I want one of these!
It really remarkable how far rifling technology has come. A familiar design engineered slightly differently, with different twists and materials, can produce unbelievable results.
A CNN reporter once asked a Marine Corps sniper, “What do you feel when you shoot a terrorist?”
He responded, “Recoil.”
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I just love when a sniper’s target goes to pieces!
It’s interesting that they chose the venerable 300 Winchester Magnum rather that spend a lot of time trying to develop something new.
The old 03 Springfield with sabot rounds. 4,000+++ feet per second.
Rifling goes back to the German gunsmiths who manufactured arms for Patriots during the Revolutionary War. And I believe it may go back even further. Made a significant difference in accuracy. This I posted some time ago: Here’s the plan your Majesty; the British will march in formation, wear bright red uniforms, and beat drums. The Colonists will sit behind rocks & trees, with long guns with rifled barrels made by German gunsmiths.
Which sounds cool but in reality the max effective range of the Sabots is less than half of the much slower but much more accurate, energetic, wind resistant, heavier, high BC full diameter bullets they are using.
True. The rifled Muskets used by the Colonists had 3x the accurate range of the smooth bore Brown Bess the Brits were shooting.
When they were lobbing volley fire we could target their officers and NCO’s one at a time.
You’re right about the light sabot rounds; they will wander if there is serious wind. But on a still day, what a varmint round.
Out to a couple of hundred yards at most. They get squirrely as hell pretty quickly once they separate from the plastic sabot.
4000fps out of the .220 Swift and .204 Ruger with minute of prairie dog accuracy to 400yds and beyond is plenty for me. I can get right around 4000fps out of my .300 Rum’s shooting 153gr mono’s. They’ll scream like a laser for about 600yds and pop a coyote like the .220 swift pops PD’s at 200yds.
Yeah, I switched from sabot bullets to PowerBelt bullets for my ML, and I can measure the consistent accuracy difference.
However, they still have not addressed the BC issue…
Strange. PB’s have a terrible reputation for accuracy whereas the better quality sabots show excellent accuracy. Maybe you need to work on your charge? What BP substitute are you using? I use BH209 with 300gr .45 cal Sabots and get both excellent accuracy and velocity.
I know there was ( is ) a .17 caliber that could do over 4,000 fps. I don’t remember when it was introduced. Just want to mention, still no “START NEW TOPIC” in my menu.
The Swift is still the fastest factory round ever put into production, there was a factory load at one time running .40-45gr bullets in excess of 4,400fps. The .17 Remington was third behind the 22-250. With factory ammo it runs around 3800fps.
The .204 Ruger is also a screamer running right around 4,200 FPS.
I’ve owned .17’s, .204’s and Swifts and still shoot the .204 and swift for varmints and predators but because of the much higher BC bullets shoot more of my 6.5’s than anything. We shoot in a lot of wind here, not as bad as when I lived in the Panhandle but still enough that wind deflection is a serious consideration beyond 300yds and the lighter bullets just can’t compete.
I can run 123gr Peregrine VLR’s at upwards of 3500fps in my 6.5LRM so it’s like a lightning bolt out to about 600yds and beyond that the wind effect with it is about half or less what it is with the smaller bullets.
Using a light load of 2 Pyrodex pellets in the cheapest ML I could find. Lately where I like to ML hunt there simply are no shots farther than 130yds.
As you might guess from that setup, I love a fast reload.
With the 245 PB’s it shoots tighter 100yd groups than the old sabot with the same setup and same mass bullet.
I don’t believe many people understand what a distance 100 yards is. I once hit a groundhog at about 400 yards, with iron sights. Was it luck, maybe, but the second one could not have been luck. I don’t believe either shot was luck; I was aiming at the groundhogs, and I hit both. Using an old Gamemaster 30-06. Resting on a log, & iron sights.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [
Billy Dixon’s One Mile Shot - Rifle Shooter
www.rifleshootermag.com/editorial/featured_rifles_billy_dixons_one...shot.../84065
](http://www.rifleshootermag.com/editorial/featured_rifles_billy_dixons_one_mile_shot_010311/84065)
Sure it could be luck. I was at an indoor range one day and my shot went high and hit the angle iron that protects the target clip making the rod that it hangs on swing to the side. I shot four or five more times at the now swinging target and hit that angle iron each time. I couldn’t have done that in a million years if I had been trying. 
Similar story of luck:
I returned from class one day to find my dorm mates hurling knives at the dorm counselors door which was directly opposite the door of the room they were in…across the hall. Each door had three brass card holders about 2" high by 4" wide that held cardboard tags with each roommates name and the room number printed thereon…and dropped into the frame.
One name on the left, one on the right and the room number a bit higher and in the center.
I picked up the three flat throwing knives and…from 12’ away, stuck one in the counselor’s name tag, one in his roommate’s name tag and the third in the room number tag…all three close to dead center.
The next thrower in line retrieved the knives and was getting ready to make his throws when the counselor’s roommate jerked the door open and screamed, “Stop beating on my door! I’m trying to sleep!”
We damn near fainted! Lucky he didn’t open the door as I threw at it! Even more lucky was it that I made three perfect throws…on my first try!
Reminds me of three guys discussing a miraculous shot made on a running coyote.
One guy tells the story, the other dismisses it saying “well he got lucky the coyote just ran into the bullet.”
Third guys says, “funny I’ve been watching him make shots like that for over a decade, I guess he gets lucky alot”.
Your luck improves as your levels of skill, training, and confidence improve.