TMZ bullets with crush rib sabots

koyote · Nov 6, 2006

I really like how these Barnes 250gr. TMZ's shoot, but do you guys think I could shoot them with Harvester crush rib sabots. Im not sure because these bullets are boat tail and very hard to load with the yellow sabots they come with.

Thanks, Koyote

fairchase · Nov 6, 2006

Try the MMP HPH-24 sabot whey work well for me with all the .451 Barnes bullets.

TripleSe7en · Nov 7, 2006

I would try the TMZs with the regular Harvesters first. I do know the regular Harvesters accepts the boat tail design -- but I never tried the Crush Ribs with a boat-tail.

............."Keep Yer' Powder Dry Fellas".............

koyote · Nov 8, 2006

Thanks for the replys, I went ahead and ordered some crush ribs for my .452 xtp's anyway's. I'll give them a try on the barnes TMZ's and reply back.

rocketrickj · Nov 9, 2006

I have two Omega's and mine works with the yellow sabot that comes with the TMZ. My son's Omega has a tighter barrel and is tough to get them down. I've tried both the regular Harvesters and the crush ribs with the TMZ in my son's. It made it tons easier to push down the barrel and the regular were a better fit than the crush ribs which were almost too loose. A good jar while hiking might unseat the bullet from the sabot. Your barrel will be different but don't leave it too loose.

One thing I found was that I had to cut down on powder. Before I was shooting 90gr of BM3 with the DeadCenter 300gr. With the 300gr TMZ we had to drop to 70gr of BM3. The problem was that occasionally we'd get flyers and tumblers and poor accuracy. I found some of the shot sabots and one was completely torn in half or missing petals. Dropping the powder down resolved everything - we got accuracy and sabot's looked good after firing. No more tumblers.

I was a little concerned about going down to 70gr of powder but on the hunt, I shot a deer from about 140 yards. I thought there would be some drop in the bullet so I put the red dot on the top of his back. That's where it hit. Nailed his back bone and dropped him. The bullet still went through and exited the deer. I have to say I'm very impressed with the flat shooting of those TMZ's.

koyote · Nov 10, 2006

OK, I got to do some testing today with the crush rib sabots and TMZ's. The supplied yellow sabots work better than the crush ribs did. I seemed to get a flyer with the crush rib, and they fit a bit loose for my liking with the .451 TMZ. The crush rib sabots worked great with the sst/shock wave(.452) 250gr.bullets. The fit was perfect and I shot two three shot groups under an inch at 100yds. with 120gr. of 777. Groups with the TMZ's and the yellow sabot were just over an inch. And about 1.5" with crush rib and .452 240gr. XTP's. T/C black diamond XR.

Koyote

TripleSe7en · Nov 11, 2006

Try either 5 or 10 grains less to eliminate those flyers. Another helper-eliminator is a single lubed wonderwad between the powder and sabot.

............."Keep Yer' Powder Dry Fellas".............

JohnnyLegend · Nov 19, 2006

We used the 285 grain tmz with the yellow sabots on our elk hunt this year with 150 grains of triple seven pellets. First they shot great, with our 3-shot groups touching. Secondly, performed great on both our bulls as we each killed a mature bull and the tmz's hammered each bull and they went down quickly. Lastly, the 285 grain/150gr combo had the most energy at 200 yards per any publishing balistic data I could find anywhere. So, per our experinece the Barnes TMZ bullets are the best we have ever used!

J Legend