Can these be SAFELY loaded hot enough to cycle the action?The sabots are like what remington used to load in their Accelerator ammo, and I think the bullets were 55 grain .223. A friend of mine loaded up a batch for a bolt action using Accurate 4064 IIRC. We got to discussing whether they'd cycle an M1 or M1A and I got curious. I don't remember what charge he loaded but they are published loads(no superhot above-max stuff) and he said he read that they WON"T cycle an SKS and that's when he got wondering about an M1. After our discussion I got curious as to whether anyone has tried it.

I would be more concerned with damage to the op-rod. The M1 was made to run with a narrow range in the powder burn rate. Get it wrong and the op-rod can get bent, even though it is a safe load for modern bolt guns.

As far as cycling the action, I don't know. Get enough gas pressure and maybe, but once again op-rod............

Yep, well aware of oprod issues, when I said safely I meant safe for the rifle as much as I meant safe for me. He gave me one clip worth of the ammo, but until I know if the powder is safe for the rifle I'm not trying it.

Adjustable gas cylinder perhaps might get you there.

Fired them today, they did cycle(sort of) and oprod was not bent. The clip kept ejecting using the sabot rounds but was fine with my 147 grain reloads. Won't be firing them any more though. Shot a two FOOT group at 35 yards, and every round keyholed. No thanks.

Good to know, thanks.

Another thing I forgot to mention-I found a sabot after firing. They seem to separate at less than 15 yards, and the one I found had little to no marks from the rifling. Made me wonder-could these ultra-light bullets be travelling so fast that they "jump" the rifling and perform like I used a smoothbore? the plastic is soft enough that I think it's possible, if not likely. Would explain the lack of stability too.

I've never had good results with .30 cal sabots. They need a fast powder, like 4227, RL 7, to really work right, and that seems to get them moving too fast.



Accuracy was never there, but they didn't keyhole, either. This was with 68 gr. Hornady BTHPs in an M1A.



I have made them work successfully in my Marlin 1895 using Hornady muzzleloader sabots and Trail Boss powder.

Velocity was only around 1600 fps or so, though, which is why I believe that the .30 cals are being oversped.