sabot shelf life

[youp50]

How long can one expect a sabot to remain useable? What breaks them down? Would a gas tight container and an argon purge make them last longer?

The reason for this is my favorite bullet/sabot combination is being improved. That leaves me with what I have. There should be enough for years of hunting. I surely do not want to find the sabots deteriorated in ten or twenty years. Much after that I guess it won't matter.

[dannoboone]

But, perhaps, the new-improved sabot/bullet combo will give ya 1/4"
groups!?! ;D

Heat and/or light breaks plastic down, don't know about other
factors. Oxygen may also be a factor, as it is in fruits. Fruit growers
who want to keep their produce fresh replace air with carbon
dioxide, making certain there is no oxygen in air-tight containers.
Would this work for extended periods with sabots??

[ET]

I agree with DB about sunlight and heat being detrimental to sabots. As for longevity I honestly don’t know. I still have some original short MMP sabots that I bought about 5-years ago and periodically fire a few rounds with 230XTP’s that show no real deterioration. These sabots are just stored in a drawer in the basement.

Ed

[mshm99]

This makes me wonder if people ,200 years from now , will be searching my area looking for spent sabots like we look for knapped arrow heads today?

Five years from now,we will have move on to something else to replace the sabots we use today.

mshm

[jims]

I asked MMP that question once and they said if they were kept relatively cool (at least out of harsh heat) and in a dark area they would last indefinitely. Dannoboone nailed it.

[rbinar]

8-)Plastics are one of the hardest things to specify a rate of degradation. Some plastics have virtual half lives of 10,000 years or longer.

What does that mean. If you store sabots away from heat intense enough to melt them they will last longer that we will.