sighting in smokepoles

[shorthair15]

well me and my son went out yesterday to do some shooting. it was a great day for it on the way to our spot. we saw a 5 by 6 bull elk in a clear cut about 70 yards away :yike:this bull sure had a really dark neck and face on him. then when we were going down the gravel road to our spot and we see a cow and her calf. we also saw three deer. my question is when your shooting saboted bullets. the sabots are suppose to peel open when you find them. i found some that were peeled back in three spots like there suppose to. then i found some hornandy sabots that were from the sst's that were not peeled open. i was useing 90 grains powder. im thinking maybe i should up the charge to 100 or 110 grains. i shot some barnes tmz's at 50 yds and i was hitting close to bullseye all most every time with the harvester sabots. i will shoot at 75 yds and 100 yds next time i took a couple shots at 75 yds. most of the animals i see especially deer are 50 yds are less usually. i saw 2 more deer today ive seen more deer this year then ive seen in years

[lokidog]

If it is a really tight sabot it will need more force to pull it off, a looser sabot will pop off, maybe without opening up.  I would focus more on the accuracy than worrying about what the leftover sabot looks like.

Good luck.

[carpsniperg2]

yeah i always use to worry about my sabots. but i have found to concentrate on your groups and if they are good then don't even worry about what the sabot looks like.

[bobcat]

The other day when I was shooting, the sabots that I did see and picked up, looked almost like they could have been used again. I'm not sure I've ever seen a sabot with the petals all peeled back. 

[Skillet]

I was shooting this last weekend and found something interesting.  Wehn the sabot opened all four petals evenly, I was dead-nuts on.  When only 3 of the 4 opened up, my bullet flew into the upper left quadrant.  Up to 8" out.  Ran a few checks, and turns out if the 4 petals weren't looking equally spaced when the round is started down the bore, only 3 of the petals opened up and I get a flyer out of it.  This was only with my plinker rounds, the knight all-lead bullets and "soft" black sabots.  My T/C sabots seem to be a little stiffer, and the petals didn't seem to have the tendancy to get "off center" when the bullet/sabot combo was started.