Aluminum sabots

[Whacked]

So used to shooting 240, 250 and 300gr sabots from my Traditions Strikerfire and Optima V2 pistol
Then I saw this:
100gr?
Aluminum????

https://www.muzzle-loaders.com/bullets/thor-aluminum-bullets-gg-mmp-sabots-100-grain-15-pack.html

tempted to pick up a pack to try out but a bit leery.
would think that with a lighter sabot would use a lighter powder load?

Anyone try these yet?

 

[frontiergander]

My 1:48 twist shot them great with 90gr olde eynsford.

 

[arcticap]

The light weight aluminum bullets that are made by Thor Bullets and now on the market do not have the plastic tips.
Their 60 & 63 grain bullets can reportedly reach velocities of about 3000 FPS without any more felt recoil than shooting a .22 rimfire rifle.
The lack of recoil and their fine accuracy potential could make them a lot of fun to shoot out of a muzzle loading pistol or rifle.

Thor's website lists 4 different aluminum bullets with .45 & .50 sabots including a 100 grain .458, along with 60 & 63 grain in .40 and 451.
https://www.thorbullets.com/services1.html
Three of them are sold at muzzle-loaders.com: thor aluminum saboted bullets

What peaked my interest in seeing how this bullet weight performs was recently looking at a Taurus Raging Hornet revolver which in turn led me
to come across this video below of a hog kill at 50 yards with a 45 grain Sierra .22 Hornet bullet.

Very lethal head shot at the 1:50 mark which just goes to show how effectively speed kills.

In addition, Lehigh Bullets lists a 97 grain .458 bullet for use with the .45-70 that also reaches 3000 FPS without much of any felt recoil.
https://www.lehighbullets.com/product/458-300-458-cqb/

 

[Patocazador]

Very lethal head shot at the 1:50 mark which just goes to show how effectively speed kills.

ANY well-placed head shot kills. High speed isn't a requirement.

I have also seen light-weight high-speed bullets simply stun an animal (deer, hog) so it's really back to bullet placement.

 

[whughett]

As a kid on the farm often wondered why dad head shot the beef with a 22 short, but sledged the hogs. It dawned on me in later life that we ate pig brains but not beef brains. Senior moments from an old guy.

 

[Snidely70431]

If you are encasing a projectile in a sabot, the projectile can be constructed out of anything, as the projectile never touches the bore. Lead has a specific gravity of 11.8 (11.8 times the weight of an equal volume of water), aluminum about 2.7, brass about 8.6, glass about 2.6, gold 19.2, silver 10.5, steel 7.8, tungsten 19.22. It would be interesting to see the penetration you would get with a 250 grain steel projectile pushed to 2000 fps.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

It would be interesting to see the penetration you would get with a 250 grain steel projectile pushed to 2000 fps.

I now of a couple of fellows online who reported a test with steel. They found a ball bearing maker that had a wide variety and very precise ball bearings. So with the California lead-ban they tried some steel, ball bearings and pretty thick patching in their traditional rifles. The slightly undersized steel ball fit fine with the thick patches, but due to lower weight from the mass of the steel vs. the pure lead that they were used to, they had to adjust their powder loads to have the new projectiles hit where the fixed sights were aimed. Prior to the adjustment the higher velocity = higher impact on the target.

So...., they were in the desert doing the test shooting. All was going pretty well, but ya know, deserts are sand and rocks.

So they are mostly done with their experiment, and one of them sees an odd "puff" off to the side of the target-berm when his partner shoots. Several more rounds fired, and he noticed a few more "puffs" in the sand, though not in the same place, and not every time. Some were closer to the firing line, some were closer to the berm, and these happened on either side of his partner's target. The next round his partner fired, he heard a faint "whizzing" noise..., but didn't see puff anywhere in the sand. The man shooting heard it too. "Did ya hear that? What was that?" they asked each other. It was probably a louder noise than they realized, but they had their ear protection in so...,

..., On the next round the fellow heard the "whizz", and saw a silver glint pass between he and the shooter. Seems that given the right surface and angle on impact at 50 yards, a steel ball bearing launched at about 1500 fps, will ricochet..., They chose not to use the ball bearings, and doing a test a few weeks later, they settled on brass balls for hunting in California.

LD