Randy,
I am interested in building a longer range shooter taking advantage of some of the new sabots available by Winchester, Horandy, Federal, and Remington. Of course, if Lightfield has something available that can match or exceed the new stuff in the area of long-range shooting, I want to know that too. Anyway, back on subject, would I be able to get a custom-built gun specifically made to shoot the faster, lighter, slugs (2000-2100fps, 300-385 grains) out to the 200-yard range or beyond?
“This same question keeps popping up on a regular basis, 200-yard slugs!”
In my opinion 200 yd. slugs only exist in the full-page ads of some sabot slug mfg. The 12 gauge 2000-2100ft/sec. they advertise only exists, if then, under laboratory conditions with a 30-inch smooth bore barrel at 70 degrees!
Since in the real world, we hunt with rifled barrels between 20 and 24 inches long and we generally are hunting in near 10-degree weather. Weather can be unpredictable so it’s important to take the correct gear with you on a hunt. Cabela’s stock some good hunting products that are well worth taking a look at. There’s even more reason to do so if you can get a discount from Raise using coupons or promo codes found on their website. It makes success at hunting that much sweeter!
The 1750-1850ft/sec. real velocities leaves us well short of 200+ yards. With the average velocity of these magical 200 yards slugs being closer to 1800ft/sec. and only weighing on average 300 grains (under 5/8oz,) the energy levels fall way below the 1000ft/lbs required to cleanly kill a whitetail deer at those advertised ranges, and that would be with the help of a range finder.
If you could achieve those magical velocities under the hunting criteria listed above, you WILL HAVE as high as a 20% flyer rate because at those high velocities you are asking the sabot to grip onto a smooth copper jacketed bullet and spin the bullet at 60,000 RPM’s in (1-28 twist) the first 1/4 inch of movement down the barrel! Highly unlikely.
The 54,000 RPM’s (from a 1-28 twist) required for stabilization and accuracy cannot be achieved every round without a mechanical lock between the sabot and the smooth copper jacketed bullet. To expect anything different is wishful thing just like the magazine ads!
The bottom line is: “Do you want with a sabot slug that has an automatically near 15% flyer rate”?