your thoughts on 180 gr sabots

[garman]

i have a knight disc rifle. i shoot 100 gr of powder with a 180 gr sabot. my question is why don't i see anybody else shooting this bullet? is there something i don't know about them? i live in missouri and hunt only whitetail with mine. as far as bullet drop there is a big differance between the 180 and the 300 gr. i just got this rifle in 2001 so this year was my first for hunting with it. i took my buck at just over 70 steps and it went completely through this deer. why does'nt anybody use them?

 

[Wolfhound]

You don't mention what brand they are. I've got some Hornady 180 gr. bullets I'm going to try in a rifle. If they shoot well, then I'll use em on coyotes. I'm not sure they have enough mass or retained velocity to do the job(on deer sized game) at longer ranges. If I recall corectly, that's about what a round ball weighs for a 50 cal rifle. Coyotes though, that's another story. I think that they'd work well on them.

We too, born to freedom, and believing in freedom, are willing to fight to maintain freedom. We, and all others who believe as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.-Franklin Roosevelt

 

[garman]

the ones i use are made by knight. as far as velocity at 70 steps the bullet passed through a 140 lb deer don't forget our deer don't get near as big as those out west. a big deer for us is 200lbs. i do know also that at 200 yards these sabots will go through 2 2x12s.

 

[Wolfhound]

I don't know where your from. I'm from Illinois and our deer sometimes reach 200. I've heard conflicting data on the energy needed to cleanly dipatch a whitetail deer. 500 ft/lbs and 700 ft/lbs are what I have read. I don't know exactly what bullet you are using, but the ballistics data on the 180 redhot shows sufficent energy out to 150 yds with 100 gr of powder, BARELY! I like to be a little more conservative. It's better to have more than enough to do the job than not enough. Those bullets are supposed to be used with "magnum" charges. I've heard of people using them with 150 gr charges with no problem. If you haven't had any trouble, I'd keep using them, but remember that past 100 yds it's a crap shoot. You don't know for sure what you'll get.

We too, born to freedom, and believing in freedom, are willing to fight to maintain freedom. We, and all others who believe as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.-Franklin Roosevelt

 

[Wolfhound]

Oops, sorry didn't see that you were from Missouri.
We too, born to freedom, and believing in freedom, are willing to fight to maintain freedom. We, and all others who believe as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.-Franklin Roosevelt