[bigbadgun]

I need to ask the question can minie balls be used in a slow twist brl and be as accurate as the sabot round. the twist rate is 1/28

[Voodoochile]

The 1:28 twist in the modern inlines is more suited for the saboted pistol bullets & projectiles like the Power Belts but not great for the really heavy Mini Balls & Plains bullets unless the charge is reduced sufficiently.

Now if you have a 1:48 twist it'll work really well with a Mini Ball with a little bit more charge behind it & the 1:66 twist is really better suited for PRB's but they can work decently with Mini Ball loads, My Navy Arms Zouave had a 1:60 twist "or close to it" & it worked really well in competition when I was using the 500gr Rapine molded .577 Mini Ball & 55gr. FFFG Goex.

[bigbadgun]

ok so best to stick with what is proven to work.
The inline is an old CVA Blazer and I have taken a couple of hog and a deer with sabots
however those little pieces of plastic and the bullet they are very expensive.

[Brillo]

I guess I'm going to have to disagree with Voodoochile on a few points. While 1:28 twist barrels are the only twist rate that will shoot sabot rounds very well, I have excellent success with conicals, especially when I upload them. The conicals I've been successful with in my 1:28 barrels include the following: mini ball, maxi-hunter, maxi-ball, great plains, and REAL conicals, and the Power-Belt rounds. Only the shortest (lightest) maxi-hunters and REAL bullets work well in my 1:48 twist barrels. I will never buy another 1:48 twist barrel as they really don't do anything very well. Mostly I shoot Ball-ets out of my 1:48 barrels and always uploaded to get enough spin rate to stabilize them. The general rules are that longer bullets require higher spin rates to stabilize them which is why a 1:66 barrel won't stabilize conicals very well, even at max loads. There are only two ways to get the necessary spin to stabilize a bullet whether it be a sabot or conical round and that is the twist rate and the muzzle velocity. Obviously there is only so much you can do to increase the muzzle velocity in a slow twist barrel without overloading it. These are my experiences and seem to follow the general ballistics principles.

[alsaqr]

My old CVA Stag Horn has a 1:32 twist. It shoots the 370 grain Maxi Balls into 2" groups at 100 yards. That cheap gun also puts three 240 grain .430 XTP bullets into a cloverleaf 100 yards using the short black sabot.

[bigbadgun]

I think maybe I am spoiled from shooting my Hawkens and round balls.
Very cheap gun to shoot.