12 GA sabot from ballistic products.

[snuffy]

Just announced, the people at BP have done it, a plastic sabot that we can load ourselves! Sporting a 50 cal. bullet.

http://www.ballisticproducts.com/prodinfo.asp?number=322BLS

The long-awaited arrival is over. Our BLS-12 Ballistic Sabot is now in stock! It took over a year of prototyping and required the development of our own proprietary resin blend, but we got it right. We are finally ready to unveil our own 12 gauge sabot design. Our ballistic lab is launching Hornady .50 cal XTP pistol bullets (300 gr., 350 gr., & 500 gr.) at ultra-high velocities up to 2800 feet per second. We will also be offering a custom designed, fully non-toxic .50 cal bullet (300 gr.). * Maximum Accuracy - Built to maximize the performance of rifled slug barrels. * Non-Toxic Capability - Designed to accept a special 292 grain non-toxic bullet. * Versatile - Load a range of bullets from 300,350 to 500 grains to suit your game. * Tough - Originally designed and tested for tactical and national defense loads. Our special resin blend means that the BLS-12 can handle the toughest conditions and the hardest loads. * Cushioned Design - Our revolutionary Sabot Cushioning System (SCS) reduces spike pressures and allows for higher velocities. *A free load data sheet comes with every purchase.

A pack of 50 sabots alone is $9.99!
A 20 pack with 300 Hornady XTP bullets is $18.99.
A 20 pack with a 350 XTP is also $18.99.

Now, if only I had a rifled barrel for my 870, AND if I were hunting in a slug only area, I'd have some fun working up a load.

The folks at dixie slugs,(Dixie Slugs (dixieslugs.com)-Home of the Dixie Terminator), have experimented with hard cast lead boolits with these sabots. They are getting some interesting results. Read a thread over at cast boolits here;http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=37607

 

[ohman11]

You can use a rifled choke tube on the 870. I can use a Rifle here in Texas but I am from Indiana(Shotguns only when I was growing up.) So I am going to use a shotgun here too. I am going to cast my own slugs.

 

[snuffy]

Ohman11, if it had the screw-in-choke system, it would be an option. Actually it is a 28" trap barrel cut down to 26" to remove the fixed mod choke that was in it. I drilled + tapped it to mount a 4x tasco scope to make it a dedicated slug gun.

After some further research, I find that you would have to get some sort of over-powder wad, plus a couple of cushion/filler wads to take up space. If I were to load this, I would get the fiocchi clear plastic primed hulls from BP,(064121600). Then I would get the BP X12X gas seal,(322X12X). One type of filler wad I have used are these;
http://www.ballisticproducts.com/products.asp?dept=115

Or these;
http://www.ballisticproducts.com/products.asp?dept=116

I really thought there would be more interest in this. Occasionally we see threads started by someone looking to load sabots to escape the high price of the factory loaded shells. If anybody dose a search on here, this should pop up.

 

[snuffy]

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=399789

This is where the real interest is. Ohman11, I went and bought a fully rifled cantilever slug barrel for my 870. Now I can try the Lyman sabot and the lee key slug in a rifled BBL.

I should be ready to make some of the BPI sabot ammo tomorrow. Looks like Saturday will be the day to test some of them. Watch the other thread for my results.

 

[ohman11]

Sounds great, make sure to post results.