Dinger Farm - Testing Lehigh 45 cal Sabotless

[sabotloader]

Got a small package of Lehigh 45 cal Sabotless bullets the other day from Dave and have been itching to shoot them.

I have already shot version 0 of this bullet - it was accurate as heck, but I did suggest some thoughts for revision of the bullet and the possibilety that it might be a more universal fit to many 45 cal guns.

Revsion 2 showed up last week and at first glance you really do not see much of a change... which is good it should not effect accuracy.... I was suppose to get a Revision 1 also but it got short changed in the mail - which is alright with me 2 is better I am sure.

Here is a picture that might help you see the changes....



The gas/engraving rings have been moved up the bullet and an extra ring has been added. It is my thought that this should provide more stability to the bullet in loading and shooting. It will be much more difficult to load it crooked or for it to move any on its way out the bore - should load and come out straight.

The other change occurred in the base of the bullet - the 'minnie cup' the cup was deepened and the walls were thinned, I beleive that this will insure the cups obturation to the bore and provide a positive gas seal at the base of the bullet. I was thinking this might be important especially for those shooting real smokeless like the Savage crowd and even should help those of us that shoot reduced loads.

I guess Dave went along with these thoughts as he gave it a try and now the testing...

"Ole #71"... is a very tight bored Knight DISC Elite. Loading version 0 was difficult - not impossible but difficult. Tom's Remington 700 ml - 45 cal is the opposite... its bore is a little larger and think would represent the bigger bores - so I took both guns to the farm...

It did seem to me that these new bullets even with the extra gas ring loaded a little easier than the older variety. I still think I would like to see Dave reduce the base and the ogive to .448 instead of 0.448.5 - I really believe this would add more versitilty to the bullet and not harm accuracy or gas seal.

In the Remington once that short starter had them in... they went down very well. Tight enough to insure thay will not come off the powder but yet tight enough you had to use a firm pressure on the rod to get them down.

In either case you do need an appropriate bullet starting jag to fit the bullet - I happen to be using a 'Spin Jag' that works very well.

Here is the target from today's activity... On the Remington target there was a couple of scope moves involved... and I think my Tasco World Class is nearing the end of it's useful life.



In any case I think Lehigh Dave is making progress on this venture.....

[jhm]

Interesting. I wonder how they would fit in my Pacnor/Savage. When will they be available?

[sabotloader]

jhm

I believe that Dave is developing a sabotless bullet for the 1/20 PacNor barrel.

I am not sure when they or any of the sabotless might be ready for retail...

I do know that he is swamped with bullet and accessory orders - so I do not know where development time will come from...

[ourway77]

Thanks for a very informative post, I too have been trying different no sabot bullets. So far there are not too many on the market. I will be looking forward to hear that they are FS. I bought 10 packs of the Hornady sabotless bullets. I have been sort of laid up with a bum leg. So i haven't shot them yet. One thig I have found out they are a devil to seat, I have been taking them and short starting them at home so that at the range they will be alot easier to seat. I also want to try some MMP sub bases behind the sabotless bullet this should offer a better seal? I use these sub bases in my Savage ML'er II. As soon as the weather gets a little cooler I will try and venture out to give them a try. Lou

[rossman40]

The thing to watch with hollow base bullets is the chamber pressure. When you reach the max for the bullet/skirt thickness fouling will occur. Go too much farther and the pressure on the skirt will act as a brake and even possibly rip the skirt off the bullet (Elmer Keith called this "skirting"). Your MVs look good so your probly OK for now. How the same bullet would act with higher pressure smokeless,, who knows. But from my experiance if you go beyond the envelope things can get bad quick, the rate of fouling can get worse by the shot. I think with a ML you would notice it getting harder to load.