Best twist for 50 caliber

[dans]

What would be the ideal twist for a 50 caliber barrel shooting 250 -300 grain Barnes saboted bullets?

[sw]

Stripping sabots used to be a concern; however, I think this just isn’t the factor once thought. Personally, I’ve shot 200SSTs out of a 22 twist 45 at 3100’/sec accurately. I’ve found faster twists in any CF to make the rifle less load critical for any weight/length bullet. Rightly or wrongly I’ve carried this philosophy into MLing.
My 36 twist Douglass barrel in my SMI shot 300g SSTs very accurately at 2400’/sec. we know the 24 twist 50 cal 10ML2 does. Still, I’d likely go with a 20 twist if available. I wish my 22 PacNors were 18-20 for shooting the 225 and 250 Pittman 40 cal AccuMax bullets saboted. 22 twist is too slow.

[ET]

Dec 14, 2019 8:38:09 GMT -5 dans said:

What would be the ideal twist for a 50 caliber barrel shooting 250 -300 grain Barnes saboted bullets?

Good question but with so many variables in play their is no one definitive answer. I've read so many different articles it made my head spin. And to make matters worse different formulas gave different answers. For now I just use one electronic formula to tell me what I need to know.

www.jbmballistics.com/cgi-bin/jbmstab-5.1.cgi

Hope you find something useful.

I also agree with SW's assessment of the 24 twist in the 10ML providing what is needed for a good shooter for the bullets you mentioned.