Muzzleloader

[Mortgage Man]

Ya we definitely need more details on that gun!! Great job on a good buck....Muzzleloaders are a blast!!

[edge]

The breechplug is made from 4140 steel and is made from two pieces. The outer section that can be seen is bored for a modified 45 acp case. I bore out the primer pocket of the 45 case to accept a 209 primer, and I also run it through a 30-06 sizing die to put taper on the case. When the bolt closes it makes a tight fit on the OD of the case.

The center of the breechplug which is a shrink fit into the OD threaded section has a snout that comes within 0.005 of the headspaced acp case and has an ID that is a snug fit for the end of the 209 primer that extends inside the case.

Primary sealing is on the outside of the 209 primer similar to the Savage design and secondary sealing is on the case OD, but the cases stay clean and do not need cleaning.

The sabots are made on a CNC lathe from PVC Type II plastic. They are rifled for a snug slip fit in my barrel, but the OD has several raised ridges to grip the grooves of the bore for a tight fit. The rifling is accomplished by taking a regular Manchester style grooving tool and laying it sideways and shimming it to be on-center. The lathe is programmed for an 8 start thread with a 14 inch pitch.

Through extensive testing, I found the optimum place for the rear groove to ensure that the rigid sabot petals broke cleanly and did not interfere with the bullet/sabot separation.

While machining takes less than a minute for each sabot, sawing and deburring the saw-cut takes another 2 minutes. The boat tail makes deburring much harder and for experimenting I make sabots flat based and shoot non boat tailed bullets since they require much less time to debur.

edge.

I also shrink fit a drill bushing into the breechplug as a permanent flash hole.

[royinidaho]

edge,

There's nothing like a well planned deer hunt. Especially when everything's wrong and everthing's right.

Good goin'!!!

[wildworks]

Edge

what kind of accuracy do you get with that gun?
what is the twist rate?
Is it leagal for ML season?

thanks

[edge]

Good questions [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I am working through an issue that most feel is either scope or bedding related.

If I were to shoot a 5 or 6 shot group, I would expect 3 or 4 to be easily under 1/2 moa. I also may have a completely separate group the will be 1 to 1 1/4 to the right of the first group, but also under 1/2 moa.

I have installed a steel 1 pc. rail base, but have not zeroed my scope to prove if the 2 pc base was the problem or not.
If this does not solve the problem, then I will buy a laminated stock.

edge.

PS this is very typical of my groups, 2 or three center, and the 1 or 2 right. This particular group was left, right, left, right. ( 100 yards, 3x9 scope, and I admit to being a poor bench shooter. Much better in the field, and much better with a shotgun....I slap the trigger [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] )



Twist is 1:14

Legal in many but not all States [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

[wildworks]

edge

the reason i ask about the accuracy is that i have looked into the sabot for 30 cal bullet and all that i found from guys that tried it was accuracy was very unpredictable. Most thought this came from the thick plastic jacket. i am a smokeless ML shooter and i am always looking for the next best thing!
right now i have a custom SMI 50 cal and shooting 375gr wildcat ML bullets to 2500 fps. I am looking at going to 40 cal and sabotless!!

[edge]

I experimented with sabotless last March with a cheap A&B barrel. Accuracy was great once I found the correct load/bullet fit.

I would be shooting sabotless if I did not have the means to make my own sabots, but a 30 caliber NAB at over 3100 fps is hard to beat [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

edge.