 -250 grains, but I shoot some 225 grain lead HP Buffalo Bullets that are even lighter, and which are equivalent in weight to a .54 roundball. I load them on top of 100 grains of APP fffg for hunting.
My son's 1 in 48" .50 caliber shoots a 240 lead bullet/TC Break-O-Way sabot, on top of 90 grains of Pyrodex P and he can out shoot me. ;)
Plain lead bullets usually work just fine and are less expensive too. Sometimes sabots will shoot inconsistently as the barrel warms up or dependent on where they release the bullet. But the the first shot is usually very accurate once you find the right one.
I usually don't shoot any .45 bullets/sabots over 300 grains because they produce more felt recoil and just aren't as accurate in my 1 in 28".
The longer and heavier the .45 bullet, the more difficult it is to stabilize them depending on the barrel twist. So only by experimenting will you find out what sabots will shoot well in your rifle.

[Misfire99]

Thanks Arcticap. I was hoping to get more information from the users on the forum to help keep the cost of experimenting down. I only shot three of the powerbelt bullets and knew that they wouldn't shoot in my rifle. Now I have ten dollars worth of bullets that I don't want or need. But I did go today and buy five different bullets and will test them to see how they shoot. There are some bullets that are very expensive, about two dollars each, and these I didn't buy.
I was reading the Precision Rifle web site and they have a wealth of information about their testing. I know that there are a ton of guys here that have done testing. When I posted this I was hoping that a lot of people would chip in what they had learned about what shoots and what doesn't shoot and why, it's the and why part that's important. We could then make all the information into a sticky so testing wouldn't be so hit or miss.